jmkj |
 |
| Disclaimer: This website is totally unofficial. talkSPORT1089.co.uk has no links and is not endorsed by talkSPORT, The Wireless Group or Ulster TV. Any opinions expressed on this website are made by the inidividuals and are not ther opinions of the website as a whole. We would like to thank talkSPORT Ltd. for the use of their images on this website. To visit the official talkSPORT website click here. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Departing Gabriele Marcotti Says Farewell Gabriele Marcotti to BBC Radio Five Live Gabriele Marcotti has told this website that he has left talkSPORT on good terms and wants to thank its staff and listeners for the last six-and-a-half years. Gabriele writes... I think I first appeared as a co-presenter on talkSPORT back in February of 2001. I am not sure, it has been a long time. Back then it was Football First in Europe with Adrian Durham and Guillem Balague. I knew nothing about radio, I was a print journalist brought in because, in spite of my accent, I am Italian and could provide an Italian perspective. Things mushroomed from there, of course, and I continued on Monday nights even when Football First in Europe was scrapped. Plus, a few years later, I started appearing on Sunday's Final Whistle. I will forever be grateful to talkSPORT for giving me this opportunity. I do not know too many stations anywhere in the world with the balls to put a foreign guy, and one with the worst possible accent when it comes to talking football, on a regular slot discussing Premiership football, the station's bread-and-butter. To then go and put me on a second show, on Sunday's on The Final Whistle, where I would react to what was often the biggest match of the Premiership weekend, well, that was an even bigger gamble. For that I am very grateful. And I am grateful to many of the very talented producers and staff at talkSPORT who worked with me, a guy with zero training in radio, over the years. As well as the presenters and fellow pundits of course. It sounds corny to say "too numerous to mention", but I really would not want to leave anyone out and, right now, I'm rather emotional so I'd rather not name names. But you know who you are. I am not just grateful to talkSPORT, I admire the station for being innovative and creative in so many ways. Some of them I liked, some of them I didn't, but at least they tried to avoid the cookie-cutter sameness which is so prevalent in today's media. So why am I leaving? Well, after six-and-a-half years, you can begin to wonder about your comfort zone and whether you should not be taking on a new challenge. Five Live offered me that. Like talkSPORT, they do not see me as just "the foreign guy" or "the world football" guy. They are giving me an opportunity to do something different, something which can lead to other possibilities at a huge organization whose resources obviously dwarf talkSPORT's. For me, it will mean learning a different style and working with different people. I am hoping this new experience can make me a better broadcaster and a better journalist. And, of course, I will be reaching a different and bigger audience. Will it work? I don't know. The listeners will, ultimately, be the judge of that. But a person I really respect once told me that "You regret the things you don't do more than the things you do." What mattered most to me was leaving talkSPORT on good terms and I think I have. Bill Ridley told me "You'll always be a friend of the station." That was very important to me. So it is good-bye with a heavy heart and very big "thank you" to everyone at talkSPORT. And, of course, to those who listened in and supported me, ensuring that I would be kept around all those years. Departing Gabriele Marcotti Says Farewell Gabriele Marcotti to BBC Radio Five Live Wednesday 15th August 2007 |