For two weeks every year, a radio station dedicated to covering as many matches as possible comes on the air. Radio Wimbledon was set up in 1992 with a range of about 10 miles, covering the grounds of the All England Club and the area in southwest London.
The All England Club decided to take the radio station and stream the broadcast on the Wimbledon Web site. Suddenly, people from all over the world were hearing the live action and interviews from Radio Wimbledon.
Steve Butterick, a veteran of the BBC and now the editor of Radio Wimbledon, spoke with me about how the little radio station continues to grow.
Butterick on the growth of his outlet » Last year we had over 1.4 million listeners from over 200 countries — all tennis fans wanting all the live information they can get. We provide the play-by-play from not just Centre Court but from the outer courts, where there is plenty of action that simply does not get covered on TV.
Butterick on the American audience » Outside of the U.K., there is no doubt that we have a huge audience from people who listen to us at their office computers while at work. We get quite a few e-mails from the Washington area, so clearly fans want live tennis, and they enjoy our coverage, and we are very pleased to have so many fans in the USA.
Butterick on doing play-by-play on the radio » You really can’t think. You simply have to focus on the person serving and [instead] respond to what you see. We sometimes talk a bit loud, and there are times that the umpires get angry with us. We take that as a badge of honor because we have broadcasters who love tennis and are passionate about the sport, so if we are a bit loud so be it.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
