San Fran Radio; KNBR Lays-Offs Cancer Stricken Greg Papa

Cumulus Media's KNBR has laid off longtime Bay Area sportscaster Greg Papa, 63, and his midday co-host Greg Silver. The pair will be replaced on the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. show by John Lund, a veteran Bay Area radio voice who was dismissed by the station in November 2024.

Silver confirmed the layoffs. Papa declined to comment.

Papa, a 42-year broadcasting veteran and four-time California Sportscaster of the Year, retains his separate contract as the San Francisco 49ers’ radio play-by-play announcer, a role he has held since 2019. His status with the team is unchanged, a team spokesman said.

Papa was diagnosed with leukemia just over a year ago. He returned to his North Bay home last month after a life-threatening 78-day hospital stay at UCSF Medical Center that included lung failure. He underwent a successful bone marrow transplant on March 4 and is now cancer-free, though he continues to use supplemental oxygen at reduced levels after both lungs collapsed during his nearly three-month hospitalization.

Greg Papa

Papa recently told the Chronicle he had hoped to resume his KNBR duties from his home studio, as he did last year during two rounds of chemotherapy. He returned to the air two months after his diagnosis and stayed on until preparing for the transplant. While his voice remained strong in a two-hour phone interview last month, he acknowledged that the physical demands of returning to the 49ers’ booth made his play-by-play future uncertain.

“The radio show would be something that’s obviously much easier to return to,” Papa said. “I could do it from my house. Doing a football game is a different challenge.”

His year-long health battle also created financial strain, prompting a friend to launch a GoFundMe campaign for expenses not fully covered by insurance.

“When I’m off the radio show, I don’t get paid,” Papa said. “And then there’s home care. There’s ancillary expenses. The medication. There was one medication I just started taking that was $5,000 for a month’s bottle. We were able to get it down to zero. But cancer is unfair. And it affects you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. And then it ultimately gets you financially.”