Those are the words of Bubba The Love Sponge. Bubba and Shannon Burke held a joint press conference Monday to unveil JVC’s new Florida Man format in Orlando. Bubba will host mornings and Burke, who last worked in Atlanta, is hosting afternoons. Bubba said, “We’re so hated we can’t get any more hated.”
The Orlando Sentinel covered the press conference where Burke admitted not a lot of companies would hire him and Bubba. He said the station will be real, spoken word, just real talk radio. “The format is dangerous. You either fluff it up and make it nice or you strangle it down till you don’t talk about certain topics because we don’t want to be on the news. It’s not illegal to be politically incorrect yet. I’ve always said at some point the First Amendment will go away when offending someone becomes a crime.”
Bubba added, “We’re in the business to offend some people.” And that’s something he’s done a lot of over his career, including many inside the industry. By now everyone knows about Bubba’s ratings tampering fight with Nielsen, which he lost, draining a lot of his bank account in attorney’s fees along the way.
Burke has had issues of his own having been fired from Real Radio 104.1 in Orlando years ago. He also spent a few months in jail after shooting his wife’s dog. Burke most recently worked for Cumulus’ WYAY-FM in Atlanta, hosting a talk show, before Cumulus sold the station to EMF. He also worked for 102.5 The Bone in Tampa and was part of the Bubba’s show years ago. He started his radio career in Austin.
Bubba said of Burke, “He’s the star of the station. They spent all their money on Shannon, then they pretty much got me for nothing.”
Read the entire Orlando Sentinel article HERE.
Listen to the station HERE.
