Sports Commentary Team

Football from St Mary's Stadium
Southampton Hospital Radio was formed in 1952 and its very first broadcast was from The Dell when Saints played Doncaster Rovers on 18th October 1952.

Leslie Arthur Sullivan (Sully) was the commentator (and founder of our station) and he was joined in the commentary box by Frank Le Druillenec and 'Inky' Bean.

Inky left the group in 1960 and Ken Flood, who had previously been the technical engineer took over the vacated microphone. In 1971 Frank moved away and the third seat was then shared between Bryan Dowding and Ken Fielder - until 1977 when Sully eventually retired.

St MarysThis left Ken Flood, Bryan Dowding and Ken Fielder in command and this (young) trio remained on duty for every home game for over 25 years, untill just a few years ago when Ken Flood retired from 'service' after working for 42 years as an active member on the hospital radio team.

The third seat then vacated by Ken is now shared between three 'young supporters:' Martin Ingoe, Chris Hutchings and Neil Harvey.

The commentary from St Marys is relayed direct to our studio through an ISDN digital connection and then onwards around the hospitals via our rooftop FM radio transmitter.

The commentary team are also connected to two induction loop circuits around two sections of seats inside the stadium whereby the hard of hearing and visually impaired supporters (both home and away) can sit - and with the aid of an earpiece supplied by the stewards - they can tune in and listen to our live running commentary.