The wireless

Well, as Richard said, I was on Radio 5 Live today talking about that other great sporting love of my life, Burnley FC. Or more specifically the rivalry between the Clarets and Blackburn, which is one of the most passionate, intense and heated rivalries in all of football.

Kind of odd to receive the call from the BBC, they were looking for standups from Burnley and I was the only one they could find. Lets face it, in terms of prestige, "the Burnley areas only standup comedian" is right up there with "Hollands Greatest Mountaineer".

I was a nervous wreck beforehand, oddly enough, but had prepared some material - I was given 30 seconds to slag off, erm, describe, Blackburn people. The plan was to do a bit with me and Martin Cassidy, my Blackburn counterpart, then go to an outrside broadcast, a phone call or two, then back to me and Martin for some banter. As events transpired, some breaking news plus two phone callers being completely uninteresting twonks for far too long scuppered the plan. Still, I did get to talk to Victoria Derbyshire, if not meet her in the flesh. She has one of those voices that sounds just gorgeous. She could make grown men weak at the knees just by reading the telephone directory.

It all reminded me of Phoenix Radio, where Rev, Carl and I sprang a little surprise on the Phoenix fans by broadcasting a commentary from Ice Sheffield. I still rate that as one of the most fun things I have ever done. We pretty much did a 2 and a half hour broadcast by simply winging it and making it up as we went along. We weren't planning on doing shoutouts or anything, we had no plan for the period breaks, nothing.

The irony is that Rev, Carl and I have never and will never hear how we sounded on that night. The feedback via the official forum was fantastic but how much of that was sheer delight at the unexpected broadcast? When the Phoenix get up and running next year, I am convinced we should have another crack at a road trip broadcast, one especially for Phoenix fans.

Hockey on radio/internet is still in its infancy, and I'm not convinced I've heard it done properly yet. Without wishing to sound too bitchy, Seth Bennett and David Simms are the defacto most used commentators but I'll be blunt - I don't like listening to them on the air. They come across as condescending, not in an "explain the rules for new fans" way but more simply just by sounding superior to the listener. Personal preference, as I say, probably it is just me, but I don't like it.

Other commentaries I've heard have involved BBC reporters and fair play to them, they bring professionalism and accuracy to the microphone, but not the real indepth knowledge of the game. You have to trust and believe what the voices are telling you and sometimes you can subconciously detect the hesitancy and uncertainty.

Lets face it - hockey on national radio isn't really going to happen. But I do think there is room for a team to broadcast to its own fans in its own style. It was nice for the three of us to play the parts of "fans doing something for other fans". To me the ideal hockey broadcast should not only bring the game to the listener, but the flavour of the game. The commentators should be the knowledgeable bloke sat in the next seat. We had as much fun describing the antics of the Menace and his replacement KissCam as we did describing the action.

Anyway, Phoenix Radio. Should it be brought back? How do we do it? How much will it cost? There is a thought - if it cost us a couple of hundred quid to broadcast from Belfast (call it server rent, flights, all that sort of thing) would fans pay a couple of quid to listen to it? Should Phoenix Radio aim for BBC levels of fairness or should it sound more like two enthusiastic chancers at a hockey game, armed with microphones?