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Bubba the Love Sponge (Todd Alan Clem on April 21, 1966) is an American radio personality. He is the host of The Bubba the Love Sponge Show on Howard 101 on Sirius XM Radio, an uncensored satellite radio service on Fridays, and on various Cox Radio and Beasley Broadcast Group stations.

Early career and the FCC

Bubba, a native of Warsaw, Indiana, began his radio career on Indiana State University's WISU-FM. Following school, one of his first paying gigs was at WGRD in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he worked the afternoon drive. The ever controversial Bubba was in trouble with WGRD almost from the start due to the sexual content of his show. Bubba also took shots against crosstown competitor WKLQ, in particular Danny Douglas who worked at WKLQ during the afternoon drive. Bubba went after Danny by calling him a homosexual on the air, at one point even claiming that Danny had AIDS. After Roger's Department Store cancelled their account with WGRD, management at the station met with Bubba and explicitly told him what he couldn't say on the air. Bubba also apologized to Danny, but less than a week later Bubba began to disparage Danny on the air again. On December 20, 1988, a 13 year old girl listening to the show called Bubba to defend Danny. Bubba made sexual references to Danny and to the 13 year old female caller. He was fired the next day. (sources: The Grand Rapids Press, December 16, 1988 and December 22, 1988).

Nedley Mandingo III

Nedley Mandingo (formerly known as Ned Schnittt) is a character on the Bubba the Love Sponge Show heard on Sirius channel Howard 101, Tampa Bay's "The Bone" 102.5, and Jacksonville's Rock 105. He is voiced by Mike "Manson" Waters on the radio and played by Manson's Father in Law in public. When Ned is required to speak in public, such as his Standup on the "Chubbapalooza" tour, Manson wears a costume dressed as Ned with the lights dimmed.

There has been many events that point to Manson being Ned. Numerous times, Bubba will ask Ned a question and you will hear Manson's voice. When Manson is out, Ned is also out. Such as the first Friday morning on Sirius which Manson had to miss due to his Children's soccer tournament. Also at the Howard Stern Film Festival, Ned (Manson's Father In Law) was interviewed by Shuli and it was clear that he did not sound like the Ned on the radio show. Whenever Manson leaves the studio during interviews with Porn Stars, Ned is surprisingly quiet for being a perverse old man. Hulk Hogan also let it slip that Ned stood for "Non-Existent Dude" There has also been many occasions where Bubba talks about "The Three of Us" in reference to other co-hosts Spiceboy, Brent Hatley and Manson forgetting to add in Ned.

The Hog Incident

On February 27, 2001, while on WXTB-FM 97.9 (98 Rock) out of Tampa, Florida, Bubba the Love Sponge was struck with controversy once again for the on-air slaughtering of a wild Florida boar hog. Bubba encouraged listeners that morning to bring roadkill to the parking lot barbecue outside the radio station where the events unfolded. The wild hog used during the segment was captured by a professional hunter, and was probably captured as a nuisance animal, as wild hogs are found all throughout the state of Florida. The same hunter was the individual who killed and prepared the hog for the barbecue. Sounds of the hog covered the airwaves in a way that made the listener perceive the hog was being harassed and aggravated. After further review, the stunt revealed that Bubba had piped in sounds of a wild boar "rutting" up the ground in place for the sound of the actual boar being slaughtered. Bubba the Love Sponge and Executive Producer Brent Hatley were both detained by authorities and were both placed on trial for animal cruelty charges. The trial made national attention outside of Florida appearing on such networks as Court TV (now Tru TV). Several months later in May 2001, the duo were cleared of any charges and it was decided that the event was legal and no criminal acts were committed. Today, Bubba agrees that the segment was distasteful but continues to state today that nothing criminal pursued from his actions that February morning. Bubba has stated he will never attempt a stunt like this again.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (a precursor to a fine) of $755,000 against four stations owned by Clear Channel Communications (including its parent station, WXTB) on January 27, 2004 for objectionable segments of "Bubba the Love Sponge" aired on its stations in five Florida cities: Callahan, Clearwater, Port Charlotte, West Palm Beach, and Jacksonville. The fine consisted of the maximum of $27,500 for each of 26 airings of a segment plus $40,000 for record-keeping violations. The segments included graphic discussions about sex and drugs and according to the FCC were "designed to pander to, titillate and shock listeners". One segment featured the cartoon characters Alvin the chipmunk, George Jetson and Scooby Doo discussing sexual activities.

Clear Channel Communications discontinued Bubba's show on February 23, 2004 and two days later, Clear Channel CEO John Hogan testified in front of Congress, stating that the "Bubba the Love Sponge" show would no longer be broadcast on Clear Channel.

Current activities

Bubba began broadcasting a live morning show from Tampa radio station WHPT (102.5 "The Bone") on January 8, 2008 which was simulcast on the Jacksonville, Florida radio station WFYV (104.5 FM). During the second quarter of 2008, Bubba's show received a number one rating in his home market of Tampa. Cox Radio then expanded its broadcast of the Bubba the Love Sponge show to include four more radio stations covering the cities of Miami, Orlando, Ft. Myers and Richmond.

In December 2008, Bubba extended his contract with Sirius/XM for another 2 years. The contract consists of a rebroadcast of his censored terrestrial morning show, in addition to a satellite only show Friday mornings. He also can do a show on Howard 101 on Monday nights at 7 PM ET, but this special show hasn't aired in several months.

In January 2009, Cox Radio stations WHDR-FM Miami (93 Rock), WHTQ-FM Orlando (96.5), WZLR Dayton, Ohio (95.3) and WDYL Richmond (Y101), along with Beasley Broadcast Group station WRXK-FM Ft. Myers (96 K-Rock), also began broadcasting the Bubba the Love Sponge Show. Bubba's show is broadcast each day with a 60-second delay from Bubba’s custom, multimedia studio in Tampa.

On January 3, 2010, Bubba announced via his Twitter account that he had signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as a backstage interviewer. He made his debut the following day on the special live, three-hour, Monday night edition of TNA Impact!, participating in four short backstage segments. Bubba's performance was universally panned, with many fans feeling that Bubba was only given his position due to his closeness to Hulk Hogan, who made his TNA debut on the same night.

On January 16, 2010, Bubba made remarks on his twitter account that were disparaging of Haiti's struggle to recover from the January 12 earthquake. Although he later apologized, his tweets created a rift between himself and TNA management - - and for a while he was not used by the company on their television broadcast.

On January 19, 2010, Bubba claimed that he had been blind-sided & physically assaulted by Awesome Kong while backstage for the tapings of TNA Impact! the previous day, claims substantiated on his program by TNA's Hulk Hogan. According to all three, the altercation was a result of the Twitter comments made by Bubba the Love Sponge concerning the Haiti relief project. On February 25 Bubba announced that he was done with TNA Wrestling. That same day news broke that Awesome Kong, real name Kia Stevens, had filed a lawsuit against Clem for an alleged threatening phone call. Bubba later joined in on the Cowhead radio show confronting Kia Stevens, allegedly using racially charged comments.

He returned to TNA television as The Band's personal interviewer in late March, only to be fired from the company on April 30, 2010 stemming from the Cowhead Show incident.

Currently Bubba is head of his own charity which raises money for various Florida situations, including "Bikes For Badges" which honors the fallen officers of the region's various law enforcement departments.

References

1. Pinellas County Consolidated Justice Information System
2. FCC Issues Steep Indecency Fines, Proposes $755K 'Bubba The Love Sponge' Radio Show - CBS News
3. Jacksonville.com
4. Saghir, Ryan (May 5, 2008). "Bubba The Love Sponge regains #1 spot in Tampa Bay" (Original). Orbitcast. Online: Orbitcast. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
5. Clem, Todd (2010-01-03). "watch spiketv(Monday)8pm est 4hulks return 2wrestling I'm the new backstage guy think I'm on a total of 4x Please tell everybody u know". Twitter. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
6. Martin, Adam (2010-01-04). "New backstage interviewer for TNA". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
7. Keller, Wade (2010-01-04). "KELLER'S TNA IMPACT LIVE REPORT 1/4: Jeff Hardy, NWO reunion, Hulk Hogan, TNA Knockout Title match, more surprises - ongoing coverage". PWTorch. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
8. Scherer, Dave (2010-01-16). "Bubba the Love Sponge not in line with TNA's position to help the earthquake victims in Haiti". PWInsider. Retrieved 2010-01-19.
9. Scherer, Dave (2010-01-18). "TNA personality told he's not needed in production meeting, leaves TV". PWInsider. Retrieved 2010-01-19.
10. Johnson, Mike (2010-01-18). "Bubba the Love Sponge apologizes for comments about Haiti". PWInsider. Retrieved 2010-01-19.
11. "Kong sent home by TNA after fight last night". Wrestling Observer. 2010-01-19. Retrieved 2010-01-19.
12. "Awesome Kong Punches Bubba the Love Sponge?". Diva-Dirt. 2010-01-19. Retrieved 2010-01-19.
13. Ferro, Nick (2010-02-25). "Bubba the Love Sponge says the is done with TNA, says he is considering action against Awesome Kong and TNA, he found out about Kong's action on the internet". PWInsider. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
14. Brown, Karina (2010-02-25). "Wrestler Accuses 'Love Sponge' of Hate Call". Courthouse News Service. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
15. Caldwell, James (2010-03-29). "CALDWELL'S TNA IMPACT REPORT 3/29: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of Spike TV show - cage match with Jeff Hardy, RVD, Wolfpack". PWTorch. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
16. "Info Regarding Bubba the Love Sponge". TNA Wrestling. 2010-04-30. Retrieved 2010-04-30.

External links

• Official site

• American radio personalities
• People from Tampa, Florida
• People from Warsaw, Indiana
• 1966 births
• Living people
• American talk radio hosts