radio lancs

[glagys]

will radio lancs be broadcasting the game live from darkest don valley????

[Keith]

you listen to Radio Blackbum a lot then? If Blackpool/PNE/Burnley or Blackbum are playing, there will be a sports programme. If not, it will be 1960's music with occasional updates from Quinny. Its not like we're a League team or anything. I would love to see Blackpool & Morecambe in the same league, that will give them something to ponder... ie an excuse to still cover Blackpool while not covering us The only live game this season was Acci v Morecambe when both clubs agreed to waive their fee.

[Old Man Kensey]

Have to agree with Keith on this one. I have not listened to Radio Blackburnshire once this season. There are so many other ways to keep up to date with games now, we don't need their piss poor half-arsed service any more

[Number 1]

Who needs Radio Lancs when we have Morecambe World? Great entertainment that. If you needed proof, you only needed to listen to the Macclesfield game when Quinny had to go all corporate when doing the Radio Lancs updates!!

[Wild Bill]

you listen to Radio Blackbum a lot then? If Blackpool/PNE/Burnley or Blackbum are playing, there will be a sports programme. If not, it will be 1960's music with occasional updates from Quinny. Its not like we're a League team or anything. I would love to see Blackpool & Morecambe in the same league, that will give them something to ponder... ie an excuse to still cover Blackpool while not covering us The only live game this season was Acci v Morecambe when both clubs agreed to waive their fee.

Was thinking the same thing only today. Ok we are a smaller club than Blackpool, but Blackpool are a much smaller club than the other 3 Lancashire clubs but they seem to get equal coverage!

Pluckly little Morecambe going for the play-offs in the football league yet still no coverage? Poor do if you ask me, especially with many fans being unable to travel as its midweek.

[Shrimpsscene]

myself and julian wilson tomorrow night
pre match from 730pm
and full match comemntary from 745pm
cheers sean

[Keith]

Are Blackburn playing tonight? Nope
Are Burnley playing tonight? Nope
Are Preston playing tonight? Nope
Are Blackpool playing? Nope

So what's playing tonight?

BBC Radio Lancashire (sic) have Keith Fletcher's Juke Box, music from the 60's, 70's & 80's...

See this?



That's a case... rested.

Just out of curiosity, did they have commentary yesterday of the Burnley v Sheffield United match? A home game, that was live on Sky? Bloody well hope not!

[baldrick]

Ive tuned in and its music crap!

[seasonsinthesun]

I don't agree with this slagging off of Radio Lancs.
You all need to take off your rose-tinted Shrimps spectacles and remember that Radio Lancs has a budget to cover live commentaries for the season.
Burnley,Preston, Blackpool and Blackburn are rightly regarded as senior to us in the current climate, so receive more coverage, I don't have a problem with that.
I remember earlier in the season Blackpool fans being unhappy because a particular game was not "live" one Saturday. I think over the years Radio Lancs has been good covering MFC.
Remember the immense coverage we had from them when we played Ipswich in 2001, or the coveage of the build up to Wembley in 2007, we were on the radio almost every day leading up to Wembley, and the great programme with Jim Bentley at Christmas.

I know we are not as high up in the pecking order as other Lancashire clubs but overall I don't think we have too much to complain about.

[Christies Child]

I don't agree with this slagging off of Radio Lancs.
You all need to take off your rose-tinted Shrimps spectacles and remember that Radio Lancs has a budget to cover live commentaries for the season.
Burnley,Preston, Blackpool and Blackburn are rightly regarded as senior to us in the current climate, so receive more coverage, I don't have a problem with that.
I remember earlier in the season Blackpool fans being unhappy because a particular game was not "live" one Saturday. I think over the years Radio Lancs has been good covering MFC.
Remember the immense coverage we had from them when we played Ipswich in 2001, or the coveage of the build up to Wembley in 2007, we were on the radio almost every day leading up to Wembley, and the great programme with Jim Bentley at Christmas.

I know we are not as high up in the pecking order as other Lancashire clubs but overall I don't think we have too much to complain about.

Whilst I had a bit of a 'go' at Radio Lancashire in the chat room on Tuesday, overall I agree with the above comments.

They serve us as well as I would expect when there is news to tell. OK the coverage of matches could be a bit better but that's no doubt down to budget control and accessibility to air time. Remember we are one of 6 clubs they have to cover and in fairness I bet we get more coverage than Stanley throughout the season and that's who we should be judged again.

We should be grateful for what we get in my opinion.

[Keith]

I'm not asking for parity with Blackburn, I'm asking for some reflection that we (and Accrington for that matter) are league clubs. Yes they have budget restrictions but I wonder how much more it costs to cover a Premiership match than a League Two match? Double? Quadruple? I'd hazzard a guess at about three to four times as much. So one less Blackburn match a season would enable them to cover at least one, possibly two matches live for ourselves and Accrington. As I said earlier, we had ONE game covered live this season and that was because ourselves & Accrington agreed to waive the fee, otherwise we'd have had no live coverage all season. They covered Burnley & Blackpool when they were in the bottom division not that many years ago.

Tuesday night was a very big match for us and one that many people couldn't get to on a Tuesday night. Covering that game would have been a reasonable service given that we were still in with a chance of the play offs. What did they have on Monday night? I honestly don't know, but I'd be even more miffed if they covered Burnley as that was live on Sky (I'm guessing they didn't, especially with Burnley being at home?)

Yes, we get great coverage away from match days and on the build up to BIG games. What we don't get in my opinion, is fair coverage when compared to Lancashire's other Football League clubs. Not equal, just fair.

[PUNKISDEAD]

'm not asking for parity with Blackburn, I'm asking for some reflection that we (and Accrington for that matter) are league clubs. Yes they have budget restrictions but I wonder how much more it costs to cover a Premiership match than a League Two match? Double? Quadruple? I'd hazzard a guess at about three to four times as much. So one less Blackburn match a season would enable them to cover at least one, possibly two matches live for ourselves and Accrington. As I said earlier, we had ONE game covered live this season and that was because ourselves & Accrington agreed to waive the fee, otherwise we'd have had no live coverage all season. They covered Burnley & Blackpool when they were in the bottom division not that many years ago.

Tuesday night was a very big match for us and one that many people couldn't get to on a Tuesday night. Covering that game would have been a reasonable service given that we were still in with a chance of the play offs. What did they have on Monday night? I honestly don't know, but I'd be even more miffed if they covered Burnley as that was live on Sky (I'm guessing they didn't, especially with Burnley being at home?)

Yes, we get great coverage away from match days and on the build up to BIG games. What we don't get in my opinion, is fair coverage when compared to Lancashire's other Football League clubs. Not equal, just fair.

HERE HERE!!!

[Number 1]

I think there's a danger that we're a bit too self centrered about possible Radio Lancs coverage.

BBC Radio Lancashire has a catchment area of around 1,200,000.
Of these, the latest audience figures available suggest that around 212,000 listen every week. I'm not sure how that equates to hourly breakdown, because you have to pay a fee for that information. (Source: http://www.mediauk.com/radio/rajar/297/bbc-lancashire )
However, the point is, Morecambe FC have an average home attendance of around 1500, of which around 10-20% actually attend away games so wouldn't benefit from live coverage. Given that this would narrow the figure to about 1200 of the average home attendance, you have to wonder whether, during the peak evening listening time, whether Radio Lancs audience figures for whatever show is usually on, is more than 1200. Of that 1200, some will be working, some watching TV, some at the pub etc etc, which narrows the figure down even more. This being the case, and if the audience figure for the normal show is over 1000, it weakens the argument further to to justify live coverage of a Morecambe match. Not only that, but if there's a fee payable too, it won't happen.

There is another radio station, The Bay, who could get involved in live coverage, but choose not to. The Bay's catchment area is about 320,000, of which around 104,000 people tune in. It has a 32% market share, compared to Radio Lancashire's 8.4% market share, so really, it's The Bay who reach more Morecambrians, and who should therefore provide better coverage, yet no one seems to mention them and instead aim a broadside at Radio Lancs.

I'm not defending Radio Lancs at all, and have no affiliation to them, but the fact is, when the numbers who would listen is so small, and the relative cost is so great, it doesn't surprise me that we don't get live coverage on a Tuesday night.

As I mentioned before, we now have Morecambe World too, which works out at less than a quid a game, and is more entertaining, so I really can't see an issue with the fact that Radio Lancs live coverage is piss poor.

[Mark S]

I'm not asking for parity with Blackburn, I'm asking for some reflection that we (and Accrington for that matter) are league clubs. Yes they have budget restrictions but I wonder how much more it costs to cover a Premiership match than a League Two match? Double? Quadruple? I'd hazzard a guess at about three to four times as much. So one less Blackburn match a season would enable them to cover at least one, possibly two matches live for ourselves and Accrington. As I said earlier, we had ONE game covered live this season and that was because ourselves & Accrington agreed to waive the fee, otherwise we'd have had no live coverage all season. They covered Burnley & Blackpool when they were in the bottom division not that many years ago.

Tuesday night was a very big match for us and one that many people couldn't get to on a Tuesday night. Covering that game would have been a reasonable service given that we were still in with a chance of the play offs. What did they have on Monday night? I honestly don't know, but I'd be even more miffed if they covered Burnley as that was live on Sky (I'm guessing they didn't, especially with Burnley being at home?)

Yes, we get great coverage away from match days and on the build up to BIG games. What we don't get in my opinion, is fair coverage when compared to Lancashire's other Football League clubs. Not equal, just fair.

Just out of interest, do you pay a licence fee on the Island?

[The Bay]

There is another radio station, The Bay, who could get involved in live coverage, but choose not to. The Bay's catchment area is about 320,000, of which around 104,000 people tune in. It has a 32% market share, compared to Radio Lancashire's 8.4% market share, so really, it's The Bay who reach more Morecambrians, and who should therefore provide better coverage, yet no one seems to mention them and instead aim a broadside at Radio Lancs.

Thanks for this, and you've obviously done the research on your figures, because what you've quoted is correct. We have 4 times the audience of Lancs in our broadcast area.

You're right, we don't do commentaries,and the reason for this is twofold. Firstly, it's financial. It costs alot of money to have commentary rights, cash which just isn't in my budget. The station pay a substantial fee to allow us to report at games both home and away.
In terms of coverage, we have done the show live at Christie from every home game (Saturday and midweek) this season, and will do so next year too. So while we don't do a full match commentary, you'll never be more than 7mins at most away from a full Morecambe update.

When the Shrimps are away, we still have regular updates both from me and our reporters at the game - who this season have been a combination of Glen Cooper and Mick Dennison, while I take the opportunity to be fair to our other local clubs by doing the show from their game.

The second reason is audience. As many of you will be aware, a couple of seasons ago, management here took the decision to drop all local football (I wasn't here at the time, personally i think it was a bad move though and I've told management this), as audiences nosedived. Ths was simply because of its style - there was too little music.

But I know it alienated alot of people, footy fans who tuned out, and haven't (yet) tuned back.

I took over the show in August and in two 'surveys' (listening figures), the figures for my show
have tripled. If you want numbers, my show has just under 16,000 listeners, compared to just over 4,000 for BBC Lancs.

So it appears the mix of music and updates (not just for Shrimps, remember I've got 5 clubs to get in), is going down well.

We also have interviews with Sammy and players before and after every game both on air and online.

This isn't a 'don't listen to Lancs, come to us' speech, but all I would say is I'm personally quite pleased with the coverage I give the club, and hopefully it'll continue to get stronger. Of course it's not perfect yet, but why not give it a try either this week or next, or next season. You might be surprised.

Cheers,

Dave.

[Keith]

Just out of interest, do you pay a licence fee on the Island?

Yes, we pay the licence fee here. On the Island, there is usually a rumbling of discontent about this because we are the only place that pays a fee that doesn't get covered by a local radio station, but Manx Radio (whose presenters are always delighted to be recognised in pubs, eh Mark!) is part funded by the IoM government, part advertising. Many people feel that should be a BBC station, funded from the licence fee (as it is in the Channel Islands). For many years the IoM section of the BBC website listed our 'local radio station' as Radio Lancashire! You may notice Look North West regularly has news snippets from the Isle of Man, often stuff that would never get a mention if it had happened in Morecambe. This is because they are our local TV station too. A few years ago the IoM government kicked up a stink and threatened to withhold the licence fee because we weren't covered by any local TV or radio so an agreement was reached to cover us more, we now have a locally employed BBC TV news reporter. That said, they mention us mainly on the weather forecast (Dianne Oxberry is excellent at pulling up places on the Isle that I've never heard of... like Cammell!)

You'll see a Manx name place on almost every local news bulletin.

Sadly, I can't pick up Bay Radio over here, although it can be picked up from up on The Mountain in a few places.

While Number 1 makes some valid points as to why Radio Lancs should ignore us when it comes to live coverage, my point is still valid. The whole point of local BBC radio is not about number chasing (that's what The Bay is for) it's about public service. Repeating what I said before, I've never expected 'parity' or 'equality' but I do believe that we deserve some coverage. Why should BBC licence fee money always go to Blackburn & Burnley but expect the non-league clubs to accept either no coverage or no money? Especially now that we're not non-league! When Burnley & Blackpool were in the fourth division, they still got coverage. I can remember the season where Blackpool had live coverage in the LDV Trophy but the following season (I think) we played in it and had 'up dates'. We were in the same competition, at the same stage, yet they 'deserved' a live game, we didn't. This all strikes me as the traditionally 'big' clubs still seen as being more important that us (and Acci). If we go up at the same time as Blackpool come down, what then? Will you expect equality with them then or will we still be the non-league club?

[al1]

there is no live commentry on blackpool v forest today,just updates,very unusual

[Christies Child]

there is no live commentry on blackpool v forest today,just updates,very unusual

This could be because there is live commentry on both the Burnley and PNE games to follow and could be due to restrictions on air time.

I could be wrong.......for once!

[Shrimpsscene]

radio lancs are once again helping us with the line so tune into morecambe world with mark s and quinny
ill be updating the official site and popping in here

[james456]

(Dianne Oxberry is excellent at pulling up places on the Isle that I've never heard of... like Cammell!)

I've seen them pull up the map of the north west and the places dotted and labelled are Liverpool... Manchester... Carlisle... and... Torrisholme