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KSPN (AM)
Encyclopedia
KSPN is an all-sports radio
station based in Los Angeles, California. It is owned by Disney. It is an ESPN Radio
owned-and-operated station
.
When it premiered in January 2003, the station looked to be locally focused, bringing in popular local talk duo Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian and their McDonnell-Douglas show to anchor afternoon drive. Steve Mason & John Ireland, football player D'Marco Farr
and longtime ESPN personality Gary Miller
were among the hosts who rotated through the midday slot from 2004-2007.
On November 26, 2007, KSPN introduced yet another, new local lineup. Mason, sans Ireland, moved into the 1-4 p.m. time slot, followed in afternoon drive by a new show hosted by Dave Dameshek
, a member of the Jimmy Kimmel-Adam Carolla comedy connection. Unique to Dameshek's show was a house band
similar to those found on late-night television shows. New-to-Los Angeles Brian Long was hired for a new evening show. In the programming shakeup, Kevin Kiley
, who had served as an on-air foil to Farr, was let go, and, inexplicably, the popular Ireland also was let go. Fortunately for sports radio listeners, Ireland was rehired in April 2008 and reunited with Mason in the early afternoon timeslot.
Just seven months later, on June 23, 2008, another new local lineup was introduced. Mason and Ireland went on from 1-4 while Dameshek was forced to share his show with Long and Dave Denholm, a dubious three-man pairing. Dameshek eventually began a podcast-only show that has become among the parent network's more popular Web offerings, while Denholm and Long continued in afternoon drive.
After 710 ESPN got the Lakers rights, they started morphing their already Trojan- and Laker-heavy talk programming to be even more Laker-centric. On July 10, 2009, unofficially known as "710 Day," L.A. Sports Live with Andrew Siciliano and Mychal Thompson premiered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific time. Mason and Ireland returned to their old drive time slot (3-7 p.m.), replacing Denholm and Long.
More time slot changes were made on April 5, 2010: With ESPN having reduced The Herd with Colin Cowherd
to three hours (7-10 a.m. PT), L.A. Sports Live and Mason and Ireland each moved up by one hour but are still on for four hours each. Martinez and Long received a new time slot, 6-9 p.m. Pacific. The local shows originate from ESPN studios at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles
.
KSPN also carries two other shows from the network: Mike and Mike in the Morning
and All Night with Jason Smith, the latter of which originates from the KSPN studios. The entertaining Scott Van Pelt
and Doug Gottlieb
shows are available on KLAA due to the partnership agreement.
In December 2010, Mike Thompson was hired as new Programming Director. Thompson is infamous for once firing Joe McDonnell outside a sandwich shop in Westwood, as well as introducing Arnie Spanier
and Karl Malone
to L.A. radio. His first move at KSPN was to replace Siciliano with a new show hosted by New Yorker Max Kellerman
and former NFL player Wiley
. Kellerman was immediately named the worst talk-show host in Los Angeles by influential Daily News columnist Tom Hoffarth. Mychal Thompson remains as Lakers analyst and guest host/contributor to various other shows. Long left the station in December to become program director
of KIRO
, the ESPN affiliate in Seattle.
KSPN has since added another New Yorker, Stephen A. Smith
, to its weeknight lineup, followed by Martinez' underrated "In the Zone" talk show (fourth-best show in Tom Hoffarth's 2011 Daily News rankings).
' 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
, Bob Arbogast 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 the early 1980s, KMPC changed to talk radio
and fired its DJs. Whittinghill, Owens, Johnny Magnus and Pete Smith went over to KPRZ and played "The Music of Your Life". A few years later, KMPC returned to standards as "The Station of the Stars".
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. Other show hosts included Brian Golden and Paola Boivin, Chris Roberts and Jack Snow, Fred Wallin and Tony Femino. 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
, Kevin A. Ross
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.
Sports radio
Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and...
station based in Los Angeles, California. It is owned by Disney. It is an ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
owned-and-operated station
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
.
Play-by-play
KSPN maintains a unusually long delay even during live sportscasts, making it difficult to listen to a game while watching it live.Current
- The football and basketball programs of the University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, since the 2006-07 academic year. The football announcing team is veteran Pete Arbogast and Paul McDonald. The basketball announcers are Chris Fisher and Jim Hefner. In 2010, Fisher replaced Rory MarkasRory MarkasRory Markas was an American sportscaster best known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's play-by-play broadcaster for eight seasons, and as the radio voice of the University of Southern California men's basketball team for 11 seasons...
, who died in January of that year. - ESPN Radio coverage of the Bowl Championship SeriesBowl Championship SeriesThe Bowl Championship Series is a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , including an opportunity for the top two to compete in the BCS National Championship Game.The BCS relies on a combination of...
, selected NBA regular season and postseason gamesNBA on ESPN RadioThe NBA on ESPN Radio is a broadcast of National Basketball Association games on the ESPN Radio network. Games on ESPN Radio are distributed on over 200 radio stations in the United States and Canada. The program began on January 21, 1996 and the current contract runs through the 2015-2016 season...
, including all NBA FinalsNBA FinalsThe NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association . The series was named the NBA World Championship Series until 1986....
contests, and MLB postseason games, including the World SeriesWorld SeriesThe World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
. - Los Angeles LakersLos Angeles LakersThe Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
of the NBANational Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
, since the 2009-10 season. Spero DedesSpero DedesSpero Dedes is a Greek-American sportscaster born in Paramus, New Jersey. He is a graduate of Paramus High School and a 2001 graduate of Fordham University in New York....
and Mychal Thompson are the game announcers, preceded by the pregame show with Steve MasonSteve Mason (Radio)Steve Mason is an American sports radio personality based in Southern California, broadcasting weekday afternoons 2-6 pm on AM710 KSPN in Los Angeles.-Radio career:...
and John Ireland and the postgame show with A Martinez and Dave MillerDave MillerDave Miller may refer to:* Dave Miller , United States baseball player and coach* Dave Miller , South African athlete in cricket* Dave Miller , British athlete in football...
. - Los Angeles Angels of AnaheimLos Angeles Angels of AnaheimThe Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...
(Major League BaseballMajor League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
): Sixty Angels games are now simulcast on KSPN, which has a partnership with official flagship station KLAA for additional talk shows and some advertising sales. KLAA's audio is usually several seconds ahead of KSPN's in the L.A. basin.
Former
- Los Angeles KingsLos Angeles KingsThe Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...
of the National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey LeagueThe National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(swapped stations with Clippers in 2006; Kings games now air on KTLK) - The National Football LeagueNational Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
's San Diego ChargersSan Diego ChargersThe San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, only for the 2007 season2007 NFL seasonThe 2007 NFL season was the 88th regular season of the National Football League.Regular-season play was held from September 6 to December 30....
; game broadcasts are now on rival KLAC. - Los Angeles ClippersLos Angeles ClippersThe Los Angeles Clippers are a professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California, United States. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...
(National Basketball Association); team moved its radio broadcasts to KFWB starting with the 2009-10 season.
Talk shows
Aside from ongoing Laker coverage, KSPN has become increasingly East Coast leaning since 2010, with John Ireland, A Martinez and ESPN TV personality Marcellus Wiley the only Angeleno natives co-hosting weekday shows on the station.When it premiered in January 2003, the station looked to be locally focused, bringing in popular local talk duo Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian and their McDonnell-Douglas show to anchor afternoon drive. Steve Mason & John Ireland, football player D'Marco Farr
D'Marco Farr
D'Marco Farr is a former American football player with the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams in the National Football League. Farr played defensive tackle for the Rams from 1994–2000 and recorded 36.5 career sacks. He was a member of the Rams team that won Super Bowl XXXIV...
and longtime ESPN personality Gary Miller
Gary Miller
Gary Gene Miller is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 41st, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...
were among the hosts who rotated through the midday slot from 2004-2007.
On November 26, 2007, KSPN introduced yet another, new local lineup. Mason, sans Ireland, moved into the 1-4 p.m. time slot, followed in afternoon drive by a new show hosted by Dave Dameshek
Dave Dameshek
Dr. William "Funny" David Dameshek is an American television writer and radio personality. Dameshek is currently a football analyst and writer for NFL.com, appearing on NFL Fantasy Live and hosting the Dave Dameshek Football Podcast.- Early life :Dameshek received his undergraduate degree in...
, a member of the Jimmy Kimmel-Adam Carolla comedy connection. Unique to Dameshek's show was a house band
House band
For the British band that existed from 1984-2001, see The House BandA house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to...
similar to those found on late-night television shows. New-to-Los Angeles Brian Long was hired for a new evening show. In the programming shakeup, Kevin Kiley
Kevin Kiley (sportscaster)
Kevin Kiley, Sr. is an American sportscaster and talk show host. He currently resides and works in Cleveland, Ohio as co-host of the morning-drive Kiley and Booms alongside comedian Chuck Booms on "Sports Radio 92.3 The Fan" WKRK-FM....
, who had served as an on-air foil to Farr, was let go, and, inexplicably, the popular Ireland also was let go. Fortunately for sports radio listeners, Ireland was rehired in April 2008 and reunited with Mason in the early afternoon timeslot.
Just seven months later, on June 23, 2008, another new local lineup was introduced. Mason and Ireland went on from 1-4 while Dameshek was forced to share his show with Long and Dave Denholm, a dubious three-man pairing. Dameshek eventually began a podcast-only show that has become among the parent network's more popular Web offerings, while Denholm and Long continued in afternoon drive.
After 710 ESPN got the Lakers rights, they started morphing their already Trojan- and Laker-heavy talk programming to be even more Laker-centric. On July 10, 2009, unofficially known as "710 Day," L.A. Sports Live with Andrew Siciliano and Mychal Thompson premiered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific time. Mason and Ireland returned to their old drive time slot (3-7 p.m.), replacing Denholm and Long.
More time slot changes were made on April 5, 2010: With ESPN having reduced The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a sports talk radio show hosted by Colin Cowherd and broadcast on ESPN Radio from Bristol, Connecticut. The show is heard Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. ET until 1 p.m. ET on most ESPN Radio stations and is simulcasted on ESPNews...
to three hours (7-10 a.m. PT), L.A. Sports Live and Mason and Ireland each moved up by one hour but are still on for four hours each. Martinez and Long received a new time slot, 6-9 p.m. Pacific. The local shows originate from ESPN studios at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
.
KSPN also carries two other shows from the network: Mike and Mike in the Morning
Mike and Mike in the Morning
Mike and Mike in the Morning is an American sports-talk radio show hosted by Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg on ESPN Radio and simulcast on television, normally on ESPN2. If ESPN is broadcasting a live sporting event during the show's timeslot, Sportscenter will air on ESPN2, and the show's...
and All Night with Jason Smith, the latter of which originates from the KSPN studios. The entertaining Scott Van Pelt
Scott Van Pelt
Scott Van Pelt is an American sportscaster. He is an anchor for the 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter on ESPN, the host of The Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio and has also covered various golf events for the network.-Early life:...
and Doug Gottlieb
Doug Gottlieb
Douglas Michael Gottlieb is a former NCAA collegiate basketball player for the University of Notre Dame and Oklahoma State University, and the Russian Basketball Super League...
shows are available on KLAA due to the partnership agreement.
In December 2010, Mike Thompson was hired as new Programming Director. Thompson is infamous for once firing Joe McDonnell outside a sandwich shop in Westwood, as well as introducing Arnie Spanier
Arnie Spanier
Arnie Spanier is an American radio host for KRLD-FM 105.3 in Dallas, Texas. He was previously the weekday evening host on Sporting News Radio.Spanier was born in Bronx, New York and educated at the University of Arizona....
and Karl Malone
Karl Malone
Karl Anthony Malone , nicknamed "The Mailman", is a retired American professional basketball power forward who spent the majority of his career with the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association . Malone spent his first 18 seasons with the Jazz and formed a formidable duo with his teammate...
to L.A. radio. His first move at KSPN was to replace Siciliano with a new show hosted by New Yorker Max Kellerman
Max Kellerman
Max Kellerman is an American boxing commentator and sports talk radio host based in Los Angeles. He currently appears as a color commentator on HBO World Championship Boxing and HBO Boxing After Dark and as of January 3, 2011, is hosting a midday talk show on 710 ESPN radio in Los Angeles.Prior...
and former NFL player Wiley
Wiley
Wiley may refer to:* Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town* Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany* Wiley College, a college in Texas founded by Isaac Wiley* Wiley Rein LLP, a U.S. Law Firm...
. Kellerman was immediately named the worst talk-show host in Los Angeles by influential Daily News columnist Tom Hoffarth. Mychal Thompson remains as Lakers analyst and guest host/contributor to various other shows. Long left the station in December to become program director
Program director
In service industries, such as education, a program director or programme director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services...
of KIRO
KIRO (AM)
KIRO is a radio station based in Seattle, Washington on the shores of Lake Union with 2 towers on Maury Island, broadcasting on 710 kHz in the AM radio spectrum...
, the ESPN affiliate in Seattle.
KSPN has since added another New Yorker, Stephen A. Smith
Stephen A. Smith
-Early years:Smith was raised in the Hollis neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. He lived with his parents and four older sisters.He attended Winston-Salem State University, a historically black university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina...
, to its weeknight lineup, followed by Martinez' underrated "In the Zone" talk show (fourth-best show in Tom Hoffarth's 2011 Daily News rankings).
History
KSPN originally started at 1110 AM in December 2000, after ABC purchased the former KRLA-AM from CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
' Infinity Broadcasting due to ownership limits. However, on January 1, 2003, ABC swapped its Radio Disney
Radio Disney
Radio Disney is a radio network based in Burbank, California and headquartered out of the Disney Channel headquarters on West Alameda Ave., from where it has been based since November 2008. Prior to that, the network was based in Dallas, Texas...
and ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
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
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
. 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
WJR
WJR is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It broadcasts a news/talk format. It is a class A clear channel station whose broadcasts can be heard throughout most of the Midwest, eastern United States and Canada at night, making it one of the most powerful radio stations in the...
in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
and WGAR
WHKW
WHKW is an AM radio station in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, operating on 1220 kHz. The station is owned by Salem Communications and carries religious programming from the company's radio network. The bulk of WHKW's programming is simulcast on WHKZ in Warren, Ohio.The 1220 frequency in Cleveland was the...
in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, both also owned by Richards.
KMPC soon became Southern California's destination for sports programming, as it carried Pacific Coast League
Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League is a minor-league baseball league operating in the Western, Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Along with the International League and the Mexican League, it is one of three leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball.The...
baseball, Los Angeles Rams football, and UCLA sports. Legendary singer and actor Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
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
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
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
Dick Whittinghill
Dick Whittinghill was an American movie and television actor, recording artist and radio disc jockey in the United States...
, Geoff Edwards
Geoff Edwards
Geoffrey Bruce Owen "Geoff" Edwards is an American television actor, game show host and radio personality. Over the past decade and a half, he has been a writer and broadcaster on travel. He was born in Westfield, New Jersey....
, Wink Martindale
Wink Martindale
Winston Conrad Martindale , known professionally as Wink Martindale, is an American disc jockey and television game show host.-Radio:...
, Gary Owens
Gary Owens
Gary Owens is an American disc jockey and voice actor. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offers deadpan recitations of total nonsense, which he frequently demonstrated as the announcer on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Owens is equally proficient in straight or silly assignments and is...
, Bob Arbogast 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
Robert W. Morgan
Robert Wilbur Morgan was an award-winning morning radio personality best known for his work at several stations in Los Angeles, California, in particular KHJ-AM....
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 the early 1980s, KMPC changed to talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
and fired its DJs. Whittinghill, Owens, Johnny Magnus and Pete Smith went over to KPRZ and played "The Music of Your Life". A few years later, KMPC returned to standards as "The Station of the Stars".
In 1992, KMPC became one of the first all sports stations on the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
, billing itself as "all sports, all hours." Jim Lampley
Jim Lampley
James "Jim" Lampley is an American sportscaster, news anchor, movie producer, and restaurant owner. Lampley has anchored a record 14 Olympic Games U.S. television broadcasts, most recently the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China....
and Todd Christensen
Todd Christensen
Todd Jay Christensen is a former professional American football player and a current sports broadcaster for the MountainWest Sports Network.-Early life:...
were co-hosts of one program, Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian began their run as a popular local duo (McDonnell-Douglas) and Jim Healy
Jim Healy
Jim Healy was a longtime Los Angeles, California, sports commentator , whose daily solo radio show featured a number of sound effects and audio clips of famous sports personalities, which he played repeatedly to affect an acerbically humorous tone.Excerpting from his entry on the...
, one of the most famous voices in L.A. sports history, returned after a few years at KLAC. Other show hosts included Brian Golden and Paola Boivin, Chris Roberts and Jack Snow, Fred Wallin and Tony Femino. However, in 1994, the station was sold off to ABC and began a general talk format to complement KABC-AM
KABC (AM)
KABC is a Los Angeles radio station, and a West Coast flagship station for the Cumulus Media company. A pioneer of the talk radio format, the station went "all-talk" in 1960 and was one of the first stations to do so...
. Hosts such as Tom Leykis
Tom Leykis
Thomas Joseph Leykis is an American radio personality. He currently hosts The Tasting Room with Tom Leykis, a weekly lifestyle program dealing with fine food and drink, airing weekends mainly in West Coast markets...
and Stephanie Miller
Stephanie Miller
Stephanie Catherine Miller is an American comedienne and host of The Stephanie Miller Show, a progressive talk radio program produced in Los Angeles and syndicated nationally by Dial Global. Talkers magazine ranked her as the 24th most important radio talk show host in America for 2010.-Early...
headlined this new format. The station later evolved towards a women's talk format called The Zone, with the call sign KTZN
KTZN
KTZN is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Anchorage, Alaska. It is the exclusive home of University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves hockey; it is an affiliate of ESPN Radio, the Seattle Mariners radio network, and the NFL on Westwood One.-External links:*...
, which featured hosts of interest to women, such as Miller, Merrill Markoe
Merrill Markoe
Merrill Markoe is an author, an Emmy Award-winning television writer and a sometime standup comedienne.-Career:Markoe attended the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a B.A. in Art in 1970 and an M.A. in 1972...
, Kevin A. Ross
Kevin A. Ross
Kevin A. Ross is an American host of the syndicated television program America's Court with Judge Ross, a producer, communications strategist, and former California Superior Court judge.-Early years:...
and Joe Crummey
Joe Crummey
Joe Crummey is a conservative American radio talk show host, hosting a local political talk show on WABC radio in New York City. He took over the 10 a.m...
. (Today, the letters are used for another ESPN Radio affiliate, this one in Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
.)
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
Sporting News Radio
Yahoo! Sports Radio, formerly Sporting News Radio is a United States sports radio network that broadcasts sports news, talk, scores, and highlights 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On August 1, 2011, it was announced the network would change its name to Yahoo! Sports Radio, effective...
, until May 1, 2007, when it switched broadcasts to the Korean language
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
.)
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
Voice-over
Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...
announcer from ESPN Radio, to cut new promos.