Absolute Radio broadcast a special Soccer AM-themed Breakfast Show this morning. It was presented by Russ Williams and Helen Chamberlain and came from Sky Sports' Isleworth studios. The show was part of Sky Sports' 20th anniversary celebrations.


Anyone listen? If so, worth listening back to?

Wednesday 20th April - talkSPORT

Mark Saggers presenting Kick-Off Exclusive from Stamford Bridge with Stan Collymore at White Hart Lane

Premier League
Chelsea v Birmingham City - Andy Clarke, with Mark Saggers presenting and Matt Smith producing
Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal - Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore (commentary), with Mike Bovill at pitchside

Stan has tweeted that talkSPORT's coverage is being broadcast on BFBS Radio. He says it's the first time they've agreed to do this. Due to talkSPORT having Wednesday night commentary rights, it wouldn't surprise me if Clarkey is doing off-air commentary from tonight's other match at Stamford Bridge.


BBC WM

Mark Regan presenting The Football Phone-In from The Mailbox, followed by Mike Taylor with WM Sport from Stamford Bridge

Premier League
Chelsea v Birmingham City - Dan Wheeler and Mike Taylor (commentary)


BRMB

Tom Ross presenting The Goalzone from Stamford Bridge

Premier League
Chelsea v Birmingham City - Tom Ross and Jon McCarthy (commentary)

Does anybody know why fivelive has a talk show rather than football commentary tonight? They seem to have commentators and summarisers there but have also guests in a talk show...

So much for cuts!

Quite simply, they don't have the rights to do commentaries on Premier League games scheduled for Wednesday nights.

talkSPORT have national radio exclusivity over Wednesday nights Premier League fixtures. They come as part of the package that is chiefly comprised of rights to Saturday 5.30pm matches.

There have been lots of mentions of BFBS on talkSPORT's coverage tonight. Sam and Stan in particular seem very proud to be broadcasting on the British armed forces radio station. It's good that they are linking up.

They don't have the rights to broadcast Premier League commentaries on Wednesdays. Talksport has the rights, hence why Tottenham v Arsenal commentary is on that station.

Is this part of five lives controllers plan to have less sport and more celebrity chat on the station? Because they have people in the studio and commentary teams at the grounds..

Thanks for the replies...

BBC London had commentary of Spurs v Arsenal.

This weeks 5 Live

Tuesday

Newcastle v Man Utd John Murray, Kevin Gallacher & Mike Ingham

Burnley v Middlesbrough Dave Woods
Tranmere v Notts County Nigel Adderley

Wesnesday

Chelsea v Birmingham Simon Brotherton & Mark Bright
Tottenham v Arsenal Darren Fletcher & David Pleat

Thursday

Ipswich v Norwich Mike Sewell, Steve Claridge & Alistair Bruce-Ball

Thursday

Ipswich v Norwich Mike Sewell, Steve Claridge & Alistair Bruce-Ball


This was a rare occasion when i had to listen to a radio commentary, thats a collection of muppets that shouldnt be allowed to pollute our airwaves. This was a very important game in East Anglia and we got chat with the game going on in the background.

Are us football followers interested in updates from an egg chasers game?

Me thinks not

Here's the opposing view. I listened to the first half of this game on my travels last night, with it being the first match I've listened to on 5 Live in quite a while and the commentary reminded me how good 5 Live can be at covering football when they do it in a less personality-driven way.

Alistair Bruce-Ball and Mike Sewell are two of the best up and coming commentators around in my view. While they are both quite chatty, they do stick to the action and events happening around it rather than going in for histrionics or getting over-opinionated. I know he's not the most fashionable football expert in the world but I quite like Steve Claridge too - I was relieved he was on duty last night rather than Robbie Savage!

It's at this time of year when Radio 5 Live really steps up its game when it comes to Football League coverage. Commentaries on key league games begin to be moved from Sports Extra to analogue radio meaning more of us can hear these matches. 5 Live comes into its own on Bank Holidays in particular.

I see that they will be broadcasting commentaries on Doncaster v Crystal Palace and Leeds United v Reading today and two more league games on Monday. A shame that Nottingham Forest v Leicester is going to be on Sports Extra this afternoon, but that aside you can't really fault 5 Live for their commitment to the Football League at this time of the year. If only it was like this during the other eight and a half months of the season.


If you are (as I am), why not have a look at the Radio Sports Commentators and Reporters 2010/11 (non-football).

Thursday 22nd April - talkSPORT

Danny Kelly presenting Kick-Off alongside Matt Holland

Championship
Ipswich Town v Norwich City - Grahame Lloyd

With the East Anglian derby not available on their studio monitors, Danny and Matt kept us up to date with SC Freiburg v Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga (ESPN's live match) and the PDC Premier League Darts (live on Sky Sports).

It'll be interesting to discover if Five Live keep their exclusive rights to Football League commentaries.

BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Zummerzet planned commentators

for Saturday 23rd April 2011

Alistair Durden Sheffield United v Bristol City

Richard Hoskin on Bristol Rovers v Charleton

Ed Hadwin Yeovil v Bournmouth .

5Live's FL coverage is great over the next few weeks inc. the playoffs.

5Live have to cover all major sports, including Rugby League. It's not a football only station, I don't like/care about rugby however the BBC have a duty to update listeners on all live sports events currently happening.

If it doesn't then you'd just get complaints from rugby fans (or any other sport that's ignored). The BBC can't win.

ETA: I discovered this week that the BBC charter states that they must have a news program on 5Live on a weekday afternoon unless there's a major event in it's place (Wimbledon, World Cup etc), It's part of 5Live's remit which means sporting events during that time can't really be broadcasted.

Good Friday, April 22nd

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire

Sky Blues Live

Presenter: Stuart Linnell (at the Ricoh Arena)

Coventry City v. Scunthorpe United
Commentary: Clive Eakin with Kenny Hibbert
Reporter: Geoff Foster
Pre-match guest: Don Mackay

Cricket:
County Championship:
Worcestershire v. Warwickshire
Reporter: Richard Wilford

Speedway:
Coventry v. Peterborough
Reporter: Wayne Roberts

I'm not sure what this has to do with the discussion in hand, but I would say that a large proportion of the complaints levelled at Radio 5 Live's editorial decisions when it comes to their sport coverage don't originate from no-win situations. The criticisms I tend to see usually stem from when they favour sports discussion ahead of live sport - for example when they opt to do the Monday Night Club rather than commentary on a big Championship game, or when they've opted to carry 606 ahead of events like the Super League Grand Final.

I appreciate how they sometimes find themselves in a difficult position over which live sporting event to choose on occasions such as last Sunday (when, for what it's worth, I thought they made the right call by choosing the FA Cup semi-final ahead of Arsenal v Liverpool) and the note about the BBC Charter - thanks for that - would seem to explain why Forest v Leicester isn't on 5 Live today, for example, but sometimes they don't help themselves.

It's things like the examples I cite above that hopefully will be rectified through the BBC Trust's investigation into 5 Live and its strengths and weaknesses.

Good Friday - talkSPORT

Updates during: - Hawksbee & Jacobs, Drive Time with Jason Cundy and Darren Gough, Kick-Off with Danny Kelly and Stewart Robson

Championship
Coventry City v Scunthorpe United - Kev Lawrence
Doncaster Rovers v Crystal Palace - Graham Courtney
Nottingham Forest v Leicester City - Geoff Peters (Stan Collymore is here as a spectator on his day off)
Leeds United v Reading - John Temple


Mercia

Tom Ross presenting The Goalzone from the Ricoh Arena

Championship
Coventry City v Scunthorpe United - Tom Ross and Dave Bennett (commentary)

Mercia's coverage ends at 5pm tonight, to allow Tom to return to Birmingham to present Gold's Friday Football Phone-In between 6-7pm as normal. The Orion programmes tend to struggle for Coventry callers but have no problem in attracting fans of the four West Midland Premier League clubs, so that's probably a wise decision.

Oh, and I should have written in my earlier post that it was Thursday 21st April yesterday, of course.

Good Friday - BBC Radio 5 Live

Jonathan Overend presenting 5 Live Sport

Championship
Coventry City v Scunthorpe United - Nigel Adderley
Doncaster Rovers v Crystal Palace - Ian Dennis and Kevin Gallacher (commentary)
Nottingham Forest v Leicester City - Paul Walker

League One
Dagenham & Redbridge v Plymouth Argyle - Rob Nothman (Mark Clemmit is here doing "Access All Areas", presumably for The Football League Show)
Milton Keynes Dons v Huddersfield Town - Simon Mann

League Two
Bury v Lincoln City - Peter Slater
Southend United v Stevenage - Nick Godwin
Torquay United v Wycombe Wanderers - Andy Gillies

Rugby League: Super League
Hull FC v Hull Kingston Rovers - Alistair Yeomans
Wigan Warriors v St Helens - David Oates and Dave Woods (reports from the alternating Sports Extra commentators)

Rugby Union: Premiership
Newcastle Falcons v Leicester Tigers - Ian Robertson

Cricket: County Championship Division Two
Northamptonshire v Essex - Steve May

World Snooker Championship
The Crucible, Sheffield - Philip Studd


BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

Paul Scott presenting Sports Extra Football League

Championship
Nottingham Forest v Leicester City - Ross Fletcher and Kevin Blackwell (5.15pm commentary)


Good to hear Ross Fletcher doing commentary on Sports Extra, he was superb in the days when he was BBC Radio Derby's Derby County commentator. I know he's done reports for 5 Live on many occasions in the past, but is this is his first chance to do a live game for Sports Extra?

Not a big 5 Live listener but I took in the second half of the Doncaster v Palace this afternoon, I must say the coverage has been excellent.

I agree, great coverage this afternoon on 5Live.

BBC Radio Leeds
Milton Keynes Dons verses Huddersfield Town* (also on the official Huddersfield Town website)
commentator: Paul Ogden
summariser: Kieran O'Regan
Leeds United verses Reading
reporter: Gareth Jones (during rugby league commentary)
*the first half and build up were on FM, because the rugby league was on all other platforms.
I was surprised that Radio Leeds aired West Yorkshire Sport Daily between 6 and 7 PM, considering they'd played interviews connected with the evening's sport between 5 and 6.

Yorkshire Radio (DAB), Minster FM and official Leeds United website
studio: Richard Stead
Leeds United verses Reading
host: Michael Weadock
commentator: Thom Kirwin
summariser: Eddie Gray


BBC Radio Humberside
Coventry City verses Scunthorpe United
commentator: Matt Dean
summariser: Jamie Forrester


BBC Radio Sheffield
Doncaster Rovers verses Crystal Palace
commentator: Seth Bennett
summariser: John Buckley
Northampton Town verses Rotherham United
commentator: Andy Giddings
summariser: ?

Not sure if this is totally relevent, but why would 5L have a reporter at one CCD2 game and none at any from D1?

Good Friday - BBC Radio 5 Live (continued)

Colin Murray presenting 5 Live Sport alongside Pat Nevin

Championship
Leeds United v Reading - Darren Fletcher, Ian Brown and Michael Gray (7.45pm commentary)

Regarding the County Championship cricket updates - what Radio 5 Live tend to do is to have one reporter, although based at a particular ground (usually from the game they deem to be most interesting of the day), whose job it is to round up all of that day's county cricket action during their updates. This was the case with Steve May's reports yesterday.

It just so happens that they were watching the early Division 2 leaders rather than being at a Division 1 game, but I'm sure their daily reporters will be back covering top flight teams sooner rather than later. It appears to me as if they try to vary who they report on from day to day, at least early on in the summer.

Ian Dennis, Alan Green and Jimmy Arnfield are at OT for 5Live

Nigel Adderly is doing Cardiff vs QPR on Sports Extra, not sure who the co-comm is. I presume 5Live have someone there.

John Murray is at Wolves vs Fulham which is the 3pm KO commentary

Saturday 23rd April - IRN

Premier League
Manchester United v Everton: Peter Smith
Aston Villa v Stoke City: Kevin Hatchard
Blackpool v Newcastle United: Darren Stannage
Liverpool v Birmingham City: Shane Pinnington
Sunderland v Wigan Athletic: Bill Mantle
Tottenham Hotspur v West Bromwich Albion: Guy Swindells
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Fulham: Clive Edwards

RTE Radio 1

Details as IRN list above except:
Liverpool v Birmingham City: John Keith