The joy of radio….

After a long midweek drive to Cheltenham to cover Guiseley’s recent away trip against Gloucester I returned with a bad back.  It seized overnight and by Thursday morning left me incapable of walking.    Needless to say, my ever supportive wife was less than impressed with my injury – especially as it was attained in the course of commentating on football – her face an mixture of perplex and exasperation. 

“And what exactly are you getting out of this?”  She asked as I hobbled downstairs after what felt like five minutes sleep.

To be fair she has a point.

So far I have followed Guiseley home and away for the most part this season, and since getting BCB on board to cover Guiseley on their ‘Sports Extra’ internet channel, I have racked up petrol, mobile phone, and many other costs.  To date the only income I’ve received was the pint of ‘Nethermoor Best’ that a fellow supporter bought for me after the Colwyn Bay match – and it was gratefully received and enjoyed!

It’s not about the money of course.  It is however tremendously exciting to be at the start of establishing regular radio commentary for the club.  In part its possible thanks to technological developments that I could only have dreamed of as a boy – today you can record audio on your smart phone and broadcast over the internet. However, the most thanks are owed to the support of Bradford Community Broadcasting (BCB).  BCB is a fantastic organisation run by passionate individuals and volunteers who know that radio can make a difference both to communities and individuals lives.   One of their governing principles is to help provide media access for organisations, or groups of people, that would otherwise be unable to gain it through conventional means – the station already provides excellent coverage of Bradford Park Avenue, the Bulls, and had a great track record of covering Bradford City for many years.

A quirk of geography means that Guiseley has always struggled to attract local radio.  I am a regular listener of BBC Leeds and West Yorkshire Sport, an excellent set of programmes with great presenters and producers.  However they also have a tremendously wide patch to cover, which in football terms includes Leeds United, Bradford City, Huddersfield Town, as well as other teams with sizable support such as FC Halifax, and a plethora of non-league clubs.   Compare this to BBC North Yorkshire whose broadcast area allows coverage to be focussed on York City and - Guiseley’s rivals - Harrogate Town on FM and MW channels simultaneously. 

By my reckoning Guiseley were one of the largest clubs not to have any form of regular match day broadcast coverage.   I think that radio plays an important part in the development of a football club and its role in the community.  I think that supporters feel more connected when they can follow events even when they can’t be at the match (often due to work or family commitments), or when they get the views of the manager or players after a game.  I think this helps build a stronger bond to the team, helps retain their interest in the club as a whole, and as a consequence plays a part in contributing to a stronger connection between the club and community.

Perhaps more importantly radio coverage provides an opportunity for volunteers to be part of something exciting.  Okay, so events at Nethermoor don’t have the profile of the Premiership, but the chance to be part of a live broadcast can be exhilarating.  What‘s more, you never know where the journey might take you.  In recent years the Lions have twice reached the first round of the FA Cup, played in front of over 5,000 in play-off finals, and have won the Northern Premier League championship in their centenary year in dramatic fashion on the final day.   The stunning example of Bradford City’s run to the Capital One Cup Final shows the unexpected turn of events that football can provide.

Radio provides an opportunity for people to get involved in creating something valuable.  Many are inspired to do so with reasons that vary.  Some - like me - might simply have an obsessive love of grassroots football - others enjoy the buzz of producing live programmes.  The Guiseley coverage is wholly dependent on the BCB volunteers on match day who edit highlights, prepare interviews and running orders, and make sure events at the game are broadcast – their contribution is invaluable.

Involvement also brings its own rewards – and it’s more than trying to be the next John Motson.  Participation helps develop skills, attitudes, develop confidence and build personality traits that help you succeed in any vocation.  Live broadcasting brings its own unique pressures, so you learn to handle stress, develop confidence to approach people for interview, as well as learning to think on your feet and respond to changing situations.  In my professional life I am occasionally required to deliver power point presentations, and when the computer fails (as they often do), I can draw on my ‘filling in’ experience from say, needing to commentate when nothing is happening – as often happens during the lengthy treatment for an injured player.  Skills attained through radio transfer to you for life.

For me, not only has radio helped develop my confidence and skills, it has also provided some of the most memorable experiences that I would never have had any other way. 

Through BCB I was fortunate enough to be asked to commentate at league grounds up and down the country when the station had a license to broadcast Bradford City games.  My first game (ironically given this week’s cup final) was Swansea v Bradford City on Valentine’s Day in 2006 (another day I drew on the tolerance and understanding of my wife), and started an exciting spell for me.  I got to cover games at some great stadiums and interviewed footballing legends such as Colin Todd, Dean Windass, and David Weatherall, as well as work with a huge array of people who shared my passion for radio, from Andy Bowerman the then City club chaplain, to David Ward, keen City fan and now Lib Dem MP.

I hope that the establishment of regular commentary at Guiseley will genuinely deliver the benefits to both the club and the community of supporters, as well as provide an opportunity and platform for even more people, from any background, to take part in producing and presenting - and so reap the same rewards of getting involved in radio.

2013 - a bad year for football. Don't believe everything you hear....

If 2012 was an inspirational year of sport - recent headlines might suggest 2013 will be the year sporting shame.  Lance Armstrong and the official Australian reports of wide scale doping give the impression that athletes from many sports are not all that they seem.  Add to that the startling revelation that our beautiful game in Europe has been tainted by match fixing – then the picture becomes increasingly miserable.

Should we be depressed by these stories?  On one hand they are serious and disconcerting, yet on the other are they truly representative?  Media companies are incentivised to exploit bad news for all its worth – after all bad news sells newspapers, drives up TV audiences, and helps drive sales and advertising revenues up.  As a result it can be hard to get a broad view of the health of sport, and in particular our national game.

Even the positive stories are frequently turned into cynical narratives in national media. For example when David Beckham announced to the world that he would be donating his newly acquired Paris St Germain salary to a children’s charity, the television and radio talk shows typically framed the story as a debate to decide whether we should view this as the rare generous action of an over privileged footballer, or a cynical PR gimmick? Pick the positives out of that one if you can.

The progressive sides of football are so often drowned out by the ‘newsworthiness’ of the negative stories – leaving the average viewer, listener, or reader with a tough task to gain any true sense of perspective.  The column inches devoted to controversies relating to players and clubs drown out the limited air time given to fantastic initiatives such as Football Aid, where these same ‘greedy’ players and football clubs give up their time and stadiums every year to raise huge amounts of money for good causes.

My passion is with the grassroots game – where community orientated clubs make a big difference to people’s lives in an understated and decidedly un-newsworthy way.  Events in 2013 at my club, Guiseley AFC, have reminded me of this fact.

It’s true that the club have attracted a lot of reflected positive attention in recent week thanks to the inspirational story of former Guiseley striker James Hanson who notched the Capital One Cup semi-final winner against Aston Villa.  Hanson combined his early football career at local clubs - including at Nethermoor - with shelf stacking in his local Co-op. His story is without doubt a wonderful example for any aspiring young footballer.

It was a joy to see Guiseley referenced in international coverage – Chinese, French, German, and Dutch to name a few.  What was even more impressive was that they all spelt the clubs name correctly – something that is beyond many of our league competitors!

Despite this coverage I noticed that pundits had a tendency to tinge the Bradford City success story as a rare fairy tale that contrasted with the backdrop of an ever increasingly cynical, negative and hard-nosed football industry.

Yet at an everyday level at Guiseley, a small part of the football industry, there have been so many positive off-field moments in the first few weeks of 2013 alone.  Few are headline grabbers, but all add to the pleasure of following events at Nethermoor.  Examples vary, ranging from when recent opponents Corby Town turned out in our stadium in a shocking pink strip – part of a season long commitment in support of breast cancer charities, to the entire Guiseley first team squad spending the last part of a Thursday night training session slogging away at putting covers over the pitch to make sure the Saturday game would go ahead.

This week also marked the first birthday of the club’s Community Foundation. This has been a fantastic example of a local club partnering with other community organisations to use football to make a positive difference to young and old people alike.  It exists as the club receives funds for community projects from the Football Conference – something that can only happen if the local community get behind the club and help build a successful on and off field team.

As a result in the last year first team players such as former Bradford City professional Danny Ellis have been coaching boys and girls during school holidays, hardworking volunteers have set up an Academy side for 16 to 18 year olds to help uncover the next James Hanson, while an adult 6-a side football tournament hosted at Nethermoor, in partnership with Guiseley Lion’s, raised money for charities.

But it’s not just football activities. Following the inspiration of the Olympics courses in Thai Boxing, Archery, Sports Leadership, Dance Leadership, Tri Golf, and multi sports – as well as vocational skills such as Food Hygiene and First Aid - have been delivered through partnerships.  All helping young people build skills and confidence that will set them in good stead for the future. Meanwhile the Nethermoor clubhouse has also become a social point for elderly people with disabilities who enjoy vital social time, chair based exercise, and yoga thanks to the clubs partnership with Aireborough Voluntary Services for Elderly with Disabilities.

Of course stories of corruption and institutional cheating should concern everyone in sport, a sense of perspective is essential though.  You can't expect to get it from the back pages, but if you look to your local club, I think you will see a far more inspirational and balanced story.