''Sports Report'' is one of the longest-running programmes on British radio, and is the world's longest-running sports radio programme. It started on 3 January 1948, and has always been broadcast from 17:00 on Saturday evenings during the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

season, for most of its history featuring two readings of the classified football results, although the length of the programme has varied in more recent times depending on whether the BBC has a commentary of a 17:30 Premier League match. Originally produced by Angus Mackay, it was broadcast on the

BBC Light Programme The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...

until 25 April 1964. On 22 August 1964 it became part of ''Sports Service'' and moved to Network Three (which later became

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

) where it initially started at the earlier time of 16:42. On 4 April 1970, however, it moved back to what had by then become

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

, where it remained until 25 August 1990 as part of ''Sport on 2''. From 1 September 1990 to 26 March 1994 it moved to the original BBC Radio 5, and since 2 April 1994 it has been broadcast on

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

as part of '' 5 Live Sport''. In February 1969

Mary Raine Mary Bertha Raine ( Carter, also known as Mary Thomas during her first marriage, 17 February 1877 – 3 February 1960) was an Australian businesswoman and philanthropist. Her bequests to the University of Western Australia created and funded t ...

was sent to report on the Chelsea–Sunderland league game for ''Sports Report'', becoming the first woman to report on sport for the BBC. The start of the 2022–23 English football season saw the axing of the Saturday afternoon classified football results without prior warning or fanfare. This was confirmed on 8 August 2022 when the BBC announced it had dropped the results from the programme because it had been shortened ahead of the 17:30 Premier League match.

Presenters

Raymond Glendenning Raymond Carl Glendenning (25 September 1907 – 23 February 1974) was a BBC radio sports commentator and occasional character actor. Early years Glendenning was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, son of Robert James Samuel Glendenning, a c ...

(1948–53) * Stephen Grenfell (1948–53) *W J (Bill) Hicks (Sports Editor and broadcaster) *

Eamonn Andrews Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ ...

(1950–64) *

Robin Marlar Robin Geoffrey Marlar (2 January 1931 – 30 September 2022) was an English cricketer and cricket journalist. He played for Cambridge University before playing for Sussex County Cricket Club from 1951 to 1968. He captained both teams. Early li ...

(1964–68) * Liam Nolan (1965–66) * Peter Jones (1968–70) *

Des Lynam Desmond Michael Lynam (born 17 September 1942) is an Irish-born British television and radio presenter. In a broadcasting career spanning more than forty years, he has hosted television coverage of many of the world's major sporting events, pr ...

(1970–80) *

Mike Ingham Michael Robert Ingham MBE (born 24 September 1950 in Cheshire) is an English football commentator and broadcaster. Early life He grew up in Duffield and Quarndon and attended the Belper School (then The Herbert Strutt School) in Belper. He ...

(1980–85) * Renton Laidlaw (1985–87) *

John Inverdale John Ballantyne Inverdale (born 27 September 1957) is an English broadcaster who works for both the BBC and ITV. During his radio career, he has presented coverage of many major sporting events including the Olympic Games, Wimbledon, the Gran ...

(1987–94) * Ian Payne (1994–2000) *

Mark Pougatch Mark Charles Adam Pougatch (born 27 January 1968) is an English radio and television broadcaster, journalist, and author who is currently a sideline reporter for Stan Sport's European football and the Chief Sports Presenter for ITV Sport, fr ...

(2000–2016) * Mark Chapman (2016–present)

Classified football results announcers

*John Webster (1948–1974) *

James Alexander Gordon James Alexander Gordon (10 February 1936 – 18 August 2014) was a Scottish radio broadcaster, best known for reading out association football, football results on BBC radio. Born in Edinburgh in 1936, as a baby he was paralysed with polio a ...

(1974–2013) *

Charlotte Green Charlotte Green (born 4 May 1956) is a British radio broadcaster and a former continuity announcer and news reader for BBC Radio 4. After 1988, she specialised in news reading, including reading the news on the Radio 4 breakfast ''Today'' pro ...

(2013–2022)

Theme tune

The programme has used the same theme music since its inception – "Out of the Blue", written by

Hubert Bath Hubert Charles Bath (6 November 188324 April 1945) was an English film composer, music director, and conductor. His credits include the music to the Oscar-winning documentary '' Wings Over Everest'' (1934), as well as to the films '' Tudor Rose ...

. It is said that Lynam prevented the theme from being dropped in the 1970s due to it sounding old-fashioned. The use of the closing part of "Out of the Blue" to end the programme was unceremoniously dropped by the BBC in the mid-2000s. On Saturday 5 January 2013, ''Sports Report'' did not open with "Out of the Blue" for the first time, prompting a string of tweets and presenter Mark Pougatch to tweet shortly afterwards that: "Out of the Blue" was subsequently played an hour later.

References

External links

* {{BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Light Programme programmes BBC Radio 2 programmes BBC Radio 5 Live programmes British sports radio programmes 1948 radio programme debuts 1940s British radio programmes 1950s British radio programmes 1960s British radio programmes 1970s British radio programmes 1980s British radio programmes 1990s British radio programmes 2000s British radio programmes 2010s British radio programmes 2020s British radio programmes