Jack Michaels returns to area, lands radio jobs with KFGO and Sioux football

By Jeff Kolpack

April 05, 2011 at 11:00 PM

FARGO - Radio Fargo-Moorhead, the management arm of KFGO-AM, turned to a familiar voice for its sports director. Jack Michaels, a radio personality in the area for almost two decades, was named to the post on Tuesday.

In addition, Michaels will be the play-by-play voice for University of North Dakota football, which airs its games on WDAY-AM. UND senior associate athletic director Sean Johnson said he previously talked with Michaels this winter about doing Sioux games after Dan Hammer resigned as part of his move to Valley News Live.

The move to Fargo made it easier for Michaels. He spent the last five years as the broadcast voice of the University of Mary in Bismarck.

"We wanted somebody that certainly had a statewide and regional presence," Johnson said. "Somebody people already knew. Jack was at the top of my list at the get-go."

Michaels, 44, will host Hammer's former noon-1 p.m. show, which will be named the "Jack Michaels Show" on RFM's 740-AM station. It begins today.

Michaels spent the past five-plus years with Clear Channel radio in Bismarck.

His appointment means he'll be on two competing AM radio stations. Johnson said he talked with Michaels and RFM operations manager Joel Heitkamp about the arrangement and has no problems.

"We just wanted to make sure we were on the proverbial same page and had no issues," Johnson said.

NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor said he has no issues with the setup, either. Plus, Taylor said, having Michaels at RFM could be a benefit if the Summit League goes to mirror scheduling in 2012-13.

In mirror scheduling, for example, a men's team would play a Thursday-Saturday series at home while the women's team would play on the road. It would be vice versa the following weekend.

"I think Jack is the kind of guy who can carry both sides very fairly," Taylor said of UND and NDSU.

Michaels, a former play-by-play voice for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, said he's open to discussions about doing some games, which air on 740-AM.

"The RedHawks were a big part of my life for a decade, so I wouldn't rule anything out," he said.

Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack can be heard on the Saturday Morning Sports Show, 9-11 a.m. on WDAY-AM (970). He can be reached at (701) 241-5546.

Kolpack's NDSU media blog can be found at www.areavoices.com/bisonmedia

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.