Say it ain't so, Joe. Marty Brennaman, the folksy, friendly voice of the Cincinnati Reds, was in a radio ad for a WEBN contest called "Throw Out the First Bitch.''

Marty says it ain't so. When he heard about the ad, he was hot enough to fry a frog.

"This has been running without my knowledge. It really crosses the line,'' he said. "I feel like I have a good reputation in this community. I don't need this. ... I am very ticked off about it.''

The ad, "Frog's Squeeze Play,'' urges guys to enter a contest for prime tickets to Opening Day. "You get to throw out the first bitch,'' it said. "You get opening day, and your wife or significant whatever sits on the bench - and we don't mean Johnny.''

Winners also get diamond earrings to give her - "to soften the blow, so to speak.''

Brennaman's voice said, "Spank you very much,'' "Beats the hell outta me'' and "It sounds good,'' as if he was in on the crude jokes.

But he said WEBN lifted quotes from his Reds broadcasts without his permission. WEBN is the Clear Channel-owned sister station of WLW, which owns the rights to Reds games, he said.

A WEBN official who declined to be quoted said it's not unusual to use Brennaman, but this was a big-time mistake.

Brennaman agreed. "I'm going to get on the phone right now and tell Clear Channel to take my voice off that thing. The last thing I would ever do is reflect poorly on this organization,'' he said of the Reds.

WEBN shock jock "Eddie Fingers is a buddy of mine, but not anymore,'' Brennaman said.

The station will also be hearing from the Reds and Major League Baseball lawyers, said Rob Butcher, director of media relations for the Reds.

The WEBN Web site advertising for the contest, sponsored by Miller Lite, used Mr. Red without permission, and replaced his famous baseball head with a frog's head, Butcher said. The image was removed after the Reds and Major League Baseball called the station.

The WEBN spokesman said the ad was "sanitized for your listening pleasure'' after Brennaman complained, and all of his comments and the vulgarities were replaced with bleeps. Tuesday, the Web site still showed an arrow pointing to the Great American Ball Park, saying, "You and yer buddy.'' Another arrow pointed to "yer'' girlfriend in the river.

"FROG's going to help you ditch your bitch while you and your pal catch the first pitch,'' it said.

Butcher said, "We are very, very, exceptionally unhappy about this.''

Reds officials called the promotion tasteless and degrading to women. But the WEBN spokesman insisted it did not violate FCC indecency standards.

Clear Channel standards might be another story. In Congressional testimony Feb. 26, Clear Channel president John Hogan apologized for indecency by shock jocks and promised, "We are turning the page on how we deal with and prevent inappropriate content from airing on our stations.''

Reds chief operating officer John Allen said, "I don't think this (ad) is consistent with that. In my opinion it's certainly a violation of good taste.''

When I first heard the ad, I couldn't believe Marty would slide head first from the Hall of Fame to the Hall of Shame. I'm glad he had no part of it. WEBN calls itself "the lunatic fringe'' of FM shock radio. Maybe the Reds will give them some legal shock treatment.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.