KITS · 105.3 FM · San Francisco, CA
Live 105 countdowns
The Bay Area's modern rock station
RockLists holds 39 countdowns from Live 105: 27 year-end countdowns covering 1986–2016 and twelve all-time, decade and special countdowns, totaling 5,860 chart positions. The station’s first year-end number one on record is “Bizarre Love Triangle” by New Order (1986); its most recent is “Heathens” by Twenty One Pilots (2016).
Year-end countdowns
Countdown series
All-time countdowns
- All-time countdown · 1988 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1988)
- All-time countdown · 1990 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1990)
- All-time countdown · 1991 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1991)
- All-time countdown · 1992 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1992)
- All-time countdown · 1994 Revolutionary 500 (July 1994)
- All-time countdown · 1995 Revolutionary 300 (July 1995)
- All-time countdown · 2006 500 Co-Op Countdown (Memorial Day 2006)
- All-time countdown · 2009 Memorial 500 Song List (2009)
Decade countdowns
Top artists countdowns
Every Live 105 year-end number one
About Live 105
Live 105 (KITS 105.3 FM) flipped to alternative rock in October 1986 and became the Bay Area's defining modern rock station for three decades. Its Top 105.3 year-end countdowns, the Memorial Day all-time countdowns, the Revolutionary 500 and its all-time artist polls are all archived on RockLists.
KITS flipped from mainstream Top 40 to alternative as Live 105 in October 1986, with Richard Sands as program director and Steve Masters as music director. Masters had already been playing modern rock on his night show for some time and became the station's signature voice.
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed the Live 105 studios at 9th and Market Streets. The station was back on the air within a day or two, broadcasting from a van parked next to its transmitter on San Bruno Mountain, and soon relocated to new studios on Harrison Street. Masters left in 1995 after ten years to work for the MCA label Way Cool, later returning in 2002 for a retro lunch-hour show.
CBS/Infinity acquired the station from Entercom in 1997. When sister station KOME in San Jose flipped from alternative to classic rock the following year, much of the KOME staff, including PD Jay Taylor and midday host Ally Storm, migrated to Live 105, and Howard Stern's syndicated show moved with them. Sean Demery, formerly of 99X Atlanta, replaced Taylor as PD in 2002.
Live 105 is known for its annual BFD festival, held every June at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. The station rebranded as Alt 105.3 in 2017 under CBS Radio, shortly before the company merged with Entercom (now Audacy).
- Call letters
- KITS
- Frequency
- 105.3 FM
- Market
- San Francisco, CA
- Owner
- Audacy (formerly CBS Radio / Infinity Broadcasting)
- Format
- Alternative
- Format since
- 1986
- Website
- audacy.com/alt1053
- More
- Wikipedia
- Ranked with
- Alternative & Modern Rock
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