by johntheclaret » Wed Feb 21, 2018 11:50 am
Everyone moaned like f$¥k about RPH and to some extent about Life FM.
Crap game callers, crap quality, high diddle diddle, Smithfield crash clangers and the wild man of Borneo, DB and his sausage rolls and guess the name of the player with the ball.
Sure do miss them though warts and all. At least they had a connection to the everyday fan. They were calling what was happening here and now (well for me about 12 seconds behind the now) but if you were out and about or were at another game, or just listening in the garden shed, they brought the SANFL alive and into whatever you were doing. It was real and you could relate to it.
The digital pass doesn’t have that connection for me. Not just because of my crap internet but mainly because it is a catch up type of thing. It’s like match of the day or a replay of the Melbourne Cup on the 10 o’clock News. Even if you don’t know the winner, the kudos just isn’t there.
When North was on the Radio I had a routine. Up at 5:00am, on a Sunday more often than not, write out today’s teams in their likely positions and research the opposition to guess who would likely match up on who. You had to visualise where the ball was during the game, you got to know the opposition as well as you own fringe players, the youngsters given a chance at league level, players coming back from injury an so on.
It was a real connection between the fan and the league. It was live and it was now. Even when your team was losing, you still listened in, in case they made the miracle come back, like North did against Sturt and the Eagles in 2007.
Now I don’t bother getting up at 5:00am anymore. I can watch a scattered Digital Pass game anytime I want, should I have the time and the inclination. I don’t connect with fellow Roosters from around the globe or fans from other clubs like Jimmy, TRB, Jane, Loyalist and many others who all had the same common connection. I don’t connect with the Aussie Roosters who weren’t at the game for whatever reason. I don’t connect with them because they aren’t there anymore. The one thing that brought fans together on this forum and, for me, on the Roost was the Radio. Game day live.
I know there are many other factors that have impacted on the average SANFL fan, but the loss of live Radio coverage and the great job both Life and RPH did in bringing games to the fans, has had a much deeper effect on the fans and their connection to their club and the league as a whole than the powers that be could ever realise.