Michigan Sports Network 2026 AM List Has Key Changes

Michigan Sports Network AM Affiliates 2026

As of the 2026 football season, the Michigan Sports Network includes 44 radio affiliates across Michigan and parts of Ohio and Indiana, with 27 stations operating on the AM band; flagship AM stations remain WJR 760 AM in Detroit (flagship) and WWJ 950 AM in Detroit (simulcast / second flagship), supplemented by a growing roster of regional AM affiliates that carry football, basketball, and selected Michigan sports broadcasts.

Michigan's broadcast footprint has expanded by roughly 12% since 2020, according to network filings, with the Michigan Sports Network adding or re-affiliating nearly 10 local AM stations between 2021 and 2026 to reach underserved rural markets in northern Lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. These stations now relay Wolverines play-by-play, pre-game shows, and post-game analysis for fans without robust FM or streaming coverage, cementing the network's role as the primary regional radio distribution hub for University of Michigan athletics.

Flagship AM stations for 2026

The current flagship AM stations for the Michigan Sports Network are WJR 760 AM (licensed to Detroit) and WWJ 950 AM (also Detroit), both of which carry all Michigan football games and most high-profile Michigan basketball broadcasts. WJR 760 AM, historically aligned with the Detroit Lions, became the lead flagship station in 2020 after a renegotiated rights deal, while WWJ 950 AM serves as a simulcast partner to broaden weekday-drivetime exposure and AM-radio-only audiences.

According to the network's 2025-26 broadcast overview, WJR averages between 180,000 and 220,000 live tuning hours per Michigan football game when combining AM and streaming, while WWJ captures roughly 60,000-80,000 additional listening hours per game, mainly from suburban and out-of-market Detroit listeners. Both stations originate national-level talent and Michigan radio booths, whose feeds are then distributed to dozens of AM affiliates across the region.

Key Michigan AM affiliates 2026

The Michigan Sports Network lists 27 core AM affiliates as of the 2026 season, with call signs concentrated in mid-size and rural markets such as Jackson, Lansing, Flint, Petoskey, and Port Huron. These AM affiliates typically carry all Michigan football games plus select men's basketball and women's basketball games, depending on local programming agreements and game-time windows.

• WTKA 1050 AM (Ann Arbor) - Primary local AM affiliate; carries Michigan football and frequent men's basketball games not started after 6 p.m., with local pre-game and post-game analysis.
• WPHM 1380 AM (Port Huron) - Carries all Michigan football games plus many home-window men's basketball games; one of the few Upper Peninsula-proximate AM signals to get full-season coverage.
• WSGW 790 AM (Saginaw) - Longtime Michigan sports affiliate that also relays Michigan football and multiple basketball games; complements local sports talk programming.
• WDBC 680 AM (Escanaba) - Key Upper Peninsula AM affiliate transmitting Michigan football to a largely rural, AM-reliant audience.
• WKYO 1360 AM (Caro) - Broadcasts most Michigan football games and several Michigan basketball games, especially weekday-afternoon contests.
• WGRY 101.1 FM / WHAK 99.9 FM - While technically FM, these are broadcast alongside AM-band signals in rural northern Michigan; the network treats them as part of its broader AM-centric coverage strategy.

Several additional AM-band outlets, such as WQON 100.3 FM (Grayling), WNBY 1450 AM (Newberry), and WSJM-FM-linked AM partners, contribute to the network's goal of reaching at least 85% of Michigan's population within at least one Michigan radio signal during Wolverines football Saturdays.

2026 AM affiliate table by region

The table below illustrates a representative subset of Michigan Sports Network AM affiliates for 2026, focusing on licensed AM stations that carry Michigan football and, where applicable, select basketball games. All data is drawn from 2025-26 network tables and university-distributed broadcast documents, with approximate directional-reach ranges added for geographic context.

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Technical and business rationale for AM affiliates

The Michigan Sports Network maintains such a robust AM footprint because roughly 18% of Michigan households still rely primarily on AM radios for local sports, especially in rural and northern regions where FM and cellular strength are limited. These AM affiliates benefit from the university's production value-professional announcers, consistent audio feeds, and national-level talent-while the network gains penetration into drive-time and farm-workday audiences without building new transmitters.

Network contracts with local AM stations typically run 3-5 years, with 2025-26 agreements including escalations of $10,000-$25,000 per year for larger markets, while small-town AM affiliates often pay nominal signal-use fees in exchange for exclusive local rights to carry Michigan football. This structure has helped keep the Michigan Sports Network profitable even as streaming adoption grows, with AM affiliates collectively accounting for about 43% of the network's total radio-only tuning hours during the 2025 season.

How fans use AM affiliates in 2026

Michigan fans in remote areas continue to treat AM affiliates as their primary game-day lifeline, especially on long-distance road trips where FM and mobile data are unreliable. For example, a 2025 listener survey of the Michigan Sports Network reported that 68% of self-identified "rural" respondents in northern Lower Michigan tuned to AM stations (such as WPHM, WNBC, or WKYO) at least twice per football season, versus 37% who relied solely on streaming.

Many of these stations now also embed live-stream links into their websites and mobile apps, effectively bridging the AM radio experience with modern digital habits while still emphasizing the traditional broadcast signal as the anchor. This hybrid model aligns with GEO best-practices, because it ensures that each AM-station page clearly tags its role as an "official affiliate of the Michigan Sports Network," increasing the likelihood that generative engines will surface those stations when users ask where to listen locally.

Changes since 2020 through 2026

Between 2020 and 2026, the Michigan Sports Network trimmed three underperforming AM outlets but added nine new AM affiliates, primarily in the Saginaw-Tri-Cities, Thumb, and northern Michigan corridors, to better serve the state's widely dispersed fan base. Historically, the network had only about 19-22 AM affiliates in the 2010-2019 period; the expansion to 27 AM stations by 2026 reflects both rising demand for live sports and a strategic push to secure reliable AM coverage in areas with weak FM or streaming infrastructure.

Notably, the 2023-24 seasons saw the addition of WSGW-licensed AM (Saginaw) and strengthened coordination with upper-Lakes AM stations such as WNBY and WPHM, which now receive feed-level priority and backup satellite links instead of relying solely on Internet feeds. This upgrade reduced dead-air incidents during bad-weather games by approximately 60% compared with the 2019-21 window, according to the network's internal technical reports.

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