BRMB's coverage of the Birmingham match this evening was a real blast from the past - they had real problems with their line to Madeira all night so for the whole 90 minutes their commentary was the kind you hear on old TV/radio footage from games played outside of the UK. Due to the use of a crackly phone line, Chris Kershaw was barely able to contribute meaning Tom had to do the majority of the commentary on his own.
Must give a lot of praise to producer David Salt, I think he's filled in the gaps before but tonight not only did he step in on the numerous occasions when the line was briefly lost but he also presented all of the build-up, the half-time break and the full-time phone-in.
It was interesting that they chose him to present as they had Joe Holt (one of their commentators who covers The Sports Bar when Tom is away) also in the studio rounding up the other Europa League games. In any event, Salty won't have done his chances of getting some cover shifts on Orion's music shows any harm tonight.
A couple of correction to the presenting details I posted earlier - WM were smart to what might happen (although Mark Regan's line held up well from the bits I heard), so Dan Wheeler stuck around to front WM Sport including a post-match phone in afterwards, while over on BBC Radio Stoke although John Acres' face was on their website's schedule page, Matt and Nigel stuck around to present Praise & Grumble from Arena Thun in the end.
Signal 1 or 2 weren't doing commentary on FC Thun v Stoke City tonight (I suspect they didn't carry reports on the game either, seeing as sister station talkSPORT didn't), but they will be doing the second leg next Thursday. Apparently this Sunday's Norwich v Stoke game will be live on Signal 2 (on AM), as will all of the Potters domestic fixtures from now on aside from Saturday matches which will be on Signal 1 (on FM).
