Sex and Tampa Bay

I’ve been crazy busy this week as I look to take this blog to bigger and better things. Trust Me — It is exciting! But when I heard that MJ (the MJ Morning Show) is suing Bubba (Bubba the Love Sponge Show) for defamation I had to talk about it.

For those who don’t know the background it is a little complicated. It really starts back in the 90’s when Bubba and MJ both had radio shows on Clear Channel. MJ on 93.3 and Bubba on 98 Rock. Bubba was a shock jock who was known for outrageous stunts. But the one that got him into trouble involved killing and roasting a boar on the air. He also played audio clips of cartoon characters talking about sex. He was fined by the FCC, investigated for animal cruelty and, eventually, run out of local radio.

Since then The MJ Morning Show has dominated the ratings and the brand has grown. The entire FLZ  AM lineup is fresh episodes of the show and “MJ Remix” that takes clips of the show and play it in between top 40 hits. MJ has gone on to get an afternoon radio show on the AM clear channel station and is also on XM radio. Much of this was based on his #1 rating in the Tampa Bay radio market for his morning show.

3 months ago Bubba came back to town with a new, toned down, show on 102.5 The Bone. Even though he isn’t pushing the taste envelope anymore, he still is mixing things up. His focus is off sex and shock, and more on mixing things up in the community. Poking a stick at those he feels are in power unjustly.

That includes MJ.

He’s taken a lot of time to talk about his goal to “take MJ out”, referring to taking over the #1 spot in the ratings. He has played parody songs that make fun of the MJ show and have claimed that parts of his show (like the prank calls) are actually fake.

Last week the new radio ratings came out and, in just a couple of weeks, Bubba is #1 and MJ is down to #3.

MJ’s response is a law suit saying that Bubba has defamed MJ by calling him a liar and mocking his show. His wife is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit because of things Bubba has said about her.

Talk about sour grapes.

It is especially ironic that this comes from MJ, a guy who has been the target of legal threats from Britney Spears for defamation. The same thing he is accusing Bubba of. And at the time MJ was complaining that Brit’s lawsuit was baseless because she was a public figure, and could expect a certain amount of commentary to be made about her.

Here’s the thing MJ, you’re a public figure also. And so is your wife, who is a regular part of your morning show, is also a public figure. That doesn’t mean that people can say outright lies about you, but they can offer up their opinion.

And that’s exactly what Bubba has done.

At this point MJ is just sort of sad. The place to deal with these types of issues would be on the air, not in the courtroom. The only thing it has really done is cause more people to tune into Bubba, just to see what the hype is. That’s much more damaging to MJ’s rep than anything Bubba could have done.

Read the full lawsuit at btls.com