KSPN (AM) - Talk Shows

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 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).