ESPN cross-promotional juggernaut comes to Seattle

SEATTLE, Washington - ESPN has drawn quite a bit of ire from some sports fans and sports media pundits about their relentless cross-promotion - it often seems like an ESPN property can't even give you the weather forecast without pitching something coming up soon on a Disney-owned property (Disney being the corporate parent of ESPN). It often goes beyond the boundaries of sports (e.g. all the stars of upcoming Disney movies who mysteriously keep showing up in the Monday Night Football booth).

Today, 710 KIRO officially flipped over to the all-sports "710 ESPN" format, and host Kevin Calabro had to jump in the tank right away. Calabro interviewed John Clayton in the first half hour of his new 3pm talk show, and at the end of the interview he noted that Clayton had to run because he had a segment to do on ESPN television.

By the way, Clayton's popular Saturday morning local show is moving to the new station. The writeup notes that Clayton "is seen, heard and read across nearly all of the company's multimedia platforms", but no mention that he's been hosting a popular and respected local Saturday show on competitor 950 KJR for more than 15 years.

I don't expect 710 ESPN to mention 950 KJR by name, but they should at least acknowledge in the writeup that Clayton is a local - he got his break at ESPN after working for years at the Tacoma News-Tribune.