Tampa shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge is officially off the air

Listeners can still hear him on the internet.

click to enlarge Bubba the Love Sponge (R), with Roger Stone (L) at a Tampa Bay area World of Beer. - Photo via Facebook/TheBubbaArmy
Photo via Facebook/TheBubbaArmy
Bubba the Love Sponge (R), with Roger Stone (L) at a Tampa Bay area World of Beer.


The craziest thing about all this talk regarding Bubba the Love Sponge being a “bad boy” of Tampa Bay radio is that the guy and his family are probably the most polite people I waited on during my more than 10 years of being a server.

Still, all the pleasantries and good tips (saying “please” and “thank you” plus treating hospitality folks like they’re people goes a really long way) are juxtaposed to the edgy, controversial and downright gross stuff that the 53-year-old would spill onto the airwaves — until today.

Clem — who’s been a figure on Tampa Bay airwaves since the early ‘90s — took to social media to tell fans that he and WHBO-AM-1040 could not come up with a deal to keep his morning show on the radio. He invited listeners to catch his show on the internet, which means hordes of folks who depend on the radio to hear Clem, well, might be spending the weekend figuring how to stream the show on their car radios.

The news is another brown spot on a shitstain of a year for Clem, who recently had foreclosure suits filed against him for money owed on properties in Tampa and Ocala. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the radio personality also owes the Internal Revenue Service more than $140,000 in taxes. In the last five years, Clem has seen his radio show bounced from 102.5-FM to 98.7-FM. Before all of that, Clem rose to fame when his show aired on 98 Rock.

Some of his greatest radio hits (or mishits, depending on your tastes) include the rehashing of some dumb shit Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson said on Clem’s show 10 years ago, a legal fight with Todd Schnitt (fka MJ from 93.3-FLZ old-school MJ & BJ morning show) and that time he aired a castrating of a live pig on the air. Clem’s then-wife was also seen having sex with Hulk Hogan on a leaked 2012 video tape.

And yes, we know Bubba is a Roger Stone-loving, MAGA hat-sporting kind of guy.

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Ray Roa

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief in August 2019. Past work can be seen at Suburban Apologist, Tampa Bay Times, Consequence of Sound and The...
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