{"id":660081,"date":"2026-05-09T15:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/660081\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:54:09","slug":"this-new-radio-rival-wants-to-be-the-next-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/660081\/","title":{"rendered":"This new radio rival wants to be the next Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC<\/a> faces competition from a new sports radio station, which is fronted by the broadcaster\u2019s former stars and hopes to emulate the success of Radio 2 rival Boom Radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Track Radio, mixing sports discussion with upbeat rock and pop, has hired Mark Pougatch, the former 5 Live presenter who led ITV\u2019s football coverage, to front the drive-time show.<\/p>\n

Six Nations rugby specialist Sonja McLaughlan has taken the afternoon slot with Vassos Alexander, Chris Evans\u2019s Radio 2 sports presenter sidekick.<\/p>\n

While the BBC Sports department is facing a fresh round of cuts<\/a>, with staff absorbing the recent decision to axe Football Focus<\/a>, its former presenters are joining a new radio station masterminded by John Inverdale. <\/p>\n

The distinguished broadcaster, who brought audiences rugby, tennis, football and athletics during 30 years at the BBC, has been hired to advise on the \u201ctone\u201d and line-up for the station, backed by investors including former Tory minister Baron Goldsmith.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrack is doing what no one else is doing,\u201d Inverdale told The i Paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always been a connection between sport and music. Why do so many football teams run out to music? Isn\u2019t it easier not to change channels if one station is doing both?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the kind of station I would have listened to if it had been there for the past 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Track, which began broadcasting this week, has received a good luck message from the founders of Boom Radio, the station which capitalised on Radio 2\u2019s move to appeal to 30-somethings by poaching its older listeners and former DJs.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoom said, \u2018Here\u2019s a gap, let\u2019s fill it.\u2019 It was an absolute genius move,\u201d Inverdale said. \u201cOne of the great things about Boom is, if you like music, you genuinely have no idea what the next record is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Vassos Alexander and Charlotte Daly have joined Track Radio as presenters (Photo: Phil Adams)<\/p>\n

Liza Tarbuck plea<\/p>\n

Inverdale, famed for his seamless anchoring of events ranging from Wimbledon to the 2012 Olympics, will not be reserving a plum on-air slot for himself. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment there\u2019s no ambition to present a show,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He has his eye on one much-loved BBC radio star whose departure left listeners bereft. \u201cLiza Tarbuck is utterly brilliant. She\u2019s bookended my Saturdays for seven years. I always left whatever I was doing after a game to listen to her in the car home. How could she leave Radio 2 before the season ended?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cCan we afford you Liza?\u201d asked Inverdale, who said he would return to the airwaves if Tarbuck wanted to present a \u201cdouble header\u201d show.<\/p>\n

BBC right to axe Football Focus<\/p>\n

After 30 years as a frontline presenter, Inverdale accepts the BBC has to make tough decisions to remain relevant, including axeing Football Focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything has its day, que sera sera. I was there when they axed Grandstand and the angst at the BBC was like a Royal Family member had died.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BBC will increasingly be outbid for sports rights, including this summer\u2019s Commonwealth Games which have gone to TNT Sports, now HBO Max.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what your priorities are. Say there\u2019s a smart car you want, you probably could afford the car but you\u2019d have to do without something else. Those are the decisions you have to make.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bartoli backlash \u2018hurt\u2019<\/p>\n

Widely admired for his professionalism, Inverdale revealed that Gary Lineker<\/a> \u201cused to come in and watch my show with a notepad and pen writing down \u2018do this, don\u2019t do that\u2019 when he was still playing\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the veteran broadcaster regrets that some on-air remarks marred his later BBC years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Politicians complained to the BBC director-general in 2013 when he suggested that Wimbledon ladies champion Marion Bartoli had needed determination to succeed because she was \u201cnever going to be a looker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inverdale, who apologised on-air for the \u201cclumsy\u201d phrasing of his attempt to praise Bartoli\u2019s fighting spirit, said of the social media backlash such mistakes now prompt: \u201cYou can say sticks and stones\u2026 but of course it hurts. It goes with the territory. It\u2019s the world we live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 68-year-old added: \u201cThe danger with so much broadcasting now is it\u2019s pre-thought. \u2018That\u2019s a really good line but I\u2019d better not say that in case it offends somebody.\u2019 There are wider questions about our society and freedom of speech. But you just have to be sanguine and phlegmatic, it\u2019s the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,Inverdale interviewing Australian tennis champion Lleyton Hewitt during the 2008 Queen\u2019s club tournament (Photo: Getty)<\/p>\n

AI reports can\u2019t replicate human drama<\/p>\n

Inverdale is passionate about the power of live radio over what he called the \u201csterility\u201d of podcasts. \u201cThe [radio] presenter becomes a friend, a confidante,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He called for caution over the widespread introduction of AI, currently being trialled by the BBC to produce a daily football new audio bulletin.<\/p>\n

\u201cSport is never an exact science. AI can\u2019t do a piece about Cole Palmer\u2019s body language on Monday (the Chelsea player missed a penalty in a 3-1 home defeat by Nottingham Forest), why he almost walked around as if he had his hands in his pockets then sparked into life for the last five minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Track Radio is still in a start-up phase \u2013 it airs weekdays from 7am to 7pm and will not launch a Saturday schedule until it can find a way to be \u201cdistinctive\u201d from the alternatives on sport\u2019s busiest day of the week. The station needs advertising and sponsorship to pay its way. <\/p>\n

But Inverdale is convinced there is a \u201cgap in the market\u201d Track can fill. His vision is a station where Fifa boss Gianni Infantino submits to a probing interview about whether he truly has \u201csport in his soul\u201d in between blasts of Bryan Adams.<\/p>\n

Sport itself can be always relied upon to provide the raw material. \u201cDid you see Mark Allen miss that black ball in the snooker?\u201d Inverdale asked of the moment that cost the player a place in World Championship final. \u201cThat\u2019s drama you can\u2019t create in any other form of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can say, \u2018That was a great Shakespeare play,\u2019 but I\u2019ll have a bet most of the characters are dead by the end. The thing about sport is you just never know until the very last second.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC faces competition from a new sports radio station, which is fronted by the broadcaster\u2019s former stars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,81494,198473,40877,134,55243,136,1195,635],"class_list":["post-660081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bbc-radio","tag-bbc-radio-2","tag-bbc-sport","tag-entertainment","tag-iweekend","tag-music","tag-radio","tag-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}