[Archived] Bbc Radio Lancashire

[Ben-2000]

Radio Rovers should extend their signal to cover more of Lancs (currently runs on a 5 mile radius) and cover away games on the station too.

That said, I can get Radio Rovers on 'the tops' here in Bacup but goes again when I drop into Dingle-land.

[Hughesy]

Interested to know what's going on. Very disappointed with this news, had noticed we weren't being covered as much last season. It's a poor do whatever the reason.

Hopefully a statement will come out (was told it would) as it is of NO fault of Rovers at all.

[jodrell]

It is no coverage home or away. They say they can't pay as much as in previous seasons. hope this link works if not it is on Radio Lancs Iplayer sports Thursday 31.20 in.

BBC Lancashire, 6:00pm Thursday 19th

[Ben-2000]

Like I said, this should be an opportunity for Rovers to look into re-launching Radio Rovers in a bigger area to cover both home and away games. Maybe an 'FM' frequency too.

If they market it, i'm sure advertisers would come along - so there's money to be made. There are already a couple of companies advertise on there now.

[koi]

Will be very interested in the reason behind the BBC not broadcasting Lancashire's largest, most successful and ONLY established Premier League club.

[koi]

It is no coverage home or away. They say they can't pay as much as in previous seasons. hope this link works if not it is on Radio Lancs Iplayer sports Thursday 31.20 in.

BBC Lancashire, 6:00pm Thursday 19th

But they can cover Blackpool's games? Is GMR having to choose between Utd & City? Merseyside 'Pool & Everton? What about BBC London; Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Fulham, West Ham and then QPR, Palace, Millwall, brentford, Charlton, Leyton Orient etc etc. Something very very fishy about this.

[jodrell]

The only reason I can think of is that until last season they have never had two premiership clubs to cover .Now they have had to fork out for two in two seasons and the funds are drying up. .Rovers don’t want to take a pay cut and Blackpool just want the extra revenue. Just guessing

[Hughesy]

It is no coverage home or away. They say they can't pay as much as in previous seasons. [/url]

Thats pretty much it...the amount they wanted to cut it by was crazy though

[beerwins]

They pay less to cover Blackpools games and Bumly's simple as.

Last season they only covered rovers if they were away and bumly were at home, now they have blackpool to throw in the mix and they thought they found a cheaper option. In all fairness I listen to radio Lancashire quite a lot and over the last season it favours Preston and Bumly so much I stopped listening.

Ted Robbins is about the only thing I listen to now on radio Lancashire as he seems the only one on there that isnt interested in football and his humour matches mine........In the gutter

[Blue n White Rover]

Where can I hear the Rovers away game commentary tomorrow then?

[OhmiBRFC]

Online I presume, on Roversworld.

[thenodrog]

I heard that on Thurs night. The BBC are blaming it on 'cuts' and that this season they are not able to pay as much as in previous seasons. They inferred that this was acceptable to the other local clubs but not to BRFC.

It's certainly a strange one. imo any revenue BRFC receive from Radio Lancs must surely be viewed as a bonus given the level of radio coverage that is tantamount to free weekly advertising for the club.

I think this can only be viewed as a lose/lose situation and I guess the Chairmans son needs to be called upon to give the reasons surrounding the issue.

btw Follow that link to Thursday night's show it's compulsive listening. I was in the car listening at the time and it was an absolute belter of a show! Holloway gave two superb interviews as always straight from the heart, one at the start and one at the end of the prog and his rant at some red top editor after 47 / 49 or so minutes was very special.

Big Sam spoke a lot of sense too and the Radio lancs / Rovers stuff was illuminating even if there was a touch one sided. Took great pains to emphasise that there had been no fallout.

(btw I've heard on the grapevine that Carl Oyston is facing some sort of court appearence of a financial nature and that if it goes against him then he will have difficulty remaining as Chairman given Premier League rules. Might be just rubbish but there you go.)

[cesus]

I'm pretty sure radio lancs has chopped most of Burnleys games too. A mate was saying it was discussed on clarets mad a few weeks ago, they also had to purchase clarets world or whatever its called.

[Clitherover]

Like I said, this should be an opportunity for Rovers to look into re-launching Radio Rovers in a bigger area to cover both home and away games. Maybe an 'FM' frequency too.

If they market it, i'm sure advertisers would come along - so there's money to be made. There are already a couple of companies advertise on there now.

A Radio Rovers internet stream would be handy but can't imagine it happening as it would pull funds away from the Rovers World site.

[Mattyblue]

Gary 'PNE' Hickson will need no further excuse to ignore Rovers.

Considering that PNE now get the smallest crowds of the 4 main clubs they get far too much coverage.

We should join with our south Lancs chums Bolton and Wigan and establish a radio station for established Premier League clubs.

[ABBEY]

ah well spanish commentry will have to do

[Seggie]

ah well spanish commentry will have to do

Bet your devastated

Its a joke though, the BBC is meant to represent everyone.

[thenodrog]

I heard that on Thurs night. The BBC are blaming it on 'cuts' and that this season they are not able to pay as much as in previous seasons. They inferred that this was acceptable to the other local clubs but not to BRFC.

It's certainly a strange one. imo any revenue BRFC receive from Radio Lancs must surely be viewed as a bonus given the level of radio coverage that is tantamount to free weekly advertising for the club.

I think this can only be viewed as a lose/lose situation.

btw Follow that link to Thursday night's show it's compulsive listening. I was in the car listening at the time and it was an absolute belter of a show! Holloway gave two superb interviews as always straight from the heart, one at the start and one at the end of the prog and his rant at some red top editor after 47 / 49 or so minutes was very special.

Big Sam spoke a lot of sense too and the Radio lancs / Rovers stuff was illuminating even if there was a touch one sided. Took great pains to emphasise that there had been no fallout.

Further to the above I've recently been in contact with the club (no names / no pack drill) and below I've cut and pasted their side of the story (with their permission of course).

" For the record, I understand the disappointment of some fans with the absence of Blackburn Rovers commentary this season on BBC Radio Lancashire. But let me assure you that we are also disappointed that our long standing relationship has faltered.

We had come to the end of the existing contract and were full intending to look to a new commitment based on broadly the same terms as those previous. However, they informed us from the outset that nothing like the previous fee would be offered this time round. The proposed decrease was simply unacceptable for Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

This came as a surprise to us. Although we as a company seek the best value from suppliers, we would never expect such a large decrease in cost to the club on a broadly like-for-like product. Also, I am sure you are as proud of the Blackburn Rovers brand as we are and we do not believe that this brand has diminished. We were after all 10th last year!

More importantly, were we to have accepted this “take it or leave it” offer, we do not feel that the message this would send out to those other partners who invest in the Rovers brand is an appropriate one. Imagine if Crown Paints, the WEC Group and Thwaites Brewery to name but three also felt that the Rovers brand was worth such a decrease in investment. This would account for a substantial fall in the commercial revenue of the club and would in turn begin to effect the football finances and our ability to compete in the Premier League.

We then attempted to re-open negotiations with Radio Lancs who then informed us that the offer had once again decreased.

We understand that the away commentary is an important service to those fans who cannot travel to these fixtures, but also the few home games that are covered can be very useful to those who might not be able to get to the ground or a television. With this in mind, we will keep a productive dialogue with Radio Lancs alive and ensure we exhaust all avenues of discussion. However, it looks like no solution will be found this season so we will look at what other avenues we can use to get commentary to our loyal fans.

As you will know, the commentary is available through Radio Rovers. We do understand that the transmission range does not reach every fan and perhaps this is something we can now look to address. The commentary is also available on our website as part of the Roverplayer service. This does require a subscription fee, but provides a good service that has seen a good year for uptake. The situation is under review.

I hope this goes some way to explaining the situation. Although I stress again our preference was to continue this agreement it is clearly not possible currently for this to happen. I welcome your views. "

Discuss.........

[roversmum]

Not happy with this at all. Going to send a protest to Radio Lancashire telling it that it has lost a listener. Although I personally subscribe to Rovers Player (although as I attend most home and away matches I rarely use the commentary service) there are still many who do not use the internet. I feel sad that they will be unable to listen to any commentary (home or away) if they live outside the very limited transmission area of Radio Rovers. This is likely to affect more mature supporters, the less able and those with young families and could well in turn affect merchandise sales and encourage prospective fans to turn to commentary (and 'support') of other clubs, eg Manchester United and Liverpool.

Well done to Rovers for not giving in to the blackmail, but it's a shame.

[Ben-2000]

As you will know, the commentary is available through Radio Rovers. We do understand that the transmission range does not reach every fan and perhaps this is something we can now look to address. The commentary is also available on our website as part of the Roverplayer service. This does require a subscription fee, but provides a good service that has seen a good year for uptake. The situation is under review.

Yes, the Radio Rovers signal needs to be extended to cover the whole of Lancs without doubt and away game commentary included so that it's not just online. When that is done the Radio Lancs problem has been solved.

If you want to be 'picky' then maybe Radio Rovers could move over to an FM frequency?

Will you be passing these suggestions on? Or should I drop the club a line?

Cheers.