Detroit Lions Radio Network
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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, mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio (Duplex (teleco ...
in
Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
and
Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...
that broadcasts all of the
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...
'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) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...
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. Owned and operated by the Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on West 9 Mile Road in th ...
(Fox 2) sports director Dan Miller with
play-by-play In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...
, 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 person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...
, and former Lions guard
T. J. Lang Thomas John Lang (born September 20, 1987) is an American former professional football player who was a guard in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Eastern Michigan Eagles and was selected by the Green Bay P ...
serving as
sideline reporter In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...
.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 corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merger ...
and online with a subscription to NFL Game Pass or TuneIn Premium. The Lions' flagship station returned to WXYT-FM starting with the
2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
, after a five-year stint at WJR. As of the 2024 season, the network consists of 50 stations in 40 markets in Michigan and one in Ohio.


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 ''trans ...
. *Gray background indicates station is a
simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of 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, simultaneously) ...
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, Georg ...
, who had called play-by-play for the team from 1989-2004. * Van Patrick called play-by-play from 1950 until his death in 1974. *Other past announcers for Lions radio include Frank Beckmann, Bob Reynolds, Dave Diles and Ray Lane. *
Jim Brandstatter Jim Brandstatter (born ) is an American former sportscaster. He served as a radio announcer for the Michigan Wolverines football team from 1979 to 2021, and for the Detroit Lions from 1987 to 2017. Brandstatter is also a sports television show h ...
was the Lions' radio color commentator from 1987–2017. * Tony Ortiz 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 WXYT-FM). *Detroit's WWJ was the team's flagship station prior to 1998, and continued to
simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of 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, simultaneously) ...
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). * WXYT-FM 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 the defending Super Bowl 50 champion 2016 Denver Broncos season, Denve ...
, 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 WXYT-FM 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.


See also

* List of XM Satellite Radio channels *
List of Sirius Satellite Radio stations The following is a list of channels on Sirius XM and Sirius XM Canada. There are over 150 full-time channels on Sirius XM, over 140 of which are on Sirius XM Canada. Not included are channels that are specifically used for live sports programmin ...
*
NFL on Westwood One ''The NFL on Westwood One Sports'' is the branding for Cumulus Broadcasting subsidiary Westwood One's radio coverage of the National Football League (NFL). These games are distributed throughout the United States and Canada (the latter through ...
* Detroit Lions Television Network


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Detroit Lions Radio Network NFL on the radio Sports radio networks in the United States