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http://www.madison.com/tct/sports/packers/267986
NFL blocks Packers Radio Network from Madison area
Jason McMahon — 1/18/2008 7:40 am
If the Green Bay Packers deliver "the dagger" against the New York Giants on Sunday to seal a Super Bowl berth, Madison-area fans of the Green and Gold may not be able to hear it on the radio.
Don't worry, Packer backers -- the NFC championship game at Lambeau Field will be broadcast on both your AM and FM dials. But it won't be familiar voices coming out of the speakers.
Play-by-play announcer Wayne Larrivee -- fond of identifying a game-clinching play as "the dagger" -- and analyst Larry McCarren will be on the mic, but their call will be blocked from reaching local radio listeners due to the NFL's exclusive contract with nationwide network Westwood One.
WIBA-AM/1310, on which Larrivee and McCarren regularly appear as part of the Packers Radio Network, will instead be picking up Westwood One's feed, as will WTLX-FM/100.5. Bill Rosinski will be on the call, with Jim Fassel doing color and Kevin Kiley working the sidelines.
"Would we like to have Wayne and Larry? Absolutely. They are the voices of Packer football," WIBA operations manager Tim Scott said. "But we knew this was going to happen."
WIBA didn't have a choice in the matter. Unless a station is in its team's home market, Westwood One's contract requires its affiliates to give priority to the national outlet for the conference title games and the Super Bowl.
And Madison is not considered a home market for the Packers, a point already driven home to local Green Bay diehards who were denied a chance to see their team on broadcast television when the Packers' Nov. 29 game was aired on the NFL Network.
Of the 56 stations across six states -- including outlets in Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota -- that comprise the Packers Radio Network, only three will be permitted to pick up the team's broadcast: flagship station WTMJ-AM/620 out of Milwaukee, and WIXX-FM/101.1 and WTAQ-AM/1360 out of Green Bay.
WIXX is a 100,000-watt station with the power to reach Fond du Lac, and WTMJ's 50,000-watt signal often can be picked up in the Madison area, though the station is required by the FCC to reduce its power beginning at sundown. Kickoff Sunday is at 5:30 p.m., with sunset at 4:44 p.m.
"Between WTMJ and WIXX, it's going to cover a pretty broad area of Wisconsin," said Carl Moll, WTMJ's director of network operations for Packers broadcasts.
WIBA will be airing two hours of pregame and three hours of postgame coverage via the Packers Radio Network, but must pick up the Westwood One broadcast for the game. On sister station WIBA-FM/101.5, only the Westwood One game broadcast will be heard.
The pregame coverage on 1310 will preempt the broadcast of the AFC title game. The New England Patriots' quest to continue an attempt at a perfect season against the San Diego Chargers can be heard in its entirety on 100.5 FM.
Scott said that WIBA would have moved the AFC broadcast to sister station WTSO-AM/1070, but the University of Wisconsin women's basketball game at Ohio State (11 a.m.) takes priority on that station.
The situation is not new; when Green Bay last advanced this far in the postseason, the Packers Radio Network broadcasts were similarly limited.
"That's just the way the NFL does it because they've struck that deal with Westwood One, who are paying mucho bucks to have exclusive rights," Scott said.
The broadcast team assigned by Westwood One adds a bit of insult to injury to local listeners who are accustomed to their pro-Packers radio announcers. Fassel is a former Giants head coach, who led the team to its last Super Bowl berth seven years ago. He is in his first season in the radio booth.
Rosinski is in his second season with Westwood One, after having served as the voice of the Carolina Panthers. His first season with Carolina was 1996 -- the year the Packers knocked off the Panthers in the NFC title game.
Kiley, a former Maryland standout and professional football player, is in his fourth year as a sideline reporter for Westwood One after previous stints with Fox Sports Radio, TNT and ESPN.
For diehard Wayne-and-Larry fans outside of the reach of WIXX and WTMJ, there are other options. Through NFL.com, fans can sign up for NFL FieldPass, which allows listeners to receive home-team broadcasts online. A one-month subscription costs $9.95, but new users can receive a 7-day free trial, long enough to test the service out during Sunday's game.
The Packers Radio Network broadcast also will be available to those with Sirius satellite radio.
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