Hillsborough - A Candle for the 96

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

Another football weekend approaches (12-13 April) and it includes crunch matches at both the top and bottom of the Barclays Premier League and the two FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley Stadium. However, this is not a normal football weekend.

Tuesday, 15 April marks the 25^th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. It was a day when 96 Liverpool supporters went to see a football match and never came home. It still is Britain’s worst sporting disaster and no-one has still been found fully accountable for the nightmare that befall the Reds fans on the terraces of Sheffield Wednesday’s ground that fateful day.

For the families of the 96, plus those who survived but remain scarred by the events of that sunny, Saturday afternoon in 1989, the pain will never ease. They are currently in Warrington as new, fresh inquests opened a fortnight ago into the disaster. The flawed verdicts of accidental death to all the victims was quashed two years ago and the hope is that the families will finally get the justice they deserve after 25 years of endless campaigning and crushing setbacks.

As a mark of respect this weekend, all matches will kick-off seven minutes later than scheduled, before a minute’s silence at every ground across the country to mark the anniversary. This tribute by the FA is a nice touch as the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was stopped at 3.06pm on that horrible day in April 1989. On Sunday, Liverpool face Manchester City in what is sure to be a poignant day at Anfield before the annual Hillsborough Memorial Service at the famous ground two days later. The game between the Merseysiders and the Citizens could be the one that decides the destination of this season’s Premier League title race. However this weekend, football games take a distant second place behind remembrance and paying our respects. As a Liverpool fan, I always have my thoughts away from the field at this time of year.

I pay my respects now with a poem on the 25^th anniversary. It is called ‘A Candle for the 96’

Saturday is here and so is the sun

This day could turn out to be a lot of fun

Hoping that Liverpool would have won

However, the lives of 96 by day’s end were done

For John, Colin, James, Kester and Gerald

A candle is burning bright

For Simon, Barry, David, Tony and Paul

A candle is burning bright

A candle for the 96, the never to be forgotten 96

On that bright day, many families said to their loved ones goodbye

Little did they know that their souls would depart into the sky

The big question on many, both then and now is why

Other higher forces decided to start telling lies

For Andrew, Carl, Henry, Peter and Raymond

A candle is burning bright

For Gary, Joseph, Stephen, Tracey and Christopher

A candle is burning bright

A candle for the 96, the never to be forgotten 96

In some instances, people might have forgot

The families of the 96 remain distraught

However, they have continued the justice campaign and fought

To ensure those responsible for this disaster are caught

For Vincent, Thomas, Jon-Paul, Barry and Ian

A candle is burning bright

For Derrick, Roy, Phillip, Eric and Nicholas

A candle is burning bright

A candle for the 96, the never to be forgotten 96

Two years ago, the families finally got some hope

Finally, the truth emerged from a steep slope

It is amazing how they have coped

Ensuring there is little chance of letting go of the rope

For Sarah, Victoria, Gordon, Arthur and Alan

A candle is burning bright

For Christine, Richard, Anthony, Michael and Brian

A candle is burning bright

A candle for the 96, the never to be forgotten 96

The community of Merseyside have formed a strong committee

Liverpool should be proud of what it has as a city

Thanks Everton for your gritty and loving support

You are our friendly neighbours, not the noisy local rivals

For Francis, Marion, Joseph, Keith and Lee

A candle is burning bright

For Jonathan, William, Graham, Steven and Henry

A candle is burning bright

A candle for the 96, the never to be forgotten 96

Hillsborough left many with plenty of difficult emotions to feel

What happened was a truly terrible ordeal

Then the truth was finally revealed

There is vindication for our 96, justice is the final deal

For Inger, Paula, Adam and Philip

A candle is burning bright, burning bright

For Patrik, Stuart, Martin and Kevin

A candle is burning bright, burning bright

A candle for the 96, the never to be forgotten 96

What happened 25 years ago wasn’t fair

It drove football and those affected to deep despair

The publication printed in the aftermath was a scandal

For our 96, we should always light a candle

A quarter of a century on from Hillsborough and we have stayed strong

Whether it has been through poem, campaign or song

What happened was so wrong

It is time to remember those we lost and light a candle for the 96

HILLSBOROUGH MEMORIAL – 25 YEARS ON
John Alfred ANDERSON (62)	Derrick George GODWIN (24)	Joseph Daniel McCARTHY (21)
Colin Mark ASHCROFT (19)	Roy Harry HAMILTON (34)	Peter McDONNELL (21)
James Gary ASPINALL (18)	Philip HAMMOND (14)	Alan McGLONE (28)
Kester Roger Marcus BALL (16)	Eric HANKIN (33)	Keith McGRATH (17)
Gerald Bernard Patrick BARON (67)	Gary HARRISON (27)	Paul Brian MURRAY (14)
Simon BELL (17)	Peter Andrew HARRISON (15)	Lee NICOL (14)
Barry Sidney BENNETT (26)	Stephen Francis HARRISON (31)	Stephen Francis O’NEIL (17)
David John BENSON (22)	David HAWLEY (39)	Jonathan OWENS (18)
David William BIRTILE (22)	James Robert HENNESSY (29)	William Roy PEMBERTON (23)
Tony BLAND (22)	Paul Anthony HEWITSON (26)	Carl William RIMMER (21)
Paul David BRADY (21)	Carl Darren HEWITT (17)	David George RIMMER (38)
Andrew Mark BROOKES (26)	Nicholas Michael HEWITT (16)	Graham John ROBERTS (24)
Carl BROWN (18)	Sarah Louise HICKS (19)	Steven Joseph ROBINSON (17)
David Steven BROWN (25)	Victoria Jane HICKS (15)	Henry Charles ROGERS (17)
Henry Thomas BURKE (47)	Gordon Rodney HORN (20)	Colin Andrew Hugh William SEFTON (23)
Peter Andrew BURKETT (24)	Arthur HORROCKS (41)	Inger SHAH (38)
Paul William CARLILE (19)	Thomas Anthony HOWARD (14)	Paula Ann SMITH (26)
Raymond Thomas CHAPMAN (50)	Thomas HOWARD (39)	Adam Edward SPEARRITT (14)
Gary Christopher CHURCH (19)	Eric George HUGHES (42)	Philip John STEELE (15)
Joseph CLARK (29)	Alan JOHNSTON (29)	David Leonard THOMAS (23)
Paul CLARK (18)	Christine Anne JONES (27)	Patrik John THOMPSON (35)
Gary COLLINS (22)	Gary Philip JONES (18)	Peter Reuben THOMPSON (30)
Stephen Peter COPOC (20)	Richard JONES (25)	Stuart Paul William THOMPSON (17)
Tracey Elizabeth COX (23)	Nicholas Peter JOYNES (27)	Peter Francis TOOTLE (21)
James Philip DELANEY (19)	Anthony Peter KELLY (29)	Christopher James TRAYNOR (26)
Christopher Barry DEVONSIDE (18)	Michael David KELLY (38)	Martin Kevin TRAYNOR (16)
Christopher EDWARDS (29)	Carl David LEWIS (18)	Kevin TYRRELL (15)
Vincent Michael FITZSIMMONS (34)	David William MATHER (19)	Colin WAFER (19)
Thomas Steven FOX (21)	Brian Christopher MATHEWS (38)	Ian David WHELAN (19)
Jon-Paul GILHOOLEY (10)	Francis Joseph McALLISTER (27)	Martin Kenneth WILD (22)
Barry GLOVER (27)	John McBRIEN (18)	Kevin Daniel WILLIAMS (15)
Ian Thomas GLOVER (20)	Marion Hazel McCABE (21)	Graham John WRIGHT (17)

These are the names of the 96 who will never be forgotten. You’ll Never Walk Alone!  

The memorial to the 96 outside the gates at Anfield

Categories: 1989, FA Cup, Football, Hillsborough, Justice, Liverpool, Merseyside, Poem, Saturday, Truth

24 hour news channels - Celebrating 25 years of Sky News

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

The start of February saw 25 years since this was launched:

Sky News has come so far in the quarter of a century it has been on our TV screens. Not always easily accessible in its early inception, Sky News is now widely available on a number of different devices, from freeview platforms and computer-generated apps to the stunning iPad app which is among one of the best in the business.

Sky has always been the first place for breaking news with its dedicated team of journalists and reporters ready to bring the story to you first, the viewer. I know that it is the channel I watch if I’m after a big story. Sky News were the first to cover the stories that mattered. From the celebration of Tony Blair’s landslide election victory in 1997 and the birth of the Royal Baby last year to the horrifying scenes of international terrorism in New York, Bali, Madrid and London over the past 13 years – as well as groundbreaking coverage of the UK riots in August 2011.

However, Sky and its main competitors are now facing new competition in the evolving world of digital journalism. So, can it be successful and still remain at the forefront of our news for the next quarter of a century.

Slow start

The first bulletin was broadcast at 6pm on Sunday, 5 February 1989. Today, three senior figures in presenter Kay Burley, controversial political editor Adam Boulton and crime correspondent Martin Brunt are still with Sky, just like they were on launch night.

It was a slow start at a time where news was still not hugely accessible. Sky was launched at a time where only CNN was a 24-hour news network in America. The traditional ‘Newsflash’ from terrestrial platforms was the way we got the main news coverage in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There was no internet, social media was a dream away and tablets were just know as a cleaning aid and nothing more.

Rupert Murdoch, for whatever criticism he might deserve in regards to the News International phone hacking scandal two years ago does have to take the credit for keeping Sky News on the air in its early days. Operating on a £40m budget and with a lack of subscribers, Sam Chisholm proposed to Murdoch that Britain’s first 24 hour news channel was to be closed down to save money. The tycoon stuck to his guns though and gradually, Sky started to make its impact further for it. It was quickly respected in the House of Commons and throughout the political circle and started winning awards for its coverage – starting with the Bishopgate IRA bombing in 1993.

Its wall-to-wall coverage of the OJ Simpson trial throughout the pursuit of Simpson through America to the trial in 1995 was groundbreaking. It won Sky a lot of praise and I personally saw it as their big breakthrough onto the news spectrum in this country.

Breaking news

All of this came as BSkyB went under numerous launches on a yearly basis. Sky News underwent new looks (images below) in 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000. With flashy graphics, colourful ways to promote the news through rapid technological advances and the development of Sky News Active in the year 2000, they continued to evolve and respond to changes in the way we consumed news.

  

Various Sky News idents from 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1998

The Simpson trial of the mid-90s was big for Sky News but they had shown what they were capable of before that. They covered the late Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990 with great authority and the same occured with a tearful Margaret Thatcher’s departure from Downing Street after resigning as Prime Minister in the same year. They had provided in-depth coverage of the tight 1992 General Election and have made their election coverage even better through a variety of new aspects such as interactive voting and 3D visuals – not just for the UK but also for election night in the United States.

In 1997, it was Martin Stanford who had the difficulty of breaking the news to the nation of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in a car crash in Paris. While the BBC won plenty of acclaim for the way they handled such a sad and emotional story, Sky weren’t far behind. Their finest moment came four years later when the world was experiencing a horrifying day.

It was approaching 1.50pm on a normal day. The date was Tuesday, 11 September 2001 and nothing remarkable was happening, both in our normal lives and at Sky studios. That was about to change though as Kay Burley was given the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York. What followed was some of the most horrific and vivid moments of the 21^st century. That day, our lives changes forever. In a book, ’20 Years of Breaking News’ Burley revealed: “Not long afterwards the South Tower collapsed. It took less than fifteen seconds to implode. Neither Jeremy (Thompson), nor I said anything. Nothing needed to be said. More than a hundred storeys and thousands of lives lost in as long as it took you to read this paragraph.”

Sky won a BAFTA award for their coverage of 9/11, a feat repeated with the Soham murders in 2003. Many other awards have followed since alongside widespread praise and of course, some criticism along the way.

However, our news would be in a poorer place without Sky News.

It doesn’t always work and the future

24 hour news channels haven’t always had success. ITN tried it with the disastrous ITV News Channel at the start of the millennium. With ratings more accustomed to an episode of Eldorado, the plug was pulled on ITN’s 24 hour failure in December 2005. It hadn’t been helped by the collapse of the ITV Digital platform three years earlier.

The BBC entered the market eight years after Sky and BBC News 24 has been a stable challenger to Sky News since launching on Sunday, 9 November 1997. Despite the occasional blunder, such as Simon McCoy (a former Sky anchor) holding a pad of paper rather than a tablet last year, they have managed to survive in such stiff competition.

However, the way we get news continues to change. The advancement in social media means Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have become very popular tools for a journalist or even for an amateur filmmaker. Sky used some of this during the UK riots in 2011 – journalist Mark Stone filming on his mobile phone some of the unbelievable scenes in his hometown of Clapham. Stone would later be interviewed for our radio programme ‘The Current Affairs Show’ in 2012 about that night. In an interview for our journalism show with one of my fellow University of Northampton colleagues, he said: “Some of them were almost feral; the image that strikes me is the kids pulling the TV’s off the wall at Ladbrokes. It was the most extraordinary image.”

Rather than compete against them at their own game, 24 hour news channels such as Sky News and BBC News 24 have decided to integrate them rather than beat them. It is a clever strategy and I think it means their future is guaranteed, even if they might not quite have the impact they have had over the past decade or two.

I believe 24 hour news channels have a bright future. They have and continue to adapt well to changes, both in technological advancements and the way news can be broadcasted. I congratulate Sky News and Sky Television as a whole on reaching 25 years and I’m confident that with the tremendous team of reporters, presenters, journalists and people who work behind the scenes at Sky studios, they will achieve another 25 years continuing to break the news first.

Categories: 1989, 9/11, London, New York, Royal Family, Sky News, Tony Blair, TV, UK