Tampa Radio: Bubba's Future "Up In The Air"

Nielsen has filed suit against Todd Clem aka Bubba The Love Sponge in October, saying he tried to change that listener's behavior and claiming $1 million in damages. Clem has apologized.

Todd Clem

But the latest allegations suggest that it wasn't a one-off mistake. Nielsen now says Clem asked five people — four in the Tampa Bay area and one in South Carolina — to help him boost his numbers as early as last year. In the initial case, he's accused of offering weekly cash payments and performance bonuses.

Clem's attorney Todd Foster, declined to comment on the accusations, but said he will move later this month to have U.S. District Judge James Whittemore dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the case doesn't belong in federal court.

"There are three sides to every story — their side, my side and the truth. And two sides of this story hasn't been told yet," Clem said Tuesday.

The allegations have raised the possibility that Clem's show could be pulled from the air by Naples-based Beasley Broadcast Group, which airs the program on stations including Tampa's WBRN 98.7 FM 98.7 a  prospect Clem acknowledged this week.

"It's up in the air. It is. I'm gonna be honest with you," Clem said on his Tuesday show.

The Tampa Bay Times reports Soni Dimond, a spokeswoman for Beasley, said the company had no comment on the case.

Nielsen's latest allegations suggest Clem had been talking to survey participants for months, which the company says violates its rules.

In one case, Nielsen says it noticed sudden changes in its panelists' listening habits. It alleges, for example, that one man in the Tampa area listened to WBRN for 189 hours in a month after logging just over an hour in the previous three. He later told Nielsen that he worked at night and usually slept while Clem's show was on-air.