Jonathan Pearce has reported on several non-league games recently involving Hereford FC.
Below is how he covered two of those games.
This fixture was a complete one-off, particularly as more away fans than home would actually be in attendance. Although Hereford now play in an equivalent league to Hartley Wintney they still retain a guaranteed 3000 plus fan base and this is on average at least ten times more than Hartleys standard home attendance. I therefore had to use their only covered seating in the entire ground (of which has around 100 seats) and do all my reports from over the phone, whilst making sure my battery stayed charged (or with a reasonable back up on hand) AND whilst noting on paper with no desk in an extremely squashed environment.
Ultimately, you need to describe to the listener what is happening and this is still possible but clearly overall, quite uncomfortable. When on the job it is very rare to actually consider all of this though. Only now can I sit back and reflect.
Finally Hereford against Camberley (FA Vase Quarter Final) last Saturday had the best facilities of the lot, but fairly as you would expect, with their past football league guise. This did not however prevent a period of confusion from my side, once arriving at the ground. Though press seating was in abundance with space aplenty, even from the very best seats, phone lines were not obviously attainable. The initial row of press seating at Edgar Street (regularly used by radio) only had one obvious phone point, of which the front casing had been damaged.
Not wanting to risk further damage we (me and assistant Simon) were forced to wait for assistance from our fellow radio colleagues who pointed out that the socket was actually still secure but underneath the point itself. Furthermore our ISDN kit (which had been brought along due to the high-profile nature of the fixture) could not even be opened and set-up until we found a local supply of scissors to undo its cable tie. It’s unique and expensive nature means it’s casing does not self lock. Once all these issues had been fixed there was still time to experience issues with the equipment itself.
Once eveything is properly running, a broadcaster is able to hear the relevant show going out through headphones, whilst having a microphone connected into which he can speak to the studio based producer instantaneously. We had all of this but our producer could not hear from their end. Thus, an already knackered ‘dial’ button had to be pressed again as we dialled back ‘in’ to the studio. With an also swift insertion of our back up microphone, hey presto! Our producer could hear us from base and everything was FINALLY running. We’d made the show, our audio quality was better than on the phone, and listeners across Surrey and Sussex would hear all the incredible moments from that afternoon’s game played out. All of that though, before we had even got going.
So there you have it, radio sports reporting is by far a piece of cake. Hence next time you listen in to Mark Pougatch on 5Live or his namesake Mr Saggers on TalkSport, consider all of the above, besides the weather conditions, and give a little more thought to your hardy sports reporters. We are just normal fans like you, there, so you don’t need to be!