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, mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio (Duplex (teleco ...

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 National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except wo ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

men's basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

. WCSX (94.7 FM) and WMGC-FM (105.1 FM), both in

Metro Detroit Metro Detroit is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and over 200 municipalities in the Southeast Michigan, surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the officia ...

, serve as the network's

flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyal ...

s. The network also includes 44 affiliates in the U.S. states of

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

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

: 27 AM stations, four of which extend their signals with 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 ...

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

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

digital subchannel). * * Games are also available on

Sirius XM 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 merge ...

satellite radio and online via

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

Announcers

Football

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

does play-by-play and

Jon Jansen Jonathan Ward Jansen (born January 28, 1976) is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines, and was selected by the ...

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 person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...

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 (often stylized as LEARFIELD) is a 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 many of th ...

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 landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

; 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 is owned by Bell Media and has a news/talk radio format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with ...

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 club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

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

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 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), CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in ...

(later

CTVglobemedia Bell Media Inc. ( French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include national television ...

), owners of

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

/Detroit and

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places *Detroit–Windsor, Michigan-Ontario, USA-Canada, North America; a cross-border metropolitan region Australia New South Wales *Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area Queen ...

, 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 ...

announced a five-year contract extension with CBS Radio, with the majority of network flagship coverage shifting to WOMC's AM sister station WWJ. Play-by-play announcer Jim Brandstatter and analyst Dan Dierdorf both announced their retirements prior to the commencement of the season-opening Michigan Wolverines Football game on September 4, 2021. The Duo sat side-by-side in the Michigan booth for 7 seasons.

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