Sound Off

USC's former football captain is barking at the mic on KLAC and getting more listeners than the Trojan's flagship station.

ESPN is looking to turn things around by giving away a sweet prize package and has encouraged listeners to hold up signs at their competition's remote.

Steve Mason and John Ireland host The Big Show on ESPN 710AM from 3 to 6 p.m., a time slot that overlaps with Petros Papadakis and Matt "Money" Smith, who host PMS from 4 to 7 p.m. on KLAC 570AM. Both shows compete for valuable listeners in PM drive time, when many Angelenos are stuck in their cars while driving home from work.

Papadakis was USC's football team captain in 2000. Besides hosting PMS, he also covers Pac 10 games on TV. In the Spring radio ratings from Arbitron (slightly less controversial than the BCS is to college football), PMS had a 3.1 share of men 25-54 while The Big Show had 1.3. A share is basically the percentage of people in a city listening to the radio at that time.

The contest (or "movement," as one of the hosts might have you believe) will award a pair of tickets to a USC football game every week, access to the ESPN VIP tailgate party and chauffeured transportation to and from the game. Packages are awarded weekly, but only for home games. That means the show will give away three packages for the USC games against both Washington State and UCLA. It's unclear whether the contest will extend into bowl season.

Based on what they've "not" suggested on the show and Mason's blog, we could have the makings of some radio rivalry hijinks.

Comments

[Tom Egan]

I'm a southern california native & senior who's been an SC season ticket holder for a few decades. I know Petros is an ex-Trojan, but his act for me and many of my friends is very tired, and aggravating. It appears his waistline is growing to match the size of his ego! Is there an email address that I can send him these same thoughts? Finally - I was glad to see Pete Arbogast found a full time job with the new website. Pete's a keeper.

Thanks for listening.
Tom Egan - Costa Mesa