Switching from light on talk to heavy on sport
RADIO WAVES
The Age
March 22, 2007
by Brad Newsome
FRANCIS Leach loves the smell of pigskin in the morning - especially four in the morning, which is when the serious round-ball action is under way in Europe.
"It's kind of taken over my life in a way," he says. "I tend to live in two time zones - I live my domestic life here but I'm always thinking about what time the game's on overseas and so I'm getting up in the middle of the night to watch, trying to sneak sleep in here and there, and trying not to disturb my family too much when the ball goes into the back of the net at 4am by screaming at the television."
Leach, who with former Melbourne AFL footballer David Schwarz hosts sports station SEN's drive program, says soccer "tends to become all-consuming".
"I still love AFL footy but the last 15 or so years I've really got up to my neck in (soccer)," he says.
"I guess it's because the universe continues to expand - AFL football's 16 clubs, you kind of know the terrain. It's all been mapped, whereas the world game - there's so many levels, so many layers across continents and leagues and teams and international leagues. It's forever revealing itself to me. I'm fascinated by it. Not only the sporting aspect, but the cultural aspect and the political aspect as well.
"All those sorts of things tend to intersect on and off the pitch - and that's what I love about it . . . It's like MySpace, it can become all-consuming. It's like staring into a black hole. You're lucky if you've got your family and your loved ones to pull you out of it and tell you that you've got to have a life as well."
Happily for Leach, however, sport is his working life once again, with the broadcaster having returned to SEN last month after 18 months or so at Vega.
"Sometimes you have to go away to know what you really want and I really missed doing sport," he says. "I think it was when I went to the World Cup last year for (Vega owner) DMG Radio and I really felt in my element. I really had a ball. Not only professionally, but personally. It was an amazing experience and it made me realise that I'm actually quite passionate about it."
As well as hosting The Run Home from 4pm to 7pm on weekdays, Leach will be a boundary rider at AFL games and hopes to join SEN's soccer commentary team for the next A-League season.
Leach says he is particularly enjoying the interview and talkback aspect of The Run Home. One of the things that initially attracted him to Vega was that the original vision for that station involved a fair bit of talk too.
"That didn't work out. It's like a relationship - both parties start with the best of intentions and then they want different things from it," Leach says. "The people at Vega are fantastic - I had a great time working there and it's a great work environment - but it just wasn't for me."
He says he admires DMG for taking a chance with Vega playing a blend of old and new tracks and hopes the station is successful.
"There's a lot of people who sit down and have a crack at something from the sidelines, but there are very few people who dare to put their bollocks on the line and try something new."
With The Run Home, Leach says, he and Schwarz are trying to cater to sports fans of all levels of commitment.
"We're trying to build a program that's welcoming to the really hard-core sports nuts, but also to people who are just putting their footy tips in and want to know whether there are any injuries this week, or why Troy Simmonds isn't playing in the ruck this week or why Justin Koschitzke has missed his fourth game in a row.
"You don't need to be Captain Footy Nerd to be involved or invited. We want to have fun with it - to deliver the news but muck around a little bit and remind people that it's supposed to be fun."