The Detroit Lions Radio Network is a

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) t ...

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 t ...

and

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnat ...

that broadcasts all of the NFL's

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

games and related programming.Detroit Lions Official Site: Detroit Lions Radio Network Affiliates
/ref> All preseason, regular season, and postseason games are aired live throughout the network. The announcers are

WJBK WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facil ...

(Fox 2) sports director Dan Miller with

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

, former Lions offensive tackle Lomas Brown with

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 ...

, and former Lions guard T. J. Lang serving as

sideline reporter Sideline(s) may refer to: * Extended side, the geometric line that contains the side of a polygon * Sidelines, the lines that mark the outer boundaries of a sports field * Sideline (app), a smartphone app * ''Sidelines'' (newspaper), the stude ...

.Detroit Lions radio: Jim Brandstatter out, Lomas Brown in on WJR-AM
'Detroit Free Press'', July 10, 2018 Network coverage begins two hours before game time and ends one hour after the game's conclusion. Games are also aired on

Sirius XM Radio 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 ...

and online with a subscription to NFL Game Pass or

TuneIn Premium 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 compa ...

. The Lions' flagship station returned to

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 i ...

starting with the 2021 season, after a five-year stint at WJR. As of the 2022 season, the network consists of 50 stations in 40 markets in Michigan and one in Ohio. Detroit Lions radio affiliates

Station list

*Blue background indicates low-power FM

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

. *Gray background indicates station is a

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...

of another station.

History

* Dan Miller has been the radio play-by-play voice of the Lions since 2005. Miller succeeded

Mark Champion Mark Champion (born August 8, 1950) is an American radio sportscaster who is the current primary radio play-by-play voice of the Detroit Pistons, a position he has served in since 2001. When the Pistons are on national television, however, George ...

, who had called play-by-play for the team from 1989-2004. *

Van Patrick Van Patrick (August 15, 1916 – September 29, 1974) was an American sportscaster, best known for his play-by-play work with the Detroit Lions and Detroit Tigers. Patrick, self-nicknamed "The Ole Announcer", called Lions games from 1950 until ...

called play-by-play from 1950 until his death in 1974. *Other past announcers for Lions radio include

Frank Beckmann Frank Carl Beckmann (November 3, 1949February 12, 2022) was a German-born American broadcaster and talk radio host on WJR in Detroit, Michigan. He also was the radio play-by-play announcer for University of Michigan football from 1981 to 2013. ...

and Bob Reynolds. *

Jim Brandstatter James Patrick Brandstatter (born ) is an American sports announcer. He was the radio play-by-play announcer for the Michigan Wolverines football team. He held the position of color commentator for the Detroit Lions for 31 years until the end o ...

was the Lions' radio color commentator from 1987–2017. *

Tony Ortiz Tony Ortiz is a sportscaster and sports talk show host for CBS Radio owned sister stations WXYT-FM, WXYT-AM and WWJ in Detroit, MI. Broadcasting career Education and early positions After he graduated from Cooley High School in Detroit, To ...

provided Lions sideline reports from 2001 until 2016. He produced Lions games broadcasts from 1991-1994.WWJ Radio - Our Staff
/ref> *WXYT (AM) was the sole flagship station of the network from 1998-2004. *In 2005, the Lions' flagship became an FM station for the first time in their history, when a long term agreement was signed with WKRK (now

). *Detroit's WWJ was the team's flagship station prior to 1998, and continued to

WXYT's broadcasts prior to the team's move to WKRK. Prior to 1989, WJR had served as the Lions' radio flagship. *Former names of the network include "The WXYT 1270 Detroit Lions Radio Network", "The WKRK Detroit Lions Radio Network", and "The Live 97.1 Detroit Lions Radio Network" (WKRK-FM is WXYT-FM's former callsign, and Live 97.1 is one of its former brandings). *

was the Lions' flagship from 2004–2015. *On November 20, 2015, it was announced that the Detroit Lions would move to WJR beginning in the

2016 NFL season The 2016 NFL season was the 97th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL) and the 51st of the Super Bowl era. The season began on September 8, 2016, with defending Super Bowl 50 champion Denver defeating Carolina in the ...

, ending the team's 20-year relationship with CBS Radio. Officials stated that CBS had dropped the team over demands that it censor on-air content that was critical of the team. In particular, the Lions specifically demanded that flagship station

fire popular on-air personality Mike Valenti as a condition of any extension to its broadcast rights since Valenti has had a history of making remarks critical of the Lions and their poor performance. WXYT-FM refused to do so, and he remains at the station.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Detroit Lions Radio Network National Football League on the radio Sports radio networks in the United States

Station list

History

See also

References