History
The program began in 1987 when Ray Hadley and Ray Price took over the commentary duties on 2UE. When 2UE lost the rights to broadcast NRL games in 1999 to 2GB, the station asked commentator Ray Hadley to present a six-hour rugby league program, without having the rights to the actual games, nor having access to their reporters inside the ground. Several 2UE commentators, including John Gibbs and Darryl Brohman, joined 2GB.
The program was renamed The Talking League Team. The team consisting of Ray Hadley, Peter Frilingos, Bob Fulton, Steve Roach, Tony Megahey and Greg Alexander astounded industry insiders when they beat 2GB and ABC Radio, both of whom had the actual rights to NRL games in 2000 and 2001. Many network stations dropped 2GB coverage and switched to 2UE's coverage. At one stage, rival 2GB campaigned for Foxtel to cut off 2UE's access to the service, as they were calling games off their coverage. The team stopped the practice soon after the threat was made.
In 2002, when Ray Hadley moved to 2GB, he brought his team over with him (with the exception of Alexander) to bring their coverage of live NRL games, and continued to win the ratings since then.
In 2004, the team lost longtime member Peter Frilingos to a heart attack, and his spot was not filled for the rest of the season, to be eventually replaced by Darryl Brohman in 2005.
In 2011, Hadley gave up commentating games with Moore calling all three weekend games.
In 2012, Hadley would take over commentating Nine Network's second Friday night game.
Read more about this topic: Continuous Call Team
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is preserved.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)