Tribune
Broadcasting is shooting a pilot this month featuring radio deejay Bubba the
Love Sponge for a potential late-night or daytime play in fall 2011, said Sean
Compton, Tribune Broadcasting's president of programming.
Bubba, who was born Todd Alan Clem, currently hosts a radio show on Howard
Stern's channel on Sirius satellite radio. The show also is syndicated on Cox
and Beasley radio stations.
Bubba the Love Sponge has gotten in trouble
throughout his career for airing scandalous content. In 2004, Clear Channel Radio
dropped Bubba the Love Sponge from its line-up after the FCC threatened to fine
the company $755,000 for airing graphic conversations about sex and drugs on
stations in five Florida cities. Most of Tribune's current top management,
including CEO Randy Michaels and Compton, came to the company from Clear
Channel.
Tribunealso is shooting several episodes of a talk show featuring another deejay, BillCunningham, over the weekend of June 12-13. That show will get a test run on
Tribune stations this summer for a potential fall 2010 group launch. If all
goes well, Tribune would like to take the Cunningham show into national
syndication in fall 2011.
Tribune's
daytime programming currently consists of NBC Universal's trio of talkers: Maury,
Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos, all of which Tribune has renewed
through 2012. All three shows air in double-runs, giving Tribune opportunity to
try other programming in those slots. Compton has said that he doesn't like
having all of Tribune's daytime programming "in one basket" and would like to
introduce some new Tribune-produced shows into the mix.
