Melanie Morgan out at KSFO

Melanie Morgan has lost her job as morning co-host at KSFO-AM 560 as part of a cost-cutting measure by the conservative station’s new owner, Citadel Broadcasting.

Citadel, which acquired KSFO and KGO-AM 810 from Disney last year, decided not to renew her contract, according to WorldNetDaily.com, where Morgan is a columnist. Other cuts at the two stations are expected as Citadel lost $848 million in the most recent quarter. KSFO’s morning program will continue to be hosted by Lee Rodgers.

“What I loved most about my time at KSFO was that it allowed me to connect with listeners and take action to make real changes in the world,” Morgan said in a statement issued after Monday’s program. “We got out of our chairs, left our homes and offices, and circulated petitions, rallied for our troops and met with government leaders.”

Morgan and Rodgers have been widely credited with starting the recall of Gray Davis. In 2006, she was put in the national spotlight for saying New York Times editor Bill Keller should be executed if convicted of treason for revealing government secrets in his newspaper. Most recently, Morgan led protesters who countered demonstrators who wanted to close a Marine Corps recruiting office in Berkeley. Morgan co-founded Move America Forward, an activist pro-troop organization, which has defended American military intervention abroad.

Morgan, 51, began her career in 1981 as a reporter for KGO Channel 7. In 1984, she became an on-air personality for KGO radio where she worked for six years before switching over to KSFO.

She’s traveled to the Middle East twice to interview U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait, and her broadcast efforts from Iraq produced for her the Associated Press’ Mark Twain Journalism Award as well as the Peninsula Press Club’s award for Best Interview or Talk Show. (Photo credit: Chronicle, Carlos Avila Gonzalez, October 2006)