Clear Channel today (March 4) paid a record $755,000 fine to the Federal Communications Commission for indecent material aired on Todd “Bubba the Love Sponge” Clem’s show, which aired on WXTB (98 Rock) Tampa, Fla., and two other Clear Channel stations in the state. Clem was fired by the company last month.
“We fully accept our responsibility for airing inappropriate content, and our company will accept the consequences,” Clear Channel Radio president/CEO John Hogan says in a statement.
The move comes on the heels of Clear Channel’s recent “Responsible Broadcasting Initiative,” which also saw syndicated radio personality Howard Stern’s show dropped in six of the company’s markets.
“Our company simply does not want to be associated with indecency,” Hogan says. “We know we can deliver great radio without compromising our integrity as broadcasters.”
Clem frequently courted controversy before he was ultimately let go. In 2002, he was acquitted on animal cruelty charges as a result of an incident the previous year, when a boar was castrated and slaughtered in WXTB’s parking lot during his show.
