Viacom, Bright House and Time Warner Cable's New Year present: No more MTV, Nickelodeon or 19 other channels

Yet another big media story has broken while I am on vacation: This time, it's the dispute between Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Viacom over retransmission fees, which threatens to see nearly two dozen cable channels yanked from the cable company's systems by 12:01 a.m.t omorrow, including MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, CMT, TV Land and Noggin.

If you've turned on a Viacom cable channel today, you've seen the odd "crawl" at the bottom of the screen urging viewers to call Time Warner and Bright House and complain about the impasse; ads from Viacom showing popular cartoon characters such as Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants crying also ran in several newspapers, including the Tampa Tribune.

The cable companies say Viacom should keep the channels on while negotiating an increase in fees; Viacom says no way. The increases Viacom wants are reportedly between 22 and 26 percent per channel.

According to the Associated Press, the channels that would be affected are: Comedy Central, CMT: Pure Country, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic and VH1 Soul.

Viacom, like many big media companies, has struggled to deal with huge debts in a crumbling economy. So it's no surprise that the corporation is playing hardball to try raising its retransmission fees -- the amounts paid to cable channels by cable companies for the rights to retransmit their content (because its channels are among the most popular, Forbes reported Viacom earns $300-million annually in such fees).

These payments have a been a source of ire in the media business for a while. Cable companies blame them for their ever-increasing subscription fees. And broadcast stations and networks wonder why they don't get similar payments for the way cable channels rebroadcast their content. Cable companies might respond that they are required to carry broadcast stations by the government; making them also pay for the channels might seem unfair.

This entire mess is a result of the odd way in which our cable and broadcast TV systems have evolved. As the crumbling economy and changing technology shift the media landscape, expect more food fights like this one to break out.

Right now, given that these cable channels make some of their revenue from advertising it would seem that a scenario where programming gets yanked will hurt both sides. So the question is: Which side is worried it will get hurt worse? And can this situation get pulled back from the brink by midnight?

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Biggest regret in 2008: Not publishing this Wendy and Lisa interview

For a serious Prince fan like me, it was the perfect interview.

I had secured some talk time with Lisa Coleman, the keyboard-playing half of the songwriting and performing duo Wendy and Lisa -- two proteges of the Purple Genius himself.

I was such a fan that back in college, when I was playing drums in a band that had a record deal with Motown, I wrote them a letter offering to be their drummer -- like a kid asking for Santa Claus to swing by his house for milk and cookies (I got back a publicity photo with a hastily scribbled signature).

I got Stuck in the '80s guru Steve Spears to let me conduct the interview in the podcast studio, so we had an excellent recording of it and it went amazingly well. Turns out, she and partner Wendy Melvoin, who joined the conversation from afar, washing dishes or something in the background, had done some studio work with a friend who was the guitarist in that Motown band I talked about, and Coleman talked candidly about everything from the breakup of her and Melvoin's 20-year romantic relationship to their work scoring TV shows such as Heroes and Crossing Jordan (the one question she wouldn't answer: Who's crazier -- Prince or Me'shell Ndege Ocello?)

But I never found a good time to pull together a story from the interview, and eventually the material seemed to get too old to publish. But I've always regretted not getting it out to the public in some form, so I'm publishing it here, during a week when I'm off work and trying not to do too much.

Here's the edited transcript. Hope it's as much fun to read as it was to create:

Eric: Of course, I noticed when I started watching Heroes 'cause I’m the TV critic here, I saw that you guys were scoring it and I think, for some people who haven’t really been paying attention, to them it may seem like you went straight from Prince to scoring TV shows. So could you talk a little bit about how you got involved with scoring TV and particularly how you got involved with scoring Heroes?

Lisa: Okay, sure. It actually, after Prince and the Revolution broke up, we didn’t get into scoring for a while, although with Prince we did, you know, make a couple of films … worked on a couple of films, one of them being Purple Rain, which we actually wanted to score at that time because I … this is Lisa speaking  …. I used to do string arrangements for our band – you know, cellos and violins and things, so I was kind of into that already, but the film company felt more comfortable having, you know, hiring a composer. There is a little bit of score in Purple Rain. I’m sure people don’t even really realize that.
E: Yeah. That would have sounded cool if you guys had done it.
L: Yeah, it would have been fun. They actually did use one of my string pieces at the very end of the film when Prince is running after Apollonia or something, and there’s some kind of crazy string thing that’s going on behind it. But anyway, after that we played with lots of different artists. We worked with Seal, we worked with K.D. Lang, I mean, a whole kind of array of different people, and Neil Finn, who’s a great songwriter. He lives in New Zealand and we traveled all over the world with him and did a bunch of things. So when we were working with Seal, I think it was on … we did two or three of his first … the first three, I guess, of his albums. We were working with Trevor Horn on those, and Trevor was approached by Michelle Pfeiffer for a song for Dangerous Minds, and he was just learning and hearing our first album, the first Wendy and Lisa album, and he liked a song on it called This Is the Life. So he presented that to Michelle Pfeiffer, who really liked it. So, anyway, to make a long story short, we ended up scoring that film because they didn’t like the score that they were getting from another composer and they thought, given our background with Prince, it might be better suited for the film 'cause it was, you know, about gangs and kind of in the urban plight film.

E: Yeah, you know that black vibe...

L: Yeah, you know, being that we’re two black chicks (laughter), we could really get that together. It’s really funny. I mean, it’s great, you know, and we can totally do that and it is part of who we are. It’s just funny. I mean, people have literally met us sometimes and we walk in and they see these two white chicks walking in, and they’re like, oh, we thought you were black (laughs). Like, oh, well, we are.
E: Didn’t they look at MTV at all in the ‘80s? I mean …
L: Oh, my God (laughs). Well, you know, speaking of MTV, we weren’t even allowed on MTV at first. It was all like, you know, white hair bands.
E: Oh, yeah, I remember that.
L: So anyway, that was our foray into film scoring and I guess from there we just, you know, kind of dabbled, did a few films … again, like Soul Food and, you know, black films (laughter). You know, it’s funny that we’re doing Heroes now because it’s so different, you know. I mean, musically it’s something completely other … I think it kind of matches the subject matter of the show, which is very supernatural and, you know, world music meets outer world music.

E: So, I just wrote a piece about how there are no theme songs on TV anymore, and so scoring Heroes, for example, I mean, you have this really recognizable snippet of music that plays when the show starts, but it’s not really a theme. I mean, does that bum you out at all that you don’t get to actually write a theme song, like The Brady Bunch or something like that?
L: Yeah, it does, and it was funny when they asked for a theme at one point because, you know, when we did the pilot there was this whole opening … the first act was almost entirely scored and so we had to write kind of several themes to present the show, you know. We were introducing Peter, who was standing on the edge of a roof and you didn’t know if he was committing suicide or … we didn’t know what was going on – what is this show about – so that was kind of cool in a way because, you know, we could … we had a lot of opportunities musically. I’ll just put it that way. So then, you know, a few shows in, they decided, okay, well, there has to be like a title card where we, you know, where every week they do a thing and then they show Heroes, blah-blah-blah. And when they asked for the theme, we were like oh, okay, great, we can do a theme. How long do you think it should be? And they said, 10 seconds. (laughter)...So that is really a challenge. Talk about a challenge 'cause it’s like, okay, how do we make 10 seconds be really Impacting and memorable and …
E: So how did you?
L: Well, we actually took a piece of the opening we had done on the pilot that we thought was really striking. And there was this big chord, and the voice. There’s this singer … this singer Shankar that we worked with. You probably know that.
E: Yeah, yeah. I’m a huge Peter Gabriel fan too, so …
L: Yeah, exactly. So he’s that guy, that Peter Gabriel guy. He’s amazing and we knew that if we just used his voice … because we had decided … by that point it was very easy to decide that his voice was gonna be a huge part of the signature of the entire show. And whenever we use his voice, it signifies the power, this otherworldly, supernatural thing that is happening to these people. All these people are discovering these powers that they have. And it’s most always a surprise to them and they’ll do something and then they’re just like, oh, my God, what was that? And that’s when you hear Shankar’s voice. It’s always … because we thought that that was the best way to represent all of mankind, in a way, because it was a human voice, you know? There was a kind of a search in the beginning to decide how do we score this show because there are characters from all over the world. We’ve got, you know, a Japanese guy, an Indian guy, you know, a girl from Texas, you know, just all these different elements. What’s gonna tie them all together? And, you know, pretty obvious – the human voice does that 'cause we’re all human. So we found this guy Shankar, who happened to be working in the very same building downstairs with a friend of ours, and we just would see each other in the hall and then … I think our engineer mentioned, why don’t you ask Shankar? Like, oh, my God, that’s it. Eureka!

E: So I do have to ask, you know, the obligatory Prince questions, so …
L: Okay, no problem.
E: But there seems to be like a love-hate thing with a lot of people who worked with him for a long time.
L: Yeah.
E: Is that true for you guys, too?
L: No. I mean (laughs) … no, I just hate him. (laughter)
E: Well, I appreciate your candor.
L: I can only say that because …
E: I now have a lead to my story.
L: No, we totally love him. We both love him so much it’s like … it’s stupid. And he is not an easy boy to love sometimes. He is crazy, yes. I’m sorry … you can quote me. I’ve said crazy. And we’ve been through so much together with him and we still communicate, we still come back together all the time. And, you know, I guess you could say it has gone through periods of love-hate but I think we’re always gonna love each other. I mean, we really did go through a lot together. We spent … (Wendy says something out of earshot) I need to really have patience for the man. I mean, and it’s true. He always knows he can always get us … ah, damn it, you know. He’ll just, like, you know …
E: Right.
L: Even to this day, he sends tracks. Like, nowadays, he can like e-mail a track, a pro-tools file or something like that and “will you put the guitar part on it?” (laughter) “Okay.” “Are you gonna pay me?” (laughter) Like, no.
E: And if I write something that becomes like a hook, will I get publishing?
L: No. (laughter) No, but we get to talk about you in interviews, nanna, nanna, nan-na.
E: Yeah, so the confidentiality agreements have expired.
L: Oh, man, I never honored that thing anyway.
E: So, now, you guys, your plot in Purple Rain, I mean, for a lot of people that’s a real touchstone. You know, people remember that from the movie, and so was that art imitating life or did life wind up imitating art later, when you guys eventually left?
L: That’s a good question. I would say that both actually are true because … I mean, now, that all these years have gone by, it seems like it’s happened repeatedly, so it seems even more true (laughter). Like, back then, it had only been five years or something like that, so it was like only kinda true. And he actually, you know … he actually really did count on Wendy and I for a lot of stuff, and he didn’t really make that a secret, and he wanted us to be his spokespeople, especially Wendy. He really counted on her for all the interviews and things like that because she was very charismatic and energetic and young and a little firecracker, and he really loved her to go out there. It was like, you go, you go talk, you go do, you go accept the awards, you know, stuff like that.
E: Right. She accepted the Grammy, right?
L: Yeah.
E: His first Grammy.
L: Yeah, so, you know, so that was kinda nice and he always was really gracious and everything, so I don’t know … and we were just so young, you know. Now it’s just kind of like I wish we had had a better business sense or something because, you know, it’s only reflected in our love-hate relationship and not really in our bank account (laughs). And, you know, the same goes for him. His business wasn’t very tidy for himself, so he’s always going up against it and then going out and charging a million dollars a night and then making it all back, you know. So we were all young and foolish when we could have been a little more savvy and planned things better.
E: It feels like pop music is sort of filled with these American Idol-, Hannah Montana-type creations and the days when you had folks who kinda came up through a scene and paid some dues and were real musicians, you know, just less and less of that these days.
L: I know. It kinda surprises me because I always felt like we were kind of pioneering some ground and that there would probably be this whole new generation of amazing kids … and a lot of girls. I thought, you know, oh, there’s gonna be some amazing girls coming up, you know? And there are some but I think that the industry is so polarized at this point, really all you do see are the American Idol kids and, you know, and the other people who are trying to get bands together and make records and stuff, there’s kinda no place for them to go other than there’s My Space and that sort of thing. So you have to just look for it yourself. It’s not really presented the way it was, you know, a while ago.
E: I agree. I mean, you guys, you seem like you had this whole ethic of kinda girl-power music that, for one reason or another, just did not break through like people thought it would.
L: Yeah, I know. I don’t know if it was timing or what, but it just didn’t like connect or the problem again with just being black and, you know, they’re trying to keep a brother down. (laughter)..It’s a black thing (laughter). Again, it was like that timing of, like, with the relatives, a perfect example. We had just been signed to Virgin Worldwide and, you know, then all of a sudden, Virgin was sold and like all these changes happened, and we got lost. And then nobody knew what to do with us and thought, are you guys a funk band or an acoustic … what are you? They didn’t know quite what to do with us.

E: If you and Wendy were black, I felt like you would have gotten a fairer shake from the record industry.
L: You know, I know, I know. I’ve had that thought, which is very odd, you know.
E: It is. They don’t know what to do with white folks who want to play, you know, quote, unquote, black music.
L: Yeah.
E: You have to be behind the scenes, basically.
L: Yeah.   (pictures courtesy of NBC publicity, Wendy and Lisa publicity)   

Worst media moments of 2008

* So I'm sitting in my office at 8 a.m., watching ex-Baywatch star Jeremy Jackson explain how fame turned him into such a pig that he obliterated a multimillion-dollar career as a teen idol on VH1's latest exercise in celebrity degradation, Confessions of a Teen Idol.

And I'm smiling.

That's the effect bad news can have on us cynical showbiz watchers sometimes. Good news is fine, but it's the bad news that gets the blood racing -- what we suspect is really going on behind the facade. So with that in mind, here's my list of Worst Media Moments of 2008 -- the stuff that got my blood boiling in good and bad ways over the year.

It's a little different from the list I did for print Sunday. And add your own in the comments section. That's the yin and yang of today's fragmented media scene; with so much TV, online, radio, print and music underfoot, there's plenty of awfulness to go around.

1) The Great TV Curse-Off. Forget about Paris Hilton or Bono. The celebrities who really needed a bleep button in 2008 were Jesse Jackson (threatening Obama's family jewels during downtime before a Fox News segment), Jane Fonda (using the c-word during a Today show appearance), Diane Keaton (using the f-word on Good Morning America) and Joe Scarborough (using the f-word on his own MSNBC show, Morning Joe). Next thing you know, Matt Lauer will be busting a cap in somebody.

This may not seem like much, but it felt to me like an apt metaphor for our culture in general. I'm hardly a prude, but I can still remember separate beds on the Dick Van Dyke show and Barbara Eden's covered belly button on I Dream of Jeannie. Traveling from there to the f-word before 9 a.m. feels like a long, strange journey. 

2) The giants who left us. Two things I hated doing this year: writing stories about journalism layoffs and writing obituaries. Every year, a new roster of giants wind up leaving too soon, and in 2008, this list included music pioneer Bo Diddley, WTSP weather forecaster Dick Fletcher, comic Bernie Mac, R&B legend Isaac Hayes, political journalism legend Tim Russert and acting legend Paul Newman, to name a very few.

3) Criss Angel "escapes" a Clearwater building implosion. Remember when highly hyped magic tricks were actually hard to figure out? With this one, I had more trouble puzzling how 15,000 people were going to get off Clearwater Beach without killing somebody.

4) Heroes implodes. Like that hapless boyfriend/girlfriend who always looks like he/she's going to get it together but never quite pulls it off, NBC's struggling superhero drama flopped again this year, systematically destroying all the characters whom fanboys (and girls!) grew to love.

5) Writers strike blows up the TV industry. Who knew that a work stoppage ending in March would screw up the TV season for the rest of the year? But the Writers Guild of America's strike cut off runs of promising new series such as Pushing Daisies, hobbled established shows such as Heroes (which aired a critically drubbed, shortened season), forced the delay of other shows (such as 24 and FX's Rescue Me) and convinced another 10 percent of network TV viewers to find some other way to kill time during prime time hours.   

6) Local media's Hulk Hogan fixation. Yeah, I've written my share of Hogan blog posts and stories. Which is why I'm qualified to say we've all paid way too much attention to these local celebrities behaving badly. Thanks for the gut check, Troxler.

7) Vanishing newspaper jobs. More than 15,000 jobs were lost in newspapers this year, and given the general state of the economy, there's hasn't been much sympathy. But even as advancing digital technology and changing consumer habits erode newspapers' economic models, the world has come to depend even more on the information they provide. My fear: Citizens won't realize how important those journalists are to democracy until it's too late.

8) Grey's Anatomy bites it. I've always thought this show was insipid. So I didn't realize it was drowning in outlandish story lines (Exhibit A: Katherine Heigl's dead boyfriend hallucinations) until fans began threatening to poke their own eyes out rather than watch another moment.

9) Cable news excess. Fox calls Obama fist bump a "terrorist fist jab." CNN spends thousands on useless hologram technology while laying off its science reporting staff. MSNBC hosts spend almost as much time sniping at each other as covering the Democratic convention. Remember when cable TV news actually involved reporting news? No wonder so many consumers thought so much political reporting was so bad -- the one place in television with a constant stream of reports on the election offered way too much noise and distraction. *

Merry $%$&*$@ Xmas from Denis Leary

This is how badly I'm jonesing for a Denis Leary fix since FX delayed new Rescue Me episodes to 2009.

I've provided this clip from one of my fave online video sites, Funny or Die, featuring Leary dishing dirt on all the craziness behind the scenes on his early, awful films. BE WARNED: There's salty language here, including use of the f-word and the s-word. But what better present for the Rescue Me fan in your life than a little agita from the divine Mr. D?

I spent a little time hanging with Leary in Queens earlier this year when they were shooting the new season of Rescue Me, and I wondered if he was actually the same endearingly caustic guy who was chain-smoking and giving me a hard time about Florida's role in screwing up the 2000 election.

Judging by this clip, he most certainly is. Have a nice holiday . . .

Denis Leary Remembers Denis Leary Movies

*

Creative Loafing lays off three editorial employees in Tampa, seven overall

Creative Loafing Tampa editor David Warner on Dec. 19 announced seven layoffs at the alternative newsweekly's Tampa operation, including reporter Alex Pickett, music critic Wade Tatangelo and copy editor Anthony Salveggi, effective at the end of December.

It's a tough move for the newspaper, which laid off longtime move reviewer Lance Goldenberg in August. In-depth film, music and local news coverage is often the staple of alternative newspapers; losing staff attuned to covering those areas is likely going to be difficult.

It's also a tough move coming amid the holidays.

Here's part of what Warner said on the newspaper's blog:

"Creative Loafing Tampa has in recent months seen a steady decline in print advertising revenues — a trend that has affected media organizations across the country. Accordingly, we have been looking at ways to adjust: finding ways to lower print publishing costs while planning for a future that acknowledges the primacy of the Web. Our parent company, as has widely been reported, is also in the throes of restructuring its debt under Chapter 11 — debt that has mounted as a result both of the current financial climate and the company’s purchase last year of Washington City Paper and Chicago Reader."

Already, Creative Loafing faces controversy over the firing of the editor of its Atlanta paper -- at least one publication speculated, because he resisted editorial cutbacks.  Media blogs and industry publications have been filled with stories on the struggle between Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason and his creditors for control of the alternative newspaper chain following its move to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year.

The papers have also had to cope with worsening economic conditions while scrambling to figure a new plan for paying off $30-million in debt, used in part to finance purchase of the Chicago Reader and the City Paper in Washington D.C.

So this seems like another sad chapter in some ongoing tough times for the newspaper chain. *

Montel Williams turns to infomercials

He claims he has invented a new form of television called the "Talkmercial."

But a glance at the new program talk show host Montel Williams is pushing reveals that he has become just another once-famous TV personality leveraging their fame to pitch products during a series of infomercials.

Williams insists his show goes one step farther -- talking about health and wellness issues the way he did on his syndicated Montel Williams show, but then offering the products to help make the talk a reality. If you believe that, please message me; I've got an office building in Manhattan you can buy for a song.

Anyways, haven't seen any clips of his "talkmercial" yet -- and his people say they can't provide any scheduling info on when it will appear on local TV. So here's a sample of his selling abilities in a different setting; hawking Barack Obama commemorative coins.

My how the mighty have fallen (click below to read his press release). *

[AP photo]

Your Media Top 10 for 2008 turned out pretty cool, too

Besides offering critics as easy way to fill columns at the year's end, the Top 10 list fulfills a vital function in pop culture -- giving us know-it-alls another whack at everything we liked and didn't from the year before. Here's my list from Sunday's St. Petersburg Times.

So I was glad to see so many of you take advantage of my invite last week and provide your own thoughts on what worked and didn't in media this year. I'll be opining on what I hated in a future post, but today's entry is all about you -- or, rather my take on your takes.

In case you don't troll the comments section much, here's what The Feed readers dug and didn't in 2008, with a little extra critical spice from yours truly.

YOU LIKED . . . Fringe -- Fox's new-school X-Files got a couple of thumbs up for capturing the cheeky fun of early Mulder and Scully before the conspiracy stuff got too thick. You guys were so convincing, I went back to check out a few TiVo-ed episodes. And even though I stick by my earlier conclusion -- the mysteries just aren't compelling enough to justify all the weirdness or convoluted plot points -- I see why you felt otherwise.

YOU HATED . . . Heroes -- More than a few of you felt betrayed by yet another aimless season from NBC's superhero drama. Unfortunately, the show's producers seem to have truly forgotten what made fanboys (and girls!) love the show, reducing good guy Peter Petrelli into a bystander and audience surrogate Hiro into an ineffectual buffoon.

YOU LIKED . . . My Own Worst Enemy -- Was really surprised to see several of you shout out to Christian Slater's lumbering ripoff of the Bourne Identity for NBC. But I admit I kept watching this ambitious story about a spy with a malfunctioning split personality, hoping for something better than warmed-over Mission: Impossible plot lines. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

YOU HATED . . . Media coverage of the election -- Too partisan, too in the tank for Obama, etc. I hear you, though I'm not sure I agree, totally. As I have written before, I think most media was biased in favor of conflict, stories to increase their own status and stories featuring whoever would sell the most newspapers, or magazines or ratings points.

YOU LIKED . . . The Big Bang Theory, Politifact.com and FactCheck.org -- CBS's comedy about genius-level social misfits got a few thumbs up -- I'll admit, I haven't checked out this show after wading through what felt like a tedious pilot. But you've convinced me to give another look soon. And there were kudos for sites that tried to make conclusions about politicians' promises and attacks -- important tools when wading through all the mixed messages of a modern presidential campaign.

YOU HATED . . . Politifact and FactCheck -- Of course, some of you saw the conclusions drawn by these fact-checking sites as evidence of bias. Me, I preferred seeing some objective proof that certain politicos were lying a lot more often and more egregiously than others.

YOU LIKED . . . True Blood, Saturday Night Live's election skits, and Laura Dern in Recount -- HBO's vampire drama wasn't quite good enought to make my list, and Fred Armisen's interminable Barney Frank imitation is an example of what happened on SNL once Tina Fey's Sarah Palin was gone. But it's hard to argue with Dern's spot-on characterization of the overmatched, underprepared Harris.

YOU HATED . . . The Knight Rider remake, FX's Testees, too-quick cancellation of TV shows, and most reality shows. Once again, the wisdom of the crowd reasserts itself.

*

Bubba the Love Sponge signs new deal with Sirius XM

Looks like satellite radio is going to have Bubba Clem to kick around for a while longer.

Tampa radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge Clem announced Friday that he has signed a new two-year contact with the newly merged Sirius XM Radio company, the combined business created when the government approved the melding of the nation’s two satellite radio companies in March.

Since returning to Tampa Bay area free “terrestrial” morning radio on WHPT-FM (The Bone) last January, Clem has risen to the top of local ratings, cutting deals to syndicate his a.m. show in Orlando, Miami, Fort Myers and Richmond, Va.

The success raised questions about whether Clem would continue on satellite radio, and the Tampa shock jock said on air today that negotiations with Sirius XM went down to the wire.

  But New York shock jock Howard Stern — who hired Clem at Sirius after he was fired by Clear Channel Radio in Tampa in 2004 — announced that the Tampa jock would continue on his Howard 101 channel, airing 3 to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday from and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.

*

Here's the release:

NEW YORK – December 19, 2008 – Radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge® has signed an agreement with SIRIUS XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI). 

The Bubba the Love Sponge® Show airs Monday through Thursday from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm ET, and Fridays from 10:00 am– 2:00 pm ET on Howard 101. The Bubba the Love Sponge Show is available on SIRIUS channel Howard 101 and on XM channel Howard 101 with "The Best of SIRIUS"  package.

“I will continue the radio revolution with Howard Stern on SIRIUS XM,” said Bubba the Love Sponge. "I am pleased to have a long-term home on satellite radio.”

"Bubba has become an important asset at satellite radio," said Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer, SIRIUS XM Radio. “His performance and loyal fan base are an important part of our future.”

The Bubba the Love Sponge® Show is produced and broadcast from a state-of-the-art studio in Florida, and features Bubba and his colorful sidekicks Brent Hatley, Spice Boy, Ned and Manson. The show is regularly visited by stars from the worlds of sports, comedy, and music. Bubba incorporates his love of sports and politics into every show, as well as song parodies and a wide variety of comical and musical bits.

Bubba the Love Sponge® (the nickname that he legally adopted and trademarked in 1999) is a top-rated on-air personality whose career has included stations in Terre Haute, Grand Rapids, San Antonio, Chicago, Philadelphia, Orlando, Milwaukee and Tampa Bay. In 2001, his show became syndicated in multiple markets. In addition to receiving several national Billboard awards, he was named the national Active Rock Personality/Show of the Year for 2002 and 2003 by the trade publication Radio & Records. In 2005, Howard Stern recruited him to join SIRIUS, where they both launched their uncensored programs in January 2006.

The Howard Stern Show airs exclusively on Howard 100. Howard Stern programs both of his SIRIUS XM Radio channels, Howard 100 and Howard 101.

For more information please visit www.sirius.com.  For more information about Bubba and the crew visit www.btls.com.

More on-air cuts at Q105: Entire weekday on-air staff cut but star Mason Dixon

Just two months after longtime radio personality "Marvelous" Marvin Boone was discharged from WRBQ-FM (Q105), CBS Radio has let go the rest of the oldies station's weekday on air staff, except for star morning man Mason Dixon.

In all, four personalities were cut at the station, including Dixon's longtime partner Bill Connolly (at left), JoJo Walker, Rico Blanco and Mike Reeves. The changes come at a jarring time, as the station is completing Dixon's annual Christmas Wish charity event and the gift-giving holiday is less than a week away.

Ed Krampf, Tampa market manager for WRBQ owner CBS Radio, said the staff changes were focused on elevating the station's ratings performance and were not about saving money.

Stressing that the departing WRBQ personalities would be "replaced by live bodies," Krampf said the situation was not entirely comparable to the October shakeup at affiliated station WSJT-FM, where the smooth jazz station's on-air staff was mostly replaced by syndicated programming from a California company (one personality, Al Santana, is back part-time and may do more in the future, Kramp said).

Currently, the station is playing Christmas music, and on Dec. 26, they will count down the Top 500 songs of all time. By Dec. 29, Krampf expects the station's new lineup of personalities to take the air, including new program director Scott Walker, who is expected to work a shift; the station's format as a classic hits station is not expected to change.

Walker took over programming duties from Dixon two months ago, allowing Dixon to focus on his show, Krampf said. In the summer 2008 ratings book, WRBQ was ranked 11th in the prized 25-to-54 listener demographic.

"My goal is to get this station into the Top 5 . . . but that's any manager's goal," said Krampf, who declined to give much detail on the new personalities for competitive reasons. "The station will sound more like the Top 40 radio stations people were listening to when they were growing up."

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Tampa salesman to compete on 'True Beauty,' new Kutcher-Banks reality show

He had just walked into a hotel bar in Miami with friends, hoping to have a little fun.

And when the woman came up to him, claiming to be a casting agent for a new reality show for ABC, initially he bought her a drink and thanked her for the funny story.

But then Joel Rush noticed the line of people crowded into the place for something. The casting agent explained she was working for ABC, and he seemed perfect for a new unscripted "reality TV" show the network was developing on beautiful people.

Six months later, Tampa salesman and aspiring performer Rush is calling news outlets and planning a move to Los Angeles, bolstered by his role on True Beauty, a new reality competition show developed by actor/entrepreneurs Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks.

"It truly was a fluke," said Rush, 27, a salesman for Pegasus Imaging in Tampa. "But if there was one word I would use to describe the experience it would be, extremely rewarding. And anything that Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher are involved with is going to be amazing."

Rush eventually spent six weeks in Los Angeles, hanging with nine other beautiful people, host/judge Vanessa Minnillo (TRL, Entertainment Tonight), 60-something supermodel and judge Cheryl Tiegs and judge/fashion consultant Nole Marin (America's Next Top Model). The contestants were given one outer beauty challenge and one inner beauty challenge for each episode -- their behavior captured by hidden cameras and evaluated by the judges.

Only after a contestant was eliminated was the truth of the competition revealed to them. The prize at stake: $100,000 and a spot in People magazine's "100 Most Beautiful People" issue.

Rush describes a production unfolding like a mish-mash of existing reality shows -- a bit of MTV's Real World here, a little of Banks' America's Next Top Model there, with a dash of Kutcher's signature prank show Punk'd. And contestants had no clue of the show's true endgame until they were ejected from the contest.

"The only surprise for me, was that there was no such thing as downtime," he said. "You are on camera from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep -- up to them following you into the bathroom. it's an experience you can't train yourself for. You have to have some amount of inner beauty to not have it eat you up."

An Indiana native, Rush moved to Florida six years ago after college, chasing opportunity. As True Beauty airs its eight-episode season in early 2009, he'll be chasing it again in Los Angeles, trying to further his modeling and acting career on the connections he has made doing the show.

Because the show debuts Jan. 5, Rush hasn't seen any episodes. But he is uncomfortable about material on ABC's Web site depicting him as a cocky jerk who "already acts like a celebrity so it is only a matter of time before he is truly famous," "knows he looks good and insists on surrounding himself with only the hottest people," calls himself the "Crown Prince of Cool" and "says his workout regiment is all about looking great naked."

Of course, that doesn't mean he didn't play to win the game: "I told everybody -- if you didn't come here expecting to win and send me home, shame on you, not shame on me," he said. "You're in the top 10 of all these people who auditioned, you're working with Tyra and working with Ashton. If you can't make something out of that, that's your problem." 

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