‘Big D and Bubba’ Show Ribs Bobby Bones with New Billboard

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Well well well, it looks like we’ve got some playful ribbing out there between big country music morning radio shows.

Some of you might recall that after country radio personality Bobby Bones moved from pop to country, and from Austin to Nashville, he personally paid $13,000 for four Billboards in Nashville that read, “Go Away Bobby Bones” to build sympathy for himself after receiving criticism from some in the country music community.

When the billboards first appeared in 2014, nobody knew who was behind them. But in his 2016 memoir, Bobby Bones confessed, “Everyone who considered himself a real defender of country music hated me. My attitude was, ‘This is how it’s going to work. I’m playing whatever I want to play. I’m doing the bits I want to do. I don’t wear cowboy boots or hats or belt buckles. I am not you; I am me … My attitude wasn’t winning me any friends — or listeners. I needed to get people to like me, or at least feel sorry for me … I launched a massive negative PR campaign against myself to garner sympathy.”

Well recently, a billboard appeared in Mt. Juliet just outside Nashville proclaiming, “Go Away Big D and Bubba.” We don’t have to investigate who erected the billboard, because it also states, “Paid for by Big D and Bubba,” cross-referencing the Bobby Bones ruse from 2014 (see billboard below).

“Big D” Derek Haskins and Sean “Bubba” Powell met at WXCT (now WTGE) while hosting separate shows in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Hitting it off immediately, they started hosting a show together with Patrick Thomas as a producer. By 1999, the show became such a big hit, it started in syndication, and by 2003 they were moved to Nashville by Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia) and were doing a show on WSIX—where Bobby Bones now does his morning show. The pair also signed to Premier Networks just like Bobby to bring their show to even more radio stations.

But right as Bobby Bones was making his big move to Nashville to start his radio show, Big D and Bubba formed their own production company called Silverfish Media so they could be completely free of corporate intervention in their show. Big D and Bubba are now heard on nearly 100 country music stations around the United States, as well as being broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Network. 103.3 in Nashville is one of the show’s major hubs.

Big D and Bubba are CMA and ACM winners, earning the 2007 and 2014 ACM “National Personalities of the Year” trophy, and the 2015 Country Music Association “National Personalities of the Year” award. They’re regarded by many mainstream country fans as the better alternative to The Bobby Bones Show.

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