Radio is still an enjoyable way to experience a match

I couldn't agree more with this article. There's something quite soothing about listening to the commentary, rather than watching.

As a Liverpool fan, the majority of our games are now shown on TV (especially considering most of our games early this season are destined to be played on a Sunday, given Euro games on a Thursday) I love listening to the commentary on Radio City 96.7, mainly for the incredible amount of bais towards my home team. John 'Aldo' Aldridge has a way of making even the most shoddy of goals sound like an absolute peach so that when I get to MOTD to actually see the action, I'm usually v disappointed by the quality of said strike!!

Long live local radio and it's bias!

Thoroughly agree. I actually prefer radio (except when Alan Greene is on, whom I used to like but who plumbed new depths when commentating on Greece in Euro 2012). My most memorable radio experience was probably when Radio 5 broadcast live the last few minutes of Hereford v Brighton in 1997. I didn't go, but though those few minutes were truly awful in some ways, I had rather lapsed as a BHA fan for a few years and this game - and to some extent, that commentary - revived my interest almost single-handedly.

When listening to 5 Live, if you hate the commentator (Alan Green), they swap over duties halfway through each half making things considerably easier on the ear plus there's the theme to 'Sports Report' to enjoy.

"The BBC alone has 40 separate stations, most of which cover the fortunes of the nearest football clubs."

Not BBC Radio Surrey. Despite a plethora of non-League teams in the Surrey / Middlesex region, BBC Surrey tend to focus on AFC Wimbledon (in a London borough), Woking (fair enough), Crawley Town (West Sussex) and Aldershot Town and Farnborough (Hampshire). Teams based close to Heathrow are deemed to be worthy of coverage by BBC Radio London, who think otherwise, and it took huge powers of persuasion by all accounts to make BBC Radio Surrey cover Reigate-based side South Park in a prestigious FA VAse tie.

I listen to games that have nothing to do with Lincoln quite often on 5 live while going for a run. As has been said, it brings a kind of intimacy that you don't get with tv. While I plod down Purley way in the blistering heat trying to glimpse the Wembley arch it is nice to hear that 22 men are doing similarly tiring things over at St Mary's as Van Persie puts his penalty wide. A lot relies on the commentary though and sometimes it can be really grating, Alan Greene makes me turn off. The moaning about the referee has gone from a midly amusing cliche to an obstruction to hearing what is actually going on in the game. With TV at least you can see things for your own eyes.

For Lincoln City though, as a London based fan, the radio is key. The "bonus" of getting relegated means all the games are free to air on Radio Lincolnshire and I can get my fix via the internet on my phone. The station gets me all nostalgic as well with mobile phone call reports from various non league grounds around the county.

Nice piece - and count me as another who prefers radio commentary to live TV. It's what we were weaned on in the 70s. One of the things I really, really miss about not living in the UK is live football commentary on the radio.

Funny timing for this piece, though - last week I changed cars, and my new one has a 3-month trial for satellite radio. This includes (Lord forgive me) Talksport Radio, where brainless ex-pros seem to do nothing but bemoan the mistakes of referees. But they also have live match commentary. On Sunday I was on my way to referee some youth games and was listening to Southampton v Man. United. With four minutes to go, and the score at 2-1, I turned it off because I couldn't bear the imminent hysteria of MANCHESTER UNITED ARE IN CRISIS BECAUSE THEY'VE LOST TWO GAMES (the commentators were building up to it for 20 minutes). And so I missed all the excitement of the late comeback. No doubt once I've tuned in for a few more weeks I'll be moaning myself at how radio commentators are nothing like as good as they were 30 years ago.

In the post-Sky, but pre-internet Nineties, radio commentary was essential as you tuned your stereo to get a grainy Five Live signal, but nothing was so atmospheric, or proved so intimate in terms of a listener-commentator connection. Strangely, I'd disagree with the article about the climax to last season - being in England at the time, the gap between the end of both matches and radio's ability to cut between them, wrenched the gut all the more as defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory, all while minding children in a suburban living room.

Does anyone else remember the days when the BBC Light Programme provided commentary on the second half of just one game, which could come from anywhere in the league? And no links with other grounds. My first memory is of a game at Layer Road. Colchester United v Exeter City. December 17th, 1955. Division 3 (South). 5-1 to Colchester. Commentator Raymond Glendenning (on his own). Those were the days! Maybe.

As someone who does a lot of driving at weekends and evenings I love listening to football on the radio, what I do think is sad though is that Radio 5Live has been become evermore Premier League orientated, on a Saturday afternoon the 72 non-Premier League teams get less than 5 minutes in the hour long "Sports Report", which is probably less time than Arsene Wenger gets to moan to an interviewer about a contested throw-in.

The other thing with radio, is that it is more essential than ever to keep up with football. The different kick off times for the "tv" audiance means that unless you do spend your whole free time indoors, or like to see more of football than just your team where you make special arrangments including organising gifts for the other half, it is very hard to watch. The radio is easy to listen to at work, in the car, on the train etc so I find myself listening to the radio because of the convenience. For me, the age of never having so much football on telly has ironically lead to having never listened to so much football on the radio

I have never tried listening to football while exercising. But ipods/iphones don't have radios - do they? Or is there an app for that?

I would like to hear more about Geobra's radio experiences of the '50s. Did Raymond Glendenning have a phone-in show where irate fans would moan about the work rate of Stanley Matthews, or Charlton fans having kittens about team's defending during their 8-4 defeat to Blackpool?

@ gerryforrest

Rhetorical questions, I presume. No, of course not. And when games mostly kicked of at 2.15, we had to wait an hour for Sports Report. It was 30 minutes long, presented by Eammon Andrews, produced by Angus MacKay and with the results read in his inimitable way by John Webster. He invented the intonation which told you immediately what the result was before you knew the actual score. The games that would be given reports, and the journalists who would provide them, were listed in Radio Times. J.L. Manning, W.J.Hicks, Don Davies etc. They were simple reports of what happened and there were no interviews with players or managers.

The only football on TV then was a 5-minute slot at about 5.15 which featured the team nearest to Broadcasting House that was playing at home in the top two divisions. In my mind's eye it was usually Fulham, and they were usually beating Hull City 5-0, with Hull's goalkeeper Billy Bly sustaining one of his many injuries.

All this no doubt proves two things. How fallible the memory is. And how old I am!

Thanks, Geobra. You don't get enough people known by their initials these days. I imagine the BBC still have archive radio footage of the broadcasters you mentioned. Now that would make a good TV programme - looking back at how football used to be broadcast. Although, given the entire topic of this thread, it would probably be better suited to radio.

"Or is there an app for that?", aye TuneInRadio. Any radio feed on the net you can listen to on your phone. Which means you can listen to local radio to listen to a team's match if you wish. Or if you can't be doing with that you can just listen to LAPD radio with it or even FDNY radio

I've learnt a lot today - thank-you, Lincoln.

In my fallible memory, Raymond Glendenning never criticised referees. He just described their decisions. He spoke with a very plunny accent, but his background was actually very humble. He had to learn to 'talk proper' or the BBC of those days would never have hired him as a commentator.

When I referred earlier to 'the only football on TV', I was of course excluding the Cup Final (and the Amateur Cup Final!) and the occsional international. For example, I remember seeing a Matthews-inspired England beat Brazil 4-2 at Wembley in 1956 despite missing two penalties.

'plunny' should be 'plummy', of course.

Agree entirely.I've experienced many great footballing occasions on the radio and frequently in the bath.I grew up with Sport on 2with commentary on the second half only and with Peter Jones and Marice Edelston, two masters of their craft. In the football season a bath at eight oclock on a Wednesday evening with the football on the radio and a cup of tea is still a ritual for me. My wife thinks I'm mad!

Great article that encapsulates the joy of radio. Certainly with music radio part of the pleasure derives from not knowing what's coming next. The same is true to an extent for football. Deprived of the visual clues, goals or major incidents seem to generate just that bit more excitement when delivered by a skilled commentator.