In April of 2019, Scott Kaplan was looking for a new radio home after a 19-year run at the Mighty 1090 in San Diego ended when the station shut down.
A little over a year later and a couple of hours away from home, a new opportunity came about when he had the chance to team up with Jorge Sedano at ESPN 710 in Los Angeles in August of 2020. It was a reunion of sorts as both Kaplan and Sedano broke into the business at the same a quarter century earlier in South Florida.
“He was from Miami,” said Kaplan. “I was from Fort Lauderdale. I was a few years older than him, and I was just getting my feet wet. We were together when we were little kids. He’s gone on to have great success as a TV face and a radio voice. He really advocated for me when the time was right when I was available.”
Kaplan and Sedano enjoy a great rapport and it really is a team effort with producers Lindsay “Baseball” Foltin and Laura “The Queen” Romo, as well as Chris Morales who handles all of the bits behind the show.
It is a sports talk show, but the show covers a lot more than just sports.
“The show is really known for the stupidity of it all,” said Kaplan. “Back in the old days, it was about how much you know or how much you could tell people you know. Now, it is an entertainment outlet.”
Scott Kaplan, who still lives in San Diego and commutes back and forth to ESPN LA 710, has really taken to the LA sports market and feels there have been unfair stereotypes attached to Los Angeles sports fans.
“They arrive to games late, leave games early, and they’re not real sports fans.”
Kaplan is out to put an end to those myths.
“We have got an incredible audience and I say that because we are close to our audience. Lakers fans are nuts about their team. Kings fans may be more cult like but they’re nuts about their team. The Dodgers have a huge stadium to fill and they have more attendance than anybody else in the country in Major League Baseball.”
There is a lot of interaction between the radio station and its audience, especially when it comes to listeners of Sedano and Kap. That connection was lost for a bit during COVID when hosts were broadcasting from home, fans couldn’t go to games and radio stations couldn’t have remote events including listeners.
But once the pandemic subsided, the live events returned and so did the fire and passion from the Los Angeles sports fans.
“We were so separated from our audience,” Scott Kaplan said. “Now getting back to doing grassroots hand to hand events, I can look at people in the eye, I can shake their hands, I can hug them. They can tell me the things they like and don’t like about the show.”
That live interaction led to the formation of the “Mandy Awards”, named, at the suggestion of a caller, after ESPN LA 710’s former Program Director Amanda Brown. With help from Chris Morales, the Grammys and Oscars-like event with awards centered around the radio station has become a huge hit with the fans.
“It was really just a funny way to celebrate this radio station,” said Kaplan. “It’s kind of like a pro wrestling event where we’re the wrestlers but the audience is critical to the show.”
Speaking of Pro Wrestling, Kaplan was in the middle of a real-life storyline when he was working the sidelines for a Chargers game on CBS when the team was still playing in San Diego and trying to secure a new stadium.
Kaplan had been pushing hard for the Chargers to stay in San Diego but a stadium vote didn’t go the team’s way. Owner Dean Spanos came over to Kaplan on the field, thanked him for his efforts and suggested that the decision was already made to move. Kaplan reported what Spanos told him on the air and the story blew up.
That Monday, a special assistant of Spanos called him to say “we gave you a real favor, didn’t we?”
“These freaking guys set me up,” said Kaplan. “I am the President and the Founder of the card-carrying members of the Charger Hater Club. I went from being the guy trying to keep the Chargers in San Diego and leading that charge to a guy who said they just turned their back on San Diego and I can’t be associated with them ever again.”
Kaplan obviously has to talk about the Chargers on the air, but he no longer will be their “cheerleader” and they will never be his lead story. His style is one that features “hyper overly exaggerating criticism.”
They are no longer the “Super-Chargers” to him.
“I talk about their head coach (Brandon Staley) and how over his head he is and how unqualified he is and all the stupid decisions he make,” said Kaplan who is still on the air in San Diego hosting the Kaplan and Crew show from 3pm to 6pm.
“I talk about how the team hires guys like him because their so cheap. They were terrible owners in San Diego but we loved the team…we didn’t love them. They were terrible owners in San Diego and they’re still terrible owners and that’s why they don’t make a dent in the LA marketplace.”
It’s been quite a career for Scott Kaplan, a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. From his start at WQAM in Miami to hosting with Sid Rosenberg on The Sports Guys at WNEW in New York to his work with CBS Sports and Westwood One to his current life in Southern California, Kaplan has accomplished a lot.
“It’s been an amazing ride,” said Scott Kaplan. “Sports and radio and fun and travel and interesting people and great events. The people who I’ve met and things I’ve gotten to do…I always think to myself a kid from a small town in Upstate New York doesn’t get to do stuff like this. It’s been amazing so I love it. I still love it to this day.”
Scott Kaplan loves working in LA, living in San Diego and has no love lost with the Chargers!
Peter Schwartz writes weekly sports radio features for Barrett Media. He has been involved in New York sports media for over three decades, and has worked for notable brands such as WFAN, CBS Sports Radio, WCBS 880, ESPN New York, and FOX News Radio. Peter has also served as play by play announcer for the New Yok Riptide, New York Dragons, New York Hitmen, Varsity Media and the Long Island Sports Network. You can find him on Twitter @SchwartzSports or email him at DragonsRadio@aol.com.
