There seemed to be a lot of local media kissing up to Bubba the Love Sponge today when the famed radio personality came back on the air in Tampa.

And Bubba was loving it. He also threw down the challenge to other Tampa radio personalities, especially Clear Channel rival M.J. Kelli of WFLZ.

It was a PG-rated Bubba who showed up this morning on WHPT (102.5 FM) also known as The Bone. He even sounds different. His voice is not as gutteral as it was when he was down and dirty back in the late 1990s.

The once controversial radio personality who was slapped with a $775,000 fine four years ago by the Federal Communications Commission for broadcasting obscenities kept it relatively clean on his first show.

“I’m not saying anything over the airwaves that I’m not going to be proud of or that will come back to bite me in the #####,” he told a gaggle of Tampa Bay media who showed up to cover the event.

The former Todd Alan Clem became infamous in the Tampa radio market for his sex-driven radio content that began in the 1990s.

He was only slightly naughty today and devoted most of the program to fawning over the local media that showed up for his return. The most risque moments were when he and his morning crew discussed which women on local newscasts got them all hot and bothered.

Bubba seems most smitten by Jen Holloway of Bay News 9.

And clearly, Bubba is ready to take on his former employer, Clear Channel Communications. Inc. 

After getting the biggest fine in FCC history, he was fired by the media giant and eventually went to work with famed New York radio personality Howard Stern on the Sirius satellite radio service.

During the debut show, Stern phoned in and wished him luck.

Reportedly, Bubba has a deal worth more than $3 million to host a morning show carried in Cox Radio stations in Tama and Jacksonville as well as afternoon talk show on Sirius. The afternoon program is adult and uncensored.

During his first radio show on The Bone this morning, Bubba told reporters and the media critic for a St. Petersburg newspaper that he comes back as an older and wiser man, having been humbled by the experiences of the past.

He added that he came back for the money and he had a score to settle. “I am looking for closure; and we want to become a commodity and a force in this market,” he said, calling the other broadcast radio personalities “half-assed.”
“We have to prove ourselves and monetize this madness,” he added.