I'm writing this in Radio 5 Live鈥檚 basement office at Wimbledon, between broadcasting stints at breakfast and teatime. Clare Balding is here, as are commentators Gigi Salmon and Alison Mitchell, and reporters Dot Davies and Karthi Gnanasegaram. We鈥檝e enjoyed the company during the fortnight of champions Marion Bartoli, Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotna.
It doesn鈥檛 look like Radio Bloke from where I鈥檓 sitting.
That name has been thrown back at us this week with the announcement that Victoria Derbyshire and Shelagh Fogarty are leaving the station, after many years of award winning broadcasting. It鈥檒l be sad to lose them, of course, and such talented and experienced presenters are incredibly hard to replace. But to say, as some have, that 5 Live is sidelining female talent, is completely wrong. No radio station in the country has such a great record of nurturing the careers of women broadcasters.
Jane Garvey, Fi Glover, Anita Anand and Asmah Mir are just a few of the top presenters who had their big break on network radio at 5 Live. The current crop, including Rachel Burden, Anna Foster, Sam Walker and Caroline Barker, plus new recruits Sarah Brett and Georgie Thompson, will ensure that female voices run through the DNA of the station, as they always have.
Twenty years ago, I was one of the Radio 5 Live 鈥渙riginals鈥�, when the station went on air. In 1991, I was brought across from Radio One鈥檚 Newsbeat by Bob Shennan, now Controller of Radio 2, to be the first regular female sports presenter on national radio. I went to my first Olympics in 1992, and I haven鈥檛 missed a summer Games since, even while bringing up my two daughters. This year I spent three weeks in Sochi, and after Wimbledon, I鈥檒l be off to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
This week, it鈥檚 30 years since I started my first job in radio, and I鈥檇 never have believed back then that I鈥檇 have such a fascinating, challenging and fun career.
Over the last two decades at 5 Live, I鈥檝e worked on pretty much every show on the station, news and sport. My current pattern of Thursday night鈥檚 5 Live Sport and Saturday Breakfast suits me down to the ground - I spend so much time away at sports events, it鈥檚 good to be able to have time at home to be Mum, to go to my daughters鈥� school plays and netball matches.
And now I鈥檓 really excited to be adding a Friday lunchtime sports preview show to the mix. It鈥檚 been pointed out that I鈥檒l be the only solo female presenter on weekdays, but in my view that鈥檚 no big deal. From Breakfast until the end of Drive every day, the only time you won鈥檛 have a woman as a main on-air voice is the three hours between 10am and 1pm. The rest of the schedule (with the exception of the legendary Mayo and Kermode Film Show on a Friday) is a male/female 鈥渄ouble header鈥�. And it鈥檚 an insult to the top women broadcasters in those teams - Rachel, Anna, Sarah, or me - to insinuate that we鈥檙e the junior partner, some kind of fluffy, giggly sidekick. Just listen back to Rachel鈥檚 brilliant reporting from Camp Bastion last week if you want proof of that.
Do I wish there were more women broadcasters out there? Of course I do. Does every station put their female presenters at the heart of the output, as 5 Live does? Sadly not.
I recently heard of a young, female, football-mad breakfast show presenter on a commercial radio station who was told she couldn鈥檛 talk about the World Cup on air. She had to leave the footy chat to her male co-host.
It鈥檚 a long way from a perfect world for female radio presenters. But Radio 5 Live are doing a great deal more than others to change that world. I wouldn鈥檛 still be here after 20 years if they weren鈥檛.
Eleanor Oldroyd is a sports presenter, 5 Live
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- Read Jonathan Wall's announcement on 5 live's
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