New Studio Makes a Short Commute for 710 ESPN's Dave Denholm

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Last Monday, 710 ESPN began broadcasting from its new studios at L.A. Live. It's hard to imagine anyone at the station is more excited about the move than Senior Reporter Dave Denholm, co-host of the afternoon drive-time show Denholm & Long.

Instead of a drive to Culver City, Denholm's afternoon routine now includes a walk across Downtown from his Historic Core condo.

Denholm has worked for the station for the last seven years. He started out doing updates during show breaks, then moved to reporting and hosting specialty shows like USC football pregame broadcasts. The Denholm & Long show started eight months ago, and next week moves to four hours, broadcasting from 3 - 7pm.

For the last three Denholm has lived Downtown with his wife Jeannine, an occasional contributor to blogdowntown. The proximity made it easy to check up on how construction was progressing. "I ended up showing up a lot and just popping upstairs," he said before Wednesday's show.

The new facility is on the second floor of the L.A. Live office building, above the under-construction Wolfgang Puck restaurant. It features offices, a conference room with a view over Nokia Plaza, a large space for the station's sales department, and multiple studios. The station's new location as part of the L.A. Live complex played a key role in helping it land a deal to broadcast the Lakers, who move from longtime radio home KLAC next season.

The walk to the studio has led Denholm to some Downtown discoveries. He takes a different path each day, varying his course depending on what lights are green.

Along with the show, Denholm also does 710 ESPN's pre-game, half-time and post-game Clippers broadcasts. In the past, that meant that on days where the team had a home game, Denholm would be forced to do the Denholm & Long show from Staples Center while co-host Brian Long worked from the Culver City studio. Now, with Staples Center and the studio just a couple hundred feet apart, he can stay in-studio, just ducking out to hustle across the street for the show's last segment.

So what's Denholm's favorite part of a job that involves getting paid to talk about sports and attend games? "Honestly, my favorite part is that it's fun."