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Bubba bust no surprise in Tampa

Local columnist Steve Otto of the Tampa Tribune weighed in on the Bubba the Love Sponge situation back in the beginning of the month, so Monday's firing of Bubba by Clear Channel (2/24/04 RBR Daily Epaper #37) wasn't a shock in his home market. Otto noted that a defense for the embattled shock jock would likely center around the First Amendment and the availability of channeling options for the offended who happen upon Bubba. But he didn't think freedom of speech was the real issue.

"If there are rules of indecency, and there are," he wrote, "then this is a show that has rolled over them like the Zamboni machine between periods of a Lightning game." [For the uninitiated, the Lightning are the local, of all things, professional NHL hockey team - - what's more Gulf Coast Florida than hockey?]

Otto discussed Mark Mays' call for an even playing field and clearer ground rules for radio, cable, TV and satellite, and in particular, Mays statement that "indecency is not a radio problem..."

Otto wrote, "I wonder if Mays ever listens to Bubba. If he doesn't see (or hear) a radio problem maybe he ought to have his sound engineers check the circuits between his ears."

In the end, Otto found fault with the group responsible for making Bubba the number one morning show in town (18-34, anyway) - - the public. "I think the FCC is right in going after Clear Channel," he wrote. "But government levying fines is not going to change who we are. We're the ones who are going to have to do that."

At corporate headquarters in San Antonio, Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan put out a statement endorsing Bubba's ouster: "Clear Channel Radio supports the decisions of our local managers in Florida to end their contractual relationship with the Bubba Radio Network. After conducting an internal investigation, we concluded that Bubba's show will no longer be carried on any Clear Channel Radio station. This type of content is inappropriate and not reflective of the way we run our local stations or Clear Channel Radio. Clear Channel Radio and our local managers recognize the importance of understanding and airing content that is consistent with the standards and sensibilities of the communities we serve."

RBR observation:

We forget which old-time judge said that while maybe he couldn't define pornography, he knew it when he saw it. This is a problem with the indecency battle that simply is not going to go away, no matter how many laws Congress passes and the President signs.

At some point, there has to be something on the books that clearly spells out where the line is.

Mel Karmazin was able to point out that if CBS Television was so in love with the concept of putting on indecent programming, it would launch the raunch every night promptly at 10:00 PM when safe harbor begins. He argued that there are hardly any indecent incidents on broadcast TV, especially given the thousands of hours of material.

It didn't really do him much good. The chefs on the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee were in the mood for some grilled indecent broadcaster, and they all feel surrounded by indecency or borderline indecency. If they should ever forget about indecency for a moment, their email and snailmail boxes rapidly fill with constituent communications to put it back to top of mind status.

The "follow-the-letter-of-the-law" defense isn't doing broadcasters one bit of good right now.

To date, whenever Clear Channel has stated that they provide programming tailored to the needs and tastes of the local communities they operate in, critics have been able to use Bubba as a negative example. He's been thrown forth as an example of the depths to which Clear Channel is willing to sink in pursuit of its only reason for existence: the almighty dollar.

We know that Fred Upton (R-MI) is looking for a radio repeat offender to grill this Thursday (2/26). The witness list has not yet been released, but if there is a Mays or a Hogan on it, the Bubba firing will at least give the exec somewhat of a moral shield. However, here's guessing that as far as most subcommittee members are concerned, it'll be too little, too late.