Weekday Presenters

Ian Kennedy

Sports Editor Ian Kennedy joined Radio Merseyside in 1987 as a volunteer member of the Saturday Sports team. He then moved onto the Sunday Soccer Show, and covered Sunday amateur football for 2 years. After graduating from College, Ian continued to do freelance work for the station and became the regular Tranmere Rovers reporter. He commentated from Wembley for the first time at the 1990 Leyland Daf Final between Tranmere and Bristol Rovers.

Ian Kennedy.

Ian also spent 2 years working as a researcher on BBC TV's A Question of Sport, while continuing his commentaries for Radio Merseyside, working alongside Ian Botham, Bill Beaumont and David Coleman.

In 1992, Ian finally joined the full time staff at Radio Merseyside, and has covered Everton, Liverpool and Tranmere both domestically and in Europe. He has commentated on the 1995, 1996 and 2001 FA Cup finals, plus the League Cup finals of 1995, 2001 and 2003, as well as the 2001 UEFA Cup final in Dortmund and the never to be forgotten 2005 Champions League Final between Liverpool and AC Milan in Istanbul.

His documentary on Liverpool's 1984 European Cup Final victory earned Ian a prestgious BBC Gillard Gold award, as well as a Sony award at the 2005 ceremony in London.

Ian has also covered the Open Golf championship at both Royal Liverpool in 2006 and Royal Birkdale in 1991 and 1998, plus numerous Grand Nationals at Aintree. He has been Radio Merseyside's Sports Editor since 1999.

Gary Flintoff

Gary Flintoff officially joined the BBC Radio Merseyside sports team in January 2005 and just five months later he was reporting on the Champions League Final in Istanbul!

Gary Flintoff in Istanbul.

He explains: "It was an amazing start to my career in Liverpool. Within five months of joining, Everton had qualified for the Champions League and Liverpool had won the European Cup!"

Born in Durham, but raised in Lancashire, Gary has spent the majority of his working life covering various football clubs in the North West, including Bolton, Blackburn, Preston, Burnley, Blackpool and Bury.

Gary - who was born in 1974 - arrived at Paradise Street following the January transfer window sale of Nigel Reed to Canadian radio! A replacement was required, so Gary - who'd previously worked at BBC Radio Lancashire and BBC Radio Five Live - was signed to replace him. Bizarrely, Gary had previously worked with Nigel Reed at Red Rose Radio in Preston.

He laughs: "It's funny how things work out as Nigel was basically my first boss in sports broadcasting and he was a great teacher. Thankfully I never had to undergo a medical to join the team - as I'd have probably failed it - but everyone has made me really welcome and I'm looking forward to the new season. Liverpool is such a great footballing city and I hope that the Blues and the Reds, plus Tranmere, Chester and Southport continue to have great success during my time here on Merseyside."

Gary says his earliest memory of listening to BBC Radio Merseyside was on Sundays when his mum would always have the radio tuned to Billy Butler's "Hold Your Plums!"

Mike Hughes

Mike harboured ambitions to become a Sports Journalist from the age of seven or eight. He was forever writing match reports of games he'd seen live or on television. Then he'd ask his Dad to take them to work to get them typed up.

Mike Hughes and Gary Gillespie.

He got involved in journalism during his time at the University of Liverpool where he did interviews and match reports for the student newspaper 'The Gazette.'

He actually trained as a news journalist via the BBC trainee reporter scheme and after spending time at various stations up and down the country, he ended up back at BBC Radio Merseyside as a sports reporter/producer.

Mike loves commentating on football matches, particularly high profile matches such as F.A cup finals and European finals: "Just trying to deliver the goods on a regular basis to a sports mad audience in THE biggest sports patch in the country is a big challenge, but wonderfully rewarding" he says.

Sports Programmes:

Saturday: Merseyside Sports Special with Alan Jackson.
Commentaries, interviews, news, goals and results. Includes the football phone-in at 5.15pm.

Sunday: Sunday Sport.
Football commentary plus exclusive Rugby League coverage. Local Sunday league reports and results. 5.30pm-6.00pm.

Monday: Football Fans Football Phone In.
From 7.05-9.00pm with Alan Jackson.

Tuesday: The Football Football Show.
From 7.05-10.00pm with Alan Jackson.

Wednesday: Midweek Sport.
From 7.05-10.00pm with Alan Jackson and a sports panel.

Thursday: Sportsnight.
From 7.05-9.00pm. Horse Racing, Superleague, and Sports Betting.

Friday: Friday Night Sport.
Red Alert, Blue Watch and Rovertime from 7.05-9.00pm.

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Red Alert at 7.30pm looks at everything Liverpool with interviews and forecasts for the weekends fixtures involving the Reds.

Blue Watch at 8pm is an in depth thirty minute preview of the weekends action for Everton.

Rover Time at 8.30pm previews the weekend matches for Tranmere Rovers.