The Michigan Wolverines Sports Network is an American

radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio ( duplex communication) type ...

consisting of 46 radio stations which carry coverage of

Michigan Wolverines The Michigan Wolverines comprise 29 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the NCAA's Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except women's water polo, which competes in the NCAA inter-divisio ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and men's basketball.

WXYT-FM WXYT-FM (97.1 MHz "97-1 The Ticket") is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan, serving Metro Detroit and much of Southeast Michigan. It airs a sports radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios and offices are located in the ...

(97.1 FM) and WWJ (950 AM), both in

Metro Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

, serve as the network's flagship stations. The network also includes 44 affiliates in the U.S. states of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

: 27 AM stations, four of which extend their signals with low-power FM

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

s; and 17 full-power FM stations ( Toledo generally only broadcasts Michigan content over its

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

digital subchannel). * * Games are also available on

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

satellite radio and online via

TuneIn TuneIn is a global audio streaming service delivering live news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users. TuneIn is operated by the company TuneIn Inc. which is based in San Francisco, California. The company ...

Announcers

Football

Doug Karsch Doug Karsch (born ) is an American talk radio show host and the Michigan Wolverines football radio play by play announcer (along side Jon Jansen), based in Detroit, Michigan. Education and early career Karsch was born in Champaign, Illinois a ...

does play-by-play and

Jon Jansen Jonathan Ward Jansen (born January 28, 1976) is a former American football offensive tackle. He previously played for the Washington Redskins and Detroit Lions of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the s ...

does

color commentary A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

for football.

Basketball

Brian Boesch currently serves as play-by-play announcer for men's basketball, joined by color analyst Terry Mills.

History

Michigan's relationship with

IMG College LEARFIELD, formerly Learfield IMG College, is a large collegiate sports marketing company, representing more than 200 of the nation's top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and ...

dates back to March 2001 when the school signed a five-year deal with Host Communications, Inc., a sports marketing firm based in Lexington,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

; the deal was predicated to generate $7.5 million in advertising revenue from Michigan football and men's basketball radio broadcasts through 2005–06 (this partnership with Host would ultimately remain in place for the next seven years). In 2007, IMG College purchased Host Communications; in August 2008, IMG announced a new 12-year media rights deal with Michigan reportedly worth $86 million, including gameday radio broadcasts. WJR/Detroit had served as the network flagship station for Michigan football since 1976 (with sister station

CKLW CKLW (800 AM) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, serving Southwestern Ontario and Metro Detroit. CKLW has a news/talk format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with syndicated Canadian hosts in midd ...

serving as backup for those times when

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

baseball games took precedence) and men's basketball since 1997. In October 2005, WJR announced a new deal to broadcast rival

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

football and men's basketball, while simultaneously dropping its long partnership with Michigan. The news came as a surprise to the Michigan athletic department, including director Bill Martin, who claimed the school had acted "in good faith" throughout months of negotiations with the station. Michigan soon signed a new five-year deal with

CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...

and

CHUM Limited CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in 1954. CHU ...

(later

CTVglobemedia Bell Media Inc. ( French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

), owners of

WOMC WOMC (104.3 FM, "104.3 WOMC") is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan. It airs a classic hits radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. The transmitter and studios are both located on American Drive off 11 Mile Road in Southfield, Mi ...

/Detroit and

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

, respectively. In August 2011, new Michigan athletic director

Dave Brandon David Allen Brandon (born May 15, 1952) is an American businessman. He is the former chief executive officer of Toys "R" Us. From 1999 to 2009, he served as the president and chief executive officer of Domino's, and from 2010 to 2014, he was th ...

announced a five-year contract extension with CBS Radio, with the majority of network flagship coverage shifting to WOMC AM sister station WWJ.

Station list

:Gray background indicates low-power

:* football only :** men's basketball only

Network map(s)

References

External links

Michigan football affiliatesIMGCollege.com: University of Michigan
{{Sports networks in the United States College basketball on the radio in the United States College football on the radio Michigan Wolverines football Michigan Wolverines men's basketball Sports radio networks in the United States