I have a new favourite radio programme.
It is not hugely well known yet – it’s still in its relative infancy – but something is happening and it’s on BCfm, Bristol’s local community radio station. It’s on a Tuesday evening at 6.00pm, it’s called the Midweek Sports Bar.
The hosts are Neil Maggs, known as Maggsy (how do they come up with these nicknames?) and Nick Day, better known as Bristol Rovers’ matchday announcer and the regular newspaper reviewer on Radio Bristol’s Breakfast show.
In terms of local radio, they are relative beginners but it’s beginning to sound like they’ve been around a long time.
Whilst clearly a work in progress, the show already has a good feel about it. Both presenters are comfortable in each other’s company. They are not ‘precious’ about which one comes up with the punchline so long as there is one (I can report that both Maggsy and Nick are both equally adept – or should that be inept? – with the one-liner).
The Midweek Sports Bar gives us the latest sports news, both local and national, it gives us opinions and anecdotes, it plays an eclectic mix of music and it provides a variety of interviews.
Tonight’s main interview was with Simon Arnold, chairman of Bristol Academy women’s team. Maggsy and Nick did a terrific job in the interview. They were engaged, Simon was plainly relaxed and we learned an awful lot about how the Academy team is run. The club operates with a tiny budget compared to the big clubs but Simon explained how they were able to compete with the very best. He paid rich tribute to Bristol Sport, the umbrella organisation that is becoming such a major influence in the city.
And then they interviewed two lads from Stapleton Cricket Club who had appeared on the TV show Eggheads. Nick then assumed the role of question master as Maggsy took them on in a highly dubious quiz where all the easy questions were asked of Maggsy and the impossible ones of the Eggheads! It was no surprise to learn that Maggsy won. Hmm. For all that, the quiz was very funny!
BCfm is now an established part of the Bristol broadcasting landscape and it is exciting to be there at the start of what sounds like something very special.
I have known Nick Day for many years and he can talk for England (and for just about any country if he puts his mind to it). He is knowledgeable, funny and this new career is surely his destiny. I don’t know Maggsy at all, but he is a natural and he is brilliant. He has a very pleasant radio voice, there is no dead air to speak of and the partnership with Nick has dovetailed from the very beginning.
This show will develop and grow as the winter goes on and the show will naturally evolve into a regular pattern, albeit with the natural ad hoc style both presenters possess. I see it as a long lost cousin of Soccer AM, Sky’s Saturday morning show which was once an essential part of viewing for the football fan who wanted something other than Football Focus. It won’t be anything like Soccer AM, but I suspect it will have some of the format’s irreverence, although I do see a place for more serious subjects as and when the time is right.
The Midweek Sports Bar is not earth-shattering, revolutionary radio, but there is nothing quite like it in Bristol. I believe the show is starting a journey that will build an audience which will eventually take it to pastures new with a larger reach.
Let’s enjoy the ride for now though because, if nothing else, it’s going to be a lot of fun.
