Warrington’s Radio General is celebrating 70 years of providing local rugby commentaries.
Coverage started with the Warrington Wolves games, originally from the Wilderspool Stadium and now the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
In the early 2000s commentaries on the Widnes Vikings were introduced.
The idea to provide live commentaries came from Jack Steel column of the Warrington Guardian dated Dec 6th 1952, when he reported about a new commentary service being started in Oldham to provide football commentaries.
He wrote to the club suggesting a similar scheme to provide rugby commentaries to the hospitals in Warrington.
The Warrington board agreed to the scheme being set up.
On Saturday 28th February 1953, just before the 2nd round Challenge Cup tie at Wilderspool Stadium between Warrington and Workington Town, Fred Davies, the Warrington Club Chairman broadcast a goodwill message to the patients of the local hospitals.
This was then followed by the first live match commentary by George Duckworth, Ossie Roberts, and Paul Cowell.
Keith Inman, Chair, said: “Radio General is thankful for the continuing support that they receive from the Warrington Wolves and Widnes Vikings clubs so we can continue to provide the coverage to the patients and our wider audience.”
Radio General will be airing a special programme on 28th Feb at 6:00pm celebrating the 70th anniversary.
This story first appeared on radiotoday.co.uk