Carling Cup Fourth Round
Birmingham City v Brentford - Iain Dowie
Ipswich Town v Northampton Town - Tony Cottee (studio)
Leicester City v West Bromwich Albion - Graham Sharp (studio)
Wigan Athletic v Swansea City - John Salako (studio)
Manchester United v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Paul Walsh (studio)
Johnstone's Paint Trophy Northern Section Second Round
Tranmere Rovers v Stockport County - Rob Palmer
Co-operative Insurance Cup Quarter Finals
Aberdeen v Falkirk - Frank Gilfeather
Motherwell v Dundee United - Ken McRobb
Sports news - Julian Waters
BBC Coventry & Warwickshire
Geoff Foster presenting Coventry & Warwickshire Sport from Liberty Way
FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round Replay
Nuneaton Town v Workington Town - Geoff Foster and Dave Sharp (commentary), with Dave Ison in the studio
Do Sky Sports News have additional reporters at the games their studio quartet are watching on their monitors? It's been a while since I watched the channel, but in the days that I did they never used to on Soccer Saturday/Special.
I'm sure I heard TC commenting on the Ipswich game from the studio when I dipped into their webstream, although as I've netted an unwanted hat-trick of gaffs tonight I'll forgive you for not taking my word for it!
WM are taking extra-time commentary on Blues v Brentford now. They put the DAB commentary of Manchester United v Wolves onto FM during half-time at the Walkers and took the final 15 minutes from Old Trafford after Leicester v WBA ended.
Sky Sports News was as you said but before the game (on Sky Sports News), Stuart Jarrold previewed the game at Portman Road. I didn't see if there were other reporters at the grounds.
I think it's even longer than that, at least 10 years or so now. Century FM had the rights for ages, then XFM did it for a couple of seasons, before Key 103 took over a couple of years ago.
Peter Swan was commentating for BBC Radio Humberside on Grimsby Town's match against Tamworth tonight. I don't know who was summarising or any other details because I arrived home late from a meeting.
Mark Regan presenting The Football Phone-In from The Mailbox, followed by Richard Wilford with WM Sport from the Walkers Stadium
Carling Cup Fourth Round
Birmingham City v Brentford - Richie Anderson
Leicester City v West Bromwich Albion - Rob Gurney and Richard Wilford (95.6FM commentary)
Manchester United v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Phil Cartwright (DAB in Wolverhampton commentary)
FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round Replay
Grimsby Town v Tamworth - David Burns
Very interesting, because David Burns usually leads the Radio Humberside team. It's like Tom Ross reporting for the other team's station instead of commentating for the Goal Zone. It explains why Radio Humberside only had Mike White commentating. Presumably David Burns would have also done commentary. Don't know where John Tondeur was. He could have been there earlier in the evening, but I don't think he was.
can Radio Leeds not use the rights 5 Live Sports Extra has to do a commentary as they did earlier in the season when 5 Live had commentary?
I find it strange that Radio Manchester could broadcast the 5 Live commentary when 5 Live had Champions League rights for Manchester United, but BBC Radio Leeds can't. 5 Live wasn't broadcasting any live sport last night, so the match should have been on 5 Live imo.
BBC Radio Leeds' featured match is Bradford City verses Oxford United, which is also on the Pulse. Huddersfield Town's match won't be on any radio station. Bradford fans are angry about Radio Leeds stopping split commentaries and they don't like Pulse Sport. Having Bradford as the featured team is more unfair on Huddersfield Town fans, because unlike Bradford fans, they cannot tune elsewhere for commentary on their team. Paul Ogden will presumably commentate for the Huddersfield Town website. I hope licence fee payers aren't paying for the online commentary that nobody can get without paying an additional fee.
I think Absolute Radio will benefit from rugby union commentary being on 5 Live, and I have no complaints about 5 Live's decision, even though I probably won't be listening.
I think it's even longer than that, at least 10 years or so now. Century FM had the rights for ages, then XFM did it for a couple of seasons, before Key 103 took over a couple of years ago.
The year BBC GMR (as was) lost access to regular Manchester United commentaries would have been 1998/99.
It was at the start of that season when Century 105.4FM (now, since last year, Real Radio North West) began broadcasting, and according to the station's Wikipedia entry, a Century-based episode of the BBC Two documentary series Trouble at the Top covered them acquiring exclusive commentary rights to the Red Devils prior to their September launch.
As for their dates, Century held Manchester United commentary rights from 1998/99 through to 2006/07 - notable commentators they used down the years include Jim Proudfoot, Mark Regan, Dominic Johnson, Fraser Dainton, Gary Weaver and Chris Cooper.
I remember it was in 2006/07 when the rights changed hands, as Century was sold from GCap to GMG mid-season - what's more, Cooper joined the station from talkSPORT as Manchester United commentator at the turn of the year after Weaver left to work for Sky's Football First, only to find himself without regular games (again) once coverage shifted to Xfm with him not following the rights.
Xfm Manchester only held Manchester United rights for one season - 2007/08 with Phil Blacker and Mickey Thomas (who had moved with the rights) being the commentary team - before Bauer's Key 103 signed a three season deal from 2008/09 onwards. Thomas is Key's Manchester United co-commentator as he was on the other two stations. Going by the linked article, the rights will be up for renewal in the summer so it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Before they lost rights to the club, BBC GMR's Manchester United commentators include David Oates - who Wiki says joined Radio 5 Live in 1996 - and Roger Johnson (for one season only, 1996/97, before joining BBC South Today). Not sure who their commentator would have been in their final season.
Thanks for the further info Ian. You mention that Mike Sadler was GMR's Manchester United commentator in 1998/99, would he have had the opportunity to do a few commentaries at the start of the season due to the timing of Century's launch?
According to Wiki (I know, but the page in question seems accurately written), Century 105.4FM only launched in September 1998 - so for the first month of that season, it would have made sense for MUFC to allow GMR to continue commentating on them until the new station with exclusive rights began broadcasting. That, or they would have deprived listeners of local radio coverage from their first few games of that campaign.
To give some dates as to who commentated when during Century's run as I understand it: -
Jim Proudfoot was their original commentator in the 98/99 season, joining from BRMB. He commentated on their Champions League Final win among other games. However in 1999/2000, he left Century to move onto Talk Radio (to be part of talkSPORT's launch team later that season) and Sky Sports.
Proudfoot was replaced as United commentator by Mark Regan, one of their reporters on other clubs during the initial season of their coverage (Chris Cooper was one of the other reporters at this point).
Regan followed the Red Devils for one full season before Dominic Johnson was brought in from Capital Gold London in 2000/01 to cover United. Both left Century not long after the end of that season, Johnson to read the sports news on Virgin Radio (he did their unofficial commentaries on the 2002 World Cup too), Regan to BRMB before becoming BBC WM's Sports Editor in 2003.
Fraser Dainton was their next Manchester United commentator, and he also commentated on England games for the Century network in 2001/02 (the last year of the Capital Group's - who had acquired the station by then - FA contract), although by 2003/04 he had moved to Sky Sports News as a North-West correspondent (I believe he does commentaries for Liverpool TV these days as well).
So it would have been Gary Weaver from around 03/04 until the start of 2006/07, when he first started commentating for Sky Sports (he's a Football First and Premier League international feed regular today).
Chris Cooper then rejoined Century in January 2007 to see out the season - having found himself pushed down the talkSPORT pecking order from number 1 (the pinnacle for him there was doing Liverpool's 2005 Champions League Final) to number 3 behind a returning Jim Proudfoot and Nigel Pearson.
After the rights went to Xfm in 2007/08, Cooper stuck with Century 105.4FM for a season - presenting their Legends Phone-In - before moving to Century (now Real Radio) in the North-East as their Sunderland commentator, where he's been ever since.
For those wondering why a music station like Xfm had the rights, but only for one season, the reason for this was because GCap Media (by this point a merger of Capital and GWR) still held the rights, yet had sold Century to GMG so moved commentaries to the Manchester station they still owned. By the end of that season, GCap had been purchased by Global meaning yet more changes, allowing Key 103 to come in and pick up the United rights.
Various commentators popped up during Xfm's season (including Weaver and Phil Blacker) while Hugh Ferris has been Key 103's usual MUFC commentator since 2008. I think I'm right in saying that Mickey Thomas has been the regular United co-commentator throughout Century, Xfm and Key 103's run.
With Key's deal expiring at the end of the season, it'll be interesting to see what happens when Manchester United renegotiate their rights in the summer.
Real Radio are now in the football rights business, holding Newcastle and Sunderland rights in the North-East and a limited amount of SPL games in Scotland, so they could be a contender. With BBC Radio Sport making "savings" at national level (after 5 Live lost the rights to two Premier League packages and the Rugby World Cup), could BBC Radio Manchester be in a position to bid and win back rights? Key 103 will probably be looking to renew. Might it be in MUFC's interest to sell non-exclusive rights this time around?
With Key's deal expiring at the end of the season, it'll be interesting to see what happens when Manchester United renegotiate their rights in the summer.
Real Radio are now in the football rights business, holding Newcastle and Sunderland rights in the North-East and a limited amount of SPL games in Scotland, so they could be a contender.
With BBC Radio Sport making "savings" at national level (after 5 Live lost the rights to two Premier League packages and the Rugby World Cup), could BBC Radio Manchester be in a position to bid and win back rights? Key 103 will probably be looking to renew. Might it be in MUFC's interest to sell non-exclusive rights this time around?
I can't see BBC Manchester winning back rights for Man Utd - especially if Sir Alex continues to blank them (which will continue long after he leaves Old Trafford).
Also, any BBC savings nationally are bound to knock on locally - look at BBC Radio Lancashire unable to pay for Blackburn commentaries (they won't be the last BBC Local station to lose commentary rights either).
I can't see BBC Manchester winning back rights for Man Utd - especially if Sir Alex continues to blank them (which will continue long after he leaves Old Trafford).
Is it possible that Sir Alex's feud with the BBC played its part in the reason why BBC Radio Manchester lost rights to Manchester United in the first place?
I know his boycott of BBC interviews started in 2004, but I think he'd fallen out with them to a lesser extent in the 1990s (I remember a great play being made out of him doing punditry for them on their TV coverage of the World Club Championships in 2000, as if this was something of a u-turn).
When GMR lost local Manchester United rights to Century 105.4FM in 1998/99, this was the same season that Radio 5 Live lost access to MUFC's home Champions League games, with the club selling exclusive national radio rights to their European fixtures to Talk Radio for a number of seasons.
Also, any BBC savings nationally are bound to knock on locally - look at BBC Radio Lancashire unable to pay for Blackburn commentaries (they won't be the last BBC Local station to lose commentary rights either).
It'll come down to either Key 103 or Real Radio.
Perhaps, but BBC Radio Sport has made/will make considerable savings in recent times.
I know we're in a recession, the BBC are cost-cutting all over the shop and of course 5 Live is afforded a much bigger budget than that of BBC Local Radio - but nevertheless, the BBC have lost two packages of Premier League radio rights, the Rugby World Cup and they will almost certainly see their exclusive radio deal for the FA Cup and England matches not renewed in the same way it stands now come 2012/13.
That means not only will they save considerable expense on rights money itself, but also on covering those events with commentaries etc. Therefore if the money that would have been used on those rights in the past is reallocated into BBC Local Radio (rather than solely into 5 Live or is just "saved" entirely), then this could help stations like BBC's Manchester, Lancashire and London win back commentary rights to some of the bigger clubs in their patch.
Anyway, I hope my last few mammoth messages helped answer your question about GMR John.
talkSPORT's football coverage details for coming weeks:
Saturday 30th October: Bobby Gould will be at Wolves v Manchester City, Ray Parlour will be at Arsenal v West Ham and it'll be Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore for commentary for Manchester United v Tottenham at Old Trafford for the 17:30 kick-off.
Sunday 31st October: Alan Brazil will present Sunday Exclusive from 11:00 with commentary of Aston Villa v Birmingham at 12:00 with Nigel Pearson and Alvin Martin followed by Newcastle v Sunderland at 13:30 with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Football First will be presented with Ian Danter alongside Ray Houghton and Matt Holland between 18:00-21:00.
Tuesday 2nd November: live commentary of Bursaspor v Manchester United with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Wednesday 3rd November: live commentary of Chelsea v Spartak Moscow with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Sunday 7th November: live commentary of Arsenal v Newcastle at 13:30 with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Wednesday 10th November: live commentary of Manchester City v Manchester United with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Saturday 13th November: live commentary of Stoke v Liverpool with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Sunday 14th November: live commentary of Everton v Arsenal with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
16:00 Call Collymore from Goodison Park 18:00 Football First with Ian Danter, Alvin Martin & Ray Houghton 20:00 Full Contact with Mike Bovill & Jeff Probyn 21:00 The F1 Grand Prix Show with Andy Goldstein & Eddie Irvine 22:00-00:00 Andy Goldstein's Sports Bar.
Thanks for posting those details. I'd be surprised if Sunday's schedule stays as it is, and Stan Collymore and Alvin Martin don't switch commentary games.
Surely Stan has enough leverage at the station to convince his bosses to let him cover the Second City Derby, not to mention that talkSPORT would surely see having him at that particular game as a selling point to their coverage.
Otherwise it's as you'd expect, although it's good to see Full Contact pencilled in for Sunday 14th November. That's the second weekend of Autumn International rugby, with England v Australia, Wales v South Africa and Scotland v New Zealand taking place the day before.
Tbh I wouldn't be surprised if Key didn't renew. This season they seem to be doing the bare minimum coverage possible - no games on FM at all, it's Magic AM or DAB only. They've also lost/given up (delete as applicable) rights to Man city, so it's possible that they're cutting back on football a bit. Though Key have had quite a few exclusives with SAF in recent weeks, he's currently not doing press conferences unless he has to , so they've managed to get news before anyone else, particularly on the Rooney situation.
I agree that while SAF continues to refuse to speak to the BBC, BBC Manchester is a non-starter, and also with Col that they are city-obsessed. Bolton, Wigan & the lower league sides barely get a look in unless there's no other option (i.e. city aren't playing).
I know his boycott of BBC interviews started in 2004, but I think he'd fallen out with them to a lesser extent in the 1990s (I remember a great play being made out of him doing punditry for them on their TV coverage of the World Club Championships in 2000, as if this was something of a u-turn).
Indeed. I think it was January 1994 when he called BBC TV's team "the Liverpool fan club" or somesuch.
Mark Saggers presenting Kick-Off alongside Ray Parlour
Carling Cup Fourth Round
Aston Villa v Burnley - Dave Rowe
Newcastle United v Arsenal - Graham Courtney
West Ham United v Stoke City - Ian Abrahams and Alan Brazil
Co-operative Insurance Cup Quarter Final
St Johnstone v Celtic - Peter Martin
BRMB
Tom Ross presenting The Goalzone from Villa Park
Carling Cup Fourth Round
Aston Villa v Burnley - Tom Ross and Pat Heard (commentary)
BBC WM
Mark Regan presenting The Football Phone-In from The Mailbox, followed by Rob Gurney with WM Sport from Villa Park
Carling Cup Fourth Round
Aston Villa v Burnley - Phil Cartwright and Rob Gurney (commentary)
FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round Replay
Tipton Town v Sheffield FC - Andrew Dawkins
Indeed. I think it was January 1994 when he called BBC TV's team "the Liverpool fan club" or somesuch.
Yes, and he did stop talking for them for a while in 2000, because I remember he agreed to talk to them for the first time in ages after Charlton 3 Man U 3 in December 2000, and they showed it in full on Grandstand because it was the first for ages, even thought it was very boring, and done by Harry Gration.
I also remember that match wasn't planned as a main highlights game on Match of the Day but because of the result they did a long edit with off-tube commentary, so instead of the proper MOTD-branded boards they had at their featured games at the time, they did the interview in front of a giant "REDBUS" logo, Charlton's then sponsor. Enduring image, hmm?
Comments
Out of interest, exactly how long has it been since BBC Radio Manchester did regular commentaries from Old Trafford?
Richard Gordon presenting Sportsound on 810MW.
Aberdeen v Falkirk - Scott Davie, Steve Cowan and Jim Leighton (commentary)
Motherwell v Dundee Utd - Chick Young and Allan Preston
I think we all know which is more popular
Five years. Maybe even seven.
Birmingham v Brentford Phil Parry and Clive Walker (commentary)
Dartford v Leiston sounds like Peter Gees of BBC Kent to me
Ed Chamberlain presenting Gillette Soccer Special
Carling Cup Fourth Round
Birmingham City v Brentford - Iain Dowie
Ipswich Town v Northampton Town - Tony Cottee (studio)
Leicester City v West Bromwich Albion - Graham Sharp (studio)
Wigan Athletic v Swansea City - John Salako (studio)
Manchester United v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Paul Walsh (studio)
Johnstone's Paint Trophy Northern Section Second Round
Tranmere Rovers v Stockport County - Rob Palmer
Co-operative Insurance Cup Quarter Finals
Aberdeen v Falkirk - Frank Gilfeather
Motherwell v Dundee United - Ken McRobb
Sports news - Julian Waters
BBC Coventry & Warwickshire
Geoff Foster presenting Coventry & Warwickshire Sport from Liberty Way
FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round Replay
Nuneaton Town v Workington Town - Geoff Foster and Dave Sharp (commentary), with Dave Ison in the studio
I'm sure I heard TC commenting on the Ipswich game from the studio when I dipped into their webstream, although as I've netted an unwanted hat-trick of gaffs tonight I'll forgive you for not taking my word for it!
WM are taking extra-time commentary on Blues v Brentford now. They put the DAB commentary of Manchester United v Wolves onto FM during half-time at the Walkers and took the final 15 minutes from Old Trafford after Leicester v WBA ended.
I think it's even longer than that, at least 10 years or so now. Century FM had the rights for ages, then XFM did it for a couple of seasons, before Key 103 took over a couple of years ago.
Very interesting, because David Burns usually leads the Radio Humberside team. It's like Tom Ross reporting for the other team's station instead of commentating for the Goal Zone. It explains why Radio Humberside only had Mike White commentating. Presumably David Burns would have also done commentary. Don't know where John Tondeur was. He could have been there earlier in the evening, but I don't think he was.
I find it strange that Radio Manchester could broadcast the 5 Live commentary when 5 Live had Champions League rights for Manchester United, but BBC Radio Leeds can't. 5 Live wasn't broadcasting any live sport last night, so the match should have been on 5 Live imo.
BBC Radio Leeds' featured match is Bradford City verses Oxford United, which is also on the Pulse. Huddersfield Town's match won't be on any radio station. Bradford fans are angry about Radio Leeds stopping split commentaries and they don't like Pulse Sport. Having Bradford as the featured team is more unfair on Huddersfield Town fans, because unlike Bradford fans, they cannot tune elsewhere for commentary on their team. Paul Ogden will presumably commentate for the Huddersfield Town website. I hope licence fee payers aren't paying for the online commentary that nobody can get without paying an additional fee.
I think Absolute Radio will benefit from rugby union commentary being on 5 Live, and I have no complaints about 5 Live's decision, even though I probably won't be listening.
The year BBC GMR (as was) lost access to regular Manchester United commentaries would have been 1998/99.
It was at the start of that season when Century 105.4FM (now, since last year, Real Radio North West) began broadcasting, and according to the station's Wikipedia entry, a Century-based episode of the BBC Two documentary series Trouble at the Top covered them acquiring exclusive commentary rights to the Red Devils prior to their September launch.
As for their dates, Century held Manchester United commentary rights from 1998/99 through to 2006/07 - notable commentators they used down the years include Jim Proudfoot, Mark Regan, Dominic Johnson, Fraser Dainton, Gary Weaver and Chris Cooper.
I remember it was in 2006/07 when the rights changed hands, as Century was sold from GCap to GMG mid-season - what's more, Cooper joined the station from talkSPORT as Manchester United commentator at the turn of the year after Weaver left to work for Sky's Football First, only to find himself without regular games (again) once coverage shifted to Xfm with him not following the rights.
Xfm Manchester only held Manchester United rights for one season - 2007/08 with Phil Blacker and Mickey Thomas (who had moved with the rights) being the commentary team - before Bauer's Key 103 signed a three season deal from 2008/09 onwards. Thomas is Key's Manchester United co-commentator as he was on the other two stations. Going by the linked article, the rights will be up for renewal in the summer so it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Before they lost rights to the club, BBC GMR's Manchester United commentators include David Oates - who Wiki says joined Radio 5 Live in 1996 - and Roger Johnson (for one season only, 1996/97, before joining BBC South Today). Not sure who their commentator would have been in their final season.
According to Wiki (I know, but the page in question seems accurately written), Century 105.4FM only launched in September 1998 - so for the first month of that season, it would have made sense for MUFC to allow GMR to continue commentating on them until the new station with exclusive rights began broadcasting. That, or they would have deprived listeners of local radio coverage from their first few games of that campaign.
To give some dates as to who commentated when during Century's run as I understand it: -
Jim Proudfoot was their original commentator in the 98/99 season, joining from BRMB. He commentated on their Champions League Final win among other games. However in 1999/2000, he left Century to move onto Talk Radio (to be part of talkSPORT's launch team later that season) and Sky Sports.
Proudfoot was replaced as United commentator by Mark Regan, one of their reporters on other clubs during the initial season of their coverage (Chris Cooper was one of the other reporters at this point).
Regan followed the Red Devils for one full season before Dominic Johnson was brought in from Capital Gold London in 2000/01 to cover United. Both left Century not long after the end of that season, Johnson to read the sports news on Virgin Radio (he did their unofficial commentaries on the 2002 World Cup too), Regan to BRMB before becoming BBC WM's Sports Editor in 2003.
Fraser Dainton was their next Manchester United commentator, and he also commentated on England games for the Century network in 2001/02 (the last year of the Capital Group's - who had acquired the station by then - FA contract), although by 2003/04 he had moved to Sky Sports News as a North-West correspondent (I believe he does commentaries for Liverpool TV these days as well).
So it would have been Gary Weaver from around 03/04 until the start of 2006/07, when he first started commentating for Sky Sports (he's a Football First and Premier League international feed regular today).
Chris Cooper then rejoined Century in January 2007 to see out the season - having found himself pushed down the talkSPORT pecking order from number 1 (the pinnacle for him there was doing Liverpool's 2005 Champions League Final) to number 3 behind a returning Jim Proudfoot and Nigel Pearson.
After the rights went to Xfm in 2007/08, Cooper stuck with Century 105.4FM for a season - presenting their Legends Phone-In - before moving to Century (now Real Radio) in the North-East as their Sunderland commentator, where he's been ever since.
For those wondering why a music station like Xfm had the rights, but only for one season, the reason for this was because GCap Media (by this point a merger of Capital and GWR) still held the rights, yet had sold Century to GMG so moved commentaries to the Manchester station they still owned. By the end of that season, GCap had been purchased by Global meaning yet more changes, allowing Key 103 to come in and pick up the United rights.
Various commentators popped up during Xfm's season (including Weaver and Phil Blacker) while Hugh Ferris has been Key 103's usual MUFC commentator since 2008. I think I'm right in saying that Mickey Thomas has been the regular United co-commentator throughout Century, Xfm and Key 103's run.
With Key's deal expiring at the end of the season, it'll be interesting to see what happens when Manchester United renegotiate their rights in the summer.
Real Radio are now in the football rights business, holding Newcastle and Sunderland rights in the North-East and a limited amount of SPL games in Scotland, so they could be a contender. With BBC Radio Sport making "savings" at national level (after 5 Live lost the rights to two Premier League packages and the Rugby World Cup), could BBC Radio Manchester be in a position to bid and win back rights? Key 103 will probably be looking to renew. Might it be in MUFC's interest to sell non-exclusive rights this time around?
I can't see BBC Manchester winning back rights for Man Utd - especially if Sir Alex continues to blank them (which will continue long after he leaves Old Trafford).
Also, any BBC savings nationally are bound to knock on locally - look at BBC Radio Lancashire unable to pay for Blackburn commentaries (they won't be the last BBC Local station to lose commentary rights either).
It'll come down to either Key 103 or Real Radio.
Is it possible that Sir Alex's feud with the BBC played its part in the reason why BBC Radio Manchester lost rights to Manchester United in the first place?
I know his boycott of BBC interviews started in 2004, but I think he'd fallen out with them to a lesser extent in the 1990s (I remember a great play being made out of him doing punditry for them on their TV coverage of the World Club Championships in 2000, as if this was something of a u-turn).
When GMR lost local Manchester United rights to Century 105.4FM in 1998/99, this was the same season that Radio 5 Live lost access to MUFC's home Champions League games, with the club selling exclusive national radio rights to their European fixtures to Talk Radio for a number of seasons.
Perhaps, but BBC Radio Sport has made/will make considerable savings in recent times.
I know we're in a recession, the BBC are cost-cutting all over the shop and of course 5 Live is afforded a much bigger budget than that of BBC Local Radio - but nevertheless, the BBC have lost two packages of Premier League radio rights, the Rugby World Cup and they will almost certainly see their exclusive radio deal for the FA Cup and England matches not renewed in the same way it stands now come 2012/13.
That means not only will they save considerable expense on rights money itself, but also on covering those events with commentaries etc. Therefore if the money that would have been used on those rights in the past is reallocated into BBC Local Radio (rather than solely into 5 Live or is just "saved" entirely), then this could help stations like BBC's Manchester, Lancashire and London win back commentary rights to some of the bigger clubs in their patch.
Anyway, I hope my last few mammoth messages helped answer your question about GMR John.
Saturday 30th October: Bobby Gould will be at Wolves v Manchester City, Ray Parlour will be at Arsenal v West Ham and it'll be Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore for commentary for Manchester United v Tottenham at Old Trafford for the 17:30 kick-off.
Sunday 31st October: Alan Brazil will present Sunday Exclusive from 11:00 with commentary of Aston Villa v Birmingham at 12:00 with Nigel Pearson and Alvin Martin followed by Newcastle v Sunderland at 13:30 with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Football First will be presented with Ian Danter alongside Ray Houghton and Matt Holland between 18:00-21:00.
Tuesday 2nd November: live commentary of Bursaspor v Manchester United with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Wednesday 3rd November: live commentary of Chelsea v Spartak Moscow with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Sunday 7th November: live commentary of Arsenal v Newcastle at 13:30 with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Wednesday 10th November: live commentary of Manchester City v Manchester United with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Saturday 13th November: live commentary of Stoke v Liverpool with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
Sunday 14th November: live commentary of Everton v Arsenal with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore.
16:00 Call Collymore from Goodison Park 18:00 Football First with Ian Danter, Alvin Martin & Ray Houghton 20:00 Full Contact with Mike Bovill & Jeff Probyn 21:00 The F1 Grand Prix Show with Andy Goldstein & Eddie Irvine 22:00-00:00 Andy Goldstein's Sports Bar.
Surely Stan has enough leverage at the station to convince his bosses to let him cover the Second City Derby, not to mention that talkSPORT would surely see having him at that particular game as a selling point to their coverage.
Otherwise it's as you'd expect, although it's good to see Full Contact pencilled in for Sunday 14th November. That's the second weekend of Autumn International rugby, with England v Australia, Wales v South Africa and Scotland v New Zealand taking place the day before.
Richard Gordon presenting Sportsound on 810MW.
Kilmarnock v Rangers - John Barnes and Billy Dodds (commentary) with Chick Young pitchside
St Johnstone v Celtic - Jim Spence and Murdo MacLeod
Their coverage and presentation is still poor.
Tbh I wouldn't be surprised if Key didn't renew. This season they seem to be doing the bare minimum coverage possible - no games on FM at all, it's Magic AM or DAB only. They've also lost/given up (delete as applicable) rights to Man city, so it's possible that they're cutting back on football a bit. Though Key have had quite a few exclusives with SAF in recent weeks, he's currently not doing press conferences unless he has to
I agree that while SAF continues to refuse to speak to the BBC, BBC Manchester is a non-starter, and also with Col that they are city-obsessed. Bolton, Wigan & the lower league sides barely get a look in unless there's no other option (i.e. city aren't playing).
Indeed. I think it was January 1994 when he called BBC TV's team "the Liverpool fan club" or somesuch.
Mark Saggers presenting Kick-Off alongside Ray Parlour
Carling Cup Fourth Round
Aston Villa v Burnley - Dave Rowe
Newcastle United v Arsenal - Graham Courtney
West Ham United v Stoke City - Ian Abrahams and Alan Brazil
Co-operative Insurance Cup Quarter Final
St Johnstone v Celtic - Peter Martin
BRMB
Tom Ross presenting The Goalzone from Villa Park
Carling Cup Fourth Round
Aston Villa v Burnley - Tom Ross and Pat Heard (commentary)
BBC WM
Mark Regan presenting The Football Phone-In from The Mailbox, followed by Rob Gurney with WM Sport from Villa Park
Carling Cup Fourth Round
Aston Villa v Burnley - Phil Cartwright and Rob Gurney (commentary)
FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round Replay
Tipton Town v Sheffield FC - Andrew Dawkins
Yes, and he did stop talking for them for a while in 2000, because I remember he agreed to talk to them for the first time in ages after Charlton 3 Man U 3 in December 2000, and they showed it in full on Grandstand because it was the first for ages, even thought it was very boring, and done by Harry Gration.
I also remember that match wasn't planned as a main highlights game on Match of the Day but because of the result they did a long edit with off-tube commentary, so instead of the proper MOTD-branded boards they had at their featured games at the time, they did the interview in front of a giant "REDBUS" logo, Charlton's then sponsor. Enduring image, hmm?