Last month, community station Hawkesbury Radio celebrated 15 years calling live local Rugby League.
With the headsets now hung up until next footy season, the commentary team at Hawkesbury Radio can are taking a rest and looking back at a decade and a half of footy broadcast success.
The station’s coverage first kicked off a by calling the local A Grade matches in the Penrith and District Junior Rugby League, but before long a rare opportunity to call First Grade presented itself. Hawkesbury Radio then entered the big league, calling the Penrith Panthers NRL games from 1998 to 2009.
In 2003, coverage expanded to also include broadcasts of Windsor Wolves matches in what was know as the Jim Beam Cup, now Bundy Red Cup. That year the station became the first community station the call an NRL Grand Final with this commentary team.
From 2010 until today, live broadcasts have exclusively focused on the VB NSW Cup, calling every Windsor Wolves match throughout the regular season.
The 2012 coverage included broadcasts from places like Parkes NSW, Auckland NZ and famous grounds such as Henson Park and North Sydney Oval just to name a few.
From ovals in the local district, to the biggest stadiums in the land, Hawkesbury Radio has mounted its OBs far and wide to bring listeners coverage of their local teams.
In the lead up to the NRL Grand Final last month, Hawkesbury Radio broadcast both VB NSW Cup Preliminary Finals from Leichhardt Oval, with a special broadcast tocelebrateits 15 years of live calls. One lucky listener won tickets to the Channel Nine Grand Final Footy Show and 2 tickets to the VB NSW Cup and NRL Telstra Premiership Grand Finals at ANZ Stadium.
A video on the station’s website gives a behind the scenes look at a day in the life of the Hawkesbury Radio commentary team, commissioned especially for the 15th birthday celebrations.
The current commentary team is: Michael Golikov, Shane Skeen, Peter Jolly, John Little, Fred Lucas, Sam Romano, Nick Kutnjak, Alex Holevas, Christine Buchanan, Nicole Fitzsimons, Matt Logue and Murray Conallin. Sadly Nicole Fitzsimons passed away recently (see our other story)
A range of first grade players have commentated on Hawkesbury Radio during its 15 years of live calls: John Cartwright, Mark Geyer, David Woods, Joel Caine, John Kolc, Luke Priddis, Gary Freeman, Brad Drew and Sandor Earl.
Well done! This is a great nursery for developing the games future callers. There is nothing like calling the game from the grounds and for many people who are interested in sports commentary I'd say this is the best way to learn and push for a start on 2GB, ABC and Triple M