Savage Axed from Home Station

Michael Savage's home station, KNEW-AM in San Francisco, has dropped the controversial radio host from its airwaves permanently.

"We have decided to go in a different philosophical and ideological direction, featuring more contemporary content and more local information," a statement from the station said on Thursday. "The Savage Nation does not fit into that vision."

Savage's 15-year-old show may have been dropped also because of its high price tag and low audience numbers. According to the San Francisco Examiner, the station had been languishing in 29th place in the Arbitron ratings. Savage Nation has been replaced by an afternoon drive-time talk show called "John and Ken."

KSTE, another AM station in the Bay Area, has picked up Savage's syndicated show. His broadcast reaches hundreds of stations across the country.

Savage is notoriously antigay, and in 2003 lost his weekend TV show on MSNBC for homophobic comments. He called one caller a "sodomite" who should "get AIDS and die." After being fired, he said he only meant to insult the caller, and not all people living with AIDS.

Earlier this year, he was banned from entering the U.K. when Home secretary Jacqui Smith said he is "considered to be engaging in unacceptable behavior by seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence."

Savage has also called the decision of the Iowa supreme court legalizing gay marriage a "victory for perversion" and has called retired brigadier general Keith Kerr a "gay, phony general."