On April 5, ESPN Radio will trim an hour off of middayer Colin Cowherd’s program to give him more time to prepare for his ESPN2 “SportsNation” program. “The Herd”, which currently runs from 10am to 2pm Eastern, will now end at 1:00. The lost hour will be transferred to Scott Van Pelt, who will now run from 1pm to 4pm.
This shift, along with the addition of more local programming will lead to lineup revamps at the ESPN O&O’s in New York and Los Angeles.
At New York’s “1050 ESPN“, the lineup change will concur with the launch of ESPNNewYork.com on Opening Day of the Baseball season. The station adds “The Leadoff Spot” hosted by Ryan Ruocco from 5am to 6am leading into Mike & Mike from 6am to 10am. Seth Everett moves from nights to a 10am to 11am slot. Colin Cowherd’s national show airs from 11am to 1pm. Current 10am to 12pm host Brandon Tierney moves to 1pm to 3pm where he will be joined by Jody MacDonald. The Michael Kay Show drops an hour to run from 3 to 7pm, with the final hour keeping its “New York Baseball Tonight” theme. Bill Daughtry will host from 7pm to Midnight.
In Los Angeles, the national lineup of Mike & Mike followed by Colin Cowherd remain from 3 to 10am. The dropped hour from Cowherd leads to middayers Mychel Thompson and Andrew Siciliano sliding up an hour to air from 10am to 2pm. Steve Mason and John Ireland also slide up to run from 2pm to 6pm. A new night show, hosted at the Los Angeles ESPN Zone resturant, hosted by Brian Long and A. Martinez (no relation to the actor of the same name) will run from 6pm to 9pm.