S-F Radio: Rosalie Howarth EXITS KFOG

Rosalie Howarth, last of the longtime KFOG DJs, abruptly announced Sunday morning, May 20, at the end of her popular show “Acoustic Sunrise,” that she was leaving the station after 34 years.

Howarth, the senior announcer at the San Francisco station and only holdover from any number of staff purges, has finally been purged herself.

Howarth, who has been involved in the Bay Area music scene since she ran away to Haight-Ashbury for the Summer of Love, was most grateful that she was the rare DJ who was allowed to give a farewell show.

Rosalie Howarth (Mercury News photo)

Her two-year contract expired on Monday, May 21, and when she drove in from her Walnut Creek home Friday to start work on her Sunday show, she was told that her contract would not be renewed and she could take the weekend off while syndicated programming took her 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sunday slot.

But according to the S-F Chronicle,  her program director, Mat Bates, stood up to management and Howarth was granted a farewell show.

“Every song was loaded,” she said of her final show. “Every song was an all-time favorite or had a wistful farewell message.”

During her last break, she gave a shout-out to all the beloved former KFOG voices, and where they can be heard, either on the Internet, at pop-up stations or out on the street — Dave Morey, Dred Scott, Annalisa, Renee, Irish Greg and Webster.

Then she played “It’s My Life,” by the Beatles, and finally closed with “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” from Monty Python.

Her final words: “You guys have been the best, and we were the luckiest ones.”

KFOG was bought in 2005 by Cumulus Media Inc. of Atlanta.

At its peak, around 2007, KFOG rated seventh out of up to 40 stations, both AM and FM, a 2.7 share, according to Nielsen. But then Morey, who commanded the morning drive, suddenly quit in 2008 to move to the Michigan wilderness, and the long slow slide began.

By 2016, KFOG’s listenership had declined dramatically, which brought about the “March Massacre,” when four of the station’s six full-time voices were laid off at once, along with part-timer Howarth. The format was shifted toward a younger demographic, and New York morning man Matt Pinfield was brought in.

Two months later, “Acoustic Sunrise” was resurrected following a revolt by the “Fogheads,” as KFOG loyalists are known.

Her new show outlasted Pinfield, the former host of MTV’s “120 Minutes” who went into rehab before departing KFOG in June 2017. The station now runs syndicated shows out of Atlanta and Los Angeles and did not make the top 20 in the March ratings. Its listener share has dropped to 1.5, and Cumulus Media filed for bankruptcy in November.