DJs Behaving Badly

After being on the receiving end of the radio shock jock known as Bubba The Love Sponge’s shock antics one too many times, Florida DJ Todd "MJ" Schnitt of the "MJ Morning Show" and his wife filed a defamation and false light lawsuit against Bubba March 17th.

Cox Radio Inc., which broadcasts Bubba’s morning show, and Bubba Radio Network Inc. were also named in the lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Civil Court, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

The paper reported that Bubba has called Schnitt a "lying piece of crap," a "snitch" and a "real modern day stool pigeon" in addition to calling Schnitt’s wife, Michelle, a "whore" and accusing the DJ of stealing money from Clear Channel.

Schnitt’s attorney, C. Phillip Campbell Jr., said in the court filing that Bubba’s statements about his clients are false.

Bubba says it’s all in good fun and compared his comments about Schnitt and his wife to a "Saturday Night Live" or "MADtv" parody.

"Everything I’ve said about MJ is my opinion, and everything is outlandish," Bubba said, according to the St. Petersburg Times. "He’s not a midget, and obviously he’s not a snitch."

The lawsuit claims Bubba’s name-calling is revenge for Schnitt and his wife allegedly being involved in Bubba’s prosecution for broadcasting the castration and slaughter of a pig on his show.

In 2002 Bubba went to trial on an animal cruelty charge but a jury acquitted him.

Schnitt was "one of the top four or five people behind our arrest and the trial of the hog deal," Bubba told his listeners, according to the suit.

The feud between the two DJs started back in 2000 when Bubba’s morning show aired on Clear Channel sister station WXTB-FM 97.9. After Bubba reported on air that a 500-pound man getting help from Schnitt’s show to get weight-reduction surgery had once been arrested for a sexual offense, Schnitt said that Bubba violated a Clear Channel policy not to undermine, bash or attack a sister station.

Over in San Diego, DJs at competing radio stations aren’t exactly holding hands and singing "Kumbaya."

According to the San Diego Reader, after radio station KSON-FM 97.3 sponsored an appearance by country artist Blake Shelton and its competing station U.S. 95.7 FM was left with no connection to the show, 95.7 DJ Mike O’Brian decided to take matters into his own hands.

The day before the show, O’Brian told his listeners, "Our thoughts are going out to Blake Shelton, who I guess has tonsillitis and has had to cancel a couple shows. Hope you feel better, Blake."

Whether or not O’Brian and U.S. 95.7 were trying to sabotage the concert, KSON promotions director Jeremy Pritchard told the Reader that the competing station showed up to the Shelton concert with 15 of their promotions people, two vans, a truck and two inflatables.

"It’s the same bush-league stuff they’ve been doing for years."

KSON GM Darrell Goodin calls U.S. 95.7’s antics "guerrilla warfare," explaining that the radio station’s promo teams have torn down signs and had verbal confrontations with KSON promo teams.

Goodin said that this behavior has "forced" KSON to avoid any connection with summer shows at Coors Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, Calif.

"All we asked is that all those shows would be neutral (i.e. neither station could have banners, stickers or promo people at the venue) so that our listeners don’t have to see this behavior," Goodin told the Reader.