INDECENCY BATTLE Fla. father gets radio's ear

A mild-mannered scientist took on Bubba the Love Sponge and won.
ORLANDO SENTINEL
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Before Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction," before Howard Stern was yanked off the radio in six cities, Doug Vanderlaan was quietly battling a foul-mouthed Florida disc jockey.
This mild-mannered Jacksonville dad never expected to change the media landscape. All he wanted was for Bubba the Love Sponge, a Tampa disc jockey with a bawdy morning program broadcast throughout the state, to clean up his show.
But three years and hundreds of letters and e-mails later, the research scientist may have changed the face of radio.
A moderate Democrat
Vanderlaan, 46, does not fit neatly into the stereotype of a "media crusader." His favorite musicians are Prince and Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan and Carlos Santana. His TV viewing includes "Malcolm in the Middle," "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "The Simpsons."
Vanderlaan is a moderate Democrat whose politics may surprise shock jocks such as Stern and Bubba, who castigate their critics as members of the Moral Majority.
"I'm living proof that it's not only super-conservatives who are opposed to indecency on the radio," says Vanderlaan.
He first heard Bubba the Love Sponge one morning in 2001. In his car, Vanderlaan flipped on the radio to listen to National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."
But instead, Vanderlaan heard Bubba, a shock jock whose humor and antics had made him the No. 1 morning disc jockey in Tampa. The night before, Vanderlaan's son, Marc, had left the radio turned to his favorite rock station.
On the air, Bubba was interviewing a woman who operated a porn Web site. He then encouraged teenage boys to become Web masters for such sites and gave out the sites' addresses.
Monitors the show
Told by the station manager that Bubba's employer, media giant Clear Channel Communications, wouldn't pull Bubba off the air, Vanderlaan began monitoring the show.
He heard Bubba urge Christians to kill Muslims, Jews and Buddhists. He was appalled to learn that Bubba had once castrated and slaughtered a pig on the air. And Vanderlaan was disappointed that Clear Channel had not fired Bubba, though he'd been fined four times by the Federal Communications Commission. Bubba had strong ratings, particularly with white men under age 35.
For three years, Vanderlaan bought cases of cassette tapes and taped the four-hour show every morning. After work, he wrote letters to advertisers who, he guessed, had never listened to an entire Bubba show.
Most of the 400 advertisers he contacted were astounded.
Files complaint
In 2001, he filed a three-page complaint with the FCC. Soon, he got a call from Arthur Belendiuk, a Washington, D.C., attorney who represents clients before the federal agency.
"He was a dad," says Belendiuk, who offered to help, pro bono.
Over the phone, Belendiuk schooled Vanderlaan on the content FCC commissioners would look for. Listen, he said, for bits that involved bodily functions, or promoted drug use or sex.
Vanderlaan listened to hours and hours of Bubba's show, editing the most inflammatory parts into a "greatest hits" tape for the FCC.
Timing is everything, especially in politics. On Jan. 26 this year, Belendiuk called. Take down this number, Belendiuk said. "755000." Puzzled, Vanderlaan asked, "What is that?" "It's the fine," replied Belendiuk.
Largest fine
The $755,000 penalty against Clear Channel was the largest single fine in FCC history. But Bubba the Love Sponge was still on the air, calling Vanderlaan a "right-wing fundamentalist" and a "Pat Buchanan Nazi."
At home, the Vanderlaans received angry phone messages and e-mails.
Then, Justin Timberlake tore off Janet Jackson's costume at the Super Bowl. Suddenly, Bubba would become the FCC's poster boy.
The complaint, Belendiuk says, "was in the right place at the right time."
As the public fumed, Congress promised higher fines for offending radio and TV broadcasters. One of the people called to testify before Congress was John Hogan, president of Clear Channel Radio. On Feb. 23, days before the hearing, Clear Channel fired Bubba.
On Feb. 25, Clear Channel suspended Stern's show from six stations and later removed his show permanently.