The Radio

1927

On 22 January the first radio broadcast of a live football match was heard over the airwaves. It was relayed from Highbury where Arsenal met Sheffield United in a First Division fixture.

To help the commentators give the listeners the best possible description of the game, the Radio Times published a plan of the pitch divided into eight numbered rectangles. Two commentators worked together, one describing the action and the other calling out the section in which the ball was actually being played. Some newspapers also published the plan.

The system must have been successful because on 23 April the first Radio commentary on an FA Cup final was broadcast from Wemley Stadium. Cardiff beat Arsenal 1 - 0 and the FA Cup left England for the first and only time.

The first paragraph of the Radio Times article says:

This afternoon - Saturday, April 23 - the broadcasting of sporting events will reach another landmark in history. Listeners all over the country will be able to hear in their own homes the story, told from the ground during the actual progress of the game, of the match that packs the biggest arena in the country every year, on an occasion that is a red-letter day in the calendar of everyone who follows the national winter game.

There will be 100,000 people in the Wembley Stadium (and to hear this vast crowd singing together before the kick-off, the largest demonstration of Community Singing this country has ever beheld, will not be the least interesting part of this afternoons broadcast); more than that number have failed to make the trip. But everyone with a wireless set, whether he lives at Land's End or John o'Groats or anywhere within the range of a B.B.C. station will be able to share in all the thrills of one of those days when football history is made.

The words below the picture of The Cup read:

1937

Once regular football broadcasts were adopted by the BBC, newspapers had to begin a process of change. Radio could provide results more quickly and cheaply and many magazines and newspapers were forced to close as radio coverage increased throughout the 1930’s. Even the quality newspapers were compelled to report on football.

...and next Television

Television cameras first appeared on a Football League ground when the BBC transmitted extracts from a practice match between Arsenal and Arsenal Reserves to what must have been a tiny audience watching at home. It is unlikely that anyone who witnessed this event realised how big an oak tree would grow from this tiny acorn. However Douglas Walters a reporter for the Daily Herald seemed in no doubt about the success of what he saw

.

1938

In April the whole of the FA Cup Final - between Preston North End and Huddersfield Town - was televised
live for the first time.

There were not many television sets in use then.

The estimated television audience was 10,000
compared with the 90,000 who saw the match
in the stadium.

Some sixty years later the 2000 Cup Final was
seen on British television by many millions
of viewers, but worldwide via satellite it was seen
by about 1,000 million people.

During the 1950’s televised football was generally restricted to internationals
and cup finals.

1951

Floodlit football arrives and everyone
agrees it is dramatic and is here to stay.

It has a far reaching effect on the staging
of additional fixtures.

Hapoel (Tel Aviv) goalkeeper Hodorov makes a save during the floodlit match.

1953

The Cup final (Blackpool v Bolton Wanderers) was the first major televised sports event to reach the millions of new TV sets bought for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

1960

The first Football League match was televised live.

1964

The BBC introduced Match of the Day, a programme of edited football highlights of the afternoon’s matches. Only 75,000 people watched the first programme but with David Coleman and Jimmy Hill it soon became a national favourite.

Television

The increase in television coverage and a fall in the circulation figures for newspapers caused
a re-examination of the contents of the back pages.

A repeat of broadcast results and descriptions of games already seen were no longer enough. Managers were put under the spotlight. Players were built up as personalities on and off the
field of play and they began to appear in gossip columns as well as the sports pages.

Managers and players alike were increasingly invited to comment on the game.
The more controversial the comments the better the media liked it. On the other hand,
newspapers have also crusaded for the good of football by:

opposing racial chants and racism on the terraces

exposing religious bigotry, for example in Glasgow

condemning hooliganism.

John Barnes had to endure severe racial abuse and barracking after his £80,000 transfer move to Liverpool

These influences are important with about three quarters of male readers of the tabloids starting at the back page.

In the meantime, television coverage in the 1980’s was dominated by negotiations between the Football League and the Football Association and the television companies for multi-million pound deals.

This included a spell in 1985 when there was no TV coverage for several months while negotiations continued. However, football ‘on the box’ now
seems to be an established part of everyday life, with newspapers
concentrating on football gossip and issues rather than detailed reports of matches.

It is said, Today’s newspapers are tomorrow's history books.