TAMPA - Controversial talk show host Bubba the Love Sponge was fired Monday, less than a month after his station racked up the highest fine ever for indecency broadcasts.
Clear Channel Communications and WXTB-FM "severed ties" with Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, reported WFLA-AM, a Clear Channel station that shares offices with WXTB.
WXTB promised a news release on the matter from Texas-based Clear Channel today. Clem could not be reached for comment late Monday, and calls to Clear Channel were not returned.
Clem's name and picture had been removed from the station's Web site Monday night, and his personal Web site had been dismantled.
The Federal Communications Commission proposed a $755,000 fine against Clear Channel Communications last month for segments of Clem's show that aired on four Florida radio stations between 6:30 a.m. and 9 a.m.
The segments - which aired in Callahan, Clearwater, Port Charlotte and West Palm Beach - included graphic discussions about sex and drugs that were "designed to pander to, titillate and shock listeners," the FCC said.
One segment featured the cartoon characters Alvin the chipmunk, George Jetson and Scooby Doo discussing sexual activities.
The segments ran 26 times and the commission proposed fining Clear Channel $27,500 for each airing, or $715,000.
Clem's firing on Monday brought joy to Doug Vanderlaan, a Jacksonville man who has crusaded against Clem for several years. His efforts led to the FCC complaint, which culminated in last month's fine.
"We're certainly gratified," Vanderlaan said from his home Monday night. "We've been trying to get Clear Channel to be responsible public citizens and safer for kids. If Bubba being off the air contributes to that, then that's great.
In 1998, Clem was fined $23,000 by the FCC for airing indecent material that included describing a member of his radio entourage receiving an enema.
Clem was acquitted in 2002 of animal cruelty charges stemming from the on-air slaughter of a feral pig. The animal was castrated and slaughtered during a show in February 2000.
In Tampa Bay, Clem's program ranks first in its time slot among listeners 18 to 54.
Clem is from Warsaw, Ind., the son of a school bus driver and a factory worker. He has said in interviews that he grew up wanting to be a dentist.
After playing football for Indiana State University, he dropped out after his sophomore year and began working at WPFR in Terre Haute.
He legally changed his name from Todd Alan Clem to Bubba the Love Sponge Clem in October 1998.
It isn't Clem's first brush with the chopping block. His first radio job was in Grand Rapids, Mich., and he bounced around stations in San Antonio, Texas; Chicago; Philadelphia; Milwaukee and Orlando, getting fired, by his count, at least six times along the way.
In a 1995 interview with the Times, he said of his past experiences:
"They just didn't appreciate me."
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
