The University of Southern California has announced it will move its men’s basketball and football broadcasts from ESPN’s “710 ESPN” KSPN to Cumulus Media News/Talk 790 KABC Los Angeles starting in the fall 2019.
USC Sports will also be available on KABC.com and via TuneIn and SiriusXM. The weekly “Trojans Live” show on Monday evenings will also move from KSPN to KABC. USC broadcasts had been heard on KSPN since 2006.
USC has signed a 5-year agreement with AM 790 KABC to be the radio home of Trojan football and men’s basketball, USC athletic director Lynn Swann announced today (May 2).
USC will be the main sports property for KABC, which is part of CUMULUS MEDIA.
USC’s games will also be available via live stream on KABC.com, as well as on the TuneIn Radio app and on SiriusXM satellite radio. KABC also will carry the popular “Trojans Live” Monday evening show featuring USC coaches and athletics.
“We are very excited to be partnering with KABC to bring our football and men’s basketball game radio broadcasts to all of our fans throughout Southern California,” said Swann. “This is a wonderful pairing of organizations with long and strong traditions of success. A powerful station like KABC will help us strengthen the USC brand over the airwaves and bring great Trojan content to fans, supporters and alumni throughout the region. We are extremely proud to be the showcased sports property on KABC. It was important to us that our radio partner is without other team conflicts, thereby making USC its sports priority.”
Drew Hayes, Interim General Manager, KABC, said: “We are thrilled to partner with USC as the new radio broadcast home of Trojan football and men’s basketball and look forward to bringing the very best sports programming to passionate Trojan fans. With KABC’s powerhouse signal, and USC’s powerhouse teams, more Southern California sports fans than ever will enjoy the ultimate in sports programming. Our entire team is excited to be able to broadcast and live stream Trojans games, as well as the weekly Trojans Live Monday evening coaches’ show on KABC.”
Since 2006, USC football and men’s basketball game radio broadcasts had aired on KSPN-AM 710.
AM 790 KABC, which previously served as the flagship station for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Kings, serves all of Southern California with its 6,600-watt signal. It is Los Angeles’ first talk radio station, with such nationally-recognized hosts as Jillian Barberie, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Ben Shapiro, Leeann Tweeden, John Phillips and Peter Tilden. The station provides local news, weather, sports and traffic reports around the clock and has won numerous Golden Mike Awards for its reporting.
This is an absolute downgrade for USC. Despite the press release, KABC is not a powerful station, and they have no ratings to speak of.
Ponderous.