diff --git a/release/Makefile b/release/Makefile
--- a/release/Makefile
+++ b/release/Makefile
@@ -49,6 +49,11 @@
 # Set this to build a smaller bootonly medium.  This saves about 100MB.
 # RELEASE_MEDIA_SETS_BOOTONLY?=	kernels minimal
 
+# Additional packages to install on the release media.  Anything required
+# for hardware support can be listed here, but these packages *won't* be
+# installed on the target system, since fwget is supposed to handle that.
+RELEASE_MEDIA_EXTRA_PACKAGES?=	wifi-firmware-kmod-release
+
 WORLDDIR?=	${.CURDIR:H}
 PORTSDIR?=	/usr/ports
 
@@ -329,7 +334,7 @@
 .endif
 .if ${.MAKE.OS} == "FreeBSD" && (!defined(NOPKG) || empty(NOPKG))
 # Install packages onto release media.
-	${PKG_INSTALL} pkg wifi-firmware-kmod-release || true
+	${PKG_INSTALL} pkg ${RELEASE_MEDIA_EXTRA_PACKAGES} || true
 	${PKG_CLEAN} || true
 .endif
 # Set up installation environment
@@ -375,7 +380,7 @@
 	echo "./usr/freebsd-dist/MANIFEST type=file uname=root gname=wheel mode=0644" >> ${.TARGET}/METALOG
 .endif
 .if ${.MAKE.OS} == "FreeBSD" && (!defined(NOPKG) || empty(NOPKG))
-	${PKG_INSTALL} pkg wifi-firmware-iwlwifi-kmod wifi-firmware-rtw88-kmod || true
+	${PKG_INSTALL} pkg ${RELEASE_MEDIA_EXTRA_PACKAGES} || true
 	${PKG_CLEAN} || true
 .endif
 # Set up installation environment
@@ -434,7 +439,7 @@
 .endif
 .if ${.MAKE.OS} == "FreeBSD" && (!defined(NOPKG) || empty(NOPKG))
 # Install packages onto release media.
-	${PKG_INSTALL} pkg wifi-firmware-kmod-release || true
+	${PKG_INSTALL} pkg ${RELEASE_MEDIA_EXTRA_PACKAGES} || true
 	${PKG_CLEAN} || true
 .endif
 # Set up installation environment