Pat Murphy’s recent book celebrating the 75th anniversary of the long-running 91Èȱ¬ Radio 5 Live programme Sports Report is coming out in paperback. This updated version clears up a few inevitable grammatical errors as well as paying homage to several key figures who have died since the hardback came out a year ago – John Motson, Bob Burrows, Robin Marlar and Sheenah Harrold, the daughter of founding editor Angus Mackay.
‘All the great events and personalities are chronicled,’ Murphy explains, ‘as well as sharp insights into what it's been like to be an insider on the programme either from the studio or in the field dealing with the various challenges of a fast-moving live radio sports programme when you never know what's coming up next.’
The paperback edition also deals with the first season Sports Report excluded the Classified Football Results at 5pm and the end of the show at 5.30pm instead of 6 o’clock. Interestingly, the listening figures stood up well to these changes that caused so much media controversy in August 2022.
Murphy, who although an ex-91Èȱ¬ staffer continues to report on matches on Saturday afternoons for Sports Report, was delighted by the reception the book got. ‘My Twitter feed continues to bring me reactions from people I’ve never met. Whenever I report on a football match, somebody in the pressroom tells me how much they enjoyed it, so I must have done something right!’
91Èȱ¬ Sports Report: A Celebration of the World's Longest-Running Sports Radio Programme is published in paperback by Bloomsbury, price £12.99.