KSPN (AM)

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KSPN (710 AM) is an all-sports radio station based in Los Angeles, California. It is owned by Disney. It is an affiliate of ESPN Radio.

[edit] Play-by-play

[edit] Current

• The football and basketball programs of the University of Southern California, since the 2006-07 academic year. The football announcing team is Pete Arbogast and Paul McDonald, while Rory Markas and Jim Hefner call the basketball games.
• Los Angeles Clippers (National Basketball Association, since 2006-07. Brian Sieman is the play-by-play announcer, except when games are not televised. In that case, Ralph Lawler and Michael Smith come over from TV to call the games.[1]
• ESPN Radio coverage of the Bowl Championship Series and MLB postseason games, including the World Series.
• The National Football League's San Diego Chargers, since 2007.[2]

[edit] Former

• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (Major League Baseball) (ended after the 2007 season, coverage to air on KLAA, the Angels' own station, starting in 2008)
• Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (swapped stations with Clippers in 2006; Kings games now air on KTLK)

[edit] Talk shows

On November 26, 2007, KSPN introduced a new local lineup. Station veteran Steve Mason (Radio) now hosts in the 1-4 p.m. time slot, followed by a new show hosted by Dave Dameshek, a comedy writer and former host of talk shows in Phoenix and Pittsburgh from 4-7 p.m. A newspaper report indicates that Dameshek's show includes a house band similar to those found on late-night television shows.^[1] Finally, the 7-10 p.m. slot, which had been network programming, converted to another new local program. The host is Brian Long, who previously worked in the Palm Springs and Bakersfield markets.[3]

Former hosts John Ireland, Kevin Kiley, and D'Marco Farr left the station as their contracts were terminated.^[2]

There are also three daytime shows from the network: Mike and Mike in the Morning, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and the time slot held by Dan Patrick until he left ESPN in August 2007. Mike Tirico (10 a.m.-noon) and Stephen A. Smith (noon-1 p.m.) are now airing in Patrick's former time slot. During Patrick's last week, KSPN aired a local program on one day from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., which was Patrick's time slot, but it was replaced by the network feed after only one day.[4] (KSPN also did not air the final Patrick radio show, on August 17, but only because the Angels played the Boston Red Sox in the first game of a day-night doubleheader at the same time.)

Each weekend, KSPN airs SpeedFreaks, a show about auto racing, and Tee It Up, which is about golf.

[edit] History

KSPN originally started at 1110 AM in December 2000, after ABC purchased the former KRLA-AM from CBS' Infinity Broadcasting due to ownership limits. However, on January 1, 2003, ABC swapped its Radio Disney and ESPN Radio formats, with 1110 taking Radio Disney and 710 becoming L.A.'s ESPN Radio outlet, led by the talk team of Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian.

710-AM began its life as KRLO on February 19, 1927, broadcasting out of Beverly Hills. It actually was broadcasting at 1170 AM, and didn't switch to 710 until it was sold to new owners in November 1929, as KEJK. It took the its famous and well-known call letters of KMPC in March 1930 (under the ownership of MacMillan Petroleum Company, for which the station's call letters were named) and kept those for nearly 70 years. George A. Richards of Detroit acquired the station then, and KMPC became part of the Goodwill Station group that included WJR in Detroit and WGAR in Cleveland, both also owned by Richards.

KMPC soon became Southern California's destination for sports programming, as it carried Pacific Coast League baseball, Los Angeles Rams football, and UCLA sports. Legendary singer and actor Gene Autry bought KMPC in 1952, and years later, the 710 frequency became the longtime home of Angels baseball (save for a few years in late 1990s).

During 1958 and 1959, it was also the flagship station for the Los Angeles Dodgers radio network. Throughout the 1950s and most of the 1960s, KMPC played middle of the road music, best described as a combination of older standards and soft rock. Dick Whittinghill, Geoff Edwards, Wink Martindale, Gary Owens and Roger Carroll formed a powerhouse jock lineup during the '70s. KMPC later adopted a standards format which featured big band music extensively. During this time, the legendary Robert W. Morgan began a long stint as morning host, and KMPC aired a daily sports-talk show hosted by Scott St. James, who became a soap opera actor on the side.

In 1992, KMPC became one of the first all sports stations on the West Coast, billing itself as "all sports, all hours." Jim Lampley and Todd Christensen were co-hosts of one program, Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian began their run as a popular local duo (McDonnell-Douglas) and Jim Healy, one of the most famous voices in L.A. sports history, returned after a few years at KLAC. However, in 1994, the station was sold off to ABC and began a general talk format to complement KABC-AM. Hosts such as Tom Leykis and Stephanie Miller headlined this new format. The station later evolved towards a women's talk format called The Zone, with the call sign KTZN, which featured hosts of interest to women, such as Miller, Merrill Markoe, and Joe Crummey. (Today, the letters are used for another ESPN Radio affiliate, this one in Anchorage, Alaska.)

When this format didn't work out, the Radio Disney programming was placed on 710 in 1997. The KMPC call letters were retired until AM 1540 acquired them in 2000. (That KMPC also had an all-sports format, with Sporting News Radio, until May 1, 2007, when it switched broadcasts to the Korean language.)

In June 2006, KSPN rebranded from "ESPN Radio 710" to "710 ESPN" and adopted the tagline "Experience sports." The station also hired Jim Cutler, the national voice-over announcer from ESPN Radio, to cut new promos.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• ESPN Radio 710 Los Angeles
• KMPC 710 History & Tribute site
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KSPN
• Radio Locator Information on KSPN