Courtesy San Diego Union Tribune

(September 5, 2008) All the way to the end, he was, well, Hacksaw.
I interviewed Lee a^?oeHacksawa^?? Hamilton for about 10 minutes Wednesday night, not long after he announced he was leaving XTRA Sports 1360 a^?�g and likely the San Diego market a^?�g after 21 years as a popular/aggravating/pioneering talk-show host here.

It wasn't a half-hour later that my phone rang. The voice, even though it's less boisterous than the one you've heard on the air for the past two decades, was familiar.

a^?oeI had one more quote I wanted to give you,a^?? Hamilton said.
OK, I said, go ahead.

a^?oeWho wants to hire the best sports talk show host in America?a^?? he said.

I paused.

a^?oeYou don't think so?a^??

He knew how I felt. I made it pretty clear in this space over the past decade, or even when we spoke during that time, that I had a lot of issues with his show. But that was Hacksaw a^?�g defiant to the end.

He even claimed (as did his boss, Clear Channel San Diego VP/GM Bob Bolinger) that the departure was a mutual breakup, although rumors of the station not renewing his contract had been circling for months (and were published here six weeks ago).

But, really, in the end, how Hamilton left wasn't important. In a volatile industry, he lasted in the same market for more than two decades, give or take a couple of years when his station moved to Los Angeles, but he did his show from here. He deserves credit for that, as well as for the simple fact that he was the sports talk pioneer in San Diego.

a^?oeHacksaw was the first person I hired when we secured the rights to the Chargers and began a sports talk show in the evenings,a^?? John Lynch, president and CEO of Broadcast Company of the Americas, which operates XX Sports Radio and two other stations, said in an e-mail yesterday. a^?oeLater, we launched the country's first 24-hour sports format built around Hacksaw. I still consider him to be talented and a compelling talk show host.a^??

a^?oeIf Lee doesn't come along, I'm not in the industry,a^?? said Brad Cesmat, who was hired by Hamilton at Lynch's old 69 XTRA Gold station in 1988 and now works for KTVK-TV in Phoenix. a^?oeHe gave me a break. A lot of us can say that. Whether you liked what he doing on the air or didn't like what he was doing, he had people talking about him. Talk to most anybody on air then; Lee was a factor in us getting started.a^??

That was the case for Dave Palet of XTRA Sports 1360, whose first radio job was as an intern for Hamilton in 1993. a^?oeI was hooked as a listener every afternoon and I said, 'I'd like to do what he does,' a^?? Palet said. a^?oeI'm sad to see Saw go.a^??

Steve Hartman, who was teamed with Cesmat in 1990 and still works for the same station a^?�g which moved to L.A. and became KLAC-AM (570) a^?�g isn't as big a fan of Hamilton's as Cesmat and Palet. But even Hartman conceded Hamilton had a^?oean unbelievable impact on San Diego sports.a^??

Added Hartman: a^?oeHe was a '90s icon in San Diego. Not a single person didn't do a Hacksaw imitation. He was the king of the mountain, as the voice of the Chargers and everything else. He was a throwback to an era gone by in sports-talk radio.a^??

But not every throwback is like the Chargers' powder-blue jersey; some lose their appeal. And that was the case with Hamilton. The Internet left his show sounding dated, because anybody could see the same headlines a^?�g minus the stuff he made up/exaggerated/guessed on a^?�g he saved for the self-proclaimed a^?oebest 15 minutes of radioa^?? at any time on their computer or their cell phone. Plus, anybody could comment on those headlines on a blog or a message board. No longer could a caller-driven talk show survive.

a^?oeThis is sort of the end of an era,a^?? Hartman said. a^?oeNot just his era, but his brand of sports-talk radio.

a^?oeSports-talk radio changed dramatically. It became personality-driven.a^??

Which in this case was like asking a Prius to race a Porsche. That wasn't Hamilton's game. Where some hosts can fill an entire segment with anecdotes or opinions, Hamilton relied on callers. And when he didn't get them, his answer was to berate the listeners for not calling. Entertaining radio, it was not.

Hamilton's personality also cost him what would have been the perfect cap to his career a^?�g a return as Chargers play-by-play voice, a job he held from 1987 to '97. When the Chargers went back to Clear Channel in 2005, by all rights the job would have been Hamilton's a^?�g except he had burned that bridge a decade earlier. Taking nothing away from Josh Lewin, the team would sooner have Vladimir Putin call its games than Hamilton.

Hacksaw expressed an interest in returning to play-by-play, either college (more likely) or NFL, which at this point would be the best thing for him.

a^?oeHe wouldn't have to do the daily grind of a talk show, just play-by-play, which is his real passion anyway,a^?? Hartman said.

Bolinger had nothing but nice things to say about Hamilton a^?�g a^?oeHe's a pro and a class act and I wish him the besta^?? a^?�g and on his way out, Hamilton returned the favor, saying his departure a^?oewas the most cordial thing I've ever been through.a^??

If only he'd said similar things about the Chargers a decade earlier, he probably wouldn't be leaving at all.