In the Hot Seat: Bob Ballard – UCFB Course Leader

UCFB lecturer Bob Ballard is the latest guest on our ‘In The Hot Seat’ podcast series, as he talks us through his life working in sports media as well as at UCFB Wembley.

Bob spoke to us about his career starting in hospital radio, and went on to commentate on sports such as football, ice hockey and basketball, as well as the Olympic Games.

Now, in addition to his work behind the microphone, Bob has been a UCFB lecturer since 2019, passing on his skills and knowledge to the next generations of sports journalists and broadcasters.

Bob, who is a course leader for our Foundation Year students, spoke about the highlight of his time working at UCFB.

“I think it’s seeing my first year through to their degrees,” he said. “Because nothing is ever going to be anything more special for me than that first intake.

“I’m looking at them rather wide-eyed; they’re looking back at me rather wide-eyed. I’m thinking This is my first year of doing lecturing at UCFB. What do I expect? What do they expect?

“I was very lucky I had a really good first intake in my first year. And probably the most tearful I’ve ever been in recent times is watching my first years graduate, when they got through to their level six.

“I’ve just seen them all knowing their story, knowing their backstory, knowing what I had to do with some of them to get them to that stage. And that was probably one of the most rewarding things in my life generally, not just at UCFB.”

He then went on to speak about the highlight of his career in terms of sports commentary.

“I think covering the 2012 Olympics and 2012 Paralympics,” he said.

“In fact,” he added, “I often said to people, the 2012 Paralympics for me was even better than 2012 Olympics, because obviously being in London, being a Londoner, it’s a great experience to work on both.

“I worked on 2012 Olympics from the BBC, I worked on the swimming for the radio and the diving for the TV.

“Then the Paralympics came along. There was no real infrastructure there. It was no real kind of warmth or people really wanting to push the boundaries. 2012 was completely the opposite of that.

“The 2012 Paralympics was a breakthrough event in Paralympic sport, I think. And probably will never be replicated again in that way.”

He finished by offering advice for young people wanting a career in the sports media industry.

He said: “Whether it’s broadcast, whether it’s multimedia sports journalism, listen.

“You don’t know it all. I don’t know it all. I’ve been in the business for over 40 years. I don’t know everything. You’ve got to listen to other people. You’ve got to take advice. You’ve got to be open to suggestions. And if somebody is saying something with the best of intentions, listen to it.

He added: “If you’re doing a commentary on radio or television, listen to it back, watch it back. You’ll see so many flaws in there that will help you going forward so you can improve next time around.

“When I start to analyse my work, I irritate myself because I’m going, Why did you say that? Why did you repeat that? Why did you do that several times?

“That’s the whole point, listen to other people and listen to yourself if you’re doing broadcasting. Most definitely have a listen to what you’ve done, then analyse it and do an overall view of it.”

Find out more about UCFB’s range of sports media-related degree courses, including:

• BA (Hons) Football Business and Media
• BA (Hons) Multimedia Sports Journalism
• BA (Hons) Sports Business and Sports Broadcasting

You can also view a prospectus to learn more about our unique degree courses, campuses and everything about student life at UCFB.