KSPN (AM) - History

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, Michigan and WGAR in Cleveland, Ohio, 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.