I know there’s a lot of SEN haters in here, but covering this series (and the many other overseas series they have) is undoubtedly a good thing for cricket and for the listening public. Easy to forget that only a few years ago, there was almost no radio coverage of the overseas tours (ashes aside) due to the ABC cutting back and no one else stepping up.
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DAB came back online for SEN, the app streams did have issues.
Overall SEN has stepped up the coverage of cricket this year both international and domestic. They also seem to be using commentators at the ground compared to last year. They also skipped games. Well done. I love you can listen to the Indian vs England test series.
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The ABC has become progressively worse and worse in how they treat their cricket coverage, trying to shunt a lot of it over to DAB+ and the Listen app exclusively, and increasingly dropping it off metro stations as well.
Case in point, tonight’s men’s home T20 international is only on AM/FM in regional areas- I would think this is the first time they have chosen to take normal programs over international home men’s cricket on the metro stations.
Not to mention that they have stopped covering all overseas tours bar the Ashes in England.
SEN has really stepped up where the ABC has failed when it comes to providing coverage of Australia’s overseas tests, I don’t think they’ve missed a single one in recent years. While their business model is certainly interesting and might not be the most sustainable at present, I do hope that they are able to survive in some form or another as they are providing a great service to cricket fans.
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The ABC has been hit by federal funding cuts and departures of experienced commentators in the past decade (Tim Lane, Gerard Whateley, Alister Nicholson to name a few), affecting their ability to cover overseas cricket tours.
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Thank goodness for Guerilla Cricket/Test Match Sofa during those years. But they were a bit too low brow for my tastes, even compared to SEN. A step above MMM, mind, whose commentary team epitomises the bogan audience they have been targeting since about 1991.
The main issue I have with SEN coverage is the saturation advertising. But it is what it is, commercial radio, and some coverage is better than none.
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Joint with SENZ
Probably due to the Melbourne power outage?
Wdym “how they treat it”? It’s still available, but they realise that it doesn’t necessarily justify being on normal radio for ratings.
Yeah, I listened to a bit of White Line Wireless back in the day, and just appreciated that they were covering the cricket at all.
I don’t mind SEN’s coverage, though yes the advertising is a bit much after years hearing the ABC do it without. But I don’t find the style too blokey, it’s a pretty good balance and they have some good commentators amongst their line up.
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Ads are the only reason I don’t listen to SEN tbh, they’ve got the best group of commentators (the only ones at MMM I’d take are Ferg and Tubby) overall with great callers and experts.
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I’m partly referring to things like overseas tours which, aside from the Ashes in England, are no longer covered at all. Going back a couple of decades I recall most overseas tours were covered, such as in India and South Africa. I also have a vague memory of the tour of the Windies in 2003 maybe being on the ABC as well?
I suspect the only reason the ABC still does the Ashes in England and ICC events is that they can piggyback off the BBC’s coverage.
I can understand the ABC’s desire to reduce the impact of taking the cricket on Local Radio (hence the dropping of some of the home T20s and the Ashes in England from metro stations which they’ve only started doing in the past couple of years) as it does disrupt their schedule quite badly, but it’s still a popular event in itself and shifting it to DAB+/ABC Listen decimates the potential audience- I’d argue that if they don’t want to interrupt Local Radio it would be much better for them and provides more choice to listeners to utilise ABC News Radio on AM/FM (with normal ABC News Radio programs, which to be fair can be quite niche especially in the evening, continuing on DAB+ and the ABC Listen app).
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ABC Radio’s commentary team for the women’s test match between Australia and South Africa in Perth: Clint Wheeldon, Ben Cameron, Jenny Wallace, Nicky Shaw, Sarah Elliott and Michelle Goszko.
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Karen Tighe said on ABC Grandstand this afternoon that it would broadcast the two-test series between New Zealand and Australia. Jim Maxwell, Corbin Middlemas, Xavier Doherty and Geoff Lemon will fly to NZ where they will be joined by Bryan Waddle, Frances Mackay and Craig McMillan in commentary. Coverage will be on ABC Listen app.
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Must say that’s a pleasant surprise that they’re covering it at all (even if seemingly relegated to the Listen app). I was fully expecting it to be on SEN only.
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Yeah I am pleasantly surprised. I think the competition has been good from SEN.
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SEN’s commentators for the NZ-Australia cricket series
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The ABC should sign him up exclusively in preparation to replace Maxwell. I find him very well asy to listen to.
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I don’t think they cover cricket on radio in the Carribbean anymore and South Africa has also not covered series for some time, so to do those series they’d likely have to source equipment and connections themselves like they did for those India tours 20 odd years ago.
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Good point, I think a factor is they don’t have local coverage there? 2000 fm in SA did have but these days I struggled to find the call of the cricket.
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I think that’s what @stmookeyj027 meant.
They don’t tend to do radio coverage really - just not affordable for them to mount locally.
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ABC Radio will have live coverage of the Marsh One-Day Cup final between NSW and WA on Sunday (February 25), live from Cricket Central at Sydney Olympic Park. Coverage is via ABC Sport digital radio and ABC Listen app, and starts at 9.50am AEDT.
According to Aaron Bryans, the commentary team will include Andrew Moore, Brett Sprigg, Robin Chipperfield, Phil Jaques and Michelle Goszko.
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