Cumulus Media-owned KNBR has laid off its two long-time mid-day show hosts Greg Papa and Greg Silver as part of a broader staffing shake-up, sources confirmed to The Desk on Wednesday.
The two Gregs were the hosts of “Papa & Silver” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the radio station; the show will be replaced by “Fair and Biased with John Lund,” bringing Lund back to the station less than two years after he was laid off.
Papa is a 42-year broadcasting veteran and four-time California Sportscaster of the Year. He has called games for several Bay Area teams and has served as the radio play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco 49ers since 2019 under a separate contract with the team.
The move comes as Papa continues to recover from leukemia and a 78-day hospitalization that included lung failure. He recently returned to his North Bay home after treatment at UCSF Medical Center and has said he is cancer-free following a successful bone marrow transplant in March.
Papa had expressed optimism about returning to his KNBR show from a home studio, saying the radio program would be easier to resume than calling NFL games.
“The radio show would be something that’s obviously much easier to return to,” Papa told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this week. “I could do it from my house. Doing a football game is a different challenge.”
Officials at KNBR (680 AM, 104.5 FM) have not publicly commented on the layoffs. Papa declined to comment.
Lund previously worked at KNBR after moving from rival 95.7 The Game in 2016. He was let go in November 2024 during a round of cuts that also included longtime afternoon host Tom Tolbert. After leaving KNBR, Lund launched a YouTube channel and later joined Westwood One for a late-night sports show.
The layoffs come as Cumulus continues to work through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case that was filed in March. As part of its emergence from bankruptcy, a finance executive with ties to the hedge fund Alden Global Capital is expected to take a significant position in the broadcaster, The Desk reported last month.
Alden Global has been heavily criticized by newsroom unions, journalists and lawmakers who accuse it of dismissing workers, selling real estate and reducing investment in local journalism after acquiring distressed publications over the past few years. The company’s real estate strategy has also drawn scrutiny in Congress: In 2019, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York wrote to the executive, Heath Freeman, over reports that Alden Global created commercial real estate subsidiaries to sell or lease newsroom offices and printing facilities after acquisitions.
