UPDATE (2:40p ET): ESPN VP of PR Josh Krulewitz in response to my report on ESPN Radio changes: “An announcement with details on future ESPN radio plans is upcoming.”

Los Angeles radio industry sources confirmed to me this week that the daily radio shows of ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt and Doug Gottlieb will soon be heard on the Angels-owned KLAA-AM (830am). KLAA, which was purchased by Arte Moreno to serve as the flagship radio outlet for the Angels, has a powerful daytime signal into Los Angeles.

As of now the changes, which have been in the works for months, are set to take effect in early April. The move also comes despite there already being an ESPN-owned station in the L.A. marketplace, KSPN-AM (710am).

As part of the change on the national ESPN radio front, Colin Cowherd’s morning show is being cut by one hour, from 7-10a PT. Van Pelt’s show is likely to increase to three hours, with it airing live in L.A. from 10a-1p PT and Gottlieb’s show remaining from 1p-4p PT.

Cowherd’s full show will continue to be broadcast weekdays on KSPN from 7a-10a PT. KSPN currently airs local programming from 11a-3p PT (LA Sports Live with Mychal Thompson & Andrew Siciliano) and 3p-7p PT (Steve Mason & John Ireland).

So why is ESPN launching its national radio shows into a market where it already airs local L.A. ESPN radio programming via KSPN?

Read more…

Ross Newhan returns to pen an interesting piece today for the L.A. TIMES on the lengths former Dodger Owner Walter O’Malley went to prevent the Angels from ever existing.

(This close from never knowing the wonderment of Rex the Wonder Dog)

Newhan:

According to newspaper and book accounts supported by personal recollections and interviews, the late Walter O’Malley, who moved his storied team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, never wanted an American League team in what he regarded as his new, private and lucrative territory or believed the AL had legal rights to it.

Son Peter O’Malley denies his dad’s sentiment, but based on the facts of how SoCal’s AL franchise came to exist, there’s no doubt O’Malley did all he could to block off L.A. and Orange Counties from baseball entrepreneurs. Read more…

Mark Heisler of the LOS ANGELES TIMES has more details today on Elton Brand’s escape to Philly. Heisler notes that the Clippers tried to offer Brand a contract of $81M, but Brand’s agent David Falk stopped returning the club’s calls. Brand eventually accepted an $82M deal from the Sixers.

Heisler surmises, as we did here last Friday, that Falk is most likely behind Brand spurning the Clippers. Keep in mind though that Heisler’s sources on the matter are likely Clippers-affiliated, and the club is presently in full damage control mode.

Not many saw the Philly move coming, but two ESPN 950 radio hosts in Philadelpia, Harry Mayes and Dan Schwartzman, browbeat Brand on-air about joining the Sixers as early as June 5 (audio).

Meanwhile, Jonathan Abrams of the Times reports that Baron Davis’ agent has confirmed his client is still hip to clip.

USA TODAY reports that NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson endorsed John McCain yesterday at the National Press Club: “I’d have to pick (John) McCain. I think our core fan base, being Republicans like they are, that will be their first choice.”

FYI: NASCAR’s home state of North Carolina is currently represented in Congress by seven Democrats and six Republicans.

(We avoided Charles Woodson’s wine stains, but not this - thankfully)

When I was at the Playboy Mansion recently, they were pouring samples of a wine called “24.” No idea what it was at the time, but now the DETROIT NEWS reports that the vino is the handiwork of noted vintner Charles Woodson.

The Chicago Bears official website has plenty of fun with the fact that when Jim McMahon visited the White House in 1996 as a member of the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers, he actually wore a Bears jersey.

Excerpt: “When the Packers were honored at the White House, McMahon wore a Bears jersey, enraging Green Bay fans. McMahon explained that he did it because the Bears never got a chance to visit the White House after winning Super Bowl XX. Their trip to Washington was canceled after the Challenger space shuttle blew up.”

God I miss that dude.

Paul Lukas of UNI WATCH BLOG has a bone to pick with the Brewers.

Seems he’s not too found of the club’s penchant for on-field advertising: “Can’t they leave this sh– off the field of play?“

Conveniently, that quote can also be attributed to when the Royals next visit Miller Park. Read more…

I arrived back in Los Angeles late last week and immediately went back to my old radio ways, flipping around between sports radio KSPN (710am) and KLAC (570am).

(Oh how I miss Cora and Melissa and Alex my days at KSPN!)

I’m happy to report that my old buddies Mason & Ireland are back doing a show on 710 (middays), and Petros and Money are now firmly rooted in PM drive on 570.

It’s also good news that L.A. has added another legit sports outlet in KLAA-AM, the eclectically-progammed station owned and operated by the Angels.

Read more…

THE OKLAHOMAN tallies up the news that Oklahoma City voters have approved an arena tax, clearing one more hurdle that will help the Sooner State land the Seattle Supersonics.

Over 62% of the votes were in favor of extending a current 1-cent sales tax that was to expire at the end of the year. The new proposal would continue the tax into 2010, and is expect to raise more than $121 million for improvements to the Ford Center.

The Sonics appear one step closer to pulling out of the Pacific Northwest for the Great Plains. Even their website acknowledges the inevitable. Read more…

MORENO FAKES OUT FANS WITH BOGUS STONEMAN MOVE: You probably don’t care about the Anaheim Angels. Here in Los Angeles, north of the Orange (County) Curtain, we don’t either. But as Dodger faithful, we did get a good piece of news today:

The LOS ANGELES TIMES and ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER have apparently bought into a shell game perpetrated by Anaheim owner Arte Moreno over GM Bill Stoneman’s *demotion*.

As general manager, Stoneman has been strung up by the SoCal media over the years for not making trades to help the team break through in the playoffs. But Moreno adores him (he offered Stoneman an extension during last season). Today the Angels are announcing that Stoneman is “stepping down” from his GM post into a consultant’s role.

One small detail: Stoneman’s Moreno’s hire as new general manager, Tony Reagins, is NOT a player evaluator (the LAT notes “Reagins did not play or coach professionally, and his background leans more toward administration than player evaluation … he could be mentored by Stoneman“).

So with Stoneman still lurking in the organization, you can bet that every player move will continue to contain his fingerprints. In other words, Moreno made the move solely to deflect criticism off his previously much-maligned, malingering GM.

Of course, that’s good news for the Dodgers and the rest of the American League, as it’s business as usual for Moreno’s stuck-in-neutral charges.

ORANGE COUNTY OUTLET TRASHES “LOS ANGELES” ANGELS: The ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER delivered a bonecrushing hit piece on the Angels Sunday, as the newspaper reported that Angels Stadium was cited for “118 vermin violations that county officials logged at stadium kiosks and restaurants over the last 2½ years.

“Of those reports, 33 represent ‘major’ violations, in which ‘rodent activity’ was observed by health inspectors in a ‘critical area’ of 18 stadium food venues.“Even more shocking is that Barry Bonds didn’t visit the park a single time during that time period.

The Register concludes that the reason for the rat problem stems from the fact that the Angels don’t clean up discarded trash in the ballpark until the morning after a game. The Padres and Dodgers both clean up trash at their stadiums immediately after the final out.

Excerpt: “On a recent 6 a.m. tour of the stadium – 12 hours after the end of a day game – Register staff observed nachos, peanuts, melted ice cream and ketchup-stained wrappers, among other edible refuse, lying on the floor of the stands.“In stadium kitchens, including the Diamond Club Kitchen and Bar, dirty dishes and pots were stacked on tabletops and in sinks. Counters were greasy and unwiped. Wilted lettuce and food products were left out on countertops.”

Question: Do you think if Arte Moreno hadn’t taken a steaming dump on the city of Anaheim (eight miles from the OC Register’s in Santa Ana) with the whole Los Angeles Angels charade, the local yokels would be firing back with (rat) turds of their own (we LOVE the rotting garbage sideshow!)?

DANIELS COVERS COLOR AND HILITES OF DUCKS TRIUMPH: The LOS ANGELES TIMES fingered transsexual sportswriter Christine Daniels (who has glammed it in her new mugshot) to head online coverage of the Ducks’ Stanley Cup triumph last night in Anaheim.

We’re guessing Daniels, who hasn’t covered a sports beat for years, was nowhere near the Honda Center (like us), but she did gleefully unveil the news from behind the Orange Curtain for us unfeeling Angelenos: “The Anaheim Ducks are Stanley Cup Champions. (Right now, Arte Moreno is on the phone with his attorneys — ‘Maybe we want to rethink this name thing.’ The Dodgers certainly are.

“With just one postseason victory since 1988, Dodger management is reportedly thinking of a new strategy. Are you ready for ‘The Los Angeles Dodgers of Anaheim’?)”

The Ducks are now officially our second entertainment option in Orange County. Now onto Daniels’ new “Women In Progress” column for the LAT - which reads much like a how-to guide for transsexuals.

On the first day that the former Mike Penner appeared as Christine Daniels in the LAT, this was her day’s highlight: “By 8 o’clock in the evening, I was walking away from my first-ever salon appointment — having been colored and highlighted, cut and curled, a bright golden-honey hue replacing what three hours earlier had been my usual dirty brown-and-gray. The hairstyle I’d waited a lifetime for.”

And this from emailer “Michelle”: “It is amazing how many wonderful and supportive friends you have found since your announcement. As a girl in transition, it is the one thing that still scares me the most in that I don’t know if I have the types of friends who will support, or the type who will be judgemental, or simply disappear.”

Speaking of disappearing, LAT users can (surprisingly) comment on the blog, which is an indication the newspaper has plenty of moderators standing on the delete key.

TEAM NAME CHANGE HAS FAR-REACHING CONSEQUENCES: Taking a cue from Angels owner Arte Moreno, the Long Beach Armada of the Golden Baseball League is changing it’s official name:

The team will now be known as the “Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska”.

The newly-named LBALACUSNAIBA plans on honoring its co-city with a Barrow Alaska Day on June 30th. First, ESPN does some stories about your town’s new high school football team, and now this.

Meanwhile, it appears that LBALACUSNAIBA is taking the opposite route of its SoCal rival Fullerton Flyers.

Remember new Angels Owner Arte Moreno’s pledge to slash concession stand prices at The Ed?

The LOS ANGELES TIMES has the "radical" results: A bottle of soda will be $4 and a large bag of peanuts will be $5, each down $0.25.

Arte graduated from the Michael Eisner school of public relations with honors in just a couple weeks!