Newcastle Falcons vs Saracens - Programme

FROM THE PRESS BOX
By Mark Smith
Newcastle Falcons media manager
I keep being told that Newcastle is a city where the media doesn’t care
about rugby, but the facts say otherwise.
If you’ll forgive me for indulging in a little family milestone, today is almost
20 years to the day that my dad, Ian Smith, did his first radio summarising
gig for BBC Newcastle. And he’s been involved in broadcasting pretty much
every Falcons game since.
His innings of ’20 not-out’ began with a 19-12 European Challenge Cup victory
away to Grenoble, where he had travelled as part of the Falcons’ backroom
staff and been roped into helping long-time commentator Kevin Williams.
the thousands upon thousands of miles of travelling just to get there.
Philadelphia, Tbilisi, Cluj, Calvisano, Brive (four times!). You name it, he’s
been there, calling the tries, the penalties and offering his own unique brand
of advice to referees.
Flanked for much of the last decade by ‘Man of Northern’ Dean Gray,
BBC Newcastle continue to provide commentaries home and away in
all competitions, even making the trip to a sparsely-populated arena in
Coventry for a recent Tuesday night Prem Cup game when supporters of
both clubs had thought otherwise.
Once turned into twice, and before he knew it he was a permanent fixture
on the airwaves – the Robin to Kevin’s Batman, calling Falcons games from
all corners of Europe.
When Williams retired to sunnier Spanish climes around a decade ago my old
man made the move from summariser to commentator, the radio equivalent
of trading fly-half for tight-head prop!
Aside from the obvious grind of planning the schedules, scripts and getting
the interviews, it is a role which comes with many technical and logistical
challenges. Until that little green light appears on his broadcast box it’s still in
the balance as to whether there’ll be any commentary at all, not to mention
He’s had battles with station bosses to fight rugby’s corner, and despite my
own obvious bias the feedback from listeners appears to be as good as ever.
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra certainly think enough of his commentaries to
regularly give them exposure on the national DAB network, and it is not a
service that we as a club will ever take for granted.
I speak regularly to media managers at all the Gallagher Premiership outfits,
and for breadth and quality of coverage I’m constantly told we have it good.
So when somebody tries to tell you the North-East media don’t care about
rugby, there’s a 20-year broadcast veteran who can say otherwise.
: BBC Newcastle commentator Ian Smith (right) with summariser Dean Gray.
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