ICS CAREERS DAY
WEDNESDAY 6 FEBRUARY - GUEST BIOGRAPHIES
2-3 ICS CINEMA
Getting a job in sports broadcasting
Panel Chair: John Sinclair, Lecturer in Radio
Panellists:
Adam Bates, Sports commentator
Hanne Davis, BBC World Sport
Danny Oldham, Skysports tennis
Jonny Buchan, Yorkshire Radio
Adam Bates: Freelance sports journalist and football commentator at the UEFA Champions League and Europa League.
Adam is a freelance sports journalist based in London specialising in football, tennis and motorsport. While studying Broadcast Journalism at the University of Leeds, he worked part-time in BBC local radio, continuing on a more regular basis following graduation.
Adam headed from the Midlands to the capital in the summer of 2011 where - through two agencies - he has been working as a football commentator on tournaments such as the UEFA Champions League and Europa League and as a journalist at major tennis tournaments. He also acts as a tennis correspondent for Sky Sports News Radio and has worked for ESPN.
Hanne Davis: World Service Sport team, BBC North
Hanne graduated from Leeds in 2009 and since then it's been quite a varied route to her current job. Hanne loves winter sports, so she went out to New Zealand as a ski instructor in the summer and then to Val d'Isère, France. After a case of meeting the right person at the right time, she ended up writing the local English weekly paper for 6 months (as well as cleaning an apartment!).
When she returned (with a broken leg), an application for work experience at Sky Sports changed to a short term job, and then became permanent as an assistant in their OB department.
In November 2011 she could not resist an offer to move as part of the BBC North scheme and became Unit Assistant in BBC Sports News. She then moved to the World Service Sport team, where she now works on radio output on a daily basis. She recently travelled to the African Cycling Championships in Burkina Faso to produce a 30 minute radio documentary.
Jonny Buchan: Yorkshire Football Correspondent at Yorkshire Radio.
Jonny graduated from the Broadcast Journalism course at the University of Leeds in 2007. During his time at University he did some voluntary work at Real Radio and Yorkshire Radio as well as some non-league football commentaries.Once Jonny graduated he was offered a few days a week paid work at Real Radio with the sports team, helping them put together their nightly sports phone-in and weekend shows. After a year doing mainly production and some on air interviews, the sport funding was reduced at the station. At the same time Yorkshire Radio was expanding its team. He had still been working for them on Saturdays presenting a sport show in the afternoon and they offered him a full time job in the summer of 2008 as their Yorkshire Football Correspondent which he still does to this day.
Jonny’s role now combines a number of different aspects as the station has grown its format and audience up to 117,000 listeners across our platforms over the past 5 years. They broadcast live from 6am to 10pm on a daily basis from their Elland Road studios. Jonny produces and reads bulletins, research stories and conducts interviews across Yorkshire. He attends press conferences on a weekly basis for the 11 professional football clubs and he also has a team of students who he sends out to games on a weekend.
Jonny presents two of their nightly hour-long speech programmes and also hosts their Saturday morning sports programme when Leeds United are at home. Jonny is the pitch side reporter at home matches, conducting interviews before the game and updating the listeners from the dugout during the match. For the away Leeds United games Jonny is the match commentator for the club’s LUTV service and he also conducts post-match interviews for the TV and Radio station with the manager and players.
3