“It’s long enough, it’s high enough and it’s straight between the posts,” Legendary 2SM commentator Frank Hyde was often regarded the best radio caller in the history of rugbyleague.
He called every grand final game from 1953 to 1983.
In the past there were other terrific commentators who called the game, such as Col Pearce, Allan Marks, Tiger Black and John O’Reilly.
In the eighties Greg Hartley and Peter Peters also had a success in calling rugby league with their programme, “Hollywood and Zorba”.
During that period, there were many Sydney radio stations that covered the game, such as ABC, 2SM, 2KY, 2UE and 2GB. In the old days, there’d be one game on Saturday 3pm, while on Sunday afternoon at 3pm, there would be six or seven matches been played at the same time. This is where most radio stations would use the term “around the grounds”.
Being from the Illawarra, in that era, one of the local stations “2 Double 0”, now i98FM, would broadcast every Illawarra Steelers game with John Hobbs calling the action. Today, the Steelers are no more, but live on in the spirit of the St.George-Illawarra Dragons, with i98FM taking broadcast from 2GBs coverage.
What I like to know from the Roarers here today, in the past, did your local radio station call every game of your local NSWRL (NRL) team. Does this still occur, or is there now a similar agreement to that of Illawarra’s i98 FM?
Also Queenslanders, has radio coverage changed in the last 30 or 40 years or so, particularly before and after the Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Tweed Giants entered the comp in 1988?
Back to Sydney radio. In the nineties, 2UE, lead by Ray Hadley and the Continuous Call Team started to dominate the ratings and became the number one station in calling rugby league. By the end of the 1999 season, the NRL controversially awarded the commercial radio rights to 2GB. It meant that 2UE weren’t allowed to call the games.
This is the key reason why the NRL doesn’t have much choice in radio coverage. Here is a series of events that followed:
In season 2000, 2GB were calling the NRL, while 2UE decided to change their programme from Continuous Call Team to “The Talking League Team”, which was a rugby league talk show (with an emphasis on comedy) on the weekends. In a remarkable turn of events, 2UE were still able to beat 2GB in the ratings despite the fact that 2GB were calling the games.
The trend continued in season 2001 with 2GB still coming second to 2UE. By the end of the 2001 season, 2GB owner, John Singleton, sacked the entire 2GB team. He then brought over Hadley’s near entire team from 2UE to 2GB.
Hadley’s team went back as been the Continuous Call Team. 2UE continued the format that was employed previously by Hadley’s team. However this time round, 2GB were beating 2UE in the ratings.
At the end of season 2002, 2UE discontinued “The Talking League Team” show, and went to normal programming. That was 2UE’s last involvement in rugby league programming.
While the Continuous Call Team has been popular with its irreverent look at rugby league with parody songs and hijinks among the members, some critics have suggested that most of the time, they hardly talk about football. For many years Hadley would criticise Channel Nine’s The Footy Show because the show was lightweight with league content and concentrated on comedy.
A bit of irony there on Hadley’s behalf.
Nowadays, Hadley calls the second match on Friday nights on Nine, while Andrew Moore has taken over as chief caller on 2GB.
In 2007, Triple M won the rights to broadcast Monday night football, as been the only FM station to do so. 2GB and ABC Grandstand continue to provide choices for league fans.
The current arrangements with these radio stations (2GB and Triple M) end this year. Many have criticised the NRL for not giving the game more exposure on radio, and therefore limiting the game to only three radio stations. The radio rights fee is very minimal, if anything the NRL should allow more radio stations to cover the matches as it would be more beneficial to the game.
There are many instances where a game of NRL is on, but there’s no coverage of it on radio. For example, this year on ANZAC Day, there wasn’t any coverage of the Melbourne Storm v New Zealand Warriors match.
In the past on Saturday night, 2GB didn’t cover the 7:30pm match, while the ABC would cover the Super Rugby over an NRL game. Thankfully things are slowly improving in that area, with 2GB now covering the 7:30pm Saturday night match, while over at the ABC, there’s the online option if you want to listen to the Super Rugby game, and therefore the NRL match would be covered and no sport misses out.
The NRL in their next radio broadcast deal should dismiss the commercial agreements that 2GB and Triple M have in place, and allow as many radio stations to broadcast the NRL. I am not after ten or twelve stations to call the NRL, but allow flexibility with broadcasting. An example, Triple M, only calls the Monday night game. In future, Triple M should be allowed to call the other weekend games.
It would be good to see more young callers coming through the ranks in radio commentary, and perhaps go further in their respective careers by calling matches for TV networks. Ray Warren is getting on, while Hadley is in his late fifties.
The only agreement the NRL should have in place is that every NRL game must be broadcasted on radio in some way shape or form. The other benefit for radio stations is when it comes to out of town matches, they could always call the matches from their interactive studio via a television monitor.
It’s certainly a smart way for a radio stations to save money from travelling and accommodation.
2GB have been doing this standard practice in the last few years.
Listening to footy on the radio might come from the dinosaur age.
Today, fans have choices like Pay TV, getting live updates from sporting sites, like The Roar, or updated scores from mobile devices. Then again, there are a few websites that you could get live streaming of the matches. Some reliable, while others, well, the least said about them, the better.
But I still think radio as a medium shouldn’t be discarded. If anything it’s the perfect thing to have (radio) when your at work, going for a Sunday drive, or if you are partially occupied with something else. Radio shouldn’t be taken for granted.
At the end of the day the NRL need to have more choice, more options and more exposure on radio. In future there may be more alternatives to “Don’t touch the set, don’t touch the dial, don’t you go anywhere”!
Dave
Guest
Ray Hadley's Continuous Call is an absolute joke and a slap in the face of real rugby league fans. The ARLC should sack themselves if they award these self-promoting imbeciles another exclusivity contract. 2UE should be allowed to call games and Triple M's invlovement must be expanded. Hadley's mob can continue doing what they're doing for the braindead bogans that listen to them, but not at the expense of others. I have heard that Andrew Voss and John Gibbs will head the 2UE coverage if they are allowed to call games.
travis
Guest
Roy and HG are past there use by date. I agree fivehole about Gus saying that is "an origin tackle" or an origin moment. Drives me nuts.
travis
Guest
Huge fan of Ray's call team. They always crack me up with songs like "mammas got her boobs out" and "Fui Fui your fantastic ah ha Fui Fui". Brohman is always random with his humour, while Raaaaaaaaaaaaay tries to keep him in check. Funny show!
Les
Guest
Ray and the boys at 2GB keep myself and others entertained. After the super league wars I lost my appetite for league. But Hadley and his team's funny antics kept me laughing and in a back handed way kept me in touch with the game. I am sure there are many today that start listening to Ray just for the laughs and the show provides an introduction to the game. If it was not for their show I would not have bothered with league and would have lost interest. Now I can say.........GO MANLY,,,,,AND GO THE BLUES
MG
Guest
Hawkesbury Radio has been calling live local rugby league for 15 years. Headlining the coverage from 1997 to 2009 was coverage of the Penrith Panthers NRL matches (Super League 1997). When exclusive rights were awarded to 2GB, Hawkesbury Radio reached a commercial agreement with Macquarie Radio which concluded at the end of 2009. In 2003 Hawkesbury Radio broadcasted all 3 grades on NRL Grand Final day (2GB & ABC only called 2) and became the first community radio station to broadcast (on location) a NRL Grand Final (Panthers v Roosters). 2 years later another significant achievement was calling game 1 of the 2005 Tri Nations series between Australia and New Zealand at Stadium Australia in Sydney. Other competitions broadcast during this period included the Penrith A Grade and Jim Beam/Bundy Red Cup. In 2010 the stations rugby league coverage switched to focus solely on the NSW Cup, calling all Windsor Wolves (feeder to Panthers NRL) matches home and away including broadcasts from Melbourne (2010), Auckland (2010, 2011 x 2 & 2012) and Parkes (2012). Over the past 15 years the commentary team has featured a number of former NRL players including, John Cartwright, Mark Geyer, David Woods, Joel Caine, Luke Priddis, Gary Freeman and Brad Drew. Broadcasting on 89.9FM and online at hawkesburyradio.com.au the coverage has also expanded into social media including facebook and Twitter.
2glf
Guest
The tradition lives on local community radio with 2GLF broadcasting a Junior rugby league match every Sunday at 2pm, worth a listen for the good old days. Go Titians, that is Liverpool Titians.
jamesb
Guest
Hey Saz your right, we need a number of strong radio stations around the place. You also mentioned that 2SM don't participate in the ratings. Well the same goes for 2KY, which today have rebranded themselves as Sky Sports Radio. We need 2UE to be a strong radio station once again. They have been on the decline since Alan Jones and Ray Hadley left in 2001. One way for 2UE to be strong is for them to start calling football on the weekends once again. I'm sure fans out their would like to hear a fresh alternative after listening to the offerings of 2Gb the last decade. That could be 2UEs advantage
Saz
Guest
Agree! I was a disgrace that the rights were made exclusive back in 1999 and the fact they still are is beyond a joke. Hopefully the end of Gallop and the NRL commission will put a stop to it. The sad thing is now I can't see 2UE bothering to call it anymore and 2SM don't participate in the ratings. Triple M will be a good alternative but we really need another 2 to 3 stations to get involved to give people choice. Melbourne has it right - a number of strong stations calling the games and they share it. So many times the commercial holders and ABC are at the same game where there is another 1 or two games at the same time. In the AFL, 3AW, Triple M, SEN and other regionals share the games around.
jamesb
Guest
"But if I were the NRL I would retain their own multimdeia rights and sell the right to broadcast games over the internet back to clubs." B.A Sports, I'm sure that is something the NRL would look to in the future
K55
Guest
In Melbourne we often have MMM, 774ABC, 3AW and SEN1116 all broadcasting the same AFL game! Surely the NRL can entice one of them to at least broadcast the Storm games?? If radio stations really believe that promoting (advertising) products on radio increases product and brand awareness and increases sales, then why not build their ratings through promoting NRL (and rugby and soccer) more and taking the lead instead of forcing the community to live in total isolation under the AFL rock.
Pot Stirrer
Guest
I dont like listening to the games on the radio, but i love listening to the pre and post game talk. Especially on the ABC.
Von Neumann (PBB)
Guest
I wish they would just allow coverage for anyone who would show it. The spin offs from this, are far reaching, and the high penetration is a good thing. The clubs idea is a good one too. I see great flexibility. Radio is a dying medium in its current guise. Let penetration reign. Its got to be worth more for the game in the end.
Patrick Angel
Roar Guru
Hey Leftie, I looked at this a while a go for the cricket, but I haven't bought one yet, so could be a bit dodgy for all I know. http://www.fset.org/sports-sync-radio.html At the game the best bet is the Sports Ears they sell. They're bloody expensive though, and I'm pretty sure they don't work across codes (I have an NRL set, they didn't work at the cricket so I didn't bring them to any AFL games I've been too).
Nathan Beuman
Roar Guru
Couldn't agree more Fivehole. Loved listening to Roy and HG do the Origin. Just wish i was old enough to remember them covering the Sydney Olympics. The commentary on Channel 9 is shocking. I would rather mute the TV and listen to the ABC's coverage, even though its 2-3 seconds in front. James, I'm also from the Illawarra and I'm still waiting for them to bring in digital radio. I live down in Canberra for Uni and bought a digital radio and loved being able to get Grandstand Digital. Only bad thing was I couldn't get full coverage of Monday Night Football unless the Raiders were playing.
Fivehole
Guest
We need Roy & HG for origin calling the game from the card table. It's not the same having to listen to Phil gould saying every 3rd tackle is "an origin tackle".
B.A Sports
Guest
WIth national syndication and the decline in radio now and into the future, having a sole commercial boradcaster and the ABC is fine IMO as it allows the NRL to command more dollars (in all liklihood). But if I were the NRL I would retain their own multimdeia rights and sell the right to broadcast games over the internet back to clubs. Clubs then pay a licence fee back to the NRL (NRL makes some money). Clubs then stream match day coverage of their games, selling advertising etc (making money) and they ensure that their fans have access to their game whether they are at the game, in the country, or overseas..
LeftArmSpinner
Roar Guru
The most frustrating part of the radio call is that the wonderful ABC team led by Guru warren Ryan and. Is insightful comments is now out of synch with the tv signal. I have tried digital and analogue. They justt don't synch anymore. Ridiculous and in these days of even at the game, they don't synch with the life action!
Lou
Guest
That's not a try ! That's a miracle !!!! Yes all games must be broadcast on radio!!! It's a no brainier ,
peeeko
Roar Guru
very true, agree totally