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'MJ Morning Show' on WFLZ will welcome back BJ Harris, briefly PDF Print E-mail
 
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THE FEED TAMPABAY.COM
By Eric Deggans, Times TV/Media Critic
In Print: Wednesday, October 21, 2009
 
 
Todd “MJ Kelli” Schnitt, with parrot Casey, and Barry “BJ” Harris broke up eight years ago.
Find out why this week.
Todd “MJ Kelli” Schnitt, with parrot Casey, and Barry “BJ” Harris broke up eight years ago. Find out why this week.
 

 

The idea surfaced over cheeseburgers at the Cherry Cricket, a legendary Denver bar: Why not reunite one of Tampa's most successful morning show teams, more than eight years after they broke up?

That's how BJ (real name: Barry Harris) suggested coming back to Florida and appearing on former partner Todd "MJ" Schnitt's morning show at WFLZ-FM 93.3 to explain why the two broke up back in 2001.

Scheduled for Thursday and Friday mornings, the shows reunite Schnitt with Harris, who now serves as one-third of the morning team at KALC-FM in Denver. Harris said the two had been talking about the 20th anniversary this year of the successful "Power Pig" format at WFLZ and figured a reunion might be fun.

A lot of times, when people leave a radio station, nobody explains why they're gone," said Harris.

Harris resigned abruptly from their WFLZ show in February 2001, seemingly at the height of his career. Back then, The MJ and BJ Morning Show was the top-rated program in morning drive time locally; Harris was serving as co-host of the show, operations manager for WFLZ and another area station, and national director of contemporary hit programming for WFLZ's owner, Clear Channel Radio.

"BJ wanted to set the record straight and clear the air," Schnitt said. "Everything will be on the table; the whole story will be told."

Harris denied rumors of bad blood between he and Schnitt but declined to say whether a problem with substance abuse led him to leave the station.

"I can't tell everything I'm going to talk about; that's for the show," he said. "But when that question comes up, and I'm sure it will, I will answer it completely."

Rival shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem began his tenure at WHPT-FM 102.5 The Bone last year by criticizing Schnitt, saying he informed Clear Channel management about Harris' personal problems to get him ousted.

Schnitt filed a lawsuit against Clem last year, alleging a long list of "false, highly offensive … and defamatory statements" made about him on air.

Those statements included calling his WFLZ program "the snitch show" and referring to him as "a real modern-day stool pigeon."

The lawsuit is still pending; Schnitt declined to comment on Clem.

But Harris said the allegations were not true, insisting their reunion had nothing to do with the lawsuit or Clem's insults. "If (Clem and Schnitt) have a tiff, that's between them," he said. "I've been friends with MJ for a long time … this is all about the anniversary."

 

 
 

Bubba the Love Sponge to give money to widows of fallen TPD officers Curtis and Kocab
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10 connect
Aug, 17 2010
 
 




Tampa, Florida  -- Today, the wives left behind by fallen Tampa police officers Curtis and Kocab will each get big checks to help their families, after a fundraiser drive by radio's Bubba the Love Sponge.

What phrase leaps to mind when you hear the name Bubba the Love Sponge? How about "kind-hearted giving?"

No? Well, then, think twice.

Bubba is the man who's led the drive to raise thousands of dollars for the Curtis and Kocab families.

Related: Tampa police officers remembered in new video tributes

Just one week after that awful morning when Jeff Kocab and Dave Curtis were shot and killed in the line of duty June 29th, Bubba went on the air with a fundraising drive.

He brought other DJ's on board, and urged listeners to donate to the Bubba the Love Sponge Foundation. The nonprofit foundation has already given around $100,000 to the families of fallen Florida law enforcement officers.

Tuesday, Bubba Clem -- that's his full name -- will hand over the biggest single checks yet.

The Curtis and Kocab families will share $53,000.

Those checks -- each for $26,500 -- are just a small part of the debt our community owes these two families.

The presentation Tuesday afternoon at Tampa Police Department headquarters will bring together Bubba Clem, Police Chief Jane Castor, Major Sophia Teague from TPD's Special Ops Division, as well as widows Kelly Curtis and Sarah Kocab.

"You know I'm a father and you know things are a lot different once you have kids and maybe that's the reason why I change my ways a little bit I mostly feel for the children who no longer have a father," Clem told 10 News.
 
Greaseman benched at Jacksonville's "Rock 105" WFYV
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radio-info.com
Aug, 12 2010
 
 



The inventive storyteller “Greaseman” Doug Tracht returned to the market on the Cox Radio classic rocker in the Fall of 2008. Many locals had heard about his earlier time there at the original “Ape”, WAPE. He had recently been part of a personality lineup at Rock 105 that included Bubba the Love Sponge (syndicated from Tampa) and the Cowhead show. Now the North Florida Board of Radio-Info detects a change: both “Grease” and Cowhead are gone, as the station focuses on marketing itself as “The home of Bubba The Love Sponge and 50 minutes of classic rock that really rocks.”

While syndicates and stations look at the ratings that tests receive, it’s just one part of the process, according to Joanne Burns, Twentieth’s executive VP of research and marketing. “It’s just as much about figuring out what works and what doesn’t—is the talent right, are the segments right—as it is about the ratings,” she says.

And not every show lends itself to testing. “We ask ourselves the simple two-part question on every project that comes up: Should we test this, or should we go national?” Burns says. “If it’s a huge idea and a huge talent, the salespeople will say, ‘Fore-go the test because I can really sell this.’ They are never going to take a huge name and say, ‘I want to test this first.’”
 
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