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A former Lincolnshire Echo reporter has scaled the dizzy heights to become one of the country’s best know television sports presenters.

Not many people at the Echo remember John Inverdale being there.

But “The Gossiper”, Peter Brown, managed to dig up the tale surrounding John’s interview for his big break on Radio Lincolnshire.

This story originally appeared in Peter’s column in the Lincolnshire Echo.

The young journalist had a special request for the man at the Lincoln Hospitals Radio Station.

He was going for a job interview and he badly needed to brush up on his microphone technique.

Would it be possible for him to pop into the “broom cupboard” which served as a studio for the station, and spend a few minutes learning some of the tricks of the trade.

Ray Drury was only too happy to give the nod of approval.

And that’s how the patients at Lincoln hospitals became the first people in the country to hear the voice of an unknown John Inverdale broadcasting to them.

More than a decade on, Ray – who is still doing so much to promote community radio in and around Lincoln – was reminded of the incident, when he watched John, night after night, as BBC TV’s linkman at the Sydney Olympics.

And he could have been forgiven for smiling when he thought back to those days at St George’s Hospital.

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