A few weeks removed from being sued by ratings giant Nielsen Audio for tampering with their sample, there’s more bad news for Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. The “shock jock”/former TNA interviewer/former best friend of Hulk Hogan may have paid more people to strategically listen to his show than previously thought.
The Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Nielsen Audio released a statement declaring that for the second month in a row, they are not listing ratings for WBRN-FM in Tampa Bay. The key is that the tampering that led to the lawsuit was completely eliminated by the end of September, so it looks like Nielsen found evidence of additional tampering by Clem. In text messages with the listener he paid who then went to Nielsen, he referenced having at least one past similar relationship.
Beasley Media Group (parent company of WBRN) President Bruce Beasley issued this statement:
We cooperated fully with Nielsen to ensure the accuracy of their past and forthcoming ratings. Therefore, we were blind-sided and disappointed to learn that Nielsen Audio will exclude WBRN-FM from the October 2015 ratings. The fallout from this dispute may inflict collateral damage on Beasley, which, indisputably, has done nothing wrong.
