Infos on commentary

[BR2]

Hey, I am looking for information on current cycling commentating: under which conditions is it done, technically, logistics, work conditions, contracts...
Can you recommend any books or do you have any other sources of information about it?
Thank you!

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Hey, I am looking for information on current cycling commentating: under which conditions is it done, technically, logistics, work conditions, contracts...
Can you recommend any books or do you have any other sources of information about it?
Thank you!

A few years ago it was done almost exclusively by commentators in a booth at the finish of a race/stage. I know Covid changed a lot, with commentating being done from at home and now a lot of commentators sit in a local studio as well. I remember the GCN crew mentioning recently that McEwen was commentating form home (Australia) while the others were at the race, for instance.

 

[staubsauger]

Eurosport Germany only ever did commentary from the race at the Tour de France & Tour of Turkey. At least 10 years ago they were invited to Turkey to spend some days in the hotels.

For the Giro d'Italia, the classics and Vuelta a Espana they had a bungalow in the Cologne area, where Karsten Migels and Ulli Jansch would meet and comment from. There was an article in German magazine Sport Bild.

Nowadays they've got a home studio. At least Migels, but also Robert Bengsch & Co. Jens Voigt posted a photo from Bengsch office on Instagram when they were doing Catalunya together.

For the Giro d'Italia Migels, Eisel & Voigt in fact are in Unterföhring at the Eurosport Germany studios.

For the Tour de France they're on location again, like Migels & Leclercq used to be. Or Migels & Jens Heppner already used to be. Though maybe just 2 of them, with the 3rd still sitting at home.

 

[BR2]

Thank you both!
Does anyone know more about how they get their jobs? Do they just get asked, are there job interviews? Do they have fixed term contracts or for a certain amount of race days or specific races...? How much say do they have on which races they do? - And how much do they earn?

 

[search]

Nowadays they've got a home studio. At least Migels, but also Robert Bengsch & Co. Jens Voigt posted a photo from Bengsch office on Instagram when they were doing Catalunya together.

for one race earlier this year (Valenciana maybe) it actually sounded like Bengsch and Ludewig were in Spain. They brought up that they talked to the mechanics and so on at least - but yeah, it's normally super rare at German Eurosport, and not even the case anymore for the Tour. Ludewig is usually doing it from his Alpecin office, afaik.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

A couple of definitive sources from a well respected industry veteran:

Search Results: Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)

 

[BR2]

A couple of definitive sources from a well respected industry veteran:

Search Results: Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)

Does it involve information about the actual commenator's situation, though? Kirby himself might be a bit of an exception among commentators? I am not sure I want to go through a Kirby book for nothing.
I have a protagonist who's a commentator, but he's younger and not a legend.

 

[staubsauger]

Thank you both!
Does anyone know more about how they get their jobs? Do they just get asked, are there job interviews? Do they have fixed term contracts or for a certain amount of race days or specific races...? How much say do they have on which races they do? - And how much do they earn?

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=abf4HL_4TKQ


There was an interview with Migels earlier this year where he explained how he became an Eurosport commentator.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Does it involve information about the actual commenator's situation, though? Kirby himself might be a bit of an exception among commentators? I am not sure I want to go through a Kirby book for nothing.
I have a protagonist who's a commentator, but he's younger and not a legend.

I'm afraid I haven't read them yet, but my guess is a few nuggets of useful info will be buried under plenty of rambling anecdotes

 

[Wyndbrook]

A couple of definitive sources from a well respected industry veteran:

Search Results: Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)

Well respected, humm.
I would say a marmite commentator, personally I don't like marmite.

 

[fmk_RoI]

A couple of definitive sources from a well respected industry veteran:

You haven't actually read that book (the first, the second hasn't been released yet) have you? Have you even read any reviews of it? Cause it ain't what you think it is, that's for sure.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Can you recommend any books or do you have any other sources of information about it?
Thank you!

Watching Eurosport you can actually pick up a lot of the detail. Such as the studio-based commentary team (in the UK on an industrial estate on the outskirts of London) versus the grunts on the ground providing local colour.

 

[RedheadDane]

I have a protagonist who's a commentator, but he's younger and not a legend.

If it's research for a book, you can just... make something up.
Is your protagonist a former/current pro, who has become a expert-commentator? Or a journalist?

 

[BR2]

If it's research for a book, you can just... make something up.
Is your protagonist a former/current pro, who has become a expert-commentator? Or a journalist?

I have made things up... I mean I do have some ideas about how it works, but readers hate when such things are not well researched... So I need to back up my diffuse notions with actual knowledge. His story of how he got into the job is a bit difficult... he's an outsider who studied journalism, raced on an amateur level and then got into commentating mostly through his wife, a former elite level racer who now organizes races... so he's mostly in the position because of personal connections. In the beginning people looked down on him because he never was a pro and some still do, but he gained respect.
So far he's mostly working in a studio in Cologne after moving, although he's preparing to mostly work from home... in the past he has lived in southern Switzerland and traveled to races in Italy, now he's often in Belgium to report "from the ground", although he doesn't see it as very necessary himself, but he's there to talk to people in person and get some texture to the reporting.
Is this setting a realistic possibility?