Podcast news: BBC commentator Charlie Slater offers advice to aspiring broadcasters

BBC Radio 5 Live commentator and reporter Charlie Slater has given advice to aspiring journalists and broadcasters, saying it’s important to ‘get a grounding in your craft’.

Slater appeared on the second Sports News Blitz podcast, and discussed how he got his break at BBC Radio Nottingham.

He has covered various football leagues and tournaments, including the Premier League, FA Cup and international fixtures across TV, radio and online.

His detailed knowledge of the game and ability to convey the excitement of live matches have made him a respected commentator in the football community.

And he recently covered Wimbledon 2024 for the BBC, saying: “It's amazing. It's iconic. I would put it up in the same sort of pantheon of great sporting tournaments as the Masters in golf, as high as the World Cup in football.

“It's just a great iconic tournament. First of all, the location is unbelievable. Wimbledon is beautiful, the grounds are beautiful, the grass is that green, the strawberries are that red, the flowers all that bright and purple and everything is completely and utterly immaculate.

“It’s a place that everybody should go at least once, particularly if you can get a ticket for either the centre court or the number one court, because then at least you are guaranteed to see some play - because when it rains, there is not a huge amount of places to shelter unless you're on centre or number one.

“You have some of the best players in one of the most iconic locations in the most iconic tournament in the tennis world, a couple of hours down the road from Nottingham. So I loved it. It was a wonderful experience - and I felt very lucky to be there.”

Host Matt Dudley is in his final year of a sports broadcast degree at Leeds Trinity University, and asked Slater how he got his break in the industry.

“First thing I did was fire off two or 300 emails to every radio station, football club, TV station - not just here in England - but all over the shop, just saying: ‘Can I come in and shadow, can I come in and watch how it how it works - and like one person came back to me effectively,” Slater told the Sports News Blitz podcast.

“That was Colin Gray, who's the sports editor at BBC Radio Nottingham. He said: ‘Look, I've got nothing. No work to offer you, but you can come in and you can watch how the sports show goes out.’ And so I came in and watched.

“I wasn't based in Nottingham at the time. I travelled there and watched how the sports programme went out that day.

“I was like, ‘right, I need to find a reason to be in Nottingham.’ So I signed up for the broadcast journalism masters course at Nottingham Trent Uni - and worked at Nando's.

“I just started off by answering phones, making tea, editing audio, feeding scores into the ear of Colin Slater at that point, who was obviously commentating on Notts County.

“Then it was a case of just being willing and saying yes and working hard and saying yes to every shift that came, which I don't actually recommend you do.

“You should maintain a work balance as well. But at that time, I just said yes to every shift that came out - no matter how unsociable the hours were - just to show eagerness and readiness.

“It's just developed from there by just saying yes to every shift and eventually by finding the balance, a delicate balance between badgering someone, saying ‘give me an opportunity’, and not doing it too much and annoying them.

“Eventually he said, ‘look, there's a game that we need a full online commentary on and nobody wants to go to.’ And understandably, why? It was the third qualifying round of the FA Cup and Mansfield Town were at Workington - basically it's smack bang in the middle of Cumbria.

“So I went up there and did the game and did a good enough job. And next thing you know, I made the Mansfield job my own. And then obviously when Colin Slater decided to call it a day, the next job came my way, which was obviously like a huge thrill.

“And so that's how it came about. And from that really it's just a case of continuing with those sort of same morals I had then, which is say yes where you can.

“When you do go, do a good job, be prepared and not to be a numpty.”

Slater reiterated the importance of securing work placements and gaining as much experience as you can before entering the industry, saying: “There's a good balance to be made between getting a grounding in your craft and really recognizing that you need that grounding.

“You can't just walk into 5 Live or Sky Sports - you need that grounding. So that's really important. But I think there should be a fine balance between that and also knowing where you want to end up, because often if you know where you want to end up, getting in there relatively early is going to save you a lot of time.

“So if you can establish the balance between getting that grounding, getting the experience that you need, but also knowing where you want to be and where you want to get to and where you want to end up, that's massively important.

“So try and establish the balance of getting that experience, getting your grounding, getting good if you can.

“And then also always keep in mind where you want to end up, because then I think that'll help to expedite the process of actually getting there.

“It's just the balance then and then beyond that, yeah, like I say, always be prepared to research and if you can do all of that and not be a numpty in the meantime, then great.”

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