Longtime listeners of Bay Area sports may be shocked to learn that KNBR-AM/FM station has decided to lay off Greg Papa, 63, the man whose voice has captivated generations of fans and who was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago, as part of a shake-up with the station.
The station has opted to replace Papa's and his co-host Greg Silver's show, "Papa & Silver," to make room for a new show in the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. time slot, according to SFGATE, which broke the news. Silver also confirmed the change in midday programming and the station's decision to lay him off to SFGATE.
The new show will see the return of John Lund, a former KNBR radio host whom the station laid off in 2024. Shortly afterward, he created a podcast and YouTube channel titled "John
Lund Unleashed," before returning to radio to host a late-night sports show on Westwood One Sports.
Lund's new show is expected to be called “Fair and Biased with John Lund," based on reporting from SFGATE and the fact that Lund changed the name of his YouTube channel to reflect the new show.
The decision comes at a peculiar time as Papa, a 42-year veteran of sports broadcasting, has been recovering in his North Bay home for the last several months after he had a successful bone marrow transplant, ultimately making him cancer-free, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
However, Papa found himself back in the hospital after post-transplant complications nearly killed him and potentially left his lungs permanently scarred, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“For many weeks, the situation was life-threatening,” Papa told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Now it’s life-altering.”
Papa told the San Francisco Chronicle that he hoped to return to the airwaves after recovering from his leukemia, but it's unclear if Cumulus Media, the owners of KNBR, will offer him a job once he's healthy again.
The station did not make a formal announcement that it would be ending "Papa & Silver," as fans of the show posted confused comments in Aug. 5's YouTube live stream of the "Murph & Markus" show, which continued into the time Papa's show would normally go on air.
"I guess they're giving SILVER the day off," one commenter wrote in the live stream chat.
Besides hosting his sports talk show on KNBR, Greg Papa has served as the radio play-by-play voice of the San Francisco 49ers since 2019. Before that, he spent more than two decades calling games for the Oakland Raiders and also broadcast for the Oakland A's, San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors.
Papa is perhaps best known for his signature touchdown calls — "TOUCHDOOOOOWN, RAIDERS!" and "TOUCHDOOOOOWN, SAN FRANC-IS-CO!" — as well as his unforgettable "Sleepy Floyd is Superman!" callduring the Warriors' 1991 playoff upset of the Lakers.
Last season, the 49ers brought in temporary replacement radio announcers for Papa as he recovered from his cancer treatments. The team has not announced broadcast plans for the 2026-27 season.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bay Area broadcasting veteran Greg Papa was laid off by KNBR
