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Stern Is Moving To KITS Live 105' shakes up staff to add shock jock' 21 Jerry Carroll, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, May 29, 1998 22 San Francisco Chronicle 23 Chronicle Sections Following the latest game of musical chairs in radio, Howard Stern's voice will be MUCH LOUDER in the Bay Area. To make room, KITS, which calls itself Live 105,'' unloaded station executives and on-air personalities. The result will be a less local and more syndicated sound. KOME general manager Jim Hardy will move north to take charge of KITS. Everybody tells me I'm moving to the big time, but I'm waiting to see the check,'' he said with a laugh. KITS program director Richard Sands got the ax, as did morning DJ Johnny Steele -- he replaced veteran Alex Bennett a year ago -- Roland West and on-air personality Lori Thompson. Rick Stuart survived the putsch and stays on as the afternoon man. Although the move had been anticipated since the beginning of the year, the ax fell Wednesday morning with stunning suddenness. Steele was on the air when a station executive delivered the news. There was that look on his face,'' said Greg McQuaid, who books guests. They said, Just keep playing the music,' '' said McQuaid. Like others at the station, he doesn't know if he'll be kept on. It's a pretty nasty business,'' said one disc jockey who didn't want to be named. Web Fingers, the nighttime KITS DJ, likely will go to KROQ in Los Angeles, also owned by CBS. Until Monday, KITS will play just music and commercials during the morning hours. He wrote a couple of best-sellers, one of which, Private Parts,'' was made into a movie -- starring himself -- that did well at the box office. Both specialize in juvenile bad taste, but Stern's cultural commentary can rise above the merely gross and off-color. Even with KOME's signal, faint and sometimes nonexistent in parts of the Bay Area, his show is second to KYLD'S Doghouse'' in the morning slot. It's clearly a case of going from a position of weakness to a position of strength. Starting April 9th through May 23rd Berkeley Repertory Theatre Bay Area 30 Free Smoked Sockeye Salmon!
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