Originally Posted by danjames:
“It was just Colin and Roger today as it was part of 'Summer Saturday' which has been running whilst the footy's been away - therefore it was just the commentary, no real build up etc - that'll be on from next weekend. They had a reporter at Burton as they have done for all of their Saturday pre season games. Should be great coverage next season with Derby on FM and Burton on AM.”
Thanks for that Dan, but could I ask even more questions?
1) Interested to hear they will be doing Derby on FM and Burton on AM - but where did you hear that? Did they say so on yesterday's broadcast or have you heard it elsewhere?
2) When you say "next season", do you mean 2009/10 or 2010/11? I know, it's easy to get confused when describing last/this/next season at this time of year!
3) Who was the reporter at the Burton game, if you remember? Was it Mark Vesty, Charles Collins or someone else?
Ta mate - really interested to read what you are posting about Radio Derby, given its current state of flux.
Originally Posted by mw1:
“BBC Coventry and Warwickshire are expected to remain the same with their coverage of Coventry City, full home and away matches. Geoff Foster Clive Eakin and Martin Winch all doing the commentary duties.
But in addition to that for the first time in a number of years since the mid 1990's, Mercia are also doing live commentary of Coventry City home and away, this was announced yesterday by the station but no news on the main commentator/analysers. I'd imagine they will have a few ex city players as experts but i'm unsure about the main commentator, any freelance radio commentators who are available at the moment?
BBC Coventry and Warwickshire no longer hold exclusive rights as in previous years.”
Thanks for that, mw1.
On BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, not listened to their coverage properly for a few seasons now, does Adam Dent from the Coventry Telegraph still work on their coverage?
As for freelance commentator(s) who'll be working for Mercia FM on their coverage - I guess we'll see next Sunday, but a few suggestions of those who are freelance and seemingly available at the moment:
Mark Scott would be a good shout, he's a GCap commentator and reporter of a few years experience now, beginning around the time Capital FM and Gold in London pulled out of commentary rights, seeing Jonathan Pearce's successors on the station, Bill Leslie, Andy Burton, Vinny O'Connor etc all move away from radio and into TV.
He hosted and reported for Capital Gold's Sports Saturday for a couple of seasons, and when they dropped that show altogether he moved to East Anglia to commentate on SGR FM who had just won Ipswich Town commentary rights.
Since then, the station has become Heart Suffolk and have this summer dropped Town rights - meaning that in all likelihood he'll now be out of a job and now looking for another team to cover.
Similarly,
Phil Matthews is a very experienced commentator who for a few seasons now has been commentating on all Derby County games for Ram FM.
But, as Dan James has noted earlier in the thread, Ram FM have also dropped their commentary rights - seeing Phil's old co-commentator Roger Davies switch to Radio Derby.
So unless they keep him on as a match reporter, he'll probably be looking for a new job too.
Finally, and perhaps a long shot, how about
Stuart Linnell?
I'm not too familiar with his work, but from what I've read he was the anchor and commentator on Mercia FM's Coventry City coverage in the 1980s, and later moved to BBC WM to work on their sports coverage when they were still splitting their output with Coventry & Warwickshire.
More recently I've heard him covering games for Today FM and IRN, and last season he was providing match reports for Setanta Sports News's Soccer Saturday equivalent.
Obviously that's gone now so he might be looking for work too, and by the sounds of it would be the perfect candidate.
They are just three names off the top of my head - of course I could completely wrong and it might well be that they go with a new commentator whose just starting off in the business and so someone we've not yet heard of!