EUROVISION Sport Radio Podcast

Something strange happened In Italy this summer. Seen from a football perspective, the Italian team taking home the Euro2020 trophy was already something special. But seen from a wider lens, with successes in athletics, swimming, tennis, cycling, volleyball, and American football, Italy enjoyed an outstanding year. Add in the Nobel Prize in physics and winning the Eurovision Song Contest, and you have an astonishing year for the country. In this episode of the Eurovision Sport Radio Podcast, we hand the mic to Andrea Pistorio, a sports producer at RAI Radio 1 in Italy. Andrea took part in a recent Eurovision Sport and EBU Academy workshop dedicated to live sports commentary, and what a year to be an Italian sports commentator. Andrea meets Riccardo Cucchi, one of the most prominent sports journalists at RAI, Sandro Fioravanti, a man whose name is synonymous with Olympic and Paralympic commentary, and Alessandra Sensini, the first Italian athlete to win gold in sailing.

In this episode of the Eurovision Sport Radio Podcast, host David Naert from VRT speaks to 6 sports journalists about their experience reporting on The Spring Classics this year. Despite the pandemic, audiences this year could rely on public radio, listening to famous classics like the Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

What's it like to be a sports reporter living inside the beating heart of winter sports? The Grisons region of Switzerland hosts countless Ski and Biathlon competitions, and it's impossible to grow-up in the area without developing a love for winter sports. In this episode of the EUROVISION Sport Radio Podcast, we meet Andreas Wieland, a reporter and commentator for the Romansch-speaking Swiss broadcaster RTR. From the age of 10, Andreas knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life. To be in a commentary position is a dream-come-true for him, especially at a time when fans are restricted at sports events. In this episode we meet Andreas and two of his colleagues from France and Slovakia, as they cover the conclusion of the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup season in Lenzerheide.

Pokljuka in Slovenia, a winter wonderland, has been hosting the IBU Biathlon World Championships for most of February. Sweden enjoyed their best World Championships ever, taking home six medals. Each medal was watched, reported-on and analysed by Isabell Gradin and her colleagues from Swedish Radio. Another area of success for Sweden, is the national broadcaster's commitment to ensuring female commentators and reporters are given an equal footing in what has traditionally been a male-dominated field of journalism. Eurovision Sport has just published a report, "Reimagining Sport, Pathways to Gender-Balanced Media Coverage" which is available for download from ebu.ch. On the back of the report, and given the success of Sweden in the IBU Biathlon World Championships, we're delighted to dedicate this episode to Isabell Gradin and the work of her fellow sports journalists who battled covid restrictions and freezing temperatures to report from the shores of Lake Bled.

Take a trip behind the scenes at the 27th IHF World Men's Handball Championship in Egypt. Find out how Public Service radio commentators are dealing with conditions like never before due to COVID-19. In this episode we speak in detail with Uros Volk from Val202 in Slovenia. We hear about life inside a bubble, what hotel confinement can do to a sport broadcaster and what sporting prospects 2021 holds for him and his colleagues.

After long months on the bench, learn how public radio sports journalists have adapted as major sporting events have carefully resumed with strict new sanitary measures Your public service broadcasters have found innovative ways of adapting and bringing you sport despite the pandemic. We wish you very Happy Holidays ❄️and look forward to seeing you next year for episode 22!

Podcasting is a booming market. You should know because you’re looking for one to listen-to right now. Anyone can make a podcast – from an enthusiast in their bedroom, to multinational brands. If there’s one group of people that know how to make great audio better than anybody else, it’s public service radio broadcasters. With decades of experience in making compelling, high-quality documentaries, dramas and discussions, radio broadcasters are now having to explore and experiment in the world of podcasting. As a collective of these broadcasters, we at the EBU wanted to explore how we could work together to combine the best of our talents. Over a series of lunchtime sessions, dubbed The Podcast Rebellion, we initiated what we hope will become a long-running exchange of ideas and collaboration between our members. In this episode of the Eurovision Sport Radio Podcast, we meet three of The Rebels: Mark Shardlow from the BBC, Marina Schweizer from Deutschlandfunk and Christophe Mallet from SBS in Australia.

Football's coming back. In this episode of the EUROVISION Sport Radio Podcast, we talk to three radio sport journalists about the return of everyone's favourite sport. What's it like to broadcast without crowds, are you still comfortable shouting "gggoooaaalll" in an empty stadium?

In the sports history books, 2020 will be remembered as the year that the Olympics, Paralympics, Euro2020 and countless other events were put on hold. For all of us though, the Covid-19 crisis will be remembered for the bravery and sacrifice of our doctors, nurses, shop workers and delivery drivers. Public Service Media always manages to demonstrate its value in times of crisis, but what role does the radio sports journalist play in this scenario. In this episode of the EUROVISION Sport Radio Podcast, we’ll hear how resilient and adaptable sports broadcasters are being used for news coverage. We’ll learn how sports programmes are being created to entertain, but also to report on the many serious issues surrounding sport. We’ll discuss the changing sporting calendar and look at the real value of sport in our temporary, but altogether different society.

Sports reporting is about more than just results: "this team won" or "that person took gold". Behind every great sportsperson is a great story. That's why Radio France has created a segment in their morning shows dedicated to the "spirit of sport". In this episode, we visit the host of "Esprit Sport", Laëtitia Bernard, to hear the very personal story behind this great sportsperson. The majority of this podcast was recorded binaural, so if you can please enjoy this episode with your headphones.

Kitzbühel is home to the Streif, the most dangerous of downhill ski courses. The mission is to fight against the Hahnenkamm mountain and to survive. The President of the Kitzbühel Ski Club grew up listening to radio announcers broadcasting live from this 80-year-old ski competition. Today, he still believes in the power of radio commentary and the ability to paint pictures in the heads of listeners around the world. In this episode, we go behind the scenes to meet radio broadcasters and officials, all passionate about this highlight in the winter sporting calendar.

Swedish Radio operates out of a huge building in Stockholm and is home to some of the greatest audio innovations happening in Europe today - especially on digital platforms. In this episode, we follow Filipe Ligeiro from RTP in Portugal, who traveled to Stockholm on a pilgrimage of sorts, to see what knowledge he could take back to his radio sport colleagues.

How can you help to shape the future of sport on the radio? Every year broadcasters from across Europe meet to discuss trends, challenges, and innovations that can help them deliver a better service to their audience. In this episode of the EUROVISION Sport Radio Podcast, we meet this powerful group of broadcasters and learn how you can play your part.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup in France has just concluded with a win for the USA over the Netherlands. It has been a record-breaking championship  - with outstanding audience figures for television. EBU’s radio members have embraced the tournament like never before, marking a hopeful change in attitude towards women’s sports from both the media and audiences alike. Will women’s football manage to draw crowds and media coverage now the FIFA circus has left town for another 4 years? With EBU championing gender equality in sport, alongside UNESCO’s #ChangeTheGame initiative, we meet three journalists who are helping to drive change in the radio industry. Elaine Buckley is the presenter of a brand-new podcast focussing on women’s sport from Irish broadcaster RTE. Susanna Andrén has been in France covering the Women’s World Cup for Swedish Radio and Karoline Zobernig is a sports reporter for ORF who was championed as part of the EBU’s Young Reporter scheme and has just been awarded the overall prize for journalism from Sports Media Austria – the first woman to do so since the awards launched in 2004.

EBU members produce thousands of hours of live sports coverage every week. We gave just a small sample to two production mavericks to see how they get CREATIVE WITH COMMENTARY. Cee-Roo is a Swiss producer who compiles sounds and video from around the World to create audio/visual masterpieces. His work is shown on Swiss broadcaster RTS and he's now touring with his own live show. French Fuse is the brainchild of Benjamin and Jerry who have taken their classical music education and applied it to finding harmony and rhythm in everyday sounds: from seat-belt warning alarms to TV commercials. They worked with French broadcaster RMC to produce a track to celebrate France's success in last summer's FIFA World Cup.  In this podcast we look at the production of sporting highlights, using the pure emotion of great commentary to tell a story that crosses language barriers. 

UEFA EURO 2020 will start in just over a year from now. Before the commentary of the opening match can reach our radios, an immense amount of planning has to take place. World Broadcaster Meetings (WBMs) are held before every major sporting event - but how useful are they and what do broadcasters hope to achieve by attending? In this episode we meet with five major European broadcasters before the first of two EURO 2020 WBMs.

"We're not looking at TV, radio or online. We're just looking at, what is the story?" In this episode we'll take you behind the scenes at VRT in Belgium to meet the sports journalists who are now serving TV, radio and online from one newsroom. We learn how this way of working demands a different and sometimes creative approach to planning, newsgathering and storytelling.

The first EBU Radio Sport Podcast of 2019 looks at the hugely popular sport of Handball. In this episode we talk to Patrick Rowlands from NRK Sport and Lars Brøndum Nielsen from DR to see how they cover this sport both on the radio and on social media. We ask if social media is the right tool to penetrate global audiences where particular sports are less popular? Handball has struggled to find a following in the UK, so to test our latest recruit from England, we asked Joe Mason to conduct the interview for this podcast.

As Radio Romania celebrates 90 years of serving its country, we visit the sports department to meet 2 generations of broadcaster - both dedicated to delivering passionate sports coverage.

What can we do to appeal to the next generation of radio sport listener? Is it about the tone of voice and the age of the presenter? Do we need to create a more dynamic sound and should we be better at promoting ourselves on social media? In this episode of the EBU Radio Sport Podcast, we're joined by experts from Italy's RAI, Belgium's VRT and RTBF, Austria's ORF and Radio France.