Milwaukee gets another sports-talk radio station: 97.3 FM is now 'The Game'

Another Milwaukee FM radio station switched to sports Tuesday. 

WRNW-FM (97.3), which for years has been playing contemporary-hit music, emerged Tuesday morning as "The Game," a sports-talk station with a daytime lineup of local on-the-air hosts talking Wisconsin sports. 

“Milwaukee is more than just a great sports town and 97.3 The Game will reflect that,” Tim Scott, "The Game's" program director, said in a statement Tuesday.

The switch came less than a month after Good Karma Brands, the new owner of WTMJ-AM (620) and WKTI-FM (94.5), flipped the latter from country music to all-sports. Since Nov. 1, WKTI has been rebranded as ESPN FM, simulcasting programming airing on Good Karma's other Milwaukee radio station, all-sports WAUK-AM (540). 

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"The Game," owned by national radio giant iHeart Radio, makes six Milwaukee radio stations dominated by sports content (including WTMJ, which carries Brewers, Packers and Bucks games along with nighttime sports talk). Also in the mix are WOKY-AM (920), also owned by iHeart, and WSSP-AM (1250). 

"The Game's" daytime programming lineup includes several voices that'll be familiar to current sports-talk listeners in Milwaukee, including former Journal Sentinel sports reporter and sports-talk veteran Drew Olson and radio personality Kevin Brandt, who jumped over from WOKY to host the station's morning show from 6 to 10 a.m.; and WISN-TV (Channel 12) sports anchor Dan Needles and Bucks announcer Ted Davis, who have a show airing from 10 a.m. to noon. 

The FM station also will simulcast University of Wisconsin Badgers football, hockey and basketball games, now airing on WOKY, along with NFL postseason games, including Super Bowl 53. 

When there aren't games at night, the station will air a local show, "Brew City Sports Tonight," from 6 to 8 p.m., and Fox Sports radio programming overnight. 

In the most recent monthly ratings scorecard, WRNW's contemporary-hits format was pulling in a 2.6 share, ranking 15th among Milwaukee-area stations subscribing to Nielsen Audio's service. 

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