The Road to Radio
Credit:
I think I may well be the only one of the regular columnists yet to chart how they ended up doing what they’re doing. As much as it hurts me to admit it I was never going to come anywhere close to the on-field prowess that Conan and Eamon boast, Stephen’s bigger world view of the game and unlike Claire I definitely have looks for radio alone.
In a roundabout way I owe my broadcasting career to the Football Association of Ireland. Early in Transition Year back in the mid nineties I remember taking a notion that Merrion Square would be the ideal place to target for two week’s work experience. I can’t quite remember why but looking at the Republic of Ireland’s results from 1996 I know it was around the time that Mick McCarthy had registered his first competitive win as manager, a 5-0 hammering of Lichtenstein in a World Cup Qualifier in Eschen.
I’m not quite sure if my fifteen year old self thought it was a time of change in the Association and that I could astound them with my eagerness and carve out a career in sporting administration, in hindsight it’s probably far more likely that I was looking to jump on the bandwagon, trying to impress my peers whilst looking for a source of free international tickets along the way. My intentions were quickly dashed, the weeks were booked up already but further down the page of the phonebook listing the Football Association of Ireland was FM104, I did an about turn, set foot in a radio station for the first time and 15 years later I’m still getting away with it.
It won’t come as a surprise to hear that most people who work within the field of sports journalism do so as a result of some love of whatever sport it is they picked up at a young age. There are undoubtedly plenty of highs and opportunities to be at events that you would kill to be at as a fan and plenty of encounters too with big names with sport albeit often in situations where the last thing they want to do is answer the questions you’re obliged to be asking them. Like every job there are elements that aren’t ideal but the positives far outweigh the negatives. I love radio, the immediacy of it, the possibilities it allows to transport an event or an occasion into the lives of people wherever they are tuned in from.
Sport has great emotive powers, the ability to provide great highs and lows and it generates a vast array of opinion. It’s often a no-win situation particularly within a community as small and as passionate as the League of Ireland can be. I often wonder to what extent my enjoyment of a sporting occasion or experience of it is different from that of a fan’s. By no stretch of the imagination is your support of a team completely sanitised when you move into the press box, it’s still your country or the team you’ve grown up supporting playing but you do watch it differently because you have a duty to try and be impartial and clinical in your analysis.
I occasionally regret not being able to enjoy the social aspect on sporting events as a fan, the euphoria of celebrating a good result or the festivities ahead of game all of which generally take place while I’m buried in the bowels of a stadium microphone in hand waiting to talk to a manager or a player or sitting in an empty stadium hours before a event waiting for what will unfold to play out. But overall I wouldn’t swap it for the world.
----- I wrote last week of the frustration at trying to find League of Ireland merchandise in mainstream sporting outlets. It seems to have been construed by some as a dig against clubs which was far from the aim of the piece. Fans are right to put money into their club shops rather than rush to bolster the coffers of retail outlets but equally the lack of a domestic soccer presence where so many potential fans could be exposed to local teams is an opportunity missed. It was interesting to hear of one club who supply shirts for free to a local outlet and are prepared to take the financial hit on them in return for the hope that exposure for the club will bring people through the turnstiles. Every little helps....
In a roundabout way I owe my broadcasting career to the Football Association of Ireland. Early in Transition Year back in the mid nineties I remember taking a notion that Merrion Square would be the ideal place to target for two week’s work experience. I can’t quite remember why but looking at the Republic of Ireland’s results from 1996 I know it was around the time that Mick McCarthy had registered his first competitive win as manager, a 5-0 hammering of Lichtenstein in a World Cup Qualifier in Eschen.
I’m not quite sure if my fifteen year old self thought it was a time of change in the Association and that I could astound them with my eagerness and carve out a career in sporting administration, in hindsight it’s probably far more likely that I was looking to jump on the bandwagon, trying to impress my peers whilst looking for a source of free international tickets along the way. My intentions were quickly dashed, the weeks were booked up already but further down the page of the phonebook listing the Football Association of Ireland was FM104, I did an about turn, set foot in a radio station for the first time and 15 years later I’m still getting away with it.
It won’t come as a surprise to hear that most people who work within the field of sports journalism do so as a result of some love of whatever sport it is they picked up at a young age. There are undoubtedly plenty of highs and opportunities to be at events that you would kill to be at as a fan and plenty of encounters too with big names with sport albeit often in situations where the last thing they want to do is answer the questions you’re obliged to be asking them. Like every job there are elements that aren’t ideal but the positives far outweigh the negatives. I love radio, the immediacy of it, the possibilities it allows to transport an event or an occasion into the lives of people wherever they are tuned in from.
Sport has great emotive powers, the ability to provide great highs and lows and it generates a vast array of opinion. It’s often a no-win situation particularly within a community as small and as passionate as the League of Ireland can be. I often wonder to what extent my enjoyment of a sporting occasion or experience of it is different from that of a fan’s. By no stretch of the imagination is your support of a team completely sanitised when you move into the press box, it’s still your country or the team you’ve grown up supporting playing but you do watch it differently because you have a duty to try and be impartial and clinical in your analysis.
I occasionally regret not being able to enjoy the social aspect on sporting events as a fan, the euphoria of celebrating a good result or the festivities ahead of game all of which generally take place while I’m buried in the bowels of a stadium microphone in hand waiting to talk to a manager or a player or sitting in an empty stadium hours before a event waiting for what will unfold to play out. But overall I wouldn’t swap it for the world.
----- I wrote last week of the frustration at trying to find League of Ireland merchandise in mainstream sporting outlets. It seems to have been construed by some as a dig against clubs which was far from the aim of the piece. Fans are right to put money into their club shops rather than rush to bolster the coffers of retail outlets but equally the lack of a domestic soccer presence where so many potential fans could be exposed to local teams is an opportunity missed. It was interesting to hear of one club who supply shirts for free to a local outlet and are prepared to take the financial hit on them in return for the hope that exposure for the club will bring people through the turnstiles. Every little helps....
