KSPN (AM)

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KSPN (710 AM) is an owned radio station of ABC, and operated by ESPN Radio. KSPN is the home of Los Angeles Angels baseball; with Rory Markas and Terry Smith and Los Angeles Kings hockey, plus other live programming carried by ESPN (such as Sunday Night Baseball, NBA, the Bowl Championship Series, etc.). In 2006, KSPN will become the new home of the football and basketball programs at the University of Southern California, after 5 seasons on KMPC 1540.

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, more than a year later, 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, which it held on to 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. From the 50's to the mid 60's KMPC played Middle of the Road music blending adult standards with soft rock & roll. In the late 60's KMPC became a Country Music format. In the late 70's the country format came to an end.

From the late 70's to the early 1990s, KMPC was a Big Band/Standards station. Then in the early 90's KMPC became one of the first all sports stations on the West Coast. 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, which featured hosts of interest to women, such as Miller, Merrill Markoe, and Joe Crummey.

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 hired the national voice-over announcer from ESPN Radio to cut new promos.

References

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

.8 billion USD (2004) | Employees: 129,000 | Stock Symbol: NYSE: [DIS] | Website: [disney.go.com]

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