''Sports Report'' is one of the longest-running programmes on

British radio Radio enjoys a huge following in the United Kingdom. There are around 600 licensed radio stations in the country. For a more comprehensive list see List of radio stations in the United Kingdom. BBC Radio The most prominent stations are the n ...

, 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 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 2 and BBC Radio 1. 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 The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and quickly became one of the leading cultural and intellectual f ...

(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, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The st ...

) 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 most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content ...

, 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 as part of '' 5 Live Sport''. 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 has dropped the results from the programme because it has 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 He was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, and was educated at Newport High School and the Unive ...

(1948–53) * Stephen Grenfell (1948–53) *

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 A ...

(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 l ...

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

Des Lynam Desmond Michael Lynam, (born 17 September 1942) is an Irish-born 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, presentin ...

(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. ...

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

John Inverdale John 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 Grand Nationa ...

(1987–94) * Ian Payne (1994–2000) *

Mark Pougatch Mark Charles Albert Pougatch (born 27 January 1968) is an English radio and television broadcaster, a journalist and author who is currently the Chief Sport Presenter for ITV Sport, fronting their major football and rugby coverage. He is also ...

(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 the classified check of the association football, football results every Saturday at 17:00 on BBC Radio Five Live's ''Sports ...

(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 Radio 4 breakfast ''Today'' programme ...

(2013–2022)

Theme tune

Extraordinarily, 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 a British 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 without consultation 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.

External links

References

{{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