Frank Beckmann To Retire As Michigan Football Radio Voice

Beckmann

CUMULUS Talk WJR-A/DETROIT host and DETROIT NEWS columnist FRANK BECKMANN will retire as radio play-by-play voice of UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN football after the 2013 season.  BECKMANN, voice of the WOLVERINES since 1981, made the announcement FRIDAY.  He will continue hosting for WJR.

"It has been a pleasure for all of us at the IMG AUDIO NETWORK and our marketing staff at UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN to work with FRANK," said CHRIS FERRIS, VP of Audio for rights holder IMG COLLEGE. "While we will miss Frank's distinctive call, we are very grateful to have his continuing involvement in our broadcasts this season as well as in consulting the IMG operation and participating in broadcasting features for IMG in the future."

"We appreciate all that FRANK has done for MICHIGAN football for the past 33 years," said U-M Athletic Director DAVE BRANDON. "FRANK has dedicated his SATURDAY afternoons to telling the story of MICHIGAN football through the radio to our fans. His voice has become synonymous with some of the great calls in the history of our football program. We look forward to enjoying one more season of FRANK being the voice of MICHIGAN football before he begins his well-deserved retirement. We thank FRANK for all the years of talent, travel and support of MICHIGAN Athletics. We look forward to celebrating his contribution to our football program as the 2013 season unfolds."

BECKMANN told the DETROIT NEWS that the retirement was not prompted by the controversy earlier this year over a column he wrote for the paper about the TIGER WOODS-SERGIO GARCIA "fried chicken" incident that prompted BECKMANN to issue an apology.  He noted that the timing might be seen as related, but said "I never got any kind of big feedback from that. When I apologized for being insensitive to the stereotype, I literally got more emails complaining about the apology than I did about the column — it was four-to-two.  I’m on the air all the time, and I didn’t get any phone calls about it. Maybe to a few people it was, but it was a non-issue.”

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