There are seven words, if you’re of a certain age and a San Diego sports fan, that you’ll immediately recognize. Plus, the voice that delivered them.
“I want to talk sports with you!”
Say, aren’t you Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton?
“It’s absolutely amazing the interaction I have with the people on the street,” Hamilton said. “It’s great to be remembered.”
Hamilton’s best 15 minutes in sports to christen each radio show was once appointment listening.
He told it like it was, he didn’t pull punches, and he had reliable sources and a litany of catchphrases that he’s still asked to repeat.
“Come on Hacksaw, give me a little something,” Cardiff’s Jeff Sessoms asked Hamilton upon a chance encounter.
Hamilton nodded, cleared his throat and let out a “Show me your lightning bolt!” that produced a wide smile from Sessoms.
When Hamilton started his sports-talk radio career in San Diego in 1987 at XTRA 690 AM, he wasn’t the best at what he did; he was the only one.
Sports talk radio hadn’t expanded to the West Coast in a significant way until Hamilton started moving his gums. Now, every big city has numerous folks electing to spin sports opinions instead of records.
If there is a trailblazer who set the path for all of them, it was Hamilton, a longtime Rancho Bernardo resident.
“There were a lot of good times and good memories, but we were working so hard we never thought of the impact we were having out there,” Hamilton said. “We never gave a thought to a legacy, and we had no idea of the foundation we were laying for sports shows.”
Reflecting on the station carrying a signal blowtorch of 77,000 watts coming from Tijuana is interesting. The names and events are etched into many locals’ recollections, back when Hamilton was king and the Chargers dominated San Diego sports.
“Raider Nation, out of jail and out on bail, give me a call,” Hamilton would say, leaning into the wording to troll the Bolts’ biggest rivals.
No station could match the 690 lineup as it evolved with Hamilton as its ringleader. There were the Loose Cannons, with Steve Hartman and Chet Forte, and then, later, Philly Billy Werndel.
The morning guys, Scott Kaplan and Billy Ray Smith? Hamilton would playfully bicker with them, labeling them the Wide Right Kicker and the Loud Mouth Linebacker.
The “Jim Rome Show”? Rome’s radio career was baptized at 690 when he showed up as an intern.
Coach John Kentera was starting, too, with prep sports being his on-ramp to his radio career.
Hamilton’s most significant mark came during his 13 years calling Chargers games. He was the play-by-play announcer and the architect of nine hours of programming for each contest, home and away, preseason, regular season, and on the rare occasions the Chargers made it, the postseason.
“We set a standard that everybody else has tried to follow, and no one has been able to duplicate what we did,” Hamilton said.
The good old days were just that, and like everything else in the media, it changed dramatically. Hamilton went from 690 to the Mighty 1090, where he worked until 2018.
“It’s hard to go out on your own terms in this business,” Hamilton, 75, said. “But it was a helluva run.”
Those who know Hamilton appreciate how he embraces the grind. All these years later, Hamilton is still putting people’s feet to the fire behind a microphone with two weekly podcasts that land on YouTube.
He’s also a staple on TikTok and Instagram, where the numbers on some of his programming are eye-popping.
“We did a segment on the Padres, and it got 400,000 hits,” Hamilton said. “Another we did on (Rams owner) Stan Kroenke joining forces on a new sports arena did 300,000 hits.”
Hamilton’s podcast has nearly 3,000 subscribers as he rebuffs the falsehood of teaching an old dog new tricks.
“We don’t know what the hell we are doing,” Hamilton said. “But it has just exploded.”
Hamilton can also be seen on weekends on KUSI and has his fingers in numerous other projects.
“It’s a great business but the landscape is very different,” Hamilton said. “I can’t complain because I’m still working.”
Hamilton has had few bad experiences or regrets.
No. 1 was the hurt he absorbed when the Spanos family removed him as the Chargers’ radio voice. That will be felt to his grave, Hamilton said.
Do-overs? His biggest ones were turning down opportunities to broadcast Seattle Seahawks and Anaheim Ducks games.
“I told myself I was going to work really hard, give my family a stable situation and not drag them around the county,” he said. “I worked for two San Diego stations in 28 years, which is really unheard of.
“It was a really great run in a great city, and we built something that was very, very iconic.”
Those legendary Hamilton phrases rush back: “Reaction!” “Agree or disagree?” “Good night, now!”
For Hamilton, the lights never turn off. His energetic delivery, signature walrus mustache and Beatles-like hairstyle remain, even if the platforms differ.
Yep, here comes someone else.
“Hey Hacksaw, can you…”
“OK,” he said. “Touchdown San Diego!”
Contact Jay Paris at [email protected] and follow him @jparis_sports
