All language subtitles for Video Killed The Radio Star (2025) 1080p NL_Subtitles03

Power 93.

Okay.

Tampa Bay's only
all oldies station.

Florida's favorite

country music station.

Tampa Bay's home
of rock and roll--

It's been a ton

of commercials
and way too much talk on--

This is BRN,
the Bubba Radio Network.

- Power Pig. Hello.
- Yeah, I'd like to talk
to the complaint department.

- Okay.
Can you hold on, sir?
- Yeah.

I'll transfer ya.

It's No Panties Thursday.

7:05, with No Panties Thursday.

I'm Bubba the Love Sponge,

and my homie Guido
on The Power Pig 93.3 FM.

One morning on my drive to work,
Brent Hatley calls me

and says, flat out,

"Has Hogan
ever fucked your wife?"

There's a still of Hulk Hogan
and Heather, and I look close.

Even though it's grainy,
I look close and I'm like,

"Oh, that's Bubba's bedroom."

I was like, "Holy shit.

There's a videotape of this
and The Dirty has it?"

I said, "Listen, run upstairs
and look at my desk

and see if there are,
uh, uh, any DVDs

in my locked
desk drawer to the left."

"Open it."

I was like, "Bubba,
there's no DVDs in here at all."

I knew I was fucked.
I absolutely knew

my life was about to change
drastically for the worse.

Hulk Hogan filed two lawsuits
today against Heather Clem

and her ex-husband
Bubba the Love Sponge.

Are you any nearer
to knowing who betrayed you?

- At this point, no.
You know, we had TMZ.
- Yeah.

You know, they're pointing
to a very good friend of mine,

Bubba the Love Sponge,
and to this day, I would have

to see the tape to believe that.

And I haven't seen the tape.

The videotape starred

Hogan and Heather Clem.

Um, she was the ex-wife
of shock jock
Bubba the Love Sponge.

Posting a secretly-taped
sex video

showing Hogan
with his best friend's wife.

A sex video of Hulk
and Heather doing their thing.

She was married to Bubba
at the time.

I was doing, uh,
my daily show preparation.

I have to go through all
the news, and boom, here it is

on a website called The Dirty.

First thought
that goes through my head is,

"Oh, Heather's doing this
to fuck him over."

What is it like when Hogan
walks out after he's had sex
with your wife?

And, and, like,
all of a sudden he goes,
"Okay, man, I'll see you later."

I mean, don't you-- Aren't you
sort of angry, even at yourself?

The real problem in itself
is who the hell leaked this?

- Right.
Now, you said-- Listen.
- That's the problem.

I guess he feels you leaked it.

"Bubba taped it.
Bubba fucking tried to sell it.

Bubba tried to extort Hogan."

Bu-- You know, the only thing
I really did wrong

is I let
my best friend fuck my wife

and my surveillance tape got it.

I can't think of anything
that would make me
look more dumb

than leaking this tape.

Here's Bubba, his best friend,

now looks like he sold the tape.

It looks like,
you know, he's a cuckold,

that he's letting his wife sleep
with anybody and everybody.

And, and now this friendship,

this, this beautiful brotherhood
was being shattered.

That day, he called me.
He said, "It's over.

And I don't want
to be here anymore."

Hogan knows Bubba
didn't take that tape.

Didn't sell that tape,
didn't give that tape away.

- It was stolen from them.
- Bubba was saying, "It's cool."

Honestly,
Heather was relentless.

- "I wanna see your thing.
I wanna f you."
- Right.

- On and on and on.
- Um, I didn't go up there
and check on it daily. I didn't.

And, and again...
joke's on me.

I should have
destroyed it immediately.

This was a radio war

that Hogan was used as the pawn.

It is a mystery
that has stretched
from here to Hollywood.

Who stole and leaked
the videotape

that's now at the center
of a $100 million lawsuit?

It's...
it's a dirty game.

I'm telling you, you guys are...

You're just
scratching the surface.

I was born in Warsaw, Indiana,

and that's where
I was raised as well.

Well, my sister is my world.
Still is to this day.

My mother as well. You know,
my mother has been my rock.

Bubba was an awesome kid.

He really was.
I don't know what happened.

He put the cat in a ten-pound
bag of potatoes in the dryer.

He ate all
of your birth control pills.

- He did.
- One time.

- And pee on you in the bathtub.
- Oh, yeah.

Pee on me in the bathtub.
That was a classic.

In fourth grade,
I actually wrote "fuck"
on the bathroom wall

in Magic Marker,
and they just got
these brand-new bathrooms,

and it ended up
being a really big whodunit.

They closed
the whole school down.
And to this day,

I don't think
they still know who did it.
That was kind of like

my very first mischievous thing
that I can think that I did.

His room was right next to mine,
and he would always be

in his room by himself,
performing,

and he'd have the radio on.

And he was listening
to talk radio.

And he's in there,
doing his own commentary.

And I would be listening.

He would imitate Howard Cosell.

Hello again, everyone.
It's good to have you...

He was always the star, though.
"He'd score the touch--

- Oh, he's going down the field.
There he goes."
- Yes.

- And it would
always be him.
- "Clem for them. Hail Mary."

- Yeah.
- But, you know, he always
had his own, own shtick,

and it was innate.

And I was a, uh, uh,
a bouncer at a club,

and the club
was called Jubilation.

And they brought this local
radio guy in named Kerry Gray.

Well, I'm like, "Listen, buddy.
Uh, I know who you are.

And how hard is it
to be on the radio anyway?
I can do that."

So, Kerry Gray said,
"Well, you know what?

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day."

And he said, "We're gonna
bring in common people

off the, off the streets
to be local radio personality.

Why don't you come in
on my show?"

So, I went in there
and I'm watching
how all this is operating.

And his phone lines
are going crazy.

Here's this fucking nerd
that has got all these chicks
calling him up.

And so I started
hanging out with Kerry

and I eventually
got to do overnights,

like 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.

I remember calling
my mom up and saying,

"Mom, I can't make
Christmas this year."

She's like, "What do you mean
you can't fucking make Chr--"

I go, "'Cause I'm on the radio.
I'm a--"

My mom said,
"Are you a fuckin' idiot?"

He made the announcement.
Sat everyone down and he said,

"I wanna be
the next Howard Stern."

As I started to hang out
with Kerry, we would go

to all these fraternity parties
and these sorority parties,

and a couple girls
were talking to me.

And so the next day on the air,
and Kerry was like,

you know, "103 PFR."
Uh, "'Scary' Kerry Gray.

I saw Bubba with some chicks,

and he was soaking up love
like a sponge.

I'm gonna start calling him
Bubba the Love Sponge.

Bubba the Love Sponge
is coming up next."

And I remember he turned
the microphone off.

I said, "Don't you ever fucking
call me that name again."

"Oh." He was just like,
"It's just funny,
Bubba the Love Sponge.

You're just soaking up love."
I said, "Shut the fuck up.
Don't ever call me that again."

"Bubba the Love Sponge.
Bubba the Love Sponge.
Bubba the Love Sponge."

Thank you.

You know, my early,
my early year or two in radio

wasn't really that spectacular.

I was just jockeying records

and, and doing intros
for the most part.

Not until I got an opportunity
to go to Grand Rapids.

Uh, and a guy sat me down.
His name is Greg Cassidy.

And he said-- I can remember
we were at the McDonald's
in downtown Grand Rapids,

and he said, "Listen,
I listened to you on the air,
and you're real stiff.

And that's not really you.
Why don't you act

like the way you act
when we're out, going--

you know, hanging out
with the boys,
and you're cutting jokes,

and you're making fun of people,
and you're cutting on your boys.

Why don't you act that way?"

And I'm like,
"Are you sure you want that?

I mean, are you really sure
that that's what you want?

'Cause I'd love to do that
instead of this bullshit."

And he's like,
"Just let it rip."

So, that night, man,
I'm like, you know--

That's when I started
kind of lettin' it rip.

He calls himself
Bubba the Love Sponge,

and he pushes
all the legal limits nightly
on Power 93.

He's simply disgusting.
Why? Because the things he says.

I want her to hand you--
her panties to you

and I want you to sniff 'em
live on the radio.

Bubba was one of those guys
that pushes the edges.

Everything that I have learned
in school about how to do
a radio broadcast,

he's breaking
every fucking rule.

Bubba was an incredible talent.

Uh, you know, listening to him
on the air, you could tell

that he had
a real strong command
of the art form of being on air.

And, uh, he had the ability to,

you know, really work the guests
and, and know how to steer 'em

in the direction that he wanted
them to go in to get,

you know, the most entertaining

or the most engaging
conversation out of them.

Everybody in town would listen
with bated breath in the morning

for what he would say
or what he pontificated about.

Wish you guys
a happy No Panties Thursday.

Five women just called us
about 15 minutes ago,

said, uh,
"Bubba the Love Sponge,
we don't have our panties on.

We're sitting here,
getting buff muff."

At his heart,
he's a toxic personality.

It, it would encourage people
to be bullies.

It would encourage people
to be sexist

and to have these sort of
simplistic views.

His voice is annoying,
his whole demeanor is annoying.

- Just negative vibes.
- But you listen
to Bubba the Love Sponge,

the old man on the radio
that's got the b****
to really say it like it is.

I'm talking No Panties Thursday.
I'm talking lesbians.

I'm talking limos, 1900 numbers.

I'm talking lesbians like...

A guy named Marc Chase calls me.
And there's a radio station

in Tampa, Florida
called The Power Pig.

"Hey, dude, it's Marc Chase
from Tampa, Florida. Power Pig."

I go, "Yeah." He goes,
"Man, we need a fucking
crazy guy like you at night."

I quickly established myself

as the, as the star
of the radio station.

Like, for instance,
Brent Hatley will tell you
that I love stories

about teachers that are
hooking up with their kids.

Not the guys hooking up
with the, the female students,
but the vice versas.

I think that's pretty hot.
I like sports, I like strippers.

Something that I can have
a very polarizing opinion about

and really get
people churned up.

Bubba admits to being fired

from four radio stations
for outrageous behavior.

But keep in mind,
he's number one at night.

The bottom line is,
is that I have a 15-one share

of the market and,
uh, you know, it--

I don't think
the advertisers are buying
what I say, and my views.

They're buying the people
that are listening to my show.

In Tampa in the early '90s,
if you would ask a soccer mom

what they thought about Bubba,
they'd probably equate him
to the Devil.

Maybe Hugh Hefner,
but maybe ten times worse.

Why do kids love him
and parents hate him?

Stop by your kid's room
between 7:00 and 11:00 p.m.

You may find out.

This is BRN,
the Bubba Radio Network.

What?

7:06, the new sound of The Pig,

BTLS, Bubba the Love Sponge.

Go ahead, uh, ma'am.

Um, I really like your station,
but I think that,

um, the foul language,
you need to cut out on that

until, like, ten o'clock,
because I have two young kids,

and I like
to listen to the station,
and all you say is

s***, a******, bitch.

We don't say those words.
Only you're sayin' 'em.

We're, we're gonna see if we can
have them donate the panties,

and we can put them
on our microphones
so we can talk

through them all night long.

Little, little soiled
panties on the microphone.

God, I love that.

Whether you love him
or hate him,

Bubba was one of the best
broadcasters of all time.

But since joining The Power Pig
in the fall of '92,

he's picked up more than that.

His ratings
have been phenomenal,

making him the most listened to
radio personality
in the Bay Area

and the most controversial.

You-- You're wearing,
you're wearing panties now,

- but you'll take them off
for me?
- Yes.

In observance
of No Panties Thursday?

- Yes.
- Cool. Let's go.

♪ Break it down
Break it down, break it down ♪

The first panties of the evening
usually go on the head.

Now, we'll go to the head first.

Next ones go up on the...
Excellent.

Damn, dawg, them are some
nice panties too. I ain't lying.

His style,
between the gangsta rap
and the top 40 dance tunes,

Bubba dishes out a steady diet
of raunch and outrageous humor,

usually at his callers' expense.

He, you know, was very edgy,
and he had a very good way

about being edgy
and compelling at the same time.

- Power Pig. Hello?
- He's on trial
with furious parents

like Lydia Duncan,
who no longer allows
her young teenage daughter

- to listen to Bubba's show.
- He has no teenage kids,

and I hope to God I'm around
to see him when he's got
a 14-year-old little girl

that wants to do
some of the nasty stuff
that he has tried

to talk these kids into
on the radio.

He's on trial
with women's groups

who say he's foul-mouthed
and sexist.

Uh, he's got
a very destructive behavior.

It's, um, it, it,
it's violence against women.

And he, uh, tears at us,
at our dignity.

And he's on trial
with the American...

He is the... probably
one of the most talented

radio guys
in the history of radio.

He knows content.
He knows entertainment.

He knows how to piss you
the frick off.

He knows
how to make you feel good.

He keeps you on your toes.

You'll never get bored.
Never get bored.

So, I met Mike Calta

in, like, 1993, '94.

I was doing nights
in The Power Pig,
and he was this, uh,

promotional guy
that hung banners at, you know,
various remotes and things.

And, uh, big kid,
bit hea-- big head.

So, I, I brought in him
to, you know,

just kind of be my schlep boy.

And I called him "Cowhead." He--

'Cause his
fucking head's ginormous.

That kind of transition
into when Clear Channel,

Clear-- iHeart,
Clear Channel, Jacor,

when they bought 98Rock
and transferred me

from night times
to morning drive,

I brought
"Cowhead" Mike Calta with me

to be a, a producer/co-host.
Quickly thereafter--

That happened
in December of '96.

And, and, uh--
oh, this is while we're--

I'm doing, doing
mornings now at 98Rock.

He's an executive producer.
He's, in my opinion,

not doing the things
that I want him to do

to prepare me for the show.

And at this time,
uh, about 1999,

I'd met Brent, uh,
who was, uh, doing promotions

for the classic rock station
in our same building.

I didn't have
the discipline to go to college,

and I ended up going
to the Marine Corps in 1989.

I served in the first Gulf War,
which was Desert Shield,

and Desert Storm.
Came back to the United States.

I was stationed
in Southern California.

I started going to school
at night for pre-law.

Howard Stern comes
on the radio in July 1991.

The career, uh, planner
comes to me and says,

"Hey, are you ready to re-enlist
in the Marine Corps?"

I was like, "No,
I'm going to go do radio,

and I'm gonna go get paid

to look at hot chicks
and talk about sex."

I come back home to Florida
in 1993, and everybody tells me,

"You gotta listen to this guy,
Bubba the Love Sponge."

I was like, "Man,
that fucking name sounds weird."

$400 for 100 extra shots.

$400.

Fuck!

They were like,
"No, he's nuts." I'm like,
"I'm a Howard Stern fan."

Like, "How is he better
than Howard Stern?"

- I turn him on.
- It is really rude.

And it's beating up
on people too.

If you don't like what I do,
don't listen.

But I like the music.

Well, go buy some CDs.

During the two weeks
we worked with him,

he put in a host
of personal appearances,

whacked off his mane of hair,
and nearly killed himself

after heaving his 300-pound body

out of an airplane
in a skydiving stunt.

♪ I'm true to the game
It's the bottom line ♪

♪ It's Bubba, bitch
And I'm out to get mine ♪

And that's what Bubba does.
He gets ratings.

And, and it's not--
I mean, we're,

we're not here
to be a babysitter for--

I mean, parents have
that responsibility.

But I can't stop listening
'cause this guy
is shot out of a cannon.

Out of control.

Well, he was, he was working
for this guy named Ron Diaz.

Ron Diaz is
this huge legend in town,

and they decided to him on
in mornings, uh, on 103.5,

and they asked Brent
to be his executive producer.

But Ron played
a lot of music and stuff,
and it, it wasn't really

a lot to do as an EP then.
But I had my eye on this kid.

So, the vibe I got with Brent
was we just clicked better.

It felt as if he might fit in
better on the show.

Uh, so I went to Management

and asked
if I could make a change.

So, in April 2000,
I made that change.

Uh, fi-- fired, uh, Mi--
Calta and hired Brent.

So, I became the assistant
promotions director at 98Rock

and started working my way up
in the radio business.

Matt Loyd,
uh, joined Bubba

as an intern
when he was 19 years old.

My relationship with Spice Boy
started out

as he, you know, was a drop--
a high school dropout.

And I kind of saved him,
or the show kind of
saved him from being--

I don't know, maybe giving him
some purpose in life or...

I loved the kid.
I never had a problem with him.

Never did I have
a problem with him.

They called him Spice Boy

'cause the Spice Girls were,

were, uh, popular back then.

And, um, he was
a really young-looking guy

that a lot of the young girls
that liked the show liked him.

So, he was called Spice Boy,
and he kind of filled that role

of a good-looking idiot
on the show.

And he's a guy
that would come in

and basically do anything.

Like, that's kinda how
he made his name on the air.

He'd come-- Anything
Bubba needed him to do on air,
he would do it.

You know, he would do stunts,
and he got his penis pierced.

I mean, like, anything
he wanted to do. Bubba wanted
him to do, he would do it.

And he was like
my little brother or my son.

I have very many instances
of on the air
where Spice Boy admits

that I was of-- a more
of a father-like figure
to him than his real father.

He worked really hard
on the show. He really did,
and he put in a lot of hours.

So, um, when-- Even when Cow--
He worked there when Cowhead

was the executive producer.
And, and Calta was
the executive producer,

but Spice would do the,
the majority of the work.

I absolutely loved that guy.

In April 2000,
I joined Bubba's show full time
as a full-time show member.

Bubba is amazing
when it comes to finding talent,

and if they,
they don't have the chops,
he is able to teach them

and, and get them to that point
where they can be professionals.

Everybody at the radio station
becomes a character

on theBubba Show.
The salespeople.

I make stars out of people
right off the street.

Brent, Manson,
you know, 25, Spice Boy.

I absolutely love it here.
I mean, this has gotta be
the best show to work for.

- We always have the sex...
- The limits were
never established with us.

You know, in fact, you know,
Bubba really was doing
crazy stunts like Jackass.

Well, in front ofJackass.

Jackass, you know,
started in 2000,

and Bubba was doing
those crazy antics in the '90s.

And the same thing
with Girls Gone Wild.

Girls Gone Wild
didn't really become popular
until the late '90s.

Bubba was doing
No Panties Thursdays

and, you know,
12 Boobs of Christmas,

and all these crazy, you know,
Girls Gone Wildtype antics.

So, you know,
Bubba was Girls Gone Wild
before Girls Gone Wild

and he was Jackass
before Jackass.

The ratings would
come out and I'd be like,

"Am I number one?"
They're like, "Listen,
until you hear from us,

you're, you're number one,
so don't fucking worry about it.

In fact, turn it up."

All right, here it is.

Let go. Let go, now.
Let go, now.

Now. Let go.

Oh!

After, after you do time
in jail, you're--

- Fuck out of my--
- ...asshole.

Oh, it's on! It's on!

Oh! Whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

♪ I ain't got much
But that's the way it goes
I'm a failure ♪

♪ Yeah, maybe
So I just live my life now
You call it a trend ♪

♪ But I'ma stay this way
Till the very end ♪

♪ White trash
That'd be the life for me ♪

♪ White trash
That's all I'll ever be ♪

♪ White trash
That'd be the life for me ♪

♪ White trash
That's all I'll ever be ♪

- ♪ White trash ♪
- ♪ It's the white trasher
House party crasher ♪

♪ Y'all don't wanna
Mess with me ♪

♪ I'm pulling up to the party
On a gray ten speed ♪

- ♪ Saying, "What up, dawg?
It's Big B"... ♪
- ♪ Oh-ooh ♪

We were number one by far.

We made it sound
like partying in Tampa

was the fucking coolest thing
you could ever do.

Like, Bubba owned
a nightclub in Ybor City,

and we'd be hanging out there
on Saturday nights.

The community loved us.
The ratings reflected it.

♪ White trash ♪

He's out! He's out!

He just banged
his head on the ground.

And because of all that fun,

when it came time to help
somebody in the community,

when we said, "Hey, like,
this is a serious thing

that we need to take seriously
in our community,"

the fans got behind us.

I had never, like, seen anybody

do that type of, uh, fundraising

that he did
for the fallen officers.

I've had donations from
as far as the Netherlands,

um, Anchorage, Alaska,

all six of my Florida-based
terrestrial stations,

and then, uh, my nationally
syndicated show on SiriusXM.

Hundreds and hundreds of people
have come forward

to help
during this tragic event.

Sara Kocab and Kelly Curtis
received $26,500 each.

Their smiles spoke volumes.

Their hugs full of emotion
and appreciation.

Bubba wanted
to always personally hand
that check to the widow.

The Bubba Army
is really intense.

It gets to be a bit much.

Whenever you went somewhere,
they would support you.

Incredibly loyal.

He's been such a force
in this area,

not only in radio,
but across the board

as far as charity work
and things he's done here.

Bubba is such a nice,
gregarious type of guy.

Like, he would have fans
to his house.

You know, I always wa--
was trying to think
of that little guy

from Indiana, the common guy,
and I give him a voice

or stick up for him
because nobody sticks up
for them.

I've always been labeled
the People's Hammer.

I got this idea from a sheriff,
and he would go

and put these signs in these
bad guys' lawns during Halloween

so that the kids wouldn't
go trick or treat there.

- You want to do something?
- What gives you
the fucking right? Huh?

You know why?
Because you touch kids, buddy.

I probably do stuff like that

that the average guy doesn't do,

but the average guy
wishes he could do.

Bubba is very sensitive
and respects the law.

Respects truth.

Uh, when he's on to something,

he's not going to, to,
to give you a song and dance.

He's not gonna give you
a bullshit story.

Sometimes you don't wanna
hear the truth.

The truth hurts sometimes.

But doing that type of fight
for information

and for the people
and for public knowledge,

and to tell the truth,
what more do you want?

He would often make the thing
that he asked the Army

to get engaged in or look at,

number one or number two
on Google search.

It really was
amazing at the time,

the power and the reach

that Bubba had
with the Bubba Army.

Bubba was constantly
getting in trouble.

The biggest antagonist
in Bubba's life

is, uh, Bubba himself.

He sometimes didn't think
law applied to him.

Bubba admits to being fired
from four radio stations

for outrageous behavior.

People are very love him
or hate him,

and it's very
an intense emotion.

Oh, Okay.

Give me that tape.
Give me that tape!

At his heart,
he's a toxic personality.

And a lot of that stuff would
come out in the radio bits
that he would do,

and it would
encourage and validate

that kind of behavior
for his fans and his listeners.

He gets involved in things
that he shouldn't
get involved in.

He was never afraid
to pick fights

with local politicians,
with local people in power.

Mark Ober, the state attorney
at the time,

had a real hard-on
for, for Bubba.

He, he just hated him.

Bubba had provoked him
by challenging him

on, on various cases

that he was prosecuting
or not prosecuting,

and made fun of him.

He went after Bubba hard.

I am really the only guy
in Tampa over the years

that would hold
any, uh, politician

or anybody accountable.

He had no fear
challenging power,

and he challenged Mark Ober.

And Mark Ober made it
his personal mission

to destroy Bubba
and anyone in his circle.

Most of the damage that he did
on the decisions that he made,

it affected him the most.

If you go back
to the history of time...

And I don't care if we're going
back to Pontius Pilate,

I don't care if we go back
to Elizabeth in England.

Any time you're in a position
that's not in power...

...you run the risk--
when you start
shooting at the king,

you better kill him.

So, he thought it would be
funny, and I, I agree,

to have people
scrape up roadkill.

And bring them in,
and we were gonna,
you know, barbecue them up

- and make people eat 'em.
- And,
and put it on the grill,

and we'll give you
Marilyn Manson tickets.

It was a segment known
as The Roadkill Barbecue.

A listener brought the pig
to the radio station
parking lot.

It was held down, castrated,
and then its throat was slit.

Animal rights activists
are outraged.

The "what the fuck" moments
with Bubba were often.

He's just digging up
more things to argue about.

I mean, if he's gonna
cause this much trouble,

maybe he shouldn't
even be on the air.

I cannot believe
that there are people out there

who would actually
allow discussing

things like this
being aired on the radio.

You know, there are just
days you're like...

"Why? Why?
Why would you do this?

Are you fucking stupid?"

On my sound effects button bar,

it's the sound effects
of pigs being fed.

And they're mad as hell.
They're going, like...

We were piping that in
as the hunter was gonna be

like, "Okay,
we're gonna kill Andy."

The hog bleeds out.
So, police officers show up.

The sergeant
talks to me and says,
"Hey, what's going on here?"

I, I tell him.
He's like, "Okay."

He reads the statute,
I read it with him.

He's like, "You're right.
There's no violation
of law here at all."

"No problem, Officer. Got it.
In fact, how would you guys

like to stay and have, uh, pork
sandwiches with us for lunch?"

"That sounds amazing."
I get a call at home.

"Listen, you got
to turn yourself in
by ten o'clock tonight

at the Hillsborough
County Jail."
I'm like, "For what?"

"Felony animal cruelty."

We do the perp walk
into the building.

We go, go there
at seven o'clock.

It looks like the OJ trial.

I'm like, "Oh, God,
look at all this."

Media got there at 6:15.

The reason
we had to be there by ten

was so the eleven o'clock news

would have the pictures of us
going to jail.

And that's what
Mr. Ober intended.

When it went
across Mark Ober's office,

he decided to prosecute me.

I was, in my mind, thinking,

"My son's not gonna go
to prison over a pig."

The State of Florida came
to Clear Channel and said,

"If you fire Bubba,
this all goes away."

I sat in that room

and Mark Ober said,

"Fire Bubba,

or I'm coming
after you guys criminally."

He and I sat alone together,

um, holding hands, and he said,

"If I lose, they're taking me
to jail today."

I was sitting next to Bubba,
and he had a toothbrush
in his pocket,

and he was prepared
to go to prison.

The hunter came in and testified
and said that that pig

was slaughtered exactly
the way you slaughter a pig.

So, the jury, while they're
served ham sandwiches,

uh, over their deliberations,
and they come back

and they find us not guilty.

Uh, all four of us,
they find us not guilty.

There have been
so many injustices towards him,

um, that you could
make a movie out of.

Uh, you know, the news media,
they interview Mr. Ober.

He says,
"Oh, I'm not afraid of Bubba."

I saw what power was trying
to do to this man.

Bubba pointing out
faults and issues

that he thought were real issues

with facts
that people would listen to

was terrible
for people like Mark Ober.
It was a spotlight.

So, when Bubba was doing that,

that's what made Bubba great.

You know, Bubba's ability
to be the hammer for the man,

to be the guy that was gonna
hold people accountable.

Bubba and I, to each other
and on the radio, was like,

"I don't care if it takes us
to our last dying breath.

We're gonna get this guy ousted,
out of office.

We are going
to get him voted out."

The FCC would impose
their largest ever indecency
fine against a broadcaster.

And we got fined $755,000
for seven different things.

Bubba the Love Sponge
cost his employer,

Clear Channel Communications,
$755,000.

That is the highest
FCC fine ever,

following a radio sketch
featuring a couple
of cartoon characters,

a crack house
and some prostitutes.

Clear Channel
promptly fired Bubba.

It was a big meltdown.

Now, our agent, Tom Bean,
because we got fined first,

was telling us, "Just listen.

Everything's gonna calm down.
Just relax."

There really wasn't
any due process.

There really wasn't
any-- anything

other than, uh,
Clear Channel laid down.

Uh, said, "We did it,
and we'll get rid
of the problem."

But then the Super Bowl
happened very shortly.

I wanna say it was the week
after we got fined.

The Super Bowl happened,
where Janet Jack-- Jackson

and Justin Timberlake
do this whole performance,

and, uh, Justin Timberlake
rips off her costume

and you see her exposed breast

for 150 million people
on the Super Bowl.

And that was it, you know.
You know, that was the point

where, you know, our agent,
Tom Bean, was like, you know,

"You're kind of screwed now,"

because the whole country
was upset.

Nipplegate really cranked
the FCC up even more,

and there was a big push
politically at the time

for the FCC
to crack down on broadcasters,

on indecency
in the public airwaves.

This really shined
a much bigger spotlight

onto Bubba's $750,000 fine.

I'm a 30-- 38--
soon-to-be 38-year-old man

that is an entertainer.
I, I do a adult-skewing,

men-based show
for 20 hours a week,

and I don't have the,
the luxury of having
the visual effect.

So, I have an audio effect,
and some of it
is smoke and mirrors

and some of it is sound effects.
And, and sometimes

there's a lot
of hyperbole and parody,
but it's not illegal.

- Yeah.
- Nah, it shouldn't be
illegal in this country.

Now, if it was rated X,
it's illegal.

My show is nothing more
than rated R.

You can go
to any rated R theater.

You can go to any rate--
You can watch anything on--

My show is Jackass
with a little bit of South Park.

That's what my show is.

In fact, the FCC was talking
about applying pressure

to broadcasters
to meet the FCC guidelines,

which, by the way,
are ridiculous.

They're completely
uninterpretable.

It's government guidelines that
talk about community standards

that are open-ended
and ambiguous

to try to understand.

If you can understand

what the FCC guidelines are,
let me know.

'Cause I don't know anyone
that really understands

what the FCC guidelines mean,

including the FCC.

It was surreal

just watching the whole country

melt down over jokes
on the radio.

I hope that subcommittee
will, um, understand

that the Bubbas of the world
and the Howard Sterns
of the world

are the exception
rather than the rule,

and that, uh,
they will no longer have
a platform on our stations.

As an industry leader,
I help...

I hope to help lead the way
in cleaning up our airwaves.

It was a, it was
a big snowball avalanche

that just came down
out of s-- out of nowhere.

And we went from,
you know, being the number one

most listened to show in Tampa,
syndicated all throughout
America,

to... fired.

Now we have a term for it.
"Canceled."

Well, we were
the originals getting canceled.

That was the original
cancel culture, was, uh,
canceling shock jocks

saying bad words on the radio.

It was bad for two years.
I mean, we were out of work.

We were blacklisted
for two years.

I was scared. I had a kid.

I-- you know,
I just, I just had Tyler.

He was two.

I had-- was living a lifestyle.

I live in a big house
and, you know,
living the lifestyle

of making a lot of money.

Because we got fined and fired,

that made Howard Stern
pay close attention to us.

Howard said,
"I'd like to meet you guys."

He goes,
"We have a list of shows
that we want to work with

on this channel, and you're
the only name on that list."

"Holy shit!"

He called me at work

and he said,
"Are you sitting down?"

He said,
"I'm going to New York tomorrow

to talk to Howard."

And I said, "Wait. TheHoward?"

Bubba joined Howard Stern
on satellite radio

and built a national following.

And it was just the Wild West.

Howard, uh,
was the guy that decided

that he wanted Bubba
on the channels.

Tom, does your daughter
really have kidney stones?

Yes. She has kidney stones!

Living by the rules of the FCC

and then having
those restrictions lifted,

it was like breathing fresh air.

You were able to do things
that you never

were able to do before.

You know, we did some
very controversial stunts.

Hardcore stunts.

Get them out of my fucking dick!

Shit hits the fan.

Did you get shit,
did you get the shit on you?

Pubic hair burrito.

We would put,
you know, 5000 fire ants
on a man's testicles.

As soon as we get
an air seal tight,
put them up in there good.

Slide them in there.

So, it even sounded
that much crazier audibly,

you know, when you would hear
a guy go...

Motherfucker!

We kind of even
took Howard's stunts

to the next fuckery level.
And Howard would be like,

"Bubba, man, you guys
are shot out of a cannon.

I don't, I don't know
that I could even do that here."

- Do you want women to listen?
- I was number one

with persons 12 plus.
That encompasses women as well.

Believe it or not, a lot
of women listen to my show.

Not every woman is a--
you know, is June Cleaver.

There's a lot of women out there
that act like you and I
off camera, Kathy.

We were talking about nip-tuck,
you know. Come on.

Um, Livestock was an annual,

uh, outdoor rock festival
that we had at 98Rock.

Uh, and it was a huge,

like, 300-acre-- acre field
in Zephyrhills, Florida.

I was scheduled
to be at Livestock, and I had

this woman who had requested
to do an interview.

She did a local television show.

Her name was Heather Cole.

And, uh, I saw a picture of her.

I was like,
"Wow, this bitch is hot."

So, I forgot all about it.

And I come rolling up at 4:00,

and she's loading up
her equipment, mad as hell.

She'd been out in this field
for three hours, waiting for me.

You know, I saw her
and I'm like, "Holy shit.

You should have been here
at 1:00, on time, you dipshit."

So, we do the interview
and then we get done.

And three doors down,

they're getting ready
to go on stage.

And so I asked her, I said,
"Hey, why don't you be my guest?

And we watch
the concert together."

And we did.

We kind of started, you know,

hanging out and hooking up,

and, and I fell in love
with her.

Baba proposed
to me under duress, maybe.

I'd gotten this ring for her.
I had it for a while.

I-- he had had the ring
for many, many months

and showed it to me and
to his sister and to his mom.

And pretty much anytime
someone came to the house,
he would show the ring to them.

Because it was
a pretty kick-ass ring.

And I said, "Well, listen.
You need to ask me

if you're gonna, you know,
take this out

and show it eve-- to everybody."

One day I got up, and I was
in my underwear.

She was getting ready,
getting her makeup on.

I just walked up and said,
"Hey, will you marry me?"

And I said yes.

TheBubba the Love Sponge Show.

Are you ready to shock
your mornings back to life?

Hey, yo, Bubba Army. What's up?

The original OG member
from the Army right here.

Hulk Hogan,
the greatest of all times

want to welcome you
to the greatest show
of all times.

You know, I started
to meet celebrities
in The Power Pig days.

We're here at East Bay.
Just got here.
And my best friend

in the whole wide world,
Hollywood, Hulk Hogan.
Check some...

Hulk Hogan
and Bubba's friendship

was front and center.

They were best friends.

You know, they were super close.

You know, they confided
in each other, you know,

things that only
best friends do.

They were as close
as friends could be.

- Come here, bro.
- There's a maniac.
Come on, give me some.

- Let's get some axle grease
on that mohawk, brother.
- All right.

He was really nice
to all of us.
Like, he was a good guy.

Like, told me stories
about Andre the Giant.

Affectionately,
we called him Hootie. Like,
we had a nickname for him.

Like, we hung out with him
all the time.

Check some air pressure.
- Dizzy knows more about cars

than most of the drivers.

I would get off the air
at ten o'clock.

I'd be at his house by 10:30.
We'd work out.

We'd ride motorcycles,
we'd ride jet skis.

I mean, we were inseparable.

Well, I, I think,
at one juncture,

you, you know, I joked with him,
uh, you know, that, you know,

were they gay for each other?

It was, uh, kind of funny.

Uh, Hogan, uh, is, is
the godfather of my son, Tyler.

Terry and I had a-- always
a 24/7 tether into each other.

His phone call
never went unanswered,
and neither did mine.

We were so relaxed around him
because of Bubba's friendship

that you would lose sight

that this guy is one of the most
famous people in the world.

Hogan's a very smart guy,
and he knows how to work.

And he's like,
"Hold on. Here's a radio guy

that seems pretty cool,
that's over."

Meaning, "very popular
in my town that, uh,

that we can make
one hell of a dynamic duo."

And we did, man.
We ran this town.

My wedding, I actually had
people come up to me and said,

"Man, that wedding
was just so fucking cool."

And there's celebrities
that were there.

Just the overall vibe.

Our kids were involved.

You know, I had Howard Stern,

Hulk Hogan, Robin, and Fred,

and Kerry, and Artie.

For Heather and Bubba!

Honest to God, deep down,
I'm so happy for you guys.

And, uh...
this is one of the coolest
experiences of my life,

and, uh, and I'm, I'm happy
to be a part of it
with you guys.

- So, congratulations.
- To the bride and groom,
thank you for having us.

And I want to wanna say
that the bride is way too hot
for the groom.

And it was clear
that the minister
wanted to bang the bride,

but we'll overlook that.
That was a little creepy.

It was a fantastic wedding.

And, uh, Hulk Hogan
should take off his durag.

It's a little inappropriate.

And so it was just
such a very special moment.

And this is
my best friend in the world...

...no matter what
Brian Knobbs says.

Uh, when I first met Bubba,
I hated his guts

because he was on The Power Pig.

He was saying
all these dirty words

and all these derogatory things
in the Tampa Bay area

that all of us rednecks
from South Tampa
had never heard before.

But then I met the guy,
and I realized that, you know,

he was a great person,
and nothing like
the radio personality.

We became very good friends,
and he's one of the only people
in this world

that I trust with my children.

To the greatest couple
in the world,

Bubba and Heather,
we give you our love.

We love you to death.
If there's anything
you ever need,

you know who to call, brother.

Toast to Bubba and Heather.

Hogan. Hogan, Hogan. No, no.

You know
that's a problem around here.

People won't tell you
what you really need to hear.

"Oh, Hulk Hogan, whatever
you want. Whatever you--"
Bischoff. Everybody.

I'm gonna tell you right now.
You were the best man
at my wedding.

You're the godfather of my son.

I've been in the surgery rooms
for you.

I've watched them
put knees in you.

You can't even get out
of your chair half the time...

I always had a really--

a great experience with Terry.

He was like a big brother.
Uh, a brother.

I mean, Bubba was now
getting a national audience

and was, was with Howard,

and it definitely was
more of a, a one-way friendship

in the sense
that there were often times
it wasThe Hogan Show,

not theBubba
the Love Sponge Show.

Hogan cal-- starts
calling the show every day,

sometimes two or three times
a day, to the point

where it's, like,
starting to get to be bad radio.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. Yo, this is Hulk Hogan,
the greatest of all times,

in my little,
teeny-teeny-weeny--

Brooke Teeny is doing
the baddest mixtape around

from the 305 to the 954.

I'm gonna come down
and bitch-slap Spice and Brett
when I come in.

Bubba gave him
carte blanche.

I mean, he could do
whatever he wanted on that show.

- He could call in
whenever he wanted.
- His daughter--

He was trying to get Brooke's
music career off the ground.

When they called,
called that number
and all the boats came in

and the people
from VH1 freaked out
because, uh, her video

went to number four,
which is crazy.
I mean, it's like

the Bubba Army,
they're so powerful.

It's crazy.

Bubba, you know, got on the air,

talked about it,
drove people to drive

to watch that video,
and it went to number four.

I think it was
a mutual relationship, you know,

and, and beneficial
to both of them
for the most part

until it wasn't beneficial
for Hogan.

You know, Hogan, you know,
like anybody else-- you know,

the most important person
to him was, was Hogan.

And that's not
necessarily a bad thing.

Maybe Bubba sometimes
could have learned
a little bit of that

and made, you know, himself
the most important person
than other people.

Sometimes it would've
been better for him.

But, you know,
Terry, uh, was true to himself.

Hi. Come on in.
Welcome to our house.

Heather Clem,
she was so into Bubba and was

so on board with his lifestyle,
which was not normal.

We were all on board,
and we were--

You know, if, if Bubba
loves her, we love her.

Okay, you're gonna follow me
to the laundry room

because I'm Cinderella
at this house,

and I do all, like,
the cleaning, and the laundry,

and the cooking,
and all that stuff.

That's usually
what I do on Saturdays.

So, come on. You can watch me
fold some laundry.

I had no beef
at all with Heather

until what happened happened.

So, Bubba had a video
security system in his house,

inside and out,
obviously for security
purposes, number one.

Because being somebody that's
highly polarizing like that,

you've got to really have your
security systems tightened up.

Somebody said that they
were touched inappropriately

or anything like that happened,
he would have a videotape of it.

Um, and Bubba
was very proud of that.

Anybody that came to his house,
whether it was Hulk Hogan,
or Tony Stewart,

or whoever came to his house,
he'd walk them around the house

and go,
"There's cameras here,
there's cameras here.

I got a control room here.
Check this out.
Look at this control room.

You can see outside.
Blah, blah, blah."

Like,
he would show you.

I had seen articles

over the years where, you know,

popular person A
has consensual sex

or, what, hangs out
with somebody.

And next thing you know,
because there was
no documentation

or no surveillance,
or it was their word
versus their word,

and, uh, I wasn't going
to be caught in a trick bag

where I didn't have some type
of surveillance or proof,

that I didn't do something,
you know, very wrong.

Like, because I was a bachelor,

you know,
living a rock star-type life,

uh, I installed
a surveillance system.

Early on in representing Bubba

and getting
into his inner circle,

I realized that
it was wrought with dangers.

Uh, there were
death threats against Bubba.

I never felt like
I needed cameras in my life.

I never felt like I needed
a gate around my house.

I, I just never felt that.

Until I started
working with and for Bubba.

Iconic pro wrestler Hulk Hogan
and his now ex-wife Linda

appeared to be totally
in love on their VH1
reality showHogan Knows Best.

But they ultimately split
in 2007,

which resulted
in a bitter divorce battle.

You agree with me
that Linda's entitled

to 50% of the marital assets,
don't you?

I'm not a lawyer,
and I'm not gonna make any...

Well, then, how can you say
she's a money-grabbing bitch

if you don't know the law?

Well, I have seen
what she's asking for.

I've, I've seen
what her expenses are.

And somebody who spends
$7000 a month on clothes,

and somebody who, uh,
spends the kind of money
that she spends,

which is reported
in the newspaper,
that I was privy to

and everybody else, um,
that was just mind-boggling,

for the things
that she thinks that, uh,
she should have to live on.

I'm, I'm over this crap, bro.
- Man, I cannot believe

- how she could--
- I am not, I am not
the bad guy in this situation.

I am over it.

Hogan's going through a divorce,
and he was broke.

His body was broken.
His heart was broken.

I'm trying to work
to pay the bills

for all these 19 million lawyers

and all this crap
that's going on, and, you know,

it's almost like they're trying
to derail me, so I can't work.
I'm over it.

When Terry was
going through his divorce,

it was just probably
the darkest time for him.

Um, I know that
he had talked to Laila Al-- Ali
once with a gun in his hand.

Uh, a gun that I,
oddly enough, bought him
as-- for a birthday present.

But he was just in a really,
really dark, dark, dark space.

Um, he was drinking a lot.

Uh, Linda had him
just all flipped out.

They were going
through a nasty divorce.

He needed a job.
He needed money.

He was living in an apartment,
and his finances were a wreck.

He was being sued.

And Bubba brought him
into his house

and cared for him,

and, and so did Heather,
for that matter.

So, so Bubba
really took care of him.

Like, Bubba was
one of his last only friends.

A lot of people
in the wrestling business

didn't like Terry at this point.

Bubba had an apartment
at his house

that was upstairs.
Had a kitchen,
had a nice bedroom,

had a fucking
movie theater in it.

And he let Hogan
stay there and live there
for as long as he wanted to.

He got Hogan a, a car deal
with Stingray Chevrolet,
so he had a car to drive.

- When I went
through the divorce...
- Yes.

...I actually stayed
on the far end of their house

in their spare bedroom
'cause I had nowhere to stay
for a few months.

- Wow.
- I was mentally
out of my mind,

rattled over all the craziness.

Hogan's in a dark place,
and Bubba and Heather,

together, come up with the idea

for, um, Heather
to have sex with him

to, like, cheer him up
and make him feel better.

They discussed it,
agreed upon it ahead of time,

and then approached
Hulk Hogan with it.

The videotape starred
Hogan and Heather Clem.

Um, she was the ex-wife
of shock jock Bubba the Love...

...posting a secretly-taped
sex video

showing Hogan
with his best friend's wife.

Hogan was videotaped
having sex with the wife

of shock jock
Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.

A sex video of Hulk
and Heather doing their thing.

- She was married to Bubba...
- So I call him and say...

..."Okay. Uh, hey, Bubba,
did your wife fuck Hogan?"

He's like, "Uh... yeah."

"You did what? You let your wife
have sex with Hogan?"

In the tape,
it's taken completely
off of surveillance cameras

that were set up
in the home of radio host
Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.

Um, and Gawker published
just one minute and 40 seconds
of this tape.

But we have now
found there-- there's
some additional information,

because Hulk was saying
that Bubba has anything
to do with this,

uh, that friendship is over.

In a press conference Monday,
Hogan's attorneys say

the Clems
knowingly took the video

and leaked it
in an attempt to make money.

And then I was like,
"Well, how the hell

did somebody get
ahold of that tape?"

Because I knew, um, I knew

Bubba would never have had
a hand in that. I knew it.

And I just kept
racking my brain.

Who the fuck took this tape?

Was it Brent? Was it Spice?
Was it Manson?

Was it 25?
Was it Russ? Was it Hamill?

And I trusted--
I genuinely trusted every person
that worked for me.

I genuinely-- you know,
they had keys to the building.

They can come
and do work on the weekend.

I could not figure out,

for the life of me,
as to how this was disseminated.

The real problem in itself
is who the hell leaked this?

- Right.
Now, you say-- Listen--
- That's the problem.

I guess he feels you leaked it.

Well, I would, I would hope
that he would help me,

or I could help him,
or we could go on our own
and find who did. Becau--

- Do you know who did?
- No, I don't.

Because I wish I could.
I wish I could find that.

- Well, who has access
to those tapes?
- I don't know.

Initial reports,
and, and even Hogan

initially thought
that I leaked the tape.

There's just no advantage
for me to le-- leak that tape.

Why would I want to expose
my best friend and my wife

through whatever
our little kink was?

- Why would I want to do that?
- He planned all of this.

"I'ma film it
and then I'ma put it

so everybody in the world
can see."

So, he tried
to make it seem like,

in my opinion,

that somebody stole
the video from him.

And that's how it anonymously
got to this Gawker Media source.

Bubba then sent
the clip off to someone else,

who then published it
for the world to see.

- Didn't Bubba sell
that tape to Gawker?
- Must have done.

We started trying
to figure out how it happened

and, and how it had been taken.

Then they go through a divorce.
This nasty divorce.

Bubba, unlike Hulk Hogan,
had an ironclad prenup.

And those DVDs, he feared,

would have given her
that leverage to get more money.

My reasoning for keeping
said surveillance

was because I didn't know
if Heather had it or not,

but I was afraid
that if she had a copy of it,

then she could manipulate it
in some way, shape or form,

and I get blamed for it.

In his estimation, bringing 'em
to work...

and locking 'em up
in his office,
where she never was,

is the safe place for them to be

'cause she doesn't
have access to them,

and she can't use them
as leverage for money.

But I didn't destroy it.
I put it in my office.

I'm assuming everything's--
up there is okay.

Nobody really has a key
to even get up there.

My attorney said, "You need
to destroy this thing."

And, God, had I just listened.

Had I just fucking listened.

I'm walking down the hallways
of Cox Media Group,

and I hear some people,
like, laughing,

and I hear people doing their...
you know,

their typical
Bubba impersonation.

And I was walking
down the hallway,
heard some laughing.

I looked in,
and it was Mike Calta

and Matt "Spice Boy" Loyd
in his office.

I thought maybe
this was something new
that they had found,

but the video
was not being played

on a website
or from a news story.

It, it was definitely
being played off
a media player-type thing.

What I'm saying is,
I know what I saw, and if I--

if that story would
have already been out there,

I would have heard about it,
is what I'm trying to say.

The most famous wrestler
in the world

now taking on Gawker
inside a Florida courtroom,

suing the website
for posting a 2007 video of him

having sex with Heather Clem,
the then-wife

of his former best friend
Bubba Clem.

Hogan, seeking $100 million

for the alleged invasion
of privacy.

Now, I'm still working
for Cox at this time,

so I didn't really know
who did what

until about five or six months
prior to the Gawker trial,

as to how all this shook out.

When Hogan was suing Gawker,

and I'm in depositions,

they kept asking me during--

the Gawker people,
"Do you know Mike Calta?

Do you know Tony Burton?"
I'm like, "Well, yeah."

Uh, "Would they
have access to this?"

And based on the questions
they were asking me,

I was able to piece it together.

So, after the depositions
with Gawker, I got in my car,

and as fast
as my fat little fingers
could dial my phone,

I called my agent, Tom Bean, up
and I was like,

"Tom, I know
what the fuck happened now."

Part of it was that
the Tampa Bay radio scene
had distilled

this sort of shock jock
mentality in a way

that a lot of other
radio scenes hadn't done.

It's one of the fiercest
radio markets in the country.

Very, extremely competitive.

And there might have been
other markets where there were
one or two jocks

that were considered,
quote, unquote, "shock jocks."

But we had a, a radio market
where there was something like

five or six people who, who
were doing that kind of stuff.

And so they would talk about
each other because they knew

that the, um, competition
and the friction

would gin up, you know,
fans of both jocks.

That, that shows you how,
that shows you
how stupid you are, my friend,

because I talked to 25 about it.

...don't have to talk about you
to remain relevant.

What happened
to all of your failed markets?

You are unsuccessful
in every one of them.

This company rolled out
the red carpet for you

and you shoved it
right up your ass.

You ruined everything. You--

I find this to be a sad day
'cause this is not

about the First Amendment.
This is not about free speech.

And so some of it
was obviously genuine.

Some of these people
obviously hated each other.

Uh, but some of it
was also good for business.

And so,
and so you take the fact that,

you know, the shock jock genre
is kind of distilled

in the Tampa Bay area.

It's good for business,
for them to fight each other.

These people are toxic,
so they hate each other anyway.

And you have, you know,
all the makings for a situation

where you could have
a lot of awful stuff go down.

The radio market in Tampa Bay,
for decades, hands down,

I don't even think
there's a debate about it,
is and has been

the most competitive terrestrial
radio market there is.

The level that
it's gotten to in Tampa Bay
is almost unbelievable.

Pull out the heavy artillery
and do everything you can

to get the person off the air,
and probabl--

Best scenario,
throw 'em in jail.

"Cutthroat" is, is almost
being nice about it.

Since Bubba really came
on the scene in 1992,

he really had dominated
the Tampa Bay Area,
you know, broadcasting.

He was number one
by leaps and bounds,

above anybody else
in the entire market,

up until he got terminated
by Clear Channel in 2004.

Then, when he started
with SiriusXM in 2006

and didn't come back
to the Tampa Bay airwaves,

I think all of the Tampa Bay
terrestrial broadcasters

breathed a big sigh of relief,

knowing that they weren't
gonna have to compete

with Bubba the Love Sponge
anymore in Tampa Bay,

because clearly
they could not be successful

competing against him
because he dominated.

We do, you know,
SiriusXM exclusively

for 2006 and 2007
out of our own studios.

We're doing great.
We're on Howard 101.

Howard does mornings,
we do afternoons.

In late 2007,
Cox calls Tom Bean up,

and they're interested
in us doing mornings

on one radio station here
in Tampa, 102.5, The Bone.

I knew I was gonna have to do--
end up doing two shows,

which was gonna be exhausting,
but the money was
just unbelievable.

Okay, we're back now
with Bubba the Love Sponge,

who returns to radio 102.5,
The Bone, uh, FM,

- here in Tampa
and also in, uh, Jacksonville.
- Yeah.

Okay, well, uh,
it will be interesting to watch.

Uh, Bubba's back.
You can either
run for your lives

- or cover your ears
or, or listen in.
- Or both.

- All right. Very good
to have you on Flashpoint.
- Don't forget our bet.

All right. You bet--
Well, it's on videotape.

- No denying it. Thank you.
- Thank you, buddy.

So, we agreed to do mornings
on 102.5, The Bone.

And, and don't forget,
we replaced Calta.

When, you know,
Bubba was being, uh, looked at

as a replacement,
it was interesting for it to be

the replacement
of Mike Calta's show.

We signed a deal
with Cox to return back
to terrestrial radio

via The Bone, uh,
and in the first,

I don't know, 30 to 40, 45 days,

we were already number one
in almost everyday part.

And that's when things really
then started to get exciting.

No. No.

- That would kill somebody.
- That'd be awesome, you know?

So, you're not trying
to kill them. You're trying

to let them think
that they're gonna be killed.

And if they just give
us the information.

Yeah, you want
to find out where...

You know, we were dominating

our, our, our, our hometown.

And then, at that point,
we're talking syndication.

You know, other,
other cities as well.

Having been off the air
for four years,

had no promotion, had switched

to the broadcast medium
of satellite radio,

I don't think anybody
really expected Bubba
to do particularly well.

The ratings
for terrestrial radio, radio

come every week
and they're put into books.

Each book, you know, is,
uh, approximately a month,

and there are three books
to a quarter.

In Bubba's first full book back,

he took 102.5, The Bone,
from essentially last place

in the marketplace
to number one over the MJ Show,

which had been
his long nemesis before.

It made my competitors
and people within my company
hate me.

I mean, that's where
the animosity of Calta
came from.

You know, we,
we would be number one

and afternoon drive would be,
you know, tenth.

Bubba!
Bubba! Bubba! Bubba...

They asked me
when I was doing my deal,

"Do you want us
to get rid of Calta?

'Cause I know
you guys had a long kind of--"

And I was like-- Probably
one of my biggest regrets

is me--
'Cause Tom Bean asked me.

Tom Bean actually tried
to get me to change my mind.

He was like, "Are you sure
you want to do that?"

And I'm like, "Yeah, whatever.
What the, what the fuck?

I mean, who cares?
I'm done with his bullshit."

Boy, I was wrong on that one.

You know, Bubba was good
at rubbing it in your face

that he was kicking your ass.

Trying to remain relevant?
Are you kidding me?

Have you looked at the ratings?
Have you looked
at the ratings today?

Remain relevant?

Remain relevant?
Re-- remain relevant?

You're only good
as your last book.

You're down, you're down 61%.

So, he was good at pouring salt
into open wounds.

And then when he came back
in 2008, it was just like,

"What do we have to do
to kill this motherfucker?"

Every contract negotiation
we had with Sirius

was always
a big pain in the ass.

Always just down
to the last minute.

Every time we negotiated
with him, it was never easy.

And finally, the final one was
just downright disrespectful.

Our final contract offer
was, uh, an 80% haircut.

From a million bucks to 200,000.

Bubba's popularity
on SiriusXM...

...at its peak...

...clearly was a threat
to Howard Stern.

You know, why would
anybody want to have...

...somebody that could garner

almost as good,
uh, uh, ratings as you can

- for pennies on the dollar?
- And here we are,
killing it.

We have the most,
most call volume,

we're, we're--
we work in five days a week.

We're doing mornings on Friday

on Howard's channel
'cause he wouldn't do mornings.

And rather than to say,
"Hey, you guys
make a million now,

we're gonna give you, you know,
a little bit more" or--

"Because we appreciate you."

Howard and Don Buchwald
are out to protect Howard Stern

and Howard Stern's
earning ability,
and Howard's rights,

just like my job
was to do that for Bubba.

So, that's just doing
what they're supposed to do.

But at the end of the day,
clearly, you know,

when you're second best
and there's somebody

that has a reason to want
to not have competition...

...you don't want
to have competition.

I think that offer had a lot
to do with us doing better

than a lot of people
had anticipated we would do.

When they had to take
the pay cut whenever they were
renegotiating with Sirius,

man, oh, man, Spice made
the biggest deal about taking
a pay cut at that time.

And you could see it.
Like, Spice was the one guy

that just went hard
into the paint.

He was very, very materialistic.

If somebody else
had something, there--

you could always tell
there was jealousy there.

He is money-obsessed,

um, and he doesn't
really understand

the business end of it.
He really doesn't.

After this, even Spice Boy's
style on the air

became much more angry,
and bitter, and personal.

I think, early on it was

a mentorship-type relationship.

I think there was a time period,
as Matt got older

and more experienced
as a broadcaster,

where Matt started
to smell himself a little bit

and started to think
that he was just as capable
as Bubba.

And he became
very jealous of Bubba,

and he thought that
Bubba was fat and stupid

and "How could
he be successful?"

You know, "I'm smarter,
I'm good-looking.

I'm a better host."

Bubba was writing a book.

I don't even know
if it even came out.

And they made, uh,
everybody on the show

write a foreword,
uh, to Bubba's book,

and, and, and, Spice Boy
was just brutal.

Man, he said
some of the worst stuff.

Like, I, I--
when I, when I heard,
uh, Spice talking about it,

I was like,
"Oh, this is not gonna be good.

Bubba is going to blow his top."

I think Matt started
to think that he could be

just as successful, or even
perhaps a better broadcaster
than Bubba.

And their relationship changed
when we lost the contract

or we didn't renew
with SiriusXM.

Matt Loyd blamed Bubba,
and it were those types
of things

that started to cause
some financial, uh, losses

for the support cast
forBubba Show too,

because the show wasn't,
you know, bringing in

the same revenue
that it was before,

that there started
to be some resentment.

I find out that
he's leaving March of '12.

It's a very emotional time.
He was like my,

he was like my little,
like my little brother
or my son.

I remember that was
the first time
I actually saw Bubba cry.

He was really, really upset

that he was losing Spice Boy
at that time

because he was gonna
be leaving Bubba's show

to go do nights
at the new FM talk station.

But Bubba gave him
his full blessing.

He was like, "Man,
you're gonna be good at this.

You're gonna, you're gonna,
you're gonna grow,

you're gonna do your own thing.
And I wish you all the luck.

You're always welcome back."

You know, when... deals changed

and the remuneration went down,

and people had
to take less money,

you know, Bubba's decisions
didn't just affect Bubba.

They affected everybody
that was in Bubba's world,
Matt included.

At the time,
Calta was doing 3:00 to 7:00,

and then coming on
right after that would be,
uh, Matt Loyd Show.

So, they would see each other
every day, being able to talk.

And I think the plan was not
having Bubba in the building,

having Matt Loyd
over there as well too.

The whole thing is,
"Let's work together.

Let's get Bubba
off the morning show

here at 102.5, The Bone.

I'm gonna take mornings.
You're obviously gonna

move up to 3:00 to 7:00
afternoon drive."

I think them being able to see
each other every single day,

they were able to work together.

Not being in the building,

I never really knew
would be that big of a deal.

I mean, I thought that we would
be out of mind, out of sight.

The only thing
that really mattered
was the type of show we put on

and the ratings
that we garnered.

I never knew that that enabled
people who didn't like us

or were jealous of us
to just start a--

like, a little mini
whisper campaign and...

Bubba had made the decision
to replace Mike Calta

with Brent Hatley
sometime around 2000.

That created
a bunch of animosity

between, you know,
Mike Calta and Bubba then.

And anytime Mike Calta would run

into a problem or an issue,
he would blame Bubba for it.

You're a big, fat, cross-eyed
cuckold is what you are.

Anything else, Mike?
Anything else?

It's nothing really relevant.

"Man, Bubba's really
hard to deal with,"

and "He'll never come
to the studio."

And "We ask him and,
you know, he just-- he, he has

so many other affiliates,
and he does
an afternoon drive show."

And "He thinks he's all that,"
or "He's, he's got a big head."

And, and that's not,
that's not--

wasn't our mindset at all.

We were, you know,
kind of rewarding ourselves

and having our own facility
because we weren't just

a Bone, Cox product.

We were more global than that.

Mike Calta had
an ax to grind with Bubba.

Why would he stop
having an ax to grind?

In this instance,
Bubba was replacing him,

moving him
from the coveted morning spot

back to afternoon drive.

It gets very cutthroat,
trying to get to mornings.

That's every good radio person's
goal, is to get to mornings.

And some people, um, are willing
to do anything to get there.

In Tampa, you have
people suing each other,

trying to get
each other arrested.

There's all kinds of things
going on to grab
this morning slot

on these major companies,
these major signals in Tampa.

It's, it's like nothing else
in radio.

It was Bubba getting over
on Mike Calta again,

and Bubba letting him stay
and continue to work

at the same radio station

in the same, uh,
broadcast facility.

That Bubba Show
was being originated, to me,
didn't make any sense.

It was letting the fox
into the henhouse.

Why would you do that?

Um, had I known of the cancer
that that created,

by not being in the building,
I would have really made it

a bigger effort to be
in that building more often

and talk to the people more.

This sex tape was their play

to get Bubba off the air
for good.

They were trying everything

to get him off the air
and throw him in jail

because they can't beat him
on the air.

They-- I mean, they can't.

So they have to cheat.

Many of us, myself included,
remember watching

Hulk Hogan's exploits
in the ring as a pro wrestler.

But today, we saw him fighting
in an entirely different arena.

In court, on the stand,

taking on the website Gawker
over a sex tape.

Hogan had announced
that he was going to sue

Bubba, Heather and Gawker
for $100 million.

WWE Superstar Hulk Hogan,

whose real name is Terry Bollea,

took the stand today
for the first day of testimony

in his lawsuit against Gawker.

The first knowledge...

...that I heard that
there was a tape out there

was some still images came up...

...and TMZ called me and said,

"Hey, there's a rumor that there
might be a, a tape out there."

Guess who's beloved
in this community.

Terry Bollea.

And he was not
a terrible victim,

he was a real victim.

First up, the defense,
putting former editor-in-chief

A.J. Daulerio on the stand

and Hogan's lawyers
hammering him

on his reasons
for posting that tape.

It's not out-loud laughter, no,
but it is a smirk. Yeah.

- It's very serious.
- At points,
Daulerio even seeming

to contradict
part of Gawker's defense

that the tape was newsworthy

and their decision
to publish it,

covered by the First Amendment.

And just because
two adults had consensual,

uh, interactions
or relationships

and somehow
it was perverted into this,
it would be different today.

Nick Denton,
the founder of Gawker Media,

stands by his company's decision
to post that video.

This has got nothing
to do with privacy.

Uh, this is all about publicity.

Uh, the sex tape
had been talked about.
Uh, he didn't like our story.

And another thing
that Dan Abrams just said,
I agree with,

and I've said from the get-go,
they have to believe Hulk Hogan,

because if they decide
they don't like Hulk

or they don't believe him,
his entire case is right down

- the toilet. Everything.
- Gawker want--
Gawker wanted--

Bubba the Love Sponge's ex-wife,
she's on the stand.

She says she is the real victim
in this case.

Her name is Heather Cole.

She claims she had no idea

she was being recorded.

Guess it must have been
the husband.

She was having sex
with her husband's best friend

and had no idea
she was being recorded.

Heather was Clem's wife.

Bubba Clem asked you,
and do you recall

- what your answer was?
- I said I would.

Come on.

I mean...

Please.

If this jury believes
that Hulk Hogan is lying

about how this happened,

I think
that could impact damages.

'Cause I've said again
and again, if this juror ha--

If these jurors hate Gawker,

that could be
really dangerous for Gawker.

If these jurors
don't like Hulk Hogan,

- that's not helpful
for him either.
- How about this--

If I agree to do something
that's lawful

and I put it
on a piece of paper or a tape

and someone steals it,
that's theft.

If that theft affects my life,
that's damages.

That's punishable.

That's actionable.
I am at a loss.

Why we're here
all these years later
with a videotape,

and there was never
a single person
who was punished?

That's what's wrong
with our justice system.

This is exactly the vindication
that he and the lawyers wanted.

He's also been awarded
$115 million by that jury.

It took them
six hours of deliberation
to reach this verdict.

And it was a very happy Hogan
and his lawyer

that were outside the courtroom
after the verdict was reached.

Mr. Bollea's
exceptionally happy.

This is not only
his victory today,

but also anyone else
who's been victimized

by tabloid journalism.
We're coming back Monday

for the rest of it,
and we thank you all
for your interest.

- There's absolutely no doubt
that the decision we made...
- Yeah.

- ...was absolutely correct.
- If we were all
in the same circumstances,

- how would we feel about it?
- Did any of you think

- that he might have been
behind that tape?
- There's still no right

- to put that out there
if he doesn't want it put out.
- Right.

He's very charming on the stand,

um, but he's been shown
to have lied on the stand

as much as--
uh, he's a charming liar.

We were a bunch of honest jerks.

You know, I may have fucked up
a, a lot of pieces

in this puzzle,

but there's one thing
that I didn't do.

I did not leak that tape.

I would have preferred that
that tape stayed in my desk

and never been viewed
by anybody.

And only three people
in the world know about it.

Heather, Hogan and me.

It destroyed Bubba
as much as it...

Well, uh, did it
really destroy Hogan

or did it make Hogan
bigger and richer?

Bubba had so many levels
of betrayal on this,

and, and Hogan knows it.

And so, you know,
if Hogan's watching this,

I say to Hogan,
"It's time to forgive."

Not only did he originally
think that I leaked it,

but everybody thinks
that I leaked it.

To this day. Ask anybody.

When Hogan approached me

about the screenshot
that was on The Dirty...

...um...

...you know...
I lied to him.

I lied to him
because I was reckless.

I relied-- I lied to him
because I was embarrassed.

If I could go back,

I would have never
captivated that moment.

I would have never
transferred it to a DVD.

I would have just let Terry
and Heather enjoy themselves.

And that's all.

You know, receiving material
that's been stolen from somebody

is, uh, is a big, uh, problem.

And, you know,
if you're a journalist

and that material
is the Pentagon Papers

or that material
is something that has

tremendous journalism value

to the general public,

um, then you might think
about publishing something

that has been, uh, you know,

taken, uh, without consent
or without permission.

But something like this,

something personal
that was stolen from someone,

um, you know, that-- that's
the, that's the other thing

I think that would have
kept me from publishing it,

was, was knowing
that the material came to me

because it was stolen
from someone.

Do you believe
your battle with Gawker

has gotten lost behind the talk

of how much money
the jury decided to award you?

I don't think so.

I think the public
feels the same way I did.

And so I think that makes,
makes a huge statement.

"Is that a big enough number?"

Um, maybe not, but it should be
a deterrent for anybody else

who ever tries to do
anything like this not to do it,

that you will be
held accountable.

It made me a little bit sick.
I don't know
how he can sleep at night

knowing that he's got the money
for doing what he did.

Um, I would've
been honest with Terry.

Not been a pussy, not been a s--
little scared bitch like I was.

And maybe the outcome would've
been a little bit different.

Maybe I could've actually
have participated

in getting the bad guys
that did this

and still been the piece of shit
that recorded it.

But maybe... be more
on Terry's offensive side.

And, uh, if,
if I had the opportunity

to tell him I was sorry,
I would.

Keith Davidson...
was a Hollywood attorney

that brokered... hush money
gag-type agreements

between the people
that were involved
in these things

and the people that purported
to be the owners
of the material.

I get involved when a situation
or a, uh, relationship
has gone bad.

If you look historically,
you know,

in any time in the US
or any country,

there are folks
who have been able to get in

as a part of what they do

in their profession
is, is to be fixers.

That is when
people get in a bind.

They hire people to,
to clean it up.

If you go back to the, you know,

the old-school sex tapes,

um, when they
first started coming out

and they were, quote, unquote,
"stolen" and things like that...

Keith Davidson, he was
behind a lot of this kind
of nefarious stuff

that was going on
on the fringes.

Their job is to go
and try to make it better.

Now, there's a couple ways
you can do that.

Number one is
you lean on relationships.

Secondly, you, you have
the people that you know

that you can call on
to negotiate and broker deals.

When you look
at people like this,

it's part
of the fabric of our society.

And he had a long history
of doing good work.

"Good work" means
getting people's situations
taken care of.

And in our case, his involvement
was to solve a problem.

And that problem got solved.

Yeah.

Once it ends up on Gawker,
then Keith Davidson,

on the behalf of Matt Loyd,
calls David Houston,

who's Hulk Hogan's
personal attorney,

to tell him
that they have these DVDs

and they want $300,000
from Hulk Hogan for it.

So, then Hulk Hogan
and his attorney
contact the FBI.

The FBI records
the next conversation

that Keith Davidson has
with David Houston.

And then the FBI is there
in Clearwater

when Keith Davidson shows up
with a proxy sent by Matt Loyd

to extort, extort Hulk Hogan,
which completely goes awry.

Yeah.

So, on December 14th, 2012,
I'm at the Penthouse Club

doing an appearance
for the radio station
with Brent.

That's when the FBI is doing
their sting operation
at the Sandpearl,

and Lori Burbrige
and Keith Davidson
are nose down,

being arrested,

and Matt Loyd has
the audacity and the balls

to come
into my personal appearance

and "Oh, Bubba, congratulations
on being divorced.

Oh, Brent. Oh, hey,
miss you guys. Miss you guys."

His wife is pregnant.
His wife is pregnant.
Tasha is pregnant.

Stayed about
five or ten minutes.

While this sting is happening
at the Sandpearl restaurant,

he then drives across the street

to the International Mall,
International Plaza.

Real fucking fancy mall.

And that's where he ends up--

the FBI ends up arresting him.

So, literally
five to ten minutes

before he got arrested
at the International Plaza mall,

he had came, came
and said hi to me and Brent
at the Penthouse Club.

That's how much of
a maniacal motherfucker he is.

So, Matt Loyd steals the tape
and he comes up
with the dumbest plan ever.

So, they first go to TMZ,
get 7500 bucks.

TMZ publishes nothing.
They just talk about it
on the air,

and they get Hulk Hogan
on the air and talk about it.

So, then Loyd goes
to Mike Calta at The Bone,

who then contacts his agent,
a guy named Tony Burton,

who works for Don Buchwald
and Associates in New York City.

Tony Burton contacts Gawker,

an editor at Gawker
named A.J. Daulerio.

Then Tony Burton
sends an email to Calta
of the address to send it to.

And then the tape
winds up with A.J. Daulerio...

on his desk,
at the address that Tony Burton,

Calta's agent, emailed to Calta

and told Calta,
"There's where
to send the tape."

So, now it gets published
on Gawker.

Not really worth anything.

I mean, other than
causing Bubba problems,

which is what they wanted to do.

I think
he was planning to leave

and planning to become
a broadcaster in the market

and compete against Bubba.

And I think, before he left,

he started looking for material

that he had access to

that he thought he could use,

that could potentially
put Bubba into a bad light.

The problem
with their plan was...

...Matt Loyd has no ability
to really observe...
anybody else

and understand who they are.

'Cause if you understand
who Hulk Hogan is

and you've been around him
for five minutes...

you know
that that's not--

that South Tampa motherfucker
is not somebody

that you want to try to extort,

because you will
never extort a dime
out of fuckin' Hulk Hogan.

Now Hogan
is looking to recover
the balance of the damages

from the people he believes
leaked and sold that video.

According to court records,
it was a conspiracy

involving shock jock
Mike Calta, Loyd,

Cox Radio and a few associates.

You know, after the Gawker case

and Hogan brought the case
against Cox and Mike Calta...

...that case
never went to trial.

They filed
that second amended complaint.

It had all of that data
that showed the emails,

the telephone conversations,

dates, times,
who, when, how, where.

Again, it became...
uncontrovertible.

There was no question
that they had it,

they distributed it,

and that many people
knew about it.

Hogan says he was
a victim of radio wars

between Bubba and those rivals

who wanted to eliminate Clem
as competition.

And that there was a conspiracy.
There was a plan.

And that plan was enacted
to be able to remove Bubba,

to put Mike Calta
in the morning spot

and Matt Loyd
in the afternoon drive.

It's simple.
That's, that's what it was.

All of that was put in place

so that they could get
what they wanted,

and they leveraged, again,
what other people wanted,

which was
to have Bubba silenced.

Gloria has been
on this from the beginning.
Read the entire investigation.

- So, Gloria, what did you learn?
- I learned a lot.

But keep in mind, on Friday,
we first reported
that the State Attorney's office

here in Hillsborough County
decided

not to file any charges
in this case,

and some are
really questioning, "Why?"

In 2012, Davidson tried
to broker a deal

between Hulk Hogan
and Davidson's client,

who was trying
to make money off a sex tape

showing Hogan having sex
with his friend's wife.

Davidson wrote the confidential
settlement agreement,

saying the sex video
would be handed over

if Hogan
paid his client $300,000.

Hogan's attorney called the FBI.

So, David Houston says

that the payment

to prevent the tapes
from being released

is because it's damaging stuff,

and that by executing
these agreements,

meaning the payment,

to prevent the tape
from being released...

...would allow Hulk Hogan
to be-- get control

of those tapes and the videos.

It's, it's, it's clear
throughout this conversation

that the point
is to control the damage.

The extortion is designed

to make him pay
to control the damage.

This is not a legitimate
business transaction
by any means.

Th-- this involves property
that was stolen

from, from Bubba Clem,

property that,
that is humiliating to

and embarrassing to the people
depicted in the tape.

Hulk Hogan and Heather Clem.

It's not what this is.
This is extortion.

Who released the video
to Gawker?

And at any point, did you ask
that it be taken down?

You know, the release
of the video is kind of a long,
complicated story.

We know it went
from a DJ in Tampa to a fellow

- by the name of Tony Burton
here in New York...
- Yeah.

...who then arranged to get it
to A.J. Daulerio... at Gawker.

So, nothing good from this
has happened in Bubba's life.

Since the day of the settlement,
his life has continued

to go into a downward spiral, unfortunately.

Telling the truth
in this situation didn't
set you free like they say.

Tampa police revealed
details of their investigation,

- and they are explosive.
- Yeah.

Detectives say
Matt "Spice Boy" Loyd

is behind it all.
The former employee

of radio star
Bubba the Love Sponge,
they write,

quote, "stole several
sex tape DVDs
from Bubba's office."

Then they say,
"Sold the clip to TMZ to,"
quote, "build interest."

And despite the feds
having videotapes of it,

where Hulk Hogan was in a room
next to it and money was being
offered for the tape,

they don't do anything about it.

It seems to me that
they've identified the person

who actually stole the tape.

Uh, they have,
uh, clear evidence

of an extortion attempt.

When you have a case
that's presented to prosecution

that's kind of, uh,
gift-wrapped like this one,

you would think that they would,
uh, aggressively pursue it.

So, I'm, I'm at a loss
to explain this one.

It's offensive.
It makes me so angry

to the core to this day
that nothing was done

when you have a case
on a silver platter
served to the prosecutor.

In a lawsuit, Hulk Hogan
alleges that Calta conspired

with other Cox employees

to leak a secretly-recorded
sex video

with Bubba Clem's wife,

a video that ruined
the wrestler's career.

You can still be charged
under the conspiracy statute,

um, if you're part
of this partnership

or you're part
of this agreement,

you're part of, like,
the group that is kind of
working together.

Hillsborough State Attorney
Mark Ober refuses to prosecute.

Ober says he isn't sure
he can get a conviction.

But what is strange here is
that there were arrests made.

And so, in my experience, uh,
when the FBI makes arrests,

it's done in conjunction
with conversations
with the assigned prosecutor.

And so if the arrests are made,

but the case
never proceeds to court,

something happened
in the interim.

Whenever there were,
uh, big events of other things,

the telephone calls
and emails between Calta,

Cox executives and Tony Burton
went up dramatically,

and they would be
at pursuant to the information
that's out there

all crazy times.

Late at night,
early in the morning.

Clearly, people were aware
of what the plan was.

I mean, Calta and Cox...
they are the boogeyman.

They are the bad guys.

They're-- and they got away
with it scot-free.

Other than the big paycheck
they had to write Hogan
to go away.

There was communications
with all of those people.

Mike Calta, Cox,

various management of Cox,
uh, Tony Burton.

And were communicating
about how to manage
that information

and what the plan was
to do with it

to get the outcome
that they looked to have.

Mike Calta's ultimate goal was
to get me thrown off mornings

on 102.5, The Bone,
because he wanted that job.

That's the prestigious job
to have,

uh, and he wanted
to do mornings.

He could never-- he doesn't have
the talent or the ability

to get that job on his own,
so he had to take it from me.

I'm more flabbergasted

that Mike Calta is still
employed by Cox.

I mean, I don't understand
how any of these people

keep their jobs
when they're clearly
brokering stolen... product.

Yes, TPD, um, did reach out
to me, and they were great.

The detective on this case,
Detective Schlemmer,

was just unbelievable.

There were several attorneys
that went on to say

that this was one of the most
thorough, wrapped-up cases

they'd ever seen.
It was gift-wrapped.

Every T was crossed,
every I was was dot--
was dotted.

And Detective Schlemmer
just really put a lot of time
and effort into this.

And he really,
really felt strongly about this.

I was at the racetrack,
getting the track ready,

and my, and my phone rings,
and, and he just said,

"Hey, I, I got,
I got horrible news.

Um, these cases mean

as much to me as a detective
as they do to the victims.

And when I have something
that I feel so strongly about,

uh, get no process,
or get chucked out
to the weeds, or not taken..."

He goes, "You know,
I take it seriously too.

And I've been told by the state
attorney that they're gonna,

uh, file no charges
on Spice Boy/Matt Loyd.

Um, and, uh, there's really
nothing you can do about it."

Mark Ober, the p--
the highest lawman of this area,

the, the state attorney

who decides who gets prosecuted,
who doesn't,

uh, he's the one
that has determined that I,

at that particular
time and period,
didn't have any rights.

I don't, I don't,
I don't roll around Tampa

with the same rights
that the average person does.

So, yes, my rights in this town
are completely smashed.

Um, I have no rights
in this town.

Well, the odds of winning
when you're on trial

against the local municipality
or the US government,

you know, uh,
they don't go to trial
unless they're gonna win.

They have huge percentages.

I'm 4-0 with jury trials

because when I get
in front of a jury,

the group of people, my peers
within my community,

they know how bad
I'm getting fucked with.

They know this is a shakedown.

When all the evidence comes out,
they realize, "You know what?

This is just, this is just
the government fucking
with Bubba the Love sponge."

Essentially, what happened
is that Brian Albritton

was the former US Attorney
for the Tampa office.

And when he left the government,

uh, he then represented

Keith Davidson in a pending
federal investigation

involving the Tampa
US Attorney's Office...

...which was then leading--
being led by, by Robert O'Neil,

who, when Brian Albritton

was the US Attorney,
was his top deputy.

Okay, so what I'm describing
there is what's called
the revolving door,

where, where people
leave the government,

go into private practice,

but then on the other side,

engage with their former
government agency.

And when you have someone
that's been in your seat,

been a former prosecutor
that understands
the other side too,

and is now gonna
point out to you

the flaws in your case
that you know exist,

but when they say it to you,
it amplifies and echoes
in your head and you go,

"I don't wanna be
publicly embarrassed."

It's an easy thing also

when you find that victim
in your mind unsavory.

Yeah, it's, uh--
any sane-minded person

will look and see
and say, "Something,

something ain't right
in the mix."

One of the best things
that you can do as a defendant

is to connect with someone
who has the eyes, ears,

hearts and... minds
of the prosecuting authority.

So, when you had a situation
with Keith Davidson...

...who's not a dumb guy...

Very savvy.

Got really good counsel.

So, if you're going
to look to try to avoid

a criminal prosecution
in a federal case...

...who's the best lawyer?

Who's the best fit
to broker an explanation

of what happened
to not get indicted?

Oh, I-- I know.

The former US Attorney.

He laid out
a wonderfully written--

I mean, it was...
50 pages of the background

of all the dirt and bad problems
that Bubba's had.

It made him sound someone
that couldn't be trusted.

The way that he was
able to craft,

as good lawyers do, that story,

to a fellow coworker
who's now the US Attorney...

"Hey, I've been in your shoes.
You want to take a pass on this.

This is why.
And you can trust me
'cause you and I,

US Attorney, former US Attorney,
the current US Attorney,

go back three decades.

You don't want any of this."

Now, the state attorney's office
did release a statement to us

a short time ago, saying,
quote, "We reviewed
the case in great detail.

The TPD report is only part
of the overall investigation.

We came to the conclusion
that we had

no reasonable expectation
of success in prosecution."

Now, Bubba also reached out
to us earlier today, saying,

quote, "I think my rights
have been violated,

but who's gonna listen to me?

Nobody can fight
the good old boy network."

And the good old boy network
is just the good old boys.

The, the state attorney,
and the sheriff, and the mayor,
and the--

they all meet,
you know, on Friday nights,
uh, down at the Dominoes Club.

And, uh, you know, this,
this in-- influential,
uh, entrepreneur,

and this business owner.
And everybody's got an insider

to people that make, you know,
very important decisions.

Some of those decisions involve,
you know, whether or not

to press charges on somebody.

That's the good old boy network.

And...
it's a tough network to crack.

And Bubba's real problem--

when we get down
to the brass tacks of it all,

Bubba's real problem was
he's on the public airwaves

in Tampa, holding local
public officials accountable.

And lots of different times.

From the state attorney
and Mark Ober.

Bubba was a big critic
of Tampa's city council.

He was a big critic
of the mayor's office.

This is a tale
as old as time itself.

And if you're on the inside,

that means, with relationships,

you get that very important
thing called information.

You can trade stocks with it.
You can buy land with it.

You can make
investments with it.

You can make decisions
to join or not join a company.

All that comes
from that information,

and that information is shared
by the people that have it.

Bubba's career as a disc jockey
has always put him

on the outside
of the good old boy network.

Why? Because he's a little bit
like a scorched earth guy.

Anything in his path
gets burnt to the ground.

Now, the good news is,
when he's right

and brings the bright light
of his radio show

to focus on an injustice,

it works.

But along the way, he's got
a wagon full of enemies.

They're waiting
for him to trip up,

step out, make a mistake
so they can pounce.

You know, really,
my problem started

when I questioned Mark Ober

in his lack of prosecution,
uh, over, over a couple of kids

that could have
been charged as adults,

but he chose
to charge as juveniles.

So, God forbid that you're
allowed to question anybody.

And if you question anybody
or anybody powerful enough

around this
good old boy network town,

then you just get put
in the bad guy list

and they fuck with you nonstop.

And that's where
all of this has started.

I mean, that's where
the lack of prosecution

for Calta and Spice Boy started.

I mean, this whole sex tape.
It-- it's a no-brainer.

In this case,
you had a US Attorney

on one criminal charge.

You had a state attorney
with a long history of dislike.

Come on, Mark. Mark.

'Cause he'd literally been
taking body punches by Bubba

from, from 6:00...
till 10:00 for, for a decade.

And the problem was,
for him, he knew

and Bubba knew
that Bubba was right.

Go after the people
that didn't tape it.

It's my house. I--
My surveillance system taped it.

I'm certainly not proud of that.

I certainly have
some onus in this.

I certainly got
some skin in this game.

But how about the people
that stole it
and then shopped it

for two years for millions
of dollars in Hollywood,

and then ultimately
actually took Hulk Hogan

to a hotel room and tried
to shake him down for $300,000?

How about those people?
Isn't-- It's...

No, those people
don't get arrested.

Those people don't--
those people get rewarded.

Those people get rewarded.

And if you are going
to live that life,

if you're gonna be the guy

who's gonna be
a gotcha journalist,

you better not make a mistake.

'Cause when you make
a mistake...

all the people
that you've shown to be frauds,

all the people that
you've shown to be incorrect,

all the people, where
you've unearthed corruption...

As they say, you better be
better than Caesar's wife.

When Bubba had a misstep...

it was times 100.

When Bubba was wronged...

...no one sent the cavalry.

"Ye who has the gold
makes the rules."

You know, they don't
make these things up
because they're not true.

It's just not surprising at all
to see how people exercise

their ability,
with power and influence,

to exercise control
over somebody that they view

is using their power
and control against them.

It's human nature.

As prosecutors too,

you're always trying
to look at an angle.

How can you get some leverage?

2017, they're looking to get
Donald Trump for anything.

So, what they did was they,
they go to Keith Davidson.

These payments come up
in the press,

with Storm-- Stormy Daniels,
Karen McDougal,

and they see
the name Keith Davidson.
They look and they say,

"We've got a nol-pros
on this guy
from an extortion case."

And the statute
of limitations is ten years.
How does it even run?

We can go back
and leverage this and say,

"Hey, here's your two choices.

You can give us Michael Cohen,
or you can go to Leavenworth."

For extorting Hulk Hogan.

When Keith Davidson
was arrested in Tampa,

when they didn't charge him,
when a period of--

uh, the statute of limitations
was open.

Does it make sense
that someone comes back to him

to say, "You know what?"

And then he gets involved
with you know who

to get where they needed to go

by using pressure that's used

every day in any town in USA
on criminal defendants

so the prosecuting authority

can get a conviction
through cooperation.

Asha, you heard the president.
He is angry.

CNN is reporting the raids
on Michael Cohen's hotel room,
his office.

The Wall Street Journal
is reporting a raid
at one of his homes as well.

Because they're trying
to get their head around
how did defendant Cohen--

how did he get to where he was?

How did they get
his cooperation?

What "leverage" did they have?

This would've been executed
pursuant to a search warrant,

which means that the FBI
obtained permission from a judge

to enter these facilities.

They would have had
to show probable cause

that in these locations
and in specified places,
documents, devices,

they were going
to find evidence of a crime.

It's interesting,
you start pulling on that,
on that string, on that thread,

and it takes you
from the DC area

to the Tampa Bay area,
and there's a big question mark.

We have learned
the FBI seized voice recordings
made by Michael Cohen

of his conversations,
at least some
of his conversation,

with attorney Keith Davidson.

Remember that
four of the five cases

that you just learned about,
well, they involve, of course,

- or at least are connected
to, Donald Trump.
- Yeah.

How did Keith Davidson
become a corroborating witness?

Why is his name redacted
on other court filings?

Why is he walking free?

Why did other people
get charged?

How did that lead
to the former president?

You can always tell
when Michael Cohen is lying.
You know how?

His lips are moving.

A lot of people
in Trump world could not
get their head around the fact

that Michael Cohen, who was
a devout Trump supporter,

someone that Trump leaned on,
someone that was really
a right-hand man,

someone that was able--
to have his back...

...for a long time.

Everybody--
you know, you go online,
you go to these chat rooms

and you go, "Who got to Cohen?

How did they get to Cohen?"
You know, who is "they"?

We don't know who "they" is
other than there is sort of

out in the ether that,
how do you take a loyalist...

how do you flip 'em?

Uh, I think the FBI was probably
looking at Michael Cohen

to find any potential crime

that they could then use
to leverage against him

to get him
to make false testimony
against Donald Trump.

Their ultimate goal
was never Michael Cohen.

They just correctly identified
him as the, as the weak reed,

somebody who could be flipped.

And of course they were right.

And then you go back
to Keith Davidson and you go,

"Well, what was Keith Davidson's
relationship to Cohen

and how long
did they know each other?"

And then you go back
to our little case

in Tampa, Florida,
and you go, "I remember

when Keith Davidson
was arrested.
What was he arrested for?"

"Oh, that was connection
to a videotape
between Hulk Hogan,

the most famous wrestler
in the history of the world."

The non-prosecution
of Keith Davidson

and his other co-conspirators...

...is a great, huge of--
stroke of luck
for the federal government

because they have this
in their back pocket
to use as leverage

against Keith Davidson
to flip on Michael Cohen

l-- later down the line.

The way that they operate
is to just hold that
in their back pocket,

because, maybe, one,
they'll need it-- they'll need
to use it against you,

or as a, as a lever,
but maybe they won't.

And this time, they needed it.

And I, and I think,
on some level,

that the US
Attorney's Office figured

that this guy
who's been involved

in the edges
of legal activity...

"I think that holding this
prosecution in our back pocket

might end up bearing fruit,"
which it did, in spades.

Keith Davidson,
former attorney for two women

who were paid to keep quiet
about their alleged affairs
with Donald Trump,

is cooperating
with federal authorities

who are investigating
Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

Davidson has been asked
by prosecutors

in the Southern District
of New York

to provide
electronic information.

According to his spokesman,
quote, "He has done so

and will continue to co-operate
to the fullest extent possible

under the law."

When lawyers have lawyers,
it's bad.

When lawyers have lawyers
who have spokesmen...

...go ahead
and set yourself on fire.

Uh, I think it's very apparent
from the indictment

that Cohen flipped on Trump,

because the government
had the goods on him

in terms of multiple crimes,

including crimes connected to,

uh, the financing
of his taxicab business

and other tax-related crimes.

And they leveraged them
against Cohen to get him

to flip on Trump
and try to save his own hide.

How did Keith Davidson
become a corroborating witness?

Why is his name redacted
on other court filings?

Why is he walking free?

Why did other people
get charged?

How did that lead
to the former president?

You know, it's dog-eat-dog.

You know,
it's survival of the fittest.

You know, we see it in,
you know, politics today.

You know, people are utilizing
their control and influence

to affect people
that aren't in line

with what they want
to control or influence.

A lot of people are surprised
when I tell them

as I lecture around the country,

and I say
that cops can lie to you.

Some people in public believe,
if you think it's
an undercover cop

and you're in some sort
of drug deal, that if you say,

"Are you an undercover cop?",
the cop has to tell you
that they are.

"Oh, you got me."
Well, that's not true.

And there have been books

and, and, and thousands
of court decisions

that have allowed
law enforcement officers

to be dishonest with
potential criminal defendants

to get them to confess.

There's a limit to that.

But we, as Americans, go,
"Well, we kind of like it

when our streets are safe."

And we'll give them more tools

to make sure that we're safe.

All that's well and good
until someone knocks
on your door

or comes to your house
in Palm Beach with flashbangs
at 3:00 in the morning

with 25 FBI
on the back of their back

to arrest a 70-year-old,
Roger Stone.

Many times,
the person who is the subject

of a criminal investigation...
You say, "How is this--

There's no way
this person would ever flip.

They'd never testify
against anybody else.

They'd, they'd never confess."

But if you look at it,
it's usually all--

It goes, it goes back
to one thing,

and that is pressure.

What kind of pressure?

Relentless questioning.

Pushing a picture of a victim
in front of someone

who's accused of kidnaping
to get them to break down.

Telling them
that their best friend

is in the next room,
singing like a canary,

implicating them,
even when it's not happening.

No one can explain
what it's like to be,
or how they're gonna react

until they're in that seat,
with that bright light.

Until they realize
the full weight
of the US government

or the state government,
or wherever you are,

upon that criminal defendant,
using whatever pressure

that they can get
their hands on...

...whether it's true
or not true.

The whole idea is to get
a criminal conviction,

and we've seen
a whole lot of convictions
connected to this case.

And more importantly,
we've seen pressure applied

to convict
and pressure not to file.

And if you look closely at that,
it comes back

to who's on the inside
and who's on the outside.

But they had
to get Donald Trump.

So, the next step
was Michael Cohen.

S-- Pressure Cohen to flip
on Trump and see
what you could find.

It was a fishing expedition,
but it was a fishing expedition

that was only made possible
by Keith Davidson.

He tipped them as
to the potential value of Cohen,

uh, and then he basically
traded them Cohen

to get off the hook himself.

Now, suddenly
he's no longer on indictment.

Now, suddenly he's a witness
in that case.

How convenient.

He was his own man.
He was like an island.

But nobody liked him
in the system.

There's some people,
uh, the things they've done--

Uh, people have done
some outrageous things in this,

in this market, in, in radio,
but nothing ever came of that.

But the fact
of the matter is the tape

being marketed and sold,
and the FBI is involved,

and this and that,
and conversations recorded,

and nothing happened.

It's like, I, I...
I don't get it.

You don't have a more solid case
than that to prosecute,

but, you know,
it just never happened
because I believe

it was his personality
and who he was.

This week,
Hogan's attorney asked a judge

for more than three years' worth
of Calta's phone records

to prove he was behind the leak.

It coincided with these two--
uh, with Cox and Mr. Calta

being involved in a radio war
with Bubba Clem.

According to the lawsuit,

Calta conspired
with Matt "Spice Boy" Loyd

to leak the sex video

as revenge to rival
shock jock Bubba Clem,

who was Hogan's best friend
at the time.

I, I think that
what happened with Bubba

and with the employees
of Bubba doing the things
that they did...

Um, you know, you hire
and you bring people in
around you

that you feel you can trust.

And that was one of the things
that in the Howard world,

we all trusted each other,
and we believed in each other

and had each other's back.

And for someone to do that
to Bubba, that was close to him,

that was taking a paycheck
from Bubba on a weekly basis,

that's just underhanded.

It's just disgusting.

Whether you agree with it
or disagree with it,

what Bubba and his wife do

inside the confines
of their own home,

to each their own, you know.

But for him to be persecuted

by the public at large
for the attempted sale

and distribution of this tape...

...is unbelievable to me.

When the amount of evidence
that's out there...

And again, you don't have
to take my word for it.

You don't have
to take Bubba's word for it.

It's a matter of fact.
It's not disputed.

This is not whether
the Earth is flat or not.

The tape was stolen. Period.

We knew who the thief was.
That was uncontroverted.

On tape. Videotape.

But now the question became

going back to that gnawing term
"discretion."

Now, it was that string,
that thread that got pulled,

that basically changed
the course

in Terry's life...
and Bubba's life.

Made a lot of people
a lot of money,
including their lawyers.

And went sensational,
as far as trials go.

And Mark Ober used
that discretion
to make the decision

that no one
really could object to

other than vote them
out of office.

Which did happen, by the way.

But in Bubba's case,

Mark Ober's memory was strong,
and he never forgot.

For a long time,
I thought it was Heather,

um, because she would've been
the one that had access to it.

It was, you know, Occam's razor.
It was the most easy,

obvious answer,
is the right answer.

But it wasn't. It was,
it was Spice that stole it.

And, and I remember
Bubba called me to his office

and he was like,
"Yeah, I think...

I think I've tru-- trusted
the wrong person here."

And it was--
and he-- Bubba told me

that he had found out
that it was Spice
that took the tape.

And I was like, "Wow."

I mean, I was stunned.

I knew Spice had
hatred and vitriol in him,

but I didn't...
I also know that,

that Matt "Spice Boy" Loyd
values his freedom

and being out of jail,

and I didn't think
that he would risk

going to jail
just to get revenge on Bubba.

But I was even wrong
on that one.

Like, the, the depths
that he would go to,

I just didn't--
I didn't realize.

Spice Boy
always had this saying,

"The best revenge is revenge."

That's the type of person
he was,

and he never let it go.

Like, if he--
you, you did him wrong,

if he got a chance
six or seven years later,
guess what?

Bubba is the victim. Uh...
not a pure victim, but a victim.

And now the US Attorney
and the state attorney

are getting talked,
you know, talked in their ear,

and they realize
that it was easier for them

to listen to their former buddy,

their former coworker,

on a case that wasn't
gonna change the world,

on a case
that they didn't want to have
the public scrutiny on,

and it just didn't
matter to them.

It was an easy decision
to just press that button,

or in this case,
sign that signature.

No true bill, no information.
Case closed.

Look, I don't think
there's any question whatsoever

that Bubba Clem was targeted,
um, because he's controversial.

And he's controversial
because he tells you
what he really thinks.

And that's not
always politically correct.

So, he's
a very polarizing figure.

He's not beloved by the,
by the extreme left

or those
who are politically correct.

So, yeah, there's no question

in my mind
that he's been targeted.

And like me,
he was treated differently,

like Donald Trump,
like General Flynn.

But what has happened,
though, is the people in power,

both in the radio industry,

both in the criminal
justice world,

have fought to keep him down
because he,

to them, is a thorn in the side.

He threatens their order.

He threatens their
"view of how things should be."

Former President Trump clearly
ruffled a lot of feathers.

For a federal judge
to give you a warrant

for somebody's
attorney's office?

Not, not against you,

but somebody's
attorney's office?

To go look at what would be
privileged material, obviously.

For a federal judge
to grant you that warrant,

you would have a-- have to have
a first-person co-conspirator

as a cooperating witness.
And that's what they had.

And that's why he was
so willing to give that up.

Keith Davidson's not a dumb man.
He's not gonna give the,

the feds nothing
without leverage
and without getting a deal.

And he got both.
They leveraged him
into giving them Cohen.

And he got a deal for doing it,
which is a complete walk.

And he kept his bar--
his law license.

But when you're not
part of that inner circle

that came up like that,
you make enemies.

Many have said,

"Look at where we are
right now in 2024,

with the number
of criminal prosecutions

against a former president."

How does that end?

We've got a verdict, Ari Melber.
- Count 33 and 34.

Guilty. Uh, that is
Donald J. Trump, defendant,

in New York v. Donald Trump...

Found guilty
on all 34 felony counts.

Uh, that is the verdict here
in this case.

Bubba had run-ins.
And, you know,
this is still America.

You still have
freedom of speech,

as far as opinions
and things of that nature.

And he's had run-ins
with state attorneys...

...with other local politicians
and things of that nature.

And he's not one to hold back...

...when exposing something
that he thinks is wrong

and has facts to back it up.

He just lets loose.
He's unfiltered.

That's what he is.
He's totally unfiltered.

And that goes against the tide
in politics locally here.

They just-- You know, when
you get caught with the truth,

the truth is the truth.
You can't hide from it.

What I've learned is...

...uh,
you can't fight City Hall.

And don't go
against the government,

and don't go
against huge corporations
because they will crush you.

It's possible
that what happened is

some or all of the defendants
decided to cooperate
with the government,

to assist them with
the prosecution of other people,

to provide information
that's useful
to the government investigators

as a way to earn leniency.

Now, leniency
as a result of cooperation

can reduce
in a reduced sentence.

And in some cases, it can,

it can mean that you never
are charged in the first place.

You can do things that are
criminal-- criminally wrong.

You can do things
that are ethically wrong.

You can do things
that are morally wrong.

I believe
that what happened here,

it, it was wrong
on all three counts.

I've always been
brought up to believe

that a friend is a friend.

Loyalty is loyalty.

And, uh, through thick and thin,
not in good times.

And then you take off in bad.

And I've been friends
with him for over 20 years

and would never change that.

Now, other people
that are competing with him

may not like that, but...
I don't give a damn.

I think, when it's all
said and done

and you look back at his career
20 or 30 years from now,

you'd go,
"Man, that guy was right.

Hard to believe."

I wish I would have
listened more intently.

People will say that
about Bubba the Love Sponge.

In the 45 years that
I've been in American politics,

I've never seen anything
quite like the politicization

and weaponization of the entire
criminal justice system

and using it to target
your political enemies.

So, it's a two-tiered
justice system,

uh, and people
are treated differently

because of their politics.

Unfortunately, today it's part
of the political process.

It shouldn't be, but it is.

Anybody that goes
against this power structure,

and especially somebody
like Bubba the Love Sponge,

who is pointing out specific
cases with specific people,

of course they're gonna get--
they'd do anything they can
to get him off the air.

They'd need
to get him off the air.

You're talking about
serious business now.

You're talking about people
that have a lot at stake.

And if you think for one minute
that it has to do

with goofiness,
and shock jocks, and sex tapes,

well, that's what they need
the public to think it's about,

because the public
can sink their teeth into that.

But when you start
getting down into the specifics
of corruption,

which Bubba did all the time--

It wasn't a one-off.
He did it all the time.

They're gonna get you
off the air
and they're gonna do anything

to get you off the air
and shut you up.

And that's what's
happened to Bubba,

and that's what's
happened to others,

uh, since then, because that has
become their formula.

Their formula is to shut you up.

There's been a transformation,
uh, with news,
uh as far as ethics,

but I think it goes even further
into the morals of the people

involved with spreading
the shit that's going on.

It's not the same.

Uh, the ethics have been
tossed out of the window.

Uh, the facts have been
tossed out of the window.

Anybody can pop up on,
on some podcast or this or that

and say something,
and then all of a sudden

the media is running with it
like it's factual,

like it's true.

We live in a society now where--
It's just first.

Who cares? Get it out there.

We don't care who it hurts.
We don't care who we destroy.

We don't care if it's true.
Just say it. Sell it.

What happens when more
than 100 intellectuals

make a bid to defend free speech
in the face of cancel culture?

They get canceled, of course,
proving the existence

of exactly the sentiments about
which they were complaining.

But that's not
what Rogan was taking.

But CNN didn't care,
and lied about it

and said Rogan
was taking horse pills.

- Just a lie.
- I don't think anyone is thick.

But don't you think
that a lie like that

is dangerous on a news network?

When you know
that they know they're lying?

The other thing you notice
when you take a little time off

is how unbelievably stupid

most of the debates
you see on television are.

Notably, Tucker Carlson
did not mention Fox News,

nor the reason
for his departure.

Everything in this day and age
is politically motivated.

Whatever side you're on.
What the hell's going on here?

You should all be known
for factual information,

the best that you can get,
and bring it to the public

to digest and let them
make their decision.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg
is pointing fingers

at the Biden administration
over Covid-19.

The head of Facebook
and Instagram's parent company,
Meta,

says in 2021, he was pressured

to censor social media content
about the pandemic.

If I could wave a wand,
how about an honest media,

one that wasn't full
of jackals with an agenda?

Washington Post,
New York Times,
Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.

The, the-- My friend
Sean Hannity is right.

Journalism today is dead. Dead.

Uh, and when you have
one-party government,

uh, or you have a media
that is completely dominated,

owned and controlled
with people, with one narrative,
one point of view,

putting aside whether that's
the truth or not, you have
a very dangerous situation.

Censorship is the single
most dangerous problem
in the country.

The establishment hates us

because we're not afraid
to call people out

that are doing bad things,

or that are part
of the good old boy network.

I came in here
like a wrecking ball.

I, I, I describe myself
as the People's Hammer.

Say it like it is. Our mouths--

I guess it'd be our mouths
get us in trouble.

I, I guess there was
a point in time in journalism

when it was really
a source to be trusted.

Honorable people
were doing an honorable job

to get the information
and facts to people.

Uh, if they did make a mistake,

very rarely, but if they did,

they'd retract and say,
"Oh, we made a mistake,

but this is..." Bah, bah,
bah, bah, bah, bah, bah.

You see
less and less of that now.

What's changed today is that...

...everybody's their own
media distribution company.

There's so much information
that's out there,

and all of that information
is being delivered

in a way to monetize the person

that's the origination
of the distribution.

Unless you can verify--
and I always had a rule of thumb
when I was reporting

on something very sensitive,

uh, to have two, if not three,
sources to confirm

that this is what's happening
and these are
the people involved.

If I didn't have that,
I never took it to air.

In order to separate themselves

from the other million
distribution channels out there,

people have gotten
more and more aggressive

with what they say,

how they say it,
how they spin it...

...in order to get attention.

Because in order to get paid,
you have to get attention.

And in order to get attention,

you've had to get
more and more edgy.

Look...
we're Americans.

Everybody's got
a different opinion.

You belong to a certain party.

You have views,
and morals, and ethics

about certain things.
Bah, bah, bah.

But discussion,
intelligent discussion,

respectful discussion
is where you start from.

One network is known for this,
another one is known for this,

another one is known for this.
What the hell is going on here?

You should all be known
for factual information,

the best that you can get,
and bring it to the public

to digest and let them
make their decision.

But that's not happening.

Why they weren't charged,
I think, also ends up

having a lot to do
with the Cox case being settled.

You know, that settlement
stopped that trial

and additional discovery
and other things

from becoming public record
that nipped it in the bud.

You know, I was disappointed
that, that Hogan and Cox settled

because that was truly going
to tell all the fuckery involved

in this particular sex tape.

Based on the fact that Gawker,

you know,
lost an award for 115 million,

you know, it's undisclosed.
Nobody knows what
the Cox settlement was for,

but I'm sure
it had to be significant.

But that settlement being done
also ended up protecting,

you know, Mike Calta
and the other people involved

because that case got squashed,
it got put to bed.

The media forgot about it.
You know,

nobody's gonna talk
about what might have happened,

how would this have gone
if it had gone to trial.

Nobody does that.
It settles. It's over.

It gets pushed
to the bottom of the pile.
It's no longer news.

But that got settled one day
before Mike Calta's deposition.

What does that tell you?

Originally, they were hopeful

that it would get Bubba
terminated immediately.

I think they were
disappointed in that.

That took a little bit of time.

It did eventually happen,

but it didn't
happen immediately.

I don't think they considered
all of the facts

relative to what the laws were

and how they would affect
the people involved,

including Bubba.

I don't think they...

...really took into account

the success that Bubba had
as a broadcaster,

and how he continued
to maintain his listenership

and his number one ratings
throughout this entire process.

What Tony Burton miscalculated
was the loft factor,

lack of fuckin' talent.

Mike Calta can't,
can't ever be me.

Everything that Mike Calta would
want to do in radio I've done.

And he thought,
by taking my show,

my one local Tampa show,

that would let him
achieve those, those heights
of what I've done.

Today, again,
in looking in hindsight,

that they continued to work

to try to remove 'em
as soon as possible,

but the plan was, if they
weren't able to remove him then,

that they clearly weren't
gonna renew the contract

and were gonna remove him
at the end of the renewal.

Which is what's
ended up happening.

Whether you like him, hate him,
love him, bah, bah, bah,

the one thing that I can sit
here and tell you,

after the 30 years
that I've known him,

he does not bite
his fuckin' tongue.

He speaks truth
that is hurtful to some people,

but it's still truth.

Bubba has not lost his voice
at all in the industry.

I think that he is reinventing
himself with, uh, new platforms

like with Twitch,
or Facebook Live, or Twitter,

or, you know,
these social media channels.

Uh, there's more
opportunity out there
than there's ever been before,

and it's harnessing
that opportunity,

Bubba's learning,
and, uh, without having
to, uh, succumb to

to or to compromise,
uh, his abilities
with, uh, management,

like he did in the past
with terrestrial radio.

So, I think you'll see Bubba
in the next year or two,

you know, start
to really come into his own.

Bubba's career, over time,
has changed dramatically,

but so has the landscape
of broadcast and media.

You know, today
we're in a digital age.

So, when Bubba first started,
and when I first started

repping him in the 1990s,

you know, there really
wasn't smartphones,

and, you know, the internet
wasn't used for social media

and, you know,
terrestrial radio, at the time,

was a huge medium
for how people got information.

And so now I may not be
on that sexy FM station
in Tampa, Florida,

but, you know, I have
250 million views digitally.

I don't know
if I would have made

that leap of faith in 2017
when I met with Tom Bean

and he's like, "Hey, there's
this thing called Twitch,

and we need to put
your show on it." I'm like,

"What the fuck are you
talking about, Tom Bean?"

He's like, "Just trust me.
I got cameras coming
on in the studio."

Any business is based
on how much, you know,

revenue it creates
and what it puts, you know,
to the bottom-line profit.

And radio stations
are well behind the heyday

of their revenue heights

and, you know, profit.

So, it's changed a great deal,

which has also changed
the way that

radio DJs broadcast.

What they're looking for
from radio DJs,

what they're willing
to pay radio DJs,

what being a radio DJ is.

That's where all
these terrestrial radio guys

need to be going,
but they're not.

They think
that terrestrial radio
is gonna be there forever.

And quite frankly, it's not.

It's continuing to dwindle
not only in size,

but what they're
paying people too.

Everybody in the general public
seems to think

that Bubba's the person
that released this tape,

and that he released this tape
for his own benefit.

You know,
when people talk about,

"Well, he did it
to benefit, you know...

For, you know,
his personal benefit."

At the peak of his career,
Bubba was making

$7 million a year.

How is he gonna ever make
enough money from the sale

of an excerpt of one video

of Hulk Hogan fucking his wife

that's gonna replace that?

When you have such a big name
like Bubba the Love Sponge,

you know, you, you've been
all over the place.

You're on Howard's, uh, channel.

You need to find a, a circle
of friends that you can trust.

You want a bunch
of trusting people

because there's a lot
of sensitive information

that goes on behind the scenes.

And, and, and I think

somebody that he really,
really trusts,

like Matt Loyd,
to be able to do what he did,

I think Bubba started
second guessing himself.

"Maybe, maybe I'm not
a good, uh, a good person

to be able to find talent
or people I can trust.

I thought I had that."

And, and I think that's

one of the qualities
that he looks for.

But he also looks for...
raw clay,

people that have potential.
Because Bubba is

not only a fan of radio,
he's an artist of radio.

Like, a lot of people
just do radio.

He is an artist.
Like, just down to the--

Every single little detail.

Uh, running a tight board
and stuff like that.

Oh, I, I miss
my old lifestyle a lot.

I mean, I was living
in a 6500-square-foot mansion.

I... you know-- Fuck.

I may was making
a lot of money.
I had an airplane.

I mean,
you know, all the cool shit
that rich people have.

You know, I probably
wasn't being responsible,

and saving, and investing,

and buying properties
and shit like that,

but, boy, I was having fun,
you know.

And I'm having fun now. I just--

I have fun with an F-150.

Today, you know, my role
with Bubba is, is probably,

you, you know,
more of a mentoring role.

You know,
continuing to help him,

you know,
look at things differently,

understand how things work,

how to...

...communicate with people,

how to do the right things.

To think about,
you know, how his actions
affect other people.

You know,
it's only taken me 30 years,

but he's actually
paying attention

to some of those things now,
which is refreshing.

That sex tape
has been a pain in my ass,

but it's caused me to grind.

It's caused me to appreciate

the, the smaller things in life.

Um, I don't make
as much money as I used to,

but I'm happier
than I ever, ever have been.

Um, and it's caused me to have
to reinvent myself digitally.

When someone
comes in and has...

...the attention of the people,

the hearts of the people...

...the, the admiration

for things that you've been able
to expose, you go to Bubba.

He, he has a long history
of being the voice
of the people,

exposing wrongs.

But he broke a lot of eggs.

He keeps you on your toes.
It's not the same.

Every show is different.

And I think that's the beauty,

that's his strength
in broadcasting.

You'll never get bored.
Never get bored.

And I'm excited to see him
be ahead of the curve.

When terrestrial radio
is dying, you know,

he has opened up
new doors for even new--

Even other radio professionals,

you know, are following him
once again.

You know, he has this innate
ability to reinvent himself.

He struck a nerve.

And, and, and
if you talk to people

in and around the community,

he was a pariah on one end,

but to the other side,
he was a hero.

You know,
I feel like the justice system
really let me down.

You asked me earlier if I had
learned anything from this.

I sure did.
Because if you piss off
the wrong people

or the people of power,

your personal rights
don't mean shit.

And if you don't think
it can happen to you,

fuck around and find out.

You're just a stupid-ass jobber.

Trust me,
it can happen to anybody.

It doesn't matter who you are.

From Donald Trump to Bubba Clem.

He is finally-- you know,
he's gone back to the basics.

He understands
the importance of family.

He has
a wonderful support system.

Um, he, he, has
some wonderful friends.

And, you know,
the people, in the end,
it's not who wants--

Everyone wants to ride with you
when you have a private jet,

but who wants to ride with you
when you're taking the bus?

He finally has that group
of people, and he's soaring.

I mean, he's,
he's doing phenomenal.

And it's, it's,
it's not a surprise.

With, with his talent
and tenacity,

I'm really excited
for this next chapter.

I now know
what the consequences

of taking people of power out.

And you know what?
I'm gonna keep
right on doing it,

because that's
who the fuck I am.

And, you know,
the bottom line is,

it's all because I have
the best, most loyal fans

of any radio personality ever.

They're affectionately called
the Bubba Army.

The Bubba Army strong,
the Bubba Army proud,

the Bubba Army,
they're not going anywhere.

It's okay. You can't kill me.

You tried to fucking kill me,
but you didn't.

I'm like the cockroach of radio.

I ain't going nowhere.

♪ Soul swingin', yeah ♪

♪ Soul swingin' ♪

♪ Soul swingin', yeah ♪

♪ Soul swingin' ♪

♪ Soul swingin', yeah ♪

♪ Soul swingin' ♪

♪ Soul swingin', yeah ♪

♪ Soul swingin' ♪

Terry, we're on the air.
- What?

I-- I'm just saying
we're on the air right now.

Yeah, we're not
in a huddle making the plans.

- Yeah.
- Oh. Okay. Well, fuck--

When did Brent become
the fucking quarterback?

When did Brent become
the fucking quarterback?

Well,
I'm the offensive coordinator.
I'm trying to tell you.

You guys have made him
bad for the cause.

All you have to do
is play my clips and then--

And if, if, if anything
that I said, that's real,

it's, it's completely
invalidated

because theFear Factor guy
just said it.

I'm bad, I'm bad for the cause.

You let Sluggo feel your boobs

and see how the,
the, the new gummy--

Not that he's felt
a lot of boobs. I don't know.

Yes. But, I mean,
you know, the--

on how the, the, the gummy
texture is a problem.

Are you medically trained?
Can I, can I

- put this out there as,
like, a breast exam?
- Of course.

But you're right.

There's hate in this country.
It's at an all-time level,

with the exception
of the Civil War.

Well, you know, and, Bill,
I've been a victim

of people wanting
to destroy my career.

You have-- There-- There's
a thing in the news today.

But she, you know,
she's, like, got this

big thing, that she'd love
to do Playboy

just because, you know,
whatever. Because it's like

- a, you know, almost a--
- But it's kind of fun,
you know.

It's an icon-type deal.
And I'm like-- I'm--

I have a problem
with my wife doing Playboy.

- Why?
- You're supposed

- to be on my team, asshole.
- No, I'm just asking.

I, I understand
your pain on that one.

Yeah.

Bubba is a real man.

He told everyone here off.

And, uh...

- That's right.
Took the punishment.
- And you know what?

Benji, I'm, I'm accepting
my punishment, am I not?

I'm trying to pick up
the pieces. You know,
I mean, today, I--

You're on, you're on thin ice.
Howard hates you, Benji.

Oh, like,
Jay-Z and those guys,

those are new money.
You're, like, mid-level,

but, like, uh, you know,
midlife crisis money.

And then Jerry
would be old-school money.

Yeah, Jerry-- I mean,
Jerry busted his ass to get

what he got, man.
He was, he was always
getting...

♪ Soul swingin', yeah ♪

- ♪ Soul swingin'♪
- ♪ Whoo! ♪

♪ Soul swingin', yeah ♪