Local Media

[Proggs]

What do you think of the local media that covers your side.

Do you think they are fair, biased against the club, biased towards the club?

In Crewe we are dominated from media based in Stoke, which will also make some people from Crewe argue that they are biased against us.

BBC Radio Stoke come in for some abuse, I happen to think they provide a decent service, they are accused of not asking telling questions, but I guess they have to find a fine line in order to keep lines of communication open and access to the club, so no real rocking of the boat.

The Crewe Chronicle is another that comes in for a great deal of abuse, I happen to think the football correspondent does an excellent job in saying how it is, but without making anything personal.

The Crewe Guardian is a free paper, so it does not perhaps go into as much detail as the Chronicle, but it provides a service and has not caused any issues, from what I can remember.

The Stoke Evening Sentinel, now this paper is the cause of mass issues for Crewe fans over the years, this paper is so anti Crewe it's embarrassing, they have even gone to the length of halving our away followings when we have took big numbers, and even not delivering there paper to Crewe when we have turned over Stoke or Port Vale. The match reports from this paper I would not even bother with, what they report you know the opposite happened.

All in all, we are not badly represented, but maybe a Cheshire Evening Post and a BBC Radio Cheshire would pacify our fans, for a while.

What are everybody else's thoughts on their local media?

 

[BeesKnees]

There isn't any. Harrow papers don't report on us, Barnet papers have scaled back and re-assigned the reporter who was doing Barnet coverage to Watford. We get a little bit online from Get West London but we aren't really west London and it's hidden by coverage of QPR and Brentford. Radio wise there are goal updates on a Saturday on BBC Radio London but no discussion or talk about the results other than a 20-30 sec. manager interview after the match

 

[Proggs]

There isn't any. Harrow papers don't report on us, Barnet papers have scaled back and re-assigned the reporter who was doing Barnet coverage to Watford. We get a little bit online from Get West London but we aren't really west London and it's hidden by coverage of QPR and Brentford. Radio wise there are goal updates on a Saturday on BBC Radio London but no discussion or talk about the results other than a 20-30 sec. manager interview after the match

That's terrible mate, I think Crewe fans should never complain again when they read that.

 

[Meadow]

The local guardian sport department is pretty good although the news section is nigh on anti (development of the dog track). Get West London give us a fair bit of coverage but the South London Press less so (apart from the dog track issue where they're backing us).

BBC Radio London have been top drawer, presenting a couple of Saturday sport shows from Kingsmeadow. Alan Seabrook follows us around the country reporting on our matches and it's good to have the same reporter for the majority of our matches.

 

[AtaturkOzgutson]

It fluctuates. Cambridge Evening News generally give us decent coverage now but they didn't for a long long time. Particularly around the time Histon were on the rise, as there were some 'connections' to the directors there, we got completely panned for a few seasons.

Otherwise, BBC Cambs coverage frustrates a lot on our side. They seemed to give us more equal billing a few years back, but now seem to spend 80% of the time discussing whichever conspiracy Westley or Darragh MacAnthony has concocted. Hopefully 'that lot' will appoint a manager who understands brevity in interviews.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

BBC SouthWest Spotlight Television coverage is horrendously bias towards Exeter, as the presenter is a supporter of them. We get absolutely nothing.

 

[dedwardp]

On the TV we get East Anglian news, which is based in Norwich some 65 miles away, so Norwich and Ipswich dominate and we get fleeting mentions occasionally, if that. But so do MK Dons, Luton, Peterborough, Cambridge etc so it's pretty thinly spread on those occasions.

BBC Essex radio is pretty decent to be fair, one frequency for us and one for Southend. Full commentary of every game and plenty of interview clips posted online. Can often feel a bit BBC Southend though.

The East Anglian Daily Times and Colchester Gazette are ok for newspapers, with 95% of the articles posted online anyway. Usually something to skim through every day.

 

[Murphy]

We get good coverage in our local paper, the Barking & Dagenham Post, but aside from that we get sod all. Local TV is transfixed on all the bigger London clubs which means we get no television highlights on local news at all (we're ITV/BBC London), and in terms of radio we might get goal updates but never a live commentary. We're officially part of BBC London, but we'd be better off if we were BBC Essex. Essentially, I don't think anyone really wants us, and next year in the Conference it'll be scaled back even more.

 

[Proggs]

BBC SouthWest Spotlight Television coverage is horrendously bias towards Exeter, as the presenter is a supporter of them. We get absolutely nothing.

The last time I was in the South West, half way between Plymouth and Exeter, I found the local T.V to be heavy on rugby union, football seemed almost an after thought.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

We have Radio Dee Dah which is biased toward the 2 Sheffield clubs but we do get coverage, Trax FM do bulletins and the Doncaster Free Press report on us but appear to get their info of the forums.

 

[mowgli]

Wycombe's local paper is The Bucks Free Press which is pissed off ever since Wasps left for Coventry,their coverage of is getting better after hardly admitting we existed,didn't help that the sports editor supported MK Mongs who our fans despise.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

The last time I was in the South West, half way between Plymouth and Exeter, I found the local T.V to be heavy on rugby union, football seemed almost an after thought.

Yes the rise of the Exeter Chiefs (and fair play to them, they are fantastic) has enhanced this even more in favour to Devon's second largest city

 

[Laker]

It fluctuates. Cambridge Evening News generally give us decent coverage now but they didn't for a long long time. Particularly around the time Histon were on the rise, as there were some 'connections' to the directors there, we got completely panned for a few seasons.

Otherwise, BBC Cambs coverage frustrates a lot on our side. They seemed to give us more equal billing a few years back, but now seem to spend 80% of the time discussing whichever conspiracy Westley or Darragh MacAnthony has concocted. Hopefully 'that lot' will appoint a manager who understands brevity in interviews.

I'm looking forward to the day we end up in the same division as Peterborough so Radio Cambridgeshire can't use the excuse that we're in a lower league. The coverage Peterborough get compared to us is pretty shocking to be honest.

 

[Proggs]

Yes the rise of the Exeter Chiefs (and fair play to them, they are fantastic) has enhanced this even more in favour to Devon's second largest city

If yourselves or one of the Bristol's ever made it to the top flight, watch local T.V drop the rugby like a hot potato!

 

[AtaturkOzgutson]

On the TV we get East Anglian news, which is based in Norwich some 65 miles away, so Norwich and Ipswich dominate and we get fleeting mentions occasionally, if that. But so do MK Dons, Luton, Peterborough, Cambridge etc so it's pretty thinly spread on those occasions.

Yeah there's some definite overlap at the edges of East Anglia, always thought Luton/MK Dons/Northampton are were plenty far enough outside East Anglia to be in other regions completely. Doesn't matter if they were mind, it's only Norwich or Ipswich that get more than their score read out.

 

[JJ1532]

What do you think of the local media that covers your side.

Do you think they are fair, biased against the club, biased towards the club?

In Crewe we are dominated from media based in Stoke, which will also make some people from Crewe argue that they are biased against us.

BBC Radio Stoke come in for some abuse, I happen to think they provide a decent service, they are accused of not asking telling questions, but I guess they have to find a fine line in order to keep lines of communication open and access to the club, so no real rocking of the boat.

The Crewe Chronicle is another that comes in for a great deal of abuse, I happen to think the football correspondent does an excellent job in saying how it is, but without making anything personal.

The Crewe Guardian is a free paper, so it does not perhaps go into as much detail as the Chronicle, but it provides a service and has not caused any issues, from what I can remember.

The Stoke Evening Sentinel, now this paper is the cause of mass issues for Crewe fans over the years, this paper is so anti Crewe it's embarrassing, they have even gone to the length of halving our away followings when we have took big numbers, and even not delivering there paper to Crewe when we have turned over Stoke or Port Vale. The match reports from this paper I would not even bother with, what they report you know the opposite happened.

All in all, we are not badly represented, but maybe a Cheshire Evening Post and a BBC Radio Cheshire would pacify our fans, for a while.

What are everybody else's thoughts on their local media?

Graham McGarry is a disgrace to his profession. He doesn't have one shred of integrity. He is paid by the BBC, yet he is far too chummy with the club to do his job properly. You see him all the time laughing and chatting with the management and board, anyone would think the club pay him. His commentary style is painfully bad. "AND ITS A SHOT ON GOAL, 1-0!!!!!" Ball actually goes out for a throw in. His interview questions are just as bad. Leading question, soft questions that ask nothing and tell you nothing. "So Steve, you've just lost 3-0, you must be disappointed?" Awful. Don't even get me started on Blakeman either, he's even worse than McGarry.

Morse doesn't tell anything like it is. He is another that clings onto the delusion that the club can't possibly be questioned. He skirts around the issues, offers no real insight in his opinion pieces and worst of all, he doesn't even go to every game. How can the journalist from the local paper not cover every game? Be interesting to see how many away trips he goes on next season. He's another that is far too chummy with people inside the club.

Sharpe tries his best. He puts out statistics and gets the fans involved more. But he too skates around the issues. Don't blame him as he's a young journalist trying to make his way in the world. He's the least culpable of the three. We do get properly covered unlike some clubs, but for me, the coverage we get is terrible. 3 journalists between them who don't ask any cutting questions because they don't have a set of balls between them and 1 who doesn't even go to every game. I'd rather no coverage at all at the moment.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

The local sports journo I think does a good job covering the team I think, pretty active on twitter too, its just a shame the local papers around Luton are so poor. Since leaving Luton I have lived in a few places around the UK, mainly places along the south coast and now Cambridge and nowhere has had as poor a local newspaper scene as Luton. It really is bad considering the size of the place.

3 Counties Radio are a bit shit and spend far too long going on about Milton Keynes. Ashmead is far, far too chummy with Karl Robinson for my liking. The less air time that bloke gets the better, I dont mean to offend any Liverpudlians out there but it sounds like he is speaking a foreign language most of the time.

 

[Grecian O'Grecian]

BBC SouthWest Spotlight Television coverage is horrendously bias towards Exeter, as the presenter is a supporter of them. We get absolutely nothing.

Not sure why they would want to talk about Plymouth at all, in all honesty.

 

[LadyWomble]

Sadly, most local media (especially newspapers) is in decline. For us, the football bloke on our local rag is fine, the news desk goes for click-bait stirring up controversy where there usually isn't any. Our coverage in the South London Press is far superior, despite it basically being in Millwall territory, but that's the print version, only available (free) in a couple of Wimbledon supermarkets. The corollary of not being click-bait shite means the online version isn't exactly comprehensive.

The only local rag that's impressed me is Carlisle's. Their guy (sorry, can't remember his name) is so very obviously knowledgeable about the club - on and off the pitch - and has an eloquent and biting writing style to boot. Treasure him Cumbrians, one of a dying breed.

As for the bloody adverts and videos on all (most, anyway) of these local rags, why? Honestly, WHY?!

 

[daviejones]

Sadly, most local media (especially newspapers) is in decline. For us, the football bloke on our local rag is fine, the news desk goes for click-bait stirring up controversy where there usually isn't any. Our coverage in the South London Press is far superior, despite it basically being in Millwall territory, but that's the print version, only available (free) in a couple of Wimbledon supermarkets. The corollary of not being click-bait shite means the online version isn't exactly comprehensive.

The only local rag that's impressed me is Carlisle's. Their guy (sorry, can't remember his name) is so very obviously knowledgeable about the club - on and off the pitch - and has an eloquent and biting writing style to boot. Treasure him Cumbrians, one of a dying breed.

As for the bloody adverts and videos on all (most, anyway) of these local rags, why? Honestly, WHY?!

Jon Colman, he seems to win awards every year and rightly so. Wrote another good article yesterday about our fan rep quitting the board.

 

[PoolieTom]

Radio Tees have live coverage of every Hartlepool game on DAB Radio, and they do interviews with manager and/or a player at the end of every game (well at about 6 o'clock), so it's a lot more than some other teams get by the sounds of it. However, Radio Tees is dominated by 'The Burrer' or Middlesbrough to normal folk. They literally talk about them non-stop, phone-ins galore, guests on constantly just to talk about The Burrer. I had the misfortune of putting the station on on my drive to work the other day, 7 o'clock Tuesday Morning and they were still talking about them. Our manager was on last night for an hour apparently, he was probably introduced as 'former Burrer player and assistant manager, Craig Hignett' and would've spent more time talking about their fantastic promotion to the Prem than talking about Pools.

No one reads the Hartlepool Mail or Northern Echo in Hartlepool, but they do cover us.

 

[GodsGift]

As for the bloody adverts and videos on all (most, anyway) of these local rags, why? Honestly, WHY?!

Why do you think? If people aren't prepared to pay for a newspaper anymore, newspapers have to get advertising revenues from elsewhere. If you don't like it, buy your local paper.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Graham McGarry is a disgrace to his profession. He doesn't have one shred of integrity. He is paid by the BBC, yet he is far too chummy with the club to do his job properly. You see him all the time laughing and chatting with the management and board, anyone would think the club pay him. His commentary style is painfully bad. "AND ITS A SHOT ON GOAL, 1-0!!!!!" Ball actually goes out for a throw in. His interview questions are just as bad. Leading question, soft questions that ask nothing and tell you nothing. "So Steve, you've just lost 3-0, you must be disappointed?" Awful. Don't even get me started on Blakeman either, he's even worse than McGarry.

Morse doesn't tell anything like it is. He is another that clings onto the delusion that the club can't possibly be questioned. He skirts around the issues, offers no real insight in his opinion pieces and worst of all, he doesn't even go to every game. How can the journalist from the local paper not cover every game? Be interesting to see how many away trips he goes on next season. He's another that is far too chummy with people inside the club.

Sharpe tries his best. He puts out statistics and gets the fans involved more. But he too skates around the issues. Don't blame him as he's a young journalist trying to make his way in the world. He's the least culpable of the three. We do get properly covered unlike some clubs, but for me, the coverage we get is terrible. 3 journalists between them who don't ask any cutting questions because they don't have a set of balls between them and 1 who doesn't even go to every game. I'd rather no coverage at all at the moment.

Absolutely spot on.

I have no time for McGarry at all. Doesn't do his job, comes across as extremely condescending towards fans and was the first in the queue to call out "Davis out fans" after each of our wins. He deserves all the stick he gets. He also cannot string together a coherent sentence. Awful presenter.

Morse is just gutless with an arse full of splinters.

Sharpe seems to tread finely without ever really lighting the fireworks. Get the feeling he'd love to ask the questions that need to be asked but the club have history in silencing The Sentinel and it basically isn't worth his job, especially when it's a stepping stone to real journalism.

The onus should be on Radio Stoke though and it is sickening that McGarry is basically a club employee. The best in recent years was John Acres, who always pushed Dario in post-match interviews (which Dario didn't like, at all). Probably no surprise he's now working for 5Live etc.

 

[EricSabin]

We've got BBC Radio Northampton who cover every game from 2-6 on FM/DAB and are pretty impartial and provide good coverage.

The 2 local papers give good coverage and are active on Twitter with reporters and the like. They give match previews, interviews through the week and reports and 'verdicts' after a game.

We've got it pretty good really.

 

[daviejones]

Being the only professional club in the county I can't really imagine many teams in this league have better coverage than us.

We've got full match commentary on BBC Radio Cumbria, a football forum mainly focused on us on Tuesday nights as well as plenty of reports in the News and Star throughout the week (usually about two a day) and the writer - Jon Colman - is happy to speak out against our owners and the billionaire scenario knowing full well if it went tits up for him here he'd easily get a job elsewhere. We've also got Lummy who co-commentates on most of our games, and who always has a bit of inside knowledge which fans otherwise wouldn't hear.

 

[Strawberry_Jam]

Things were a bit different when Rushden & Diamonds were in the league, but like Carlisle we are now the only pro football team in the county. Before DAB, only away games were on the radio when the saints were also playing the same day. A lot of our commentators have gone on to 5 Live. Mike Sewell is one, also recently Jon Wilkinson who I think does the news updates on 5 Live. I gather Geoff Doyle is now at 3 Counties not saying the best things about us.

If like me you love Rugby, Cricket as well as football, only Radio Leicester have it as good (better)

Even though I was there I will always remember the commentary from former player Terry Angus after the game at Liverpool

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/17639052

 

[Si Robin]

In terms of radio coverage, Radio Gloucestershire is known as Radio Rugby by a lot of our fans. If Gloucester are playing, even if it's a pre-season friendly, then it will take priority over ourselves. However, as the senior football team in the county, nearly all of our games are live.

Gloucestershire Echo's coverage is amazing though. From player interviews two-three times a week to unbiased opinion from fans. The writers are genuine fans of the club and write with their hearts on their sleeve. If they don't think something is right at the club then they'll say so. They're brilliant on Twitter as well.