Fresh from sensitivity training, the radio crew sticks to topics not much more racy than the weather, with a few curse words thrown in.
By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published July 20, 2004
A somewhat meeker version of The Monsters in the Morning returned to 98 Rock on Monday, chatting about Martha Stewart and getting through four hours with only a smattering of naughty language.
The Monsters crew was yanked from its 6 to 10 a.m. slot on WXTB-FM 97.9 last week, after a column in the St. Petersburg Times about racial, ethnic and sexual orientation slurs on the show led to rebukes from the St. Petersburg City Council and the local NAACP president.
Employer Clear Channel Corp. sent the show's cast for sensitivity training, said David C. Reinhart, regional vice president and Gulf Coast market manager for Clear Channel Radio.
But slicking up the Monsters' manners may not be enough to keep them out of trouble. An Orlando police sergeant has filed a lawsuit against Clear Channel and the manager of the Orlando station where the show originates, charging that the morning talkers defamed her on the air, including falsely stating that she had AIDS.
The Monsters in the Morning show, which has aired in Orlando for 10 years, entered the Tampa Bay area market about five months ago. It replaced shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, who was fired by Clear Channel after sexually offensive material on his show prompted the Federal Communications Commission to fine the company $755,000.
Head Monster Russ Rollins said on July 9, "We can't come off like we're choirboys when we come back." During their Monday return, there were plenty of "bitches" and a couple of curses involving the deity, but no slurs like the "jigaboo," "spic" and "fag" that landed them in trouble.
None of them owned up to having attended sensitivity training: Rollins said he'd spent the week on vacation being "Super Dad," Dirty Jim gabbed about getting a bone spur on his heel removed, and Sexy Savannah claimed she'd been suffering from "hysterical blindness." A rumored appearance by the Rev. Jesse Jackson didn't materialize.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the Monsters were devoting much of one show to a raunchy discussion of the case of a female Hillsborough County teacher accused of having an affair with a 14-year-old boy. Their consensus on the relationship: "It's awesome."
They were singing perky little songs, like the one about the victim of a schoolyard bully who was forced to perform oral sex and got his revenge by biting off one of his attacker's testicles.
On Monday, the topics were cell phone etiquette, mimes (Rollins just loves the one at Sea World) and which of the guys had lost the most weight. Savannah sang a song about meeting a baby unicorn and going to unicorn land.
They did get into a riff on the Donner Party and "baby soup," but they probably figured they wouldn't get many calls of protest from the cannibal community.
The most contentious item all morning was Rollins' announcement that he couldn't support ex-jock Clem's political ambitions.
The seriousness of Clem's candidacy (and his geography skills) can be measured by the fact that he made the announcement he was running for sheriff of Pinellas County . . . in Tampa. Rollins fussed, "I just think you ought to have some kind of crime-fighting experience to run for sheriff."
That respect for law enforcement was not in evidence in October 2003, according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County on June 7.
Last fall, Sgt. Rhonda Huckelbery of the Orlando Police Department served on a committee assigned to evaluate bids from towing services. Her attorney, Mary Lytle, says Huckelbery was chosen at random to present the committee's report at an Orlando City Commission meeting.
The report Huckelbery read at the meeting included the detail that one towing service displayed sexually suggestive photos in its office, including one of Monsters personality Sexy Savannah.
The next day, according to the suit, the Monsters' four-hour show was filled with slurs against Huckelbery. Cast members called her "a mullet-haired lesbian that likes to take it up the pooper" and "a fat bitch." They also said, "She has AIDS."
Lytle says that Huckelbery, a 15-year veteran officer, has been devastated by effects of the Monsters' remarks. "Her mother heard the show and called her, scared to death about AIDS." She says the statements about Huckelbery's sexual orientation and her having AIDS are untrue.
Lytle filed suit against Clear Channel and WTKS-FM 104.1 manager Katherine Brown, saying Huckelbery has suffered defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and interference with business relationships.
Brown and Clear Channel have refused to respond to repeated requests for retraction of and apology for the remarks, Lytle says. They did not return a reporter's call on Monday.
It's anyone's guess how long the Monsters' manners makeover will last. But local radio listeners longing for raunch and controversy can now tune in to the granddaddy of shock jocks.
The Howard Stern Show debuted in the Tampa Bay area market Monday morning on WBZZ-AM 1010. It airs weekdays from 6 to 11 a.m.
Stern got a call about the Monsters' transgressions during his first show. A television news reporter asked, "Where is the line drawn?"
"Oh, dude, who cares? It's a downer, your question," Stern replied.
"I don't know where the line is drawn. I don't think anybody does. I don't think the FCC does."
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Times staff writer Kim Cross contributed to this report.
