KSPN (AM)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KSPN
City of license	Los Angeles, California
Branding	710 ESPN
Slogan	Experience sports!
First air date	February 19, 1927 (as 1170 KRLO), moved to 710AM November 1929
Frequency	710 (kHz)
Format	Sports radio
Power	50,000 watts day, 5,000 watts night
Callsign meaning	K ESPN
Owner	ABC Radio
Website	www.710espn.com

KSPN (710 AM) is an all-sports radio station based in Los Angeles, California. It is owned by ABC Radio. While many of the ABC Radio stations are being sold to Citadel Broadcasting, KSPN is being retained by ABC. It is an affiliate of ESPN Radio.

KSPN's play-by-play coverage includes the following:

• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (Major League Baseball), with announcers Rory Markas and Terry Smith.
• The football and basketball programs of the University of Southern California. Pete Arbogast is the football announcer, while Markas calls the basketball games. KSPN, which won the rights that had been held for five years by KMPC, began coverage on September 2, 2006.
• Los Angeles Clippers (National Basketball Association; rights acquired September 2006 for the 2006-07 season). Matt Pinto 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.

Daily talk shows include The Big Show with Steve Mason and John "Peanut Head" Ireland, The D'Marco Farr Show with D'Marco Farr and Kevin Kiley (who replaced Gary Miller in January 2007), and the network shows of Dan Patrick and Colin Cowherd. Each weekend, KSPN airs "SpeedFreaks," a show about auto racing, and "Tee It Up," which is about golf. ("Thoroughbred L.A., its longtime horse racing show, moved to KLAA in September 2006.)

[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.

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

[edit] References

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