Sports Report
Sports Report is one of the longest-running programmes on British radio, and is the world's longest-running sports radio programme.[1] It started on 3 January 1948,[2] and has always been broadcast from 5.00 to 6.00 p.m. on Saturday evenings during the football season, although commentaries on evening matches kicking off shortly after 5pm on Saturdays had often curtailed it in recent years. However, it regained its full hour for the start of the 2010-11 football season, after the Saturday evening Premier League radio rights moved to TalkSport.
Genre | Sports news and results |
---|---|
Running time | 60 mins (5:00 pm–6:00 pm) |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Language(s) | English |
Home station |
|
Original release | 3 January 1948 – present |
Opening theme | "Out of the Blue" by Hubert Bath |
Website | www |
Originally produced by Angus Mackay,[3] it went out on the BBC Light Programme, where it stayed until 25 April 1964. On 22 August 1964 it became part of Sports Service and moved to Network Three (which later became BBC Radio 3) where it initially started at the earlier time of 4.42 pm.[4] On 4 April 1970, however, it moved back to what had by then become BBC Radio 2,[5] where it stayed until 25 August 1990 (throughout this time it was part of Sport on 2). From 1 September 1990 to 26 March 1994 it was on the original BBC Radio 5, and since 2 April 1994 it has been heard on BBC Radio 5 Live (on both of these networks it has been part of Sport on 5 which was renamed 5 Live Sport in 2006).
Presenters
- Raymond Glendenning (1948–53)
- Stephen Grenfell (1948-53)
- Eamonn Andrews (1950–64)
- Robin Marlar (1964–68)
- Liam Nolan (1965-66)
- Peter Jones (1968–70)
- Des Lynam (1970–80)
- Mike Ingham (1980–85)
- Renton Laidlaw (1985–87)
- John Inverdale (1987–94)
- Ian Payne (1994–2000)
- Mark Pougatch (2000-2016)
- Mark Chapman (2016-)
Classified Football Results Announcers
- John Webster (1948-1974)
- James Alexander Gordon (1974-2013) [6]
- Charlotte Green (2013-) [7]
Theme Tune
The programme, almost uniquely, has used the same theme music since its inception - "Out of the Blue", written by Hubert Bath. This already sounded old-fashioned in the early 1970s, and it is said that Lynam prevented it from being dropped. Now, the theme has the status of a charming anachronism, a very British institution, amid the fast-paced modern style of the rest of Five Live.
On Saturday 5 January 2013, Sports Report did not open with "Out of the Blue" for the first time, prompting a string of furious tweets and presenter Mark Pougatch to tweet within four minutes that:
For clarification. The Sports Report music has not been axed.
The response on social media to the missing music was so strong that Pougatch was required to play the introductory music an hour later, to appease his listeners' demands for continuity.[1]
External links
References
- "Sports Report at 70: Presenters' memories, royal recognition & THAT theme tune". BBC Sport. BBC. 5 January 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
I had to say 'I'm really sorry, it's clearly not the music' and there was such a reaction to it, we played the right music later. It was like the ravens had left the Tower of London, it was like the worst thing you could have ever done.
- Andrews, Eamonn; Mackay, Angus (1955). Sports Report. London: Sportsmans Book Club. p. 10. OCLC 11471101.
- Butler, Bryon, ed. (1987). Sports Report: 40 Years of the Best. Queen Anne Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-356-14863-7.
- "Sports Service". Radio Times. Vol. 164 no. 2128 (London & South East ed.). BBC Publications. 20 August 1964. p. 13. Retrieved 18 February 2018 – via BBC Genome Project.
- "Sports Report". Radio Times. Vol. 187 no. 2421 (London & South East ed.). BBC Publications. 2 April 1970. p. 22. Retrieved 26 January 2020 – via BBC Genome Project.
- "Obituary: James Alexander Gordon". The Daily Telegraph. London. 19 August 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
- "Charlotte Green makes BBC football results debut". BBC News. BBC. 28 September 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2018.