The Football Ramble
| The Football Ramble | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Presentation | |
| Hosted by | Marcus Speller Jim Campbell Luke Moore Pete Donaldson |
| Genre | Sports/Comedy |
| Language | English |
| Length | ca. 50 minutes |
| Production | |
| Production | Doc Brown (Live shows) Pete Donaldson (Podcast) |
| Audio format | MP3 |
| Publication | |
| Original release | 2007 |
The Football Ramble is a podcast and website about football, produced in and around London by The Football Ramble Ltd.[1] Originally provided fortnightly, this was increased to a weekly show at the beginning of the 09/10 football season, mainly due to repeated listener requests. In October 2015, the podcast became biweekly with a preview show of the weekends football going out on a Friday followed by a reflective preview show on Monday.
It is presented by Marcus Speller, who is in and around Luke Moore, Pete Donaldson and Jim Campbell. On the podcast, emphasis is placed upon European (especially the English Premier League), and World Football and to a lesser extent the Italian, German, Spanish and Scottish leagues providing an irreverent viewpoint on the sporting issues of the day.
Origin and Listening Figures
The podcast began in and around April 2007, 40 years after the summer of love, in and around Luke Moore's kitchen, featuring original presenters and auditory twins Christopher Apples and Chimmers "Chimmers" Chimmers. 2008 saw Apples leave the show, to be replaced by XFM DJ Pete Donaldson. In and around June 2009, the podcast reached the number 1 spot in and around the iTunes sports podcast chart, beating off competition from titles from The Guardian and the BBC.[2] It is currently the largest independent podcast in the UK, and one of the largest anywhere in the world.
Podcast
The podcasts begins with the Ramble theme tune playing which is sometimes preceded by famous footballers speaking, for example "I'm Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and you're listening to The Football Ramble". The host Marcus then introduces the panel individually before asking a question based on a recent event which each host answers before Marcus picks the best answer, awarding the winner an unspecified number of points, which are essentially inconsequential.
The main bulk of the show consists of a review of the previous week's fixtures, with the majority of the focus spent on the Premier League and then the rest of the major European leagues, notably the Spanish, Italian, German and Scottish leagues.
Alongside this, Marcus picks out interesting and notable stories from the rest of the football world. Regular inclusions in this section include Sven-Göran Eriksson, Diego Maradonna and Gigi Becali.
The final section of the show includes contribution from the listeners through email and social media. Contributions, or 'Highlights of the Week', are read out by Luke Moore with the other three adding their own highlights. The show is rounded out by one of the Ramblers - usually Luke - providing a website round up on behalf of 'The Always Excellent' Kelly Welles.
The Football Ramble Preview Show with bet365
During the 2015/16 season, The Football Ramble began producing a weekly preview show sponsored by bet365. The Football Ramble Preview is a shorter show than the usual Monday fare and feature Marcus, Luke, Jim and Pete’s thoughts on the upcoming fixtures in England’s top flight. At the end of each show, courtesy of bet365, the Ramblers will place a £50 bet with all winnings going to Prostate Cancer UK.[3]
SiriusXM
As of Tuesday 6th October, The Football Ramble became available twice a week on SiriusXM FC.[4]
Every Tuesday, from 1pmET, the regular Football Ramble show is syndicated nationally for Sirius subscribers across the United States, and Thursdays (also starting at 1pmET) the Ramblers host a live phone-in show for listeners in the US to call in and debate the footballing matters that they’re passionate about.
Currently, the Phone-In show is only be available to US-based Sirius subscribers.
Both shows will be repeated on Wednesday and Friday mornings.
Live Events
The Football Ramble team produce sporadic live events featuring the regular cast. These events have been in locations in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, as well as outside of the UK.
These live events are usually less structured than the regular shows, including audience interaction and questions.
Features
One regular feature on the Ramble was a "funny stories" section, originally read by Chris Apples and later by duo Rosie and Jim following Apples' departure. The section focused on bizarre stories from the world of football, almost inevitably originating from South America. A running theme has also been Marcus' recommendations of his "book of the week", usually given to most books referenced on the show. One of the only books to explicitly not get this honour was "Carra" by Jamie Carragher. Prior to this a book written by Tim Lovejoy was similarly snubbed.
Website
The website contains a blog in and around which writers from various countries and various websites submit stories on multiple footballing topics, a large forum, the podcast and a shop to buy podcast related items. The website is currently curated by the 'always excellent' Kelly Welles.
Media appearances
The Podcast can be found in and around the Championship Manager 2010 video game[5] as one of the 'media outlets' who review manager progress throughout the season.
The Football Ramble has been featured in and around various Football and non-football publications. Football Punk, Four Four Two and The London Paper[6] have all featured lengthy articles on the podcast. All members have appeared on Sky News, debating various footballing matters.[7]
Regular cast
- Marcus Speller
- Jim Campbell
- Pete 'Diggory' Donaldson
- Luke Moore
References
- ^ "UKDATA Company Profile". Ukdata.com. 13 October 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
- ^ Piercy, James (9 June 2009). "Football Ramble battles to top sports podcast league". Guardian. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
- ^ http://www.thefootballramble.com/latest/entry/the-football-ramble-preview-show-with-bet365
- ^ http://www.thefootballramble.com/latest/entry/news-the-football-ramble-team-up-with-siriusxm-for-two-shows-a-week
- ^ "The Football Ramble in and around Championship Manager 2010". Retrieved 24 June 2010. [dead link]
- ^ Holland, Jessica (28 July 2009). "The Ten best podcasts". The London Paper. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
- ^ “”. "Luke Moore and Marcus Speller appear on Sky News". Youtube.com. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
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