Packers Radio Network

Last updated

Green Bay Packers Radio Network
Type Radio network
Country
Headquarters Green Bay, Wisconsin
Broadcast area
Wisconsin
Michigan
Minnesota
Illinois (limited)
South Dakota (limited)
North Dakota (limited)
Owner Green Bay Packers
Affiliation(s) NFL
Affiliates 50
Official website
Packers Radio Network

The Packers Radio Network is a broadcast radio network and the official radio broadcaster of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL), fully under the team's control in regards to technical productions and on-air personnel. The network's flagship is iHeartMedia's WRNW in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and its coverage is also heard nationwide through NFL Game Pass, Sirius XM, and TuneIn.

Contents

The team's play-by-play announcer is Wayne Larrivee, with former Packer center Larry McCarren providing color commentary since 1995. Former Packers fullback John Kuhn serves as the network's sideline reporter.

History

The Packers radio network was previously with WTMJ, which has broadcast the games since November 24, 1929, and was the former flagship station of Journal Communications until the E. W. Scripps Company and Journal completed their broadcast merger and publishing spin-off on April 1, 2015 (Good Karma took over WTMJ's operations on November 1, 2018 upon Scripps' second withdrawal from radio). [1] It was one of the few arrangements where a team's flagship radio station was not based in their home market and the local station served as a network affiliate only; WTMJ can be heard at city-grade strength in most of eastern Wisconsin, including Green Bay. Meanwhile, the rights for Packers games in the Green Bay are held by Midwest Communications's WIXX, with Midwest Communications acquiring the Fox Cities rights to the team in 2022 for WYDR, resolving an oddity in the network where former Fox Cities affiliate WAPL transmits from the same tower site as WIXX. [2]

In situations where Milwaukee Brewers baseball playoff games conflicted with Packers games (WTMJ and Good Karma Brands originate that team's broadcasts as the Brewers Radio Network) in September and October, WTMJ's FM sister station WKTI (94.5) originated the games in Milwaukee, with other stations in the Packers Radio Network continuing to determine how to carry both games, depending on whether they have a sister station to broadcast both games.

Though its broadcasts began in 1929, WTMJ did not begin paying the Packers for broadcast rights until 1943; it paid the team $7500 to broadcast the season. In the early 1930s, there was no exclusive right given to broadcast games, and WHBY, then based in Green Bay, often sent its own announcers to call the game. From 1933 to 1936, three additional stations carried WTMJ's radio broadcasts of Packer games: WLBL in Stevens Point (a non-commercial station owned by the state commerce department decades before the creation of Wisconsin Public Radio), WTAQ in Green Bay and WKBH in La Crosse. WSAW in Wausau and WJMS in Ironwood, Michigan started carrying the feed in 1937. [3]

On October 27, 2021, the Packers announced that its longtime association with WTMJ would end at the end of the season, and that it had signed a deal with iHeartMedia to make sports radio station "The Game", WRNW (97.3), the team's new Milwaukee radio affiliate in 2022. Packers broadcasts already aired on iHeartMedia stations in Madison, Wisconsin, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Moline, Illinois. Production of the Packers Radio Network had been transferred from WTMJ to the team in 2018. [4]

Extended technical details

Two internal radio stations are operated within the area surrounding Lambeau Field during Packers home games. The first features the Packers Radio Network play-by-play, along with public address and scoreboard announcements, providing the game call to those in attendance without the delay experienced by the uploading of the network feed via satellite. Another station carries the game's television network audio, also in sync with the PA/scoreboard.

Both feeds are located within VHF television channel 5 (76–82 MHz) and operated by the external vendor Live Sports Radio, LLC. [5] [6] They are FM broadcasts on frequencies below the standard American FM band, intended to require the purchase of a purpose-built Live Sports Radio tuner from the team's pro shop. However, any radio capable of receiving the extended Japanese FM band below 87.7 FM can be tuned to these frequencies.

WIXX is considered an additional "primary" station in the network. This designation only truly comes to use in the later stages of the NFL Playoffs if the Packers make it to the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl, where WIXX is allowed to carry the Packers Radio Network local call. All other network stations, including those licensed to communities in the Fox Cities, must carry the national Westwood One call instead in line with NFL rules, which included WAPL in the past, despite transmitting from the same tower site as WIXX.

Programming format and announcers

Its primary programming consists of broadcasts of Packer home and away games to a network of 56 stations in Wisconsin, the U.P., Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota, along with a two-hour pre-game show and three-hour postgame show which allows listeners to call, email, or text in a sports talk format about the finished game. Wayne Larrivee has been the play-by-play announcer since 1999, while former Packer center Larry McCarren has worked as the color commentator since 1995. Both Larrivee and McCarren contribute to the team's television programs, in addition to work with Spectrum News 1 statewide, WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee and WGBA-TV in Green Bay, where McCarren was sports director from 2013 until 2015 when he began to focus exclusively on his Packers network duties.

WRNW is the current Milwaukee station airing Learfield coverage of Wisconsin Badgers sports, and its sister stations WOKY (920) and WRIT-FM (95.7) already handle conflict situations between the Badger football and men's basketball teams, giving the Packers contractually-steady coverage throughout the season on WRNW on a full-market FM signal (through full-market stations and FM translators of AM stations and migration of AM stations over to full-power FM stations, Packers play-by-play has shifted to that band throughout the network, as with most of the league's teams). The shift away from WTMJ (whose transmitter is based in the Racine County community of Union Grove, de facto giving Racine and Kenosha a very strong signal) also compelled the team to add a Racine/Kenosha station to the network for the first time in WRJN to make up for WRNW's transmitter position being stronger to the north in the market than the south. [2]

Announcers

Map of radio affiliates as of 2015, including WTMJ, thus WRNW's transmitter site on the north side of Milwaukee is not shown. Green Bay Packers radio affiliates.png
Map of radio affiliates as of 2015, including WTMJ, thus WRNW's transmitter site on the north side of Milwaukee is not shown.

Station list

Network stations as of the 2022 Packers season [9]
CallsignFrequencyBandCityStateNetwork status
WRNW 97.3FM Milwaukee WisconsinCo-Flagship
WRLO-FM 105.3FM Antigo WisconsinAffiliate
WATW 1400AM Ashland WisconsinAffiliate
W267CS 101.3FM Ashland WisconsinWATW relay
WBSZ 93.3FM Ashland WisconsinAffiliate
WBOO 102.9FM Baraboo WisconsinAffiliate
WBEV-FM 95.3FM Beaver Dam WisconsinAffiliate
WJMQ 92.3FM Clintonville WisconsinAffiliate
WBIZ-FM 100.7FM Eau Claire WisconsinAffiliate
WGLQ 97.1FM Escanaba MichiganAffiliate
KFIZ 1450AM Fond du Lac WisconsinAffiliate
W264DN 100.7FM Fond du Lac WisconsinKFIZ relay
WFON 107.1FM Fond du Lac WisconsinAffiliate
WFAW 940AM Fort Atkinson WisconsinAffiliate
WIXX 101.1FM Green Bay WisconsinCo-Flagship
WRLS-FM 92.3FM Hayward WisconsinAffiliate
WCUP 105.7FM Houghton MichiganAffiliate
WOBE 100.7FM Iron Mountain MichiganAffiliate
WIMI 99.7FM Ironwood MichiganAffiliate
WCLO 1230AM Janesville WisconsinAffiliate
W224DE 92.7FM Janesville WisconsinWCLO relay
WJVL 99.9FM Janesville WisconsinAffiliate
W277DV 101.1FM Janesville WisconsinWFAW relay
W251BU 98.1FM Kenosha WisconsinWRJN relay
WKTY 580AM La Crosse WisconsinAffiliate
K244FM 96.7FM La Crosse WisconsinWKTY relay
WGLR-FM 97.7FM Lancaster WisconsinAffiliate
WIBA 1310AM Madison WisconsinAffiliate
WIBA-FM 101.5FM Madison WisconsinAffiliate
WOMT 1240AM ManitowocTwo Rivers WisconsinAffiliate
W300EE 107.9FM ManitowocTwo Rivers WisconsinWOMT relay
WLST 95.1FM Marinette WisconsinAffiliate
WUPZ 94.9FM Marquette MichiganAffiliate
WKEB 99.3FM Medford WisconsinAffiliate
WFXN 1230AM Moline IllinoisAffiliate
WYDR 94.3FM NeenahMenashaFox Cities WisconsinAffiliate
WCCN 1370AM Neillsville WisconsinAffiliate
W253CN 98.5FM Neillsville WisconsinWCCN relay
WCCN-FM 107.5FM Neillsville WisconsinAffiliate
WCQM 98.3FM Park Falls WisconsinAffiliate
WCMP 1350AM Pine City MinnesotaAffiliate
W293DA 106.5FM Pine City MinnesotaWCMP relay
WQPC 94.3FM Prairie du Chien WisconsinAffiliate
WRJN 1400AM Racine WisconsinAffiliate
W260CV 99.9FM Racine WisconsinWRJN relay
WCYE 93.7FM Rhinelander WisconsinAffiliate
WJMC-FM 96.1FM Rice Lake WisconsinAffiliate
WRCO-FM 100.9FM Richland Center WisconsinAffiliate
WEVR 1550AM River Falls WisconsinAffiliate
W226CK 93.1FM River Falls WisconsinWEVR relay
WEVR-FM 106.3FM River Falls WisconsinAffiliate
WTCH 960AM Shawano WisconsinAffiliate
W241CJ 96.1FM Shawano WisconsinWTCH relay
WHBL 1330AM Sheboygan WisconsinAffiliate
W268BR 101.5FM Sheboygan WisconsinWHBL relay
KSOO 99.1FM Sioux Falls South DakotaAffiliate
WXCX 105.7FM Siren WisconsinAffiliate
WCOW 97.1FM Sparta WisconsinAffiliate
WSAU-FM 99.9FM Stevens Point WisconsinAffiliate
WQDC 97.7FM Sturgeon Bay WisconsinAffiliate
WDSM 710AM Superior WisconsinAffiliate
WDUX-FM 92.7FM Waupaca WisconsinAffiliate
WSAU 550AM Wausau WisconsinAffiliate
W236CO 95.1FM Wausau WisconsinWSAU relay
WAUH 102.3FM Wautoma WisconsinAffiliate
WHTL-FM 102.3FM Whitehall WisconsinAffiliate
Blue background indicates low-power FM translator.

References

  1. Packers, WTMJ Sign Long-Term Extension Of Radio Rights Agreement Archived 2008-07-24 at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 Ellis, Jon (April 24, 2022). "Packers Network Adds Affiliates as Milwaukee Flagship Changes". Northpine. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  3. Randall Davidson, 9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. 222-223
  4. Kirchen, Rich. "Green Bay Packers switch Milwaukee radio home from WTMJ-AM to iHeartMedia sports station". Milwaukee Business Journal . Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  5. Ellis, Jon (May 9, 2021). "FCC Monitor: Iowa TV Station Upgrades". Northpine. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  6. "LPTV Experimental STA Application (LMS File No. 250245)". FCC LMS.
  7. Gary D'Amato, Irwin closes in on retirement after 30 years, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 13, 1998.
  8. Russell G. Winnie - Sports Announcer - Assistant General Manager of Radio
  9. "Packers Radio Station Listing". The Official Website of the Green Bay Packers.