This Leicester Life: “If I wasn’t doing this job, I’d be in with Union FS twirling my scarf”
For the latest in our This Leicester Life series talking to fans of the club about their love of Leicester City, we spoke to the voice of Radio Leicester, Owynn Palmer-Atkin.
What got OPA hooked on LCFC? What’s been his favourite goal to commentate on? And where did Pipes nearly cause a riot?
DB: What are your first memories of watching Leicester City?
OPA: I'm pretty sure my first game was one of the old family football nights with the reserves. I won tickets in my school assembly and my grandma took me down to Filbert Street. I remember the moon being very, very bright on the night and seeing it from right at the back of the stand, watching Leicester's reserves against Aston Villa reserves. I must have been five or six years old, but maybe even younger than that.
And I just remember being being hooked. At that age, football is one thing but being in the stadium, being around the noise, smelling the smells, seeing the sights, they're the things that excite you. The fact that when a goal goes in, you get to jump up and down and scream and shout.
DB: What were your matchday traditions in those early days?
OPA: When me and my grandad first became season ticket holders in the mid to late noughties, we would always get the train down from Loughborough and walk to the stadium. We always stopped at the same sweet shop so whenever I smell strawberry laces that for me is football. Then it was into the Symphony Rooms for drinks pre-match, the old Half Time Orange.
The big tradition for us was that we'd come around the corner next to the car dealership and we used to sit in the East Stand, so it would have been easy for us to walk up but our matchday tradition was that we would walk around the whole stadium, come rain or shine.
It could have been tipping it down but we would still be trudging around. I would like to say I don't believe in superstitions, but I definitely do. Even when I play football, there are certain things I have to do first.
DB: From that era, two names that leap out are Matty Fryatt and Steve Howard.
So it must be surreal that you're working with them so often now?
OPA: Yeah, that was definitely my era when I hit that really nerdy Leicester City stage. Matty Fryatt was my absolute favourite player growing up. In the playground, everyone used to pretend to be Rooney, Beckham or Lampard and I was always Fryatt, which sounds a bit silly saying that now, but the fact I get to work with these guys is brilliant.
We were in the press room the other day, and they both walked in at the same time and came and sat either side of me and I remember saying to Jack Rafferty, 12-year-old Owynn would be loving this. Getting to do the games with those guys is so good. It's quite romantic. Plus for them to be as nice as you would want them to be as well. They say don't meet your heroes but these two are just really great blokes.
DB: When did you first want to get into broadcasting and was it always about football and Leicester City?
OPA: Obviously, everyone's main aim in life is to play for the club they support. I realised maybe that wasn't going to be the case so I was thinking: what is the next best thing? I thought getting paid to go and watch Leicester play, week in week out, would be the best way to spend my time. I was 11 or 12 years old and I started emailing the guys at the station at the time.
John Sinclair, Ian Stringer, Jason Bourne, Mike McCarthy - all those guys that were in and around Radio Leicester at the time, and I just kept harassing them. If I was doing it now, if it was an adult doing it, they would probably get some kind of restraining order.
Because I was an 11 or 12 year old child, and I think they probably felt bad for me more than anything, but the downstairs phone went - that's an old thing to say now isn't it - but my mum picked it up, and I could tell she was talking about me to someone. She came off the phone and said Radio Leicester had called her.
Carl Cooper, who was the assistant editor at the time, had said "Look, your son just keeps emailing. Can you just bring him in so we can get this over and done with". He was kind enough, Carl, to show me round the station, I met everyone and went round the studios.
He probably thought that might be me done but actually what he did was open a whole new can of worms because all I wanted to do was go back then. I continued to be, shall we say, politely annoying, for years and years until I was able to get in on work experience and then I literally just never left.
DB: As a fan you see different people who do commentating, interviewing, presenting, podcasts, debate shows - but you do all of it.
Do you have a favourite part of the job?
OPA: I do love all of it really. Bar the boring jobs that everyone has to do in their life. The commentary is a true highlight though, being the voice that calls the goals. I always think about when I was a kid and I used to listen to the commentary of away games on a Saturday afternoon or the night games on a Tuesday, laying in bed with my little portable radio. That's kind of what I'm doing it for.
I love calling those moments and those games, but also having access right to the heart of it all and being able to go to the press conferences, the interviews, presenting the podcast and the radio shows - it's what I live and breathe for.
My missus will often say "oh, you're going to the football today so we can't go to Ikea or whatever". But the reality is, even if I wasn't doing this job, I'd be in that away end or I'd be twirling the scarf around my head. I would be doing that whole thing anyway.
This way I get to see the games and there are fewer beers involved and more interviews but I'd be there whatever I was doing.
DB: Do you think you'd be in the Union FS section?
OPA: My grandad doesn't go to the games anymore after COVID and whatnot, so I think if I wasn't doing what I'm doing, then I would be in there with them. To be honest, what they do, and how they try and support the team, is definitely my idea of supporting the club too.
DB: What about the more difficult side of it? Particularly some of the long trips - it's not like the players where you're transported around - you've got to be at the ground a long time before and a long time after.
What's the longest day you've had commentating on Leicester?
OPA: Any night game in Newcastle is always long. I remember we actually came back from one last season rather than staying over but the good thing is that quite often, it will be me, Jack and Pipes on our way to the games all in one car together.
And although that might not be great for me or Pipes, because we're both six foot plus and we get crammed into this little BBC car, but going along with those guys and sitting in the car and and talking all the way there and back about football, about life, and everything in between - it makes the time fly more than anything.
For me it's not about the length of the trip, it's more about how cold it is. I can't stand it which is why I've got my little portable heater. I get the mick taken out of me every time I pull the heater out but when it's really cold it comes in very handy.
DB: Do you get to know the other radio commentators and are there any that stand out?
OPA: They're all great to be honest. One guy who stands out for me, who's probably my commentary hero, is John Murray from Five Live. He is such a nice bloke and always happy to chat, always happy to listen to something you've done, always happy to give advice and feedback.
DB: What about in terms of the players? When I was a Junior Fox in the early 90s we used to get to go and play against the first team players. There'd be about 100 kids in a sports hall at Belvoir Drive and we'd play a game against two or three of the first team players.
As fans, and understandably, we don't get that close to the players these days. But you get that proximity to them in the mixed zone, I know today you've been to interview Tom Cannon. Are there any you particularly look forward to speaking to?
OPA: Particularly this season, every one of those guys in that changing room, everyone that I've spoken to has been really nice.
Obviously, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is great to speak to because he really does get it as a local lad, but I could list them all if I'm honest. Ricardo Pereira is such a nice guy, Harry Winks is always really good with his time and always very polite. I've spoken to Tom Cannon a few times in the last few weeks and he's probably sick to death of me at the minute but he's been very gracious with his time and always very honest as well.
We'll always speak to Enzo after games but we don't have contracted access to players so I stand in the mixed zone after the game behind a little barrier like I'm at an airport queue and ask them as they walk by if they want to stop for a couple of minutes. No one's turned me away. So I've got a lot of respect for those guys in the dressing room.
DB: Have you got a favourite goal so far that you've commentated on?
OPA: I think it'd have to be Ricardo's winner against PSV Eindhoven. That was quite the night, and I did enjoy that commentary. It got played on Five Live which was really nice. The disappointing thing is that we've been on a downward trajectory from when I first took over. My first game was at home to Napoli in the Europa League.
DB: Some of the goals recently away from home, the counter attack goals, they must be fun to commentate on because it happens so quickly?
OPA: The Harry Winks one at West Brom was amazing after the disappointment of conceding late again and thinking it was going to be another draw.
All of a sudden they're breaking away, Dewsbury-Hall is through and you're thinking "this could be, this could be..." He squares it and that was great, being there for that moment and looking over and seeing the Leicester fans in the way end going absolutely wild and we're going wild in the press box as well.
You kind of long to be in there with them, but basically you want to match their energy while still doing your job because you've just watched something incredible happen with that kind of breakaway, so you want to put that across to people listening.
DB: Pipes can get a bit over-excited with goals like that. How close has been to getting lamped by a home fan when we've scored away?
OPA: We do often sit within the home fans. The closest I think was Watford away a couple of seasons ago, Brendan Rodgers' first game. When Vardy scored, Pipes did go a bit mad in the press box and a Watford fan in front of us turned around and was giving us some stick.
The fan walked off and then when they scored late on, he came running back and was right in front of us screaming in our faces. I was like 'Oh my God', but Pipes is telling him where to go and this guy's grabbed our FX microphone and Pipes has had to snatch it back off him. There's all sorts of stuff cracking off on air.
DB: Lastly, I wanted to ask about the differences for you between being in the Premier League and the Championship? What are the pros and cons?
OPA: Being outside of the Premier League definitely opens up more opportunities with the football club because when they're in the Premier League they've got certain rights and obligations to meet, with Sky and Premier League TV and TNT Sports or whoever. In the Championship, those obligations don't exist so there is more time to speak with the players.
But to counter that, you're not heading to these big clubs week in, week out. There isn't the Premier League glamour. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed this season so far and I've enjoyed going to different grounds, but there is just something about a Premier League matchday which has a bigger sense of occasion.
If you're in traffic heading to somewhere like Stamford Bridge and into that glitzy glamour of the Premier League, that is where I think Leicester City belongs, because they're a classy club, they've shown they can mix it with the best and I know we can see that again.
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