Good to read your thoughts Shaun. Must admit I've only listened to bits of 5 Live NFL so far this season, since the MLB Playoffs started I've favoured listening to ESPN Radio's coverage of that through TuneIn rather than their NFL games, but what I have heard of 5LSE's coverage so far this year has been good.
I agree with you on Kevin Kugler and Mark Malone - they are a very good partnership who we got to hear most weeks in the first few years of their coverage, although they mixed it up a bit more last year by taking a number of games covered by different pairings. I'm not sure if the reason to move away from Dial Global Sports would have been down to advertising and sponsorship reasons, my gut feeling is this can't be the case as I know from baseball both ESPN Radio's national broadcasts and the local ones I've heard have a similar amount of in-game commercial "reads" and would imagine it to be similar when it comes to the NFL.
I have a few notes on 5 Live Sports Extra's coverage of other sports - they are doing two nights worth of baseball double headers from the MLB division series tonight and tomorrow; at the moment they are covering the St. Louis Cardinals @ Washington Nationals which will be followed by San Francisco Giants @ Cincinnati Reds at around 9pm; their Thursday coverage will be those two games in the opposite order (providing the latter series, which is pencilled in for the 6pm slot our time, is not decided tonight). I'll post the full details including how they manage any potential clash later on but Mike Carlson is fronting the first game and should be joined by Nat Coombs for the later match-up.
I guess the wealth of midweek games - including the excellent decision to broadcast a very memorable NL Wild Card Playoff on Friday - probably means we won't get a Sunday game, as the New York Jets @ New England Patriots (a good choice IMO) has been pencilled in for 5 Live NFL this Sunday at 9pm which will probably preclude them from doing the second game of the ALDS (which American TV broadcaster TBS will probably schedule in the afternoon US time, what with Fox not wanting their NLCS opener to clash with their afternoon NFL coverage). But then even as a baseball fan, I don't so much mind that scheduling if they make up for losing an earlier Championship Series match in one of 5 Live Baseball's "usual" slots by gaining a number of potentially decisive midweek games from both the DS and CS rounds to make up for this.
Also, on Monday 5LSE were planning to do commentary on Swindon Robins v Poole Pirates in speedway's Elite League Grand Final First Leg - Darren Fletcher and Jan Staechmann were in situ to commentate - before that was rained off. I think they are planning to do commentary on both the rescheduled first leg and the second leg which is good news.
I'm pleased to see 5LSE covering speedway, I've enjoyed what I've heard of BBC Local Radio's coverage of the sport - in the West Midlands, both BBC WM and BBC Coventry & Warwickshire's coverage of their local teams is strong and I know BBC Radio Oxford's coverage was Sony nominated a few years ago - but what with a networked evening programme being rolled out across BBC Local Radio in 2013, future coverage of that sport may come under threat.
I'm hoping that if 5LSE's Elite League Grand Final coverage receives a favourable reception, we'll see it get the same kind of treatment county cricket coverage has (IMO very successfully) been given, with local radio coverage of the sport carried on 5LSE on occasions when that platform would be otherwise unused. It would be a good way to justify the costs of continuing to cover that sport by bringing it to a wider audience.
All in all, 5LSE is in rude health at the moment - aside from the usual diet of football, international cricket and rugby (both codes), their first summer of regular county cricket coverage has been superb, they did a great job of covering the Paralympics and their NFL and MLB coverage is getting more and more comprehensive by the year. The speedway finals is a good addition to the schedule and I note from the station's off-air trailers there is mentions of basketball coming up this month (NBA, BBL or both I wonder?). It's a station that richly deserves its recent RAJAR success as it continues to go from strength to strength.