Originally Posted by bwfcol:
“Roddy Forsyth is one of those comms/reporters that take me back to my childhood.
There's probably only him and Green/Ingham that are around from my early radio listening days”
Originally Posted by bwfcol:
“'86 is a bit before my radio memories begin!
My first 5Live memories consist of Ron Jones and Peter Drury along with Ingham/Green”
By being "around", I'm sure you mean the commentators who still remain at Five Live.
Of course, early Radio 5 commentators like Peter Drury, Rob Hawthorne and Jon Champion are now successful TV commentators, while Ron Jones regularly commentates for Today FM in Ireland.
But as for Five Live football commentators from "our youth" (as I guess you're of a similar age to me) who are still with the station, I think you are just looking at Green, Ingham and Forsyth as you mention, plus Simon Brotherton, Ian Brown - who rejoined the station in 1995 - and Dave Woods (who started at the station around the same time Brown returned but was then mostly only used on rugby league).
Other than those guys, most of Five Live's current crop of commentators joined the station around the time of (or after) the launch of Five Live Sports Extra, when the amount of weekly commentaries they were doing was significantly increasing.
To add to the air of nostalgia over the past page of the thread - my earliest radio football memories chart back to BBC WM's Saturday afternoon Around the Grounds show from the early to mid 90s (BRMB and Beacon held the lions share of West Midland commentary rights back then), and quite a number of those I grew up listening to are still involved today.
Paul Franks was in the chair at Pebble Mill back then, and he's still their lead weekend football presenter to this day. Reporters included Richard Wilford, Andrew Dawkins and John Platt who are all still at the station, plus Clive Eakin who's now commentating on neighbouring BBC Coventry & Warwickshire and Nick Clitheroe of Midlands Today.
Something I was thinking about the other day - it's interesting how many of BBC WM's sports broadcasters have stayed in the area, while so many of their counterparts from neighbouring commercial stations have gone on to enjoy national success with commercial broadcasters.
I've often wondered why this was, as I firmly believe there are a number of BBC broadcasters around here who are more than capable of doing a fine job nationally. Perhaps there is some truth in what they say about the BBC in London having an aversion to Midlands accents.