`HACKSAW' NOT GETTING THE AX.

Byline: - Tom Hoffarth

To hear XTRA Sports 570-AM program director Don Martin tell it, there's nothing devious nor any need to read between the lines about the fact he's moving Matt ``Money'' Smith and Joe Grande into the afternoon drive shift and breaking down Lee ``Hacksaw'' Hamilton into bite-sized bits starting Sept. 6.

``This isn't a downsizing for Hacksaw,'' said Martin. ``I have a situation where I can bring in new listeners (who have followed Smith at KROQ-FM and Grande at Power 106-FM) and also keep Hacksaw's listeners.''

Martin's plan to reinvent the caustic Hamilton, 57, who signed a three-year deal after doing 18 years with his show going back to when it was at 690-AM, starts with keeping his ``headlines'' segments at the top of each hour during the Smith-Grande show from 4 to 7 p.m. Hamilton also will do commentaries for the ``Mancow'' morning show and have a dialogue with the ``Loose Cannons'' gang in the afternoon. And Hamilton gets four hours of sports talk Saturdays and Sundays.

Last month, Martin brought in Smith, who has been KROQ's morning sports reporter the past 11 years, to replace Larry Burnett as the Lakers pre- and postgame talk show host when the NBA season starts. Grande, who has done work on Raiders the pregame show talk before, becomes the only Latino sports-talk show host on the English-speaking station.

``It's hard to accept, but we'll see where it goes,'' Hamilton said. ``Don asked me to do it and try to make it work, and I've always been loyal and dedicated to the station.''