In and out of wrestling, radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem (born Todd Clem) is known for a lot of things. In wrestling, he was Hulk Hogan’s buddy who had a brief TNA run that ended after a weird backstage feud with Awesome Kong, who punched him after he made derogatory comments about Haitian earthquake victims. Hogan cut ties with him after videos of him having sex with Bubba’s then-wife got out. In radio, there was a whole lot more, but most recently, his lawyers in a defamation case filed by another radio personality were convicted of arranging for opposing counsel to be arrested on fraudulent drunk driving charges.
Now? Having admitted last week to ratings tampering (which he had implied on the air rival Todd “M.J.” Shmitt had done), he’s being sued. Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron), part of the same Nielsen that handles TV ratings, are arguing that, among other things, Bubba hurt their reputation and interfered in their contract with his station.
The complaint outlines the situation as follows:
A mutual friend of Bubba and a listener who was added to the Nielsen sample arranged a deal to manipulate ratings in the Tampa area.  Bubba paid the guy $300 per month (with bonuses of up to $400 monthly if certain goals were met) to carefully manipulate the ratings, giving instructions to avoid detection while also not listening to key rivals. Since the listener’s home got four of Nielsen’s “Personal People Meter” listening devices, Bubba even went as far as buying the listener additional radios as gifts via his own Amazon account.
Bubba upped the pressure when his ratings went down, and the listener eventually went to Nielsen, telling them everything. “Everything” included that Bubba told him he had done the same thing with at least one other listener…who wasn’t careful and was caught by Nielsen, who verified that a listener fitting the description had been kicked out.
