Rambling about football for more than ten years: The Football Ramble

By: Morgan Hines

Marcus Speller, Jim Campbell, Luke Moore and Pete Donaldson have known each other for quite some time. Speller, Campbell and Moore met while studying at University and Moore met Donaldson while he was working at Capital Radio in London.

Together with the help of an executive producer, a brand manager and two other producers, they have created a well-known and influential podcast based out of London: The Football Ramble.

They started producing the podcast ten years ago, one of the first of its kind.

“What’s evolved is an irreverent, football flavoured entertainment show with the presenters’ unique chemistry at its heart,” said The Football Ramble team.

They self describe as “a genuinely refreshing football voice,” and say that they are “one of the most influential and entertaining shows about the world’s most popular sport.”

Over time, the response they have received has been very large. Social media has played an enormous role in their relationship with the community of football fans that they’ve built through the podcast.

The team proves to be entertaining to fans.

“Its [the podcast’s] huge social media interaction (76.8K Twitter followers) and hundreds of emails from listeners a week is testament to the companionship proffered by four blokes, who love football, round a table, having a laugh,” explained The Football Ramble Team.

Their listeners have been sticky, many have been tuning in for years.

“We have very loyal fans who have been with us from the beginning,” said the team. “Likewise, very active Twitter mentions, as football’s a conversation that never really ends!”

When they started The Football Ramble, podcasting was not as popular a medium for commentary or storytelling as it is today. The team calls that period, in 2007, when they started the show up, the “dark ages of podcasting.”

Since they created and have been building The Football Ramble, the world of podcasting has evolved some and has expanded a great deal. For the team, this has had some impact not on their show directly but on other shows in the Radio Stakhanov network, of which The Football Ramble is a part.

“The market is becoming increasingly saturated,” they said. “Listeners having more choice isn’t affecting The Football Ramble per se, but the issue of discovery is important to the newer shows under the Radio Stakhanov umbrella.”

In terms of the show being profitable, the team didn’t see it as a way to make money until about seven years into production.

“There wasn’t an obvious way to make money; we were just four guys who liked talking about football,” said the team. “We then partnered with acast in 2014, who offered us a way of monetising not only our latest shows but also our back catalogue. This enabled us to take start taking the hobby seriously and invest in new ideas.”

Now though, for the four hosts, and the rest of the team, podcasting has become a full time profession. Radio Stakhanov has six other shows and all of them have some role in those shows as well.

They don’t plan on concluding the show anytime soon, only to keep rambling.

“Over the last ten years as we’ve built our audience, we’ve honed what we do,” said the team. “We’re still growing steadily, so hopefully have a few more in the bag.”

Here is a full list of Radio Stakhanov’s shows:

“On The Continent — the podcast covering the biggest headlines in European football with renowned pundits James Horncastle and Andy Brassell.

The Luke and Pete Show — The Luke and The Pete from The Football Ramble answer questions you never thought you wanted answers to — can a man survive by eating only roadkill?? History’s most successful burglar?? Told you so.

Wrestle Me — Pete and Marc are watching all of Wrestlemania from 1985 to present day. One’s a mega fan, and one doesn’t get wrestling at all.

Abroad in Japan — Pete and YouTuber Chris (from channel Abroad in Japan) discuss the wonderful and weird of Japanese culture.

Berkhamsted Revisited — a teenage diary podcast reliving the best of the noughties.

The Windsor Knot — a royal wedding podcast from two guys completely unqualified to make one. They have since gained themselves quite the cult following.”

Be sure to tune into all of Radio Stakhanov’s shows on Podible.

To see The Football Ramble featured (and other podcasts to listen to during the World Cup, click here.)