This paper investigates the steady-state momentum and radiation heat transfer flow of a viscoelastic fluid in a porous media in the presence of a linear Navier slip boundary condition. The velocity of the fluid over the linear stretching sheet is varied linearly with the axial distance while a Walters' liquid-B model is assumed for the viscosity. A similarity transformation reduces the Navier-Stokes equations to a set of partial differential equations that are converted into ordinary differential equations and solved analytically for the velocity. Moreover, heat is balanced between a temperature dependent heat source and radiation and leads to a differential equation with variable coefficients. The temperature equation is transformed to a confluent hypergeometric differential equation using the Rosseland approximation for the radiation and solved analytically. Results are discussed for two boundary conditions of the sheet, the prescribed surface temperature and the wall heat flux. Parameters like the Reynolds number, the viscoelastic parameter and the boundary slip parameter are found to determine the flow field. In addition, the Prandtl number, the radiation number, the wall temperature and the heat source/sink parameters are found to control the temperature distribution inside the stretching sheet. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.