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 WRIT-FM (95.7 FM) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and its coverage is also heard nationwide through NFL Game Pass, SiriusXM, and TuneIn.
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).Packers, WTMJ Sign Long-Term Extension Of Radio Rights Agreement 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.
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.Randall Davidson, 9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. 222-223
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.
The team's Milwaukee flagship would abruptly change after week six of the 2025 season, after iHeart Media instituted a nationwide round of layoffs at many of their stations, especially including WRNW, which would see its morning and evening show hosts and program director departing the station, only months after several other personalities also left in previous layoff cycles. The company also made a deal with the Milwaukee Radio Alliance, the owners of WLDB (93.3), to transfer the station's intellectual property and branding to WRNW after MRA sold its stations to the Educational Media Foundation, and just before noon on October 13, 2025, the station transitioned to WLDB's similar adult contemporary format, and the company chose to move WRNW's sports rights to its top FM station in the market, WRIT-FM (95.7), including the Packers' play-by-play. WRNW carried two further Packers games with WRIT in a transition period.
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. 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.
WRIT-FM is the current Milwaukee station airing Learfield coverage of Wisconsin Badgers sports, and its sister station WOKY (920) handles conflict situations between the Badger football and men's basketball teams, giving the Packers contractually-steady coverage throughout the season on WRIT-FM 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 due to its sound clarity. 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 (two WRJN translators based in and around Milwaukee do not carry the network in deference to WRIT-FM's rights).
Announcers Russ Winnie: 1929–1957 Ted Moore: 1958–1969 Jim Irwin: 1969–1998 Gary Bender: 1970–1974 Lionel Aldridge: 1975–1979 Max McGee: 1979–1998 Larry McCarren: 1995–present Wayne Larrivee: 1999–presentGary D'Amato, Irwin closes in on retirement after 30 years , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 13, 1998.Russell G. Winnie - Sports Announcer - Assistant General Manager of Radio
Station list +Network stations as of the 2022 Packers seasonCallsignFrequencyBandCityStateNetwork statusWRIT-FM 95.7 FM Milwaukee Wisconsin Co-Flagship WRLO-FM 105.3 FM Antigo Wisconsin Affiliate WATW 1400 AM Ashland Wisconsin Affiliate W267CS 101.3 FM Ashland Wisconsin WATW relay WBSZ 93.3 FM Ashland Wisconsin Affiliate WBOO 102.9 FM Baraboo Wisconsin Affiliate WBEV-FM 95.3 FM Beaver Dam Wisconsin Affiliate WJMQ 92.3 FM Clintonville Wisconsin Affiliate WBIZ-FM 100.7 FM Eau Claire Wisconsin Affiliate WGLQ 97.1 FM Escanaba Michigan Affiliate KFIZ 1450 AM Fond du Lac Wisconsin Affiliate W264DN 100.7 FM Fond du Lac Wisconsin KFIZ relay WFON 107.1 FM Fond du Lac Wisconsin Affiliate WFAW 940 AM Fort Atkinson Wisconsin Affiliate WIXX 101.1 FM Green Bay Wisconsin Co-Flagship WRLS-FM 92.3 FM Hayward Wisconsin Affiliate WCUP 105.7 FM Houghton Michigan Affiliate WOBE 100.7 FM Iron Mountain Michigan Affiliate WIMI 99.7 FM Ironwood Michigan Affiliate WCLO 1230 AM Janesville Wisconsin Affiliate W224DE 92.7 FM Janesville Wisconsin WCLO relay WJVL 99.9 FM Janesville Wisconsin Affiliate W277DV 101.1 FM Janesville Wisconsin WFAW relay W251BU 98.1 FM Kenosha Wisconsin WRJN relay WKTY 580 AM La Crosse Wisconsin Affiliate K244FM 96.7 FM La Crosse Wisconsin WKTY relay WGLR-FM 97.7 FM Lancaster Wisconsin Affiliate WIBA 1310 AM Madison Wisconsin Affiliate WIBA-FM 101.5 FM Madison Wisconsin Affiliate WOMT 1240 AM Manitowoc–Two Rivers Wisconsin Affiliate W300EE 107.9 FM Manitowoc–Two Rivers Wisconsin WOMT relay WLST 95.1 FM Marinette Wisconsin Affiliate WUPZ 94.9 FM Marquette Michigan Affiliate WKEB 99.3 FM Medford Wisconsin Affiliate WFXN 1230 AM Moline Illinois Affiliate WYDR 94.3 FM Neenah–Menasha–Fox Cities Wisconsin Affiliate WCCN 1370 AM Neillsville Wisconsin Affiliate W253CN 98.5 FM Neillsville Wisconsin WCCN relay WCCN-FM 107.5 FM Neillsville Wisconsin Affiliate WCQM 98.3 FM Park Falls Wisconsin Affiliate WCMP 1350 AM Pine City Minnesota Affiliate W293DA 106.5 FM Pine City Minnesota WCMP relay WQPC 94.3 FM Prairie du Chien Wisconsin Affiliate WRJN 1400 AM Racine Wisconsin Affiliate W260CV 99.9 FM Racine Wisconsin WRJN relay WCYE 93.7 FM Rhinelander Wisconsin Affiliate WJMC-FM 96.1 FM Rice Lake Wisconsin Affiliate WRCO-FM 100.9 FM Richland Center Wisconsin Affiliate WEVR 1550 AM River Falls Wisconsin Affiliate W226CK 93.1 FM River Falls Wisconsin WEVR relay WEVR-FM 106.3 FM River Falls Wisconsin Affiliate WTCH 960 AM Shawano Wisconsin Affiliate W241CJ 96.1 FM Shawano Wisconsin WTCH relay WHBL 1330 AM Sheboygan Wisconsin Affiliate W268BR 101.5 FM Sheboygan Wisconsin WHBL relay KSOO 99.1 FM Sioux Falls South Dakota Affiliate WXCX 105.7 FM Siren Wisconsin Affiliate WCOW 97.1 FM Sparta Wisconsin Affiliate WSAU-FM 99.9 FM Stevens Point Wisconsin Affiliate WQDC 97.7 FM Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin Affiliate WDSM 710 AM Superior Wisconsin Affiliate WDUX-FM 92.7 FM Waupaca Wisconsin Affiliate WSAU 550 AM Wausau Wisconsin Affiliate W236CO 95.1 FM Wausau Wisconsin WSAU relay WAUH 102.3 FM Wautoma Wisconsin Affiliate WHTL-FM 102.3 FM Whitehall Wisconsin Affiliate Blue background indicates low-power FM translator.
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