Richard Sands is employed in the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

radio industry. First program director at

Live 105 KITS (105.3 FM, "Live 105") is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock radio format known as "Live 105". The studios and offices are co-located with formerly co-owne ...

(KITS-FM) in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. He began at the station as evening

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

when it was a

Hot Hits Hot Hits was a radio format created by consultant Mike Joseph in the 1970s. That concept, which helped spur the birth of what is now known as CHR, also revitalized the Top 40 format and would play a role in bringing the format to the FM band throug ...

formatted Top 40 station in 1983, eventually rising to the

program director In service industries, such as education, a program manager or program director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services. For example, in education, a program director is responsible for developing ...

position in 1985. He left the station in 1998, after it was merged with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

co-owned

KOME KOME was a commercial FM radio station in San Jose, California, broadcasting at 98.5 MHz. KOME was on the air from 1971 through 1998. Currently, the 98.5 FM frequency is home to KUFX "K-Fox", a classic rock station. An unrelated FM station ...

. He won ''

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...

's'' Major Market Program Director of the Year award, among numerous other honors. In 2024, he was inducted into The Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame. Born Richard Briskin, he is the son of best-selling author

Jacqueline Briskin Jacqueline Briskin, née Orgell (18 December 1927 – 24 December 2014) was a British-born American writer specializing in historical fiction from 1970 to 1995. Her books regularly appear on the ''New York Times'' bestseller's list. She was a m ...

and former

literary agent A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers, film producers, and film studios, and assists in sale and deal negotiation. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwr ...

Bert Briskin Bert or BERT may refer to: Persons, characters, or animals known as Bert *Bert (name), commonly an abbreviated forename and sometimes a surname *Bert, a character in the poem "Bert the Wombat" by The Wiggles; from their 1992 album ''Here Comes a ...

. He currently publishes ''The Sands Report'', a weekly Alternative radio and record company industry newsletter which began in April 2002, after serving three years as Alternative editor at ''Gavin Magazine''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sands, Richard American radio DJs American magazine publishers (people) American publishers (people) Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American radio executives