FACTBOX: U.S. radio's emphasis on race, sex, politics

(Reuters) - Sex, politics and race are staples of U.S. radio airwaves and the topics often land on-air personalities in hot water, such as the week-old storm over Don Imus's use of racist and sexist slurs to describe a women's college basketball team.

Following are some other controversial U.S. radio hosts:

* Howard Stern, the self-proclaimed "king of all media," has long fought against federal regulators over the sexual and scatological nature of his act. His five-year deal with Sirius Satellite Radio reportedly is worth $500 million.

Strippers, porn stars, a drunken dwarf, a white supremacist leader and the mentally challenged have been Stern regulars. He was hit with millions of dollars in indecency fines until 2006, when he took his show from FM broadcast stations to satellite, which is less strictly regulated.

In response to accusations of racism in his remarks, Stern has pointed out that his on-air sidekick is a black woman.

* Rush Limbaugh emerged as a force in conservative politics after the repeal of federal regulations requiring stations to provide free air time for responses to controversial commentary. His show is syndicated to more than 500 U.S. stations.

Limbaugh has drawn fire for saying actor Michael J. Fox exaggerated his Parkinson's disease symptoms in political ads and for accusing sportswriters of favoring Philadelphia Eagles star Donovan McNabb because he was black.

In 2003 he admitted to drug addiction after being investigated for obtaining multiple prescriptions for the painkiller Oxytocin.

* The radio team of Opie and Anthony was fired from a New York station for a 2002 broadcast in which they encouraged couples to have sex in public places. Two contestants were charged with public lewdness after being caught in the act in St. Patrick's Cathedral.

They revived their careers on XM satellite radio and continue to urge female listeners to bare their breasts in public.

* A Florida disc jockey known as Bubba the Love Sponge was acquitted of animal cruelty charges after having a pig castrated and slaughtered live on the air in 2001. He also is on satellite radio now.

* Eddie Sotelo hosts U.S. radio's top-rated show under the name Piolin, or Tweety Bird. With his syndicated Spanish-language show based in Los Angeles, he was instrumental in mobilizing massive Hispanic protests against the U.S. Congress' moves to crack down on illegal immigrants last year.

Sotelo, who dodged the U.S. Border Patrol to sneak into the United States at age 16, puts on a show that features bawdy humor, music and calls from his fervent fans.

* Al Franken was a writer-performer on television's "Saturday Night Live" before becoming the star attraction of the fledgling Air America liberal radio network in 2004, where he regularly needled Limbaugh. Franken left Air America, which came out of bankruptcy protection in March, to run for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Minnesota.

* In his career on Chicago and San Francisco stations, Erich "Mancow" Muller had listeners eat cat food and once blocked part of a busy San Francisco bridge while a sidekick received a haircut. He has since moderated his act and started the Foundation For Responsible Radio.