The Big Interview – Jim Proudfoot
Jim Proudfoot, commentator for the Rock and Roll Football Show, discusses the importance of radio commentary in the football world.
Swansea v Arsenal on Saturday marks Absolute Radio’s 100th commentary game. What work is required to get to a landmark like that?
When we started back in 2010 everyone already had plenty of experience in working in sports programming, but we were assembling a team from scratch and as everyone who has ever been into an office for the first time will know, that can be difficult. I’d worked with Ian Wright before – there might have been teething troubles to begin with but that’s normal, I think! The format is brilliant and there is constant fine-tuning to be done – we’re certainly not naïve enough to think we get it absolutely right every week – but we’ve evolved into a show we’re very proud of.
The Rock N Roll Football Show seems to be going from strength to strength, what do you think is the secret to a successful football show?
You have to pitch yourself in the market correctly. When we started there were already two very established live football broadcasters on the radio in BBC 5Live and talkSPORT, both of which provide very different and very professional services.
There was no point in us coming in and trying to compete with them, so we had to try and find another way of doing it. We are very passionate in the way the commentary is done, and then we have a constructive two-hour programme with Ian Wright after the live match as well, so we’re quite accessible. We have a few guys that like a bit of banter so the tone is always fairly light-hearted, but then we also have the journalistic ability to stop it being too light and frothy all the time. Moments come along where it can be light-hearted but we have some heavyweight journos to provide some thought as well. Gives us the best of both worlds really.
Where do you think the line is between light-hearted football banter and experienced, insightful journalism?
That’s difficult! You need to be able, as a team, to judge the occasion. You can certainly bring in some humour if you’re at a bad game and nothing is happening, but if you have a major story or a very good game people primarily want to know what the score is and where the ball is on the pitch. That is, and should always be, the primary role of a radio commentator. We are in the entertainment business as well and you want people to like what you do, but they need the information in a palatable way.
There will also be times that you just can’t prepare for. Fabrice Muamba suffered his collapse during one of Ian Wright’s shows, which is normally a very light-hearted programme, but he also has the gravitas to give some sincere insight from a footballer’s point of view when the situation demands it. I’d like to think we get the balance pretty good, not having excessive opinions for the sake of it, and what makes the sport so wonderful is that our opinions are no more founded than anyone else’s.
Despite the billions of pounds being spent on TV rights, do you think the art of radio commentary will always have a place in football?
I do, simply because there are more people in their cars. Games are being played at different times throughout the week now and it’s impossible for fans to watch every match that they want to watch. If anything I think radio will grow over the next few years, thanks to television, ironically enough. Television has really expanded the population of football fans in the last 20-25 years, so if you have twice has many football fans that’s obviously twice as many potential listeners.
I support a lower division team so the fact that there are now a number of ways I can keep up to date with what is going on in their game is incredible and there are a lot of football fans in the same boat. These are also the same fans that grew up listening to radio coverage of games, and it will always have a special place in people’s hearts.
