That confirms it, dogging liaisons are planned in advance.


Serious question The Difference, what kind of track record do Absolute have, should we be holding our breath?

Surely the reason Collymore has been able to disclose the games isn't because he's closely involved in the coverage, but because the games are effectively chosen for them by Sky and ESPN?

On Tuesday, Tom Kirwin will commentate, and Eddie Gray will summarise for Yorkshire Radio, when Leeds United play Bury.

Really? If so that's an interesting development. If they let The Pulse do both home and away matches too, I wonder if the Pulse will continue to cover Huddersfield Town? I also wonder if BCB will be able to do commentary on Bradford City again next season.

Some news for talkSPORT, from Ian Danter's Facebook update:

Ian Danter Is on talksport from 3-7pm with Football First...we will have a new timeslot come Aug 15th-details to follow

Yes and no. It's true that most of talkSPORT's live commentary picks are fairly obvious, certainly the Saturday 5.30pm matches pick themselves, but on Sunday afternoons before 3pm they will sometimes have a choice of televised and non-televised games and occasionally will even have the option of doing more than one commentary.

Take Sunday 31th October, which was discussed on the previous page. According to Stan's list talkSPORT are going with the 12noon Aston Villa v Birmingham City game, which is not being televised but has been moved to a Sunday on police advice, rather than the Liverpool v Bolton 1.30pm kick-off which is live on Sky Sports.

Similarly it seems they have yet to decide which game they'll do on Sunday 29th August, whether it will be the TV game between Bolton v Birmingham or if they'll go with Sunderland v Manchester City which has to be rescheduled to that day due to City's involvement in the Europa League. Maybe they could take this opportunity to do both if the respective timeslots are conducive.

So I'm guessing Stan has been given some sort of provisional schedule from the people who plan talkSPORT's football coverage which he has been allowed to pass on via Twitter.


That's good news, thanks for passing that on.

I'm really glad to hear Football First on Sunday will be continuing into the new season as it is an excellent programme.

I wonder what new timeslot they'll get? 4-7pm would make sense, but if Call Collymore will be following the live (mostly 1.30pm) games and so could last from 3.30-5pm, maybe 5-8pm might be in their plans?

As Ian has said "we" I guess this means he'll be continuing in the FFoS chair, ruling him out of being talkSPORT's regular Sunday Premier League commentator in the process.

With Jim Proudfoot committed to ESPN at weekends, this would seem to put either Nigel Pearson or John Rawling in pole position to be their regular Sunday commentator, with an outside chance of it being Graham Beecroft, John Anderson or maybe a newcomer to the station.

Personally I would be in favour of Pearson swapping from Saturdays at 3pm to Sunday afternoons, with Danter getting the Saturday 5.30pm commentaries.


The truth is they don't have much of a track record of any sort.

The only live football they've ever covered was doing England and Republic of Ireland commentaries unofficially during World Cup 2002 (talkSPORT were barred from bidding for international tournament rights due to the archaic way they were sold and did their commentaries in this way, so the then-Virgin and also TEAMtalk 252 followed suit). Their commentator at that time was Dominic Johnson, a former Capital Gold commentator who has since left Absolute.

With less than a month to go until the start of the season we still don't know who will be in Absolute's coverage team, whether they plan to provide reports on other games (they stopped taking the IRN service on Rock & Roll Football over five seasons ago) and other such plans as of yet. So it is very much a case of watch this space.

Glyn Griffiths updated on Radio Cymru only on The New Saints V Bohemians UEFA Champions League 2nd qualifying round 2nd leg tie

Jason Bourne reported from Rotherham v Leicester at the Don Valley Stadium for BBC Radio Leicester.

Tuesday 20th July - BBC WM

Dan Wheeler presenting WM Sport from the Banks's Stadium

Friendly
Walsall v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Mark Regan and Dan Wheeler (commentary)

Cricket: County Championship Division One
Warwickshire v Nottinghamshire - Mike Taylor

I doubt they would be allowed to do Sunderland v Man City, because I can't think of a reason why that would be anything other than a 3pm KO.

BBC Radio Scotland

Sportsound introduced by Annie McGuire with Jack Ross as studio guest

Breidablik v Motherwell - Alisdair Lamont and Craig Paterson

Owain Griffiths reported on the Bangor City V FC Honka Espoo (Finland) UEFA Europa League 2nd qualifying round 2nd leg tie for BBC Radio Cymru.

No he didn't - It was Iwan Arwel

BBC Radio Scotland (92-95FM, 810MW)

Sportsound presented by Richard Gordon

Open All Mics reporters:

Dundee vs Alloa - Rob Maclean
Dunfermline vs Arbroath - Allan Preston
Partick vs Clyde - Jonathan Sutherland
Queen of the South vs Albion Rovers - Sandra Brown
Queen's Park vs Livingston - Des McKeown
Raith Rovers vs Cowdenbeath - Derek Ferguson

Notts County V Cardiff City - Nick Webb for BBC Radio Wales

I begin with some news. BBC Radio Humberside will have commentary on Grimsby Town's first BSP match. It'll probably be on DAB and online, but may be on AM too.

Yorkshire Radio
Hartlepool United verses Leeds United
commentator: Tom Kirwin
summariser: Peter Lorimer

BBC Radio Humberside
Scunthorpe United verses Sheffield Wednesday
reporter: Mike White

BBC Radio Sheffield
host: Rob Staton
Rotherham United verses Sheffield United
reporter: Rob Staton
Scunthorpe United verses Sheffield Wednesday
reporter: Seph Bennett
Barnsley verses Huddersfield Town
reporter: Adam Oxley
Tamworth verses Chesterfield
reporter: Calum Williams

Ian Stringer and Rob Jones with FM commentary of Oxford v Leicester on BBC Radio Leicester.

Saturday 24th July - talkSPORT

Danny Kelly presenting Matchday Live alongside Ray Parlour and Steve Lomas

Friendly Matches
Barnet v Charlton Athletic - Ian Abrahams
Barnsley v Huddersfield Town - John Temple
Bristol Rovers v West Bromwich Albion - Dave Rowe
Norwich City v Newcastle United - Kev Lawrence
Preston North End v Everton - Graham Beecroft
Wycombe Wanderers v Reading - Tony Incenzo

talkSPORT may have had someone watching England's Under-19s European Championship game with France - Andrew McKenna, who was at Lingfield Races for them on Saturday, reported on England v Netherlands on Thursday - but I'm afraid I didn't hear if they did or not.

Phil Babb made his talkSPORT debut today, with him joining Ian Danter and Stewart Robson in the studio for Football First on Sunday.

Absolute Radio have revealed their commentator for their Saturday afternoon Premier League commentaries: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...premier-league

* Jim Proudfoot to be their commentator.
* Ian Wright to co-present post-match show alongside Russ Williams on both Absolute Radio and Absolute Radio Extra.
* Russ Williams to present Rock & Roll Football between 15:00-17:00 on Absolute Radio, as well as build-up show on Absolute Radio Extra / 1215 AM.

Seemingly, the schedule will be:

13:30 on Absolute Radio Extra: Russ Williams will anchor the station’s pre-match build-up from 1.30 – 3pm on Absolute Radio Extra.

15:00 on Absolute Radio: Russ Williams will host Rock & Roll Football in a new slot.

15:00 on Absolute Radio Extra: Jim Proudfoot will hold the mantle of match commentator from on Absolute Radio Extra exclusively.

17:00-18:30 on Absolute Radio & Absolute Radio Extra: Post-match reaction with Russ Williams and Ian Wright.

What does this mean for Proudfoot's involvement with talkSPORT? I can't see it coming to an end given that he was their lead commentator at the World Cup, but I'm surprised they aren't using him for one of their Premier League commentaries if he's now available on a Saturday afternoon. I assumed he wasn't again this season given his involvement with Setanta in the past, and now ESPN.

There's more information here:

http://onegoldensquare.com/2010/07/b...cat-macdonald/

I was impressed with Jim during the world cup, I liked him in his Century days. I guess he'll still be involved with TS during midweek

Well, as I understand it, Proudfoot will no longer be working for talkSPORT. He continues to work for ESPN (and now Absolute Radio), but not on talkSPORT.

Oh God, Ian Wright would put me off Absoloute straight away. No news on who will co-commentate with Jim, if anyone.

Saturday 24th July - BBC WM

Terry Goodwin presenting WM Sport from The Mailbox

Friendly Matches
Bristol Rovers v West Bromwich Albion - Mark Regan
Walsall v Coventry City - Tom Marlow

Thanks for posting the Absolute details 4-4-2, here are my thoughts:


So, will they be broadcasting their Premier League coverage between 1.30-6.30pm on AM as well as Absolute Radio Extra?

If so, I reckon that's a good move. Going on-air 30 minutes before most BBC and commercial local radio stations do when covering 3pm games could help them attract listeners by having a head start on them.

I'm glad that Russ Williams will front their live matches in the build-up and aftermath. With him having presented football coverage for Sky and ITV in the past he was always the most suitable man for the job from those they already have at their disposal. Plus, if he makes a good impression on Saturdays, he may be able to attract a crossover audience to his and Absolute's other weekday music programmes.

Jim Proudfoot is a great choice to be their match commentator. I'm surprised they've been able to prize him away from ESPN on Saturdays but it should do their coverage the world of good. Quite simply he is one of the best commentators on the radio right now, possibly the best person they could have realistically brought in.

Ian Wright is a disappointment though. I guess he's only there because he's available and is a "big name" that station managers (the bosses at 5 Live and talkSPORT before Absolute included) believe will attract advertisers and listeners to their programmes. He doesn't bring much to the table as a pundit though.

On the plus side, at least it means Ian Wright won't be appearing on talkSPORT's Matchday Live this season. When he was installed as Adrian Durham's co-host in the build-up to their 3pm commentaries last season, he really dragged the show down to his level, so it was a relief when he stopped appearing on it a few months into the season.




What has changed? If the deal Jim has signed with Absolute means he can only do radio commentaries for them then this is really bad news for talkSPORT.

I was hoping he'd be able to continue with talkSPORT in midweek allowing him to do Champions League commentaries for them, with the only change to his schedule being that he'll do a Premier League game for Absolute on Saturdays rather than a European game for ESPN as he will continue to do on Fridays and Sundays (touch wood). It would be a shame if this is not the case.

But if he has left talkSPORT, then it presents a great opportunity for Nigel Pearson and Ian Danter to do Champions League games. However, the latter would have to vacate his role working on the World Feed for Tim White's company to capitalise on this.


From the way I have read the press releases, I get the impression they may alternate co-commentators from week to week by calling upon a pool of regulars, like 5 Live, Today FM and other stations do.

The Guardian article says:


Could the guests be different co-commentator each week?

I could see the likes of Matt Holland (who works for 5 Live, talkSPORT and Today from one day to the next) being the kind of summariser they would opt for.

I just hope it's not The Legend!

One thing that hasn't been commented on is:


Smart move. Simon Crosse and his company do a great job of producing 5 Live Sports Extra's coverage of the NFL and Major League Baseball, so they know how to put together lively and fast-moving sports coverage.

It is wise of them to get an experienced production company involved given their new involvement in live sport.

Coverage was always going to be on AM as well as Absolute Radio Extra.


Jim DEFINITELY won't be on talkSPORT next season.