Greg Papa, a prominent voice on Bay Area radio for decades, has been laid off from KNBR alongside his on-air talk show partner Greg Silver, as he continues recovering from complications from a bone-marrow transplant.
At age 63, Greg Papa has had a 42-year career on the radio, most recently with a 10 am to 2 pm talk show on KNBR, and becoming the 49ers' radio play-by-play guy in 2019. He gave a harrowing account to the Chronicle earlier this week about his health struggles of the last year, which began with a leukemia diagnosis while on vacation in France in July 2025.
He last did a 49ers broadcast in January, calling the regular-season finale against the Seahawks, reportedly while receiving chemotherapy treatment through a catheter in his arm.
Papa received chemo and a bone marrow transplant, with the donor being his younger sister, and he is now cancer free. But a complication from the chest tube used for the marrow transplant led to a serious infection and a collapsed lung, which precipitated a nearly three-month hospital stay. All of this has left Papa fairly infirm — though, as he told the Chronicle, his health has been on an upswing.
It was an open question whether he would ever be able to return to the 49ers gig, or to his midday KNBR show, though he had hoped to be able to rejoin the show from his home studio as he has previously. But today, as SFGate first reported, Papa and Silver have been let go, to be replaced by new midday host John Lund. Lund was previously laid off in a round of cost-cutting layoffs in late 2024.
Silver was reportedly surprised by the layoff news, but he told SFGate he had no ill will toward his coworkers.
"I know that people are going to feel a certain way about the station, and they absolutely can,” Silver tells SFGate. "But my feelings towards any of Murph, Markus, John Curley, Copes, Derek, Tim, Walter — you name it, they are just the absolutely best."
The "Papa & Silver" show was skipped over today, as SFGate notes, with "Murph & Markus" just extending 35 minutes past 10 am until a Giants pregame broadcast began. It's not clear if "Fair and Biased with John Lund" will come on the air as soon as Thursday at 10 am.
Silver had been doing primary hosting duties for a number of months, with a rotating set of cohosts. And Silver, who is the son of longtime NFL sportscaster and journalist Mike Silver, had replaced Lund in co-hosting with Papa two years ago. As SFGate notes, the pattern shows that Silver may not be gone from the airwaves for long, but we'll see.
Papa has declined to comment to comment on the layoff, according to TheDesk.net. Also, KNBR has not made any official statement or comment.
Previously: 49ers Radio Announcer Greg Papa Diagnosed With Cancer, Is ‘Stepping Away’ From Broadcasts for Now
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