Radio Le Mans is the English language radio service for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, as well as for numerous other sports car events. It first broadcast at the 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans.
History The commentary was broadcast on local ('special event') radio in 1986. In 1987, it was headed by a sports car and radio enthusiast, Harry Turner, backed by Jim Tanner and Chris Crewe-Smith, founders of TTC radio. Backed by Silk Cut Jaguar the station quickly found favour with the tens of thousands of English-speaking fans at the race. The early years provided for only a very rudimentary service, no pit reports and a music loop played overnight.
Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, the station evolved adding new features like the 'Mad' Friday Campsite Tour in 1989. This show, conceived and presented by a newcomer, John Hindhaugh, was to prove almost as popular as the race coverage, and propelled Hindhaugh, with his distinctive North-Eastern accent and irreverent attitude, to a similar status with the fans as the commentary team. Resident statistician Paul Truswell, famed for not only remaining standing at his microphone throughout the 24 hours (and more) but also not urinating during this entire time, has been ever-present on the Radio Le Mans commentary team since 1988.
Haymarket Publications, publishers of Autosport had been involved almost from the start. At first only giving ad pages which were then "sold on" by Radio Le Mans to raise funds. When Studio 6 and Landon Brown, the first operators of the service, stepped aside Haymarket took over the running of the service and remained in control until 2005.
Radio Le Mans has been available to listeners at the circuit every year since 1987. In 1997 it began streaming on the internet.
From 2004 to 2006 the service was also available to digital satellite listeners, as it was carried on the Globecast Radio channel on the Sky Digital (UK & Ireland) platform in the UK. Globecast Radio also carried coverage of the American Le Mans Series. Globecast Radio ceased broadcasting in January 2007.
Since 2006 the service has been run by Radio Show Ltd., RSL was formed specifically to ensure the continuation of Radio Le Mans when Haymarket Publications declined to renew their contract with the ACO. RSL was given an initial five-year contract.
The website radiolemans.com now runs a sports car and automotive audio stream all year which includes live coverage of other races from around the world, including those of the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series, Nurburgring 24 and Britcar 24. In addition, there is an extensive, free archive of all of the Radio Show Limited broadcasts.
Over time new ways to listen to the Radio Le Mans coverage of the 24 hours were added. In 2008 the service was bundled with the Kangaroo TV system at Le Mans, (although that system has since ceased to exist), and in 2009 Radio Le Mans made its debut on Sirius satellite radio in the US and Canada.
RSL audio was also used as the narrative in the movies "Truth in 24" and the sequel, plus the 2013 Patrick Dempsey documentary which aired on Velocity in the USA in addition to appearing in vision in all of these productions, main presenter/commentator and owner John Hindhaugh provided commentary for the Jota documentary "Journey to Le Mans". As well as the Amazon Video series "Le Mans: Racing Is Everything" using Radio Le Mans audio for all of the commentary that was included over the six episodes as well as including interviews with John Hindhaugh.
Mid-2017, RSL rebranded their collection of radio broadcasts from Radio Le Mans to RS1, IMSA Radio to RS2 IMSA Radio and the creation of a new station, RS3, which like RS1 and RS2 broadcasts 24 hours a day. RS3, was previously RSL Extra, which only broadcast when required, in cases where three live events coincided. Reflecting this change of branding for the channels, the main portal was switched to www.radio-show.co.uk although the www.RadioLeMans.co domain is still active and RSL retain the licence, granted by the ACO, for the operation of Radio Le Mans on FM at the track.
Le Mans 24 Hour presenters and commentators
Year Commentators / Presenters / Reporters 1986 Public address commentators (French) plus Bob Constanduros 1987 Neville Hay, Richard Hay, Bob Constanduros 1988 Neville Hay, Ian Titchmarsh, Paul Truswell, Janice Minton, Andy Smith 1989 Ian Titchmarsh, Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh, Steve Ancsell, Joe Saward, Bob Constanduros, Janice Minton 1990 Ian Titchmarsh, Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh, Janice Minton, Martin Haven 1991 Ian Titchmarsh, Paul Truswell, Steve Ancsell, Martin Haven, Simon Maurice 1992 Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh, Bob Constanduros, Steve Ancsell, Martin Haven 1993 Ian Titchmarsh, Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh, Steve Ancsell, Janice Minton, Bob Constanduros, James Allen, Martin Haven 1994 Ian Titchmarsh, Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh, Steve Ancsell, Bob Constanduros, Harry Turner 1995 Ian Titchmarsh, Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh, Steve Ancsell, Harry Turner, Graham Tyler, Richard Riley 1996 Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh 1997Ian Titchmarsh, Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh, Steve Ancsell 1998 1999 Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh, Ian Titchmarsh, David Addison, Gary Champion 2000 Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh, Ian Titchmarsh, Gary Champion, Alan Hyde, Joe Bradley 2001 Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh 2002 Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh, Alan Hyde 2003Paul Truswell, John Hindhaugh 2004 2005 John Hindhaugh, Gary Champion, Holly Samos, Alan Hyde, Charles Dressing, Paul Truswell, Johnny Mowlem, Neville Hay, Joe Bradley, Graham Tyler, Henry Hope-Frost, Lucy Nell 2006 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Jim Roller, Gary Champion, Alan Hyde, Graham Tyler, Joe Bradley 2007 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Jim Roller, Charles Dressing, Gary Champion, Bruce Jones, Graham Tyler, Nick Daman, Henry Hope-Frost 2008 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Jim Roller, Charles Dressing, Graham Tyler, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Bob Constanduros, Paul Tarsey 2009 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Jim Roller, Charles Dressing, Graham Tyler, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Paul Tarsey, Johnny Mowlem. 2010John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Jim Roller, Charles Dressing, Graham Tyler, Joe Bradley, Graham Goodwin, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Paul Tarsey, Jonny Palmer. 2011 2012 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Jim Roller, Charles Dressing, Joe Bradley, Graham Goodwin, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Paul Tarsey, Jonny Palmer, Sam Collins, Shea Adam 2013John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Jim Roller, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Paul Tarsey, Jonny Palmer, Sam Collins, Graham Goodwin, Shea Adam 2014 2015 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Jim Roller, Graham Goodwin, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Paul Tarsey, Jonny Palmer, Sam Collins, Shea Adam, Johnny Mowlem, Owen Mildenhall 2016 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Jim Roller, Graham Goodwin, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Paul Tarsey, Jonny Palmer, Sam Collins, Shea Adam, Owen Mildenhall 2017 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Ben Constanduros, Joe Bradley, Graham Goodwin, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Jonny Palmer, Sam Collins, Gemma Hatton, Alex Kapadia, Leena Gade, Shea Adam, Owen Mildenhall, Diana Binks 2018 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Joe Bradley, Graham Goodwin, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Jonny Palmer, Gemma Hatton, Leena Gade, Shea Adam, Johnny Mowlem, Diana Binks 2019 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Joe Bradley, Graham Goodwin, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Jonny Palmer, Shea Adam, Andrew Marriott, Diana Binks 2020 John Hindhaugh, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Jonny Palmer, Shea Adam, Andrew Marriott 2021 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Jonny Palmer, Shea Adam, Peter Mackay, Andrew Marriott 2022 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Jonny Palmer, Andrew Marriott 2023 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Jonny Palmer, Johnny Mowlem, Diana Binks, Peter Snowdon, Richard Craill 2024 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Jonny Palmer, Johnny Mowlem, Diana Binks, Peter Snowdon 2025 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Jonny Palmer, Peter Mackay, Johnny Mowlem, Peter Snowdon, Ryan Myehrin 2026 John Hindhaugh, Paul Truswell, Joe Bradley, Bruce Jones, Nick Daman, Jonny Palmer, Peter Mackay, Peter Snowdon, Owen Mildenhall, Neil Cole
Other race coverage
Radio Show Limited, the people behind Radio Le Mans, also provide internet radio commentary on every round of the American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, Nürburgring 24 hour race, and Silverstone 24 hour race. There is also coverage of other motorsport events, car tests, and motorsport magazine shows.
In August 2009, a sister channel called RLM Extra, later renamed to RSL Extra, was launched to allow for web streaming of two events simultaneously. This launched with coverage of the 2CV 24 hours from Snetterton, while the main channel ran coverage of the ALMS from Mid Ohio. However, with few clashing events this service wasn't used much after 2010. In 2016 it was used several times when IMSA and ELMS/Le Mans Cup races clashed.
In 2011 the 360 Motor Racing Club 6 Hour race was added to the list of events covered on Radio Le Mans.
In 2012 Radio Le Mans added coverage of the Dubai 24 Hours
2012 also saw RSL air live coverage of the Rolex 24 at Daytona for the first time. The team provided full 24-hour race commentary plus live coverage of all the practice and qualifying sessions, the only broadcaster to do so. The audio was also used for Motors TV's 15 hours of live television coverage, and on Speed.com as its overnight feed when the linear service was off air.
From 2013 onwards, Radio Le Mans covered the Bathurst 12 Hour.
Radio Le Mans began covering Creventic's 24H Series in 2015, which was also broadcast live on the English lingual MotorsTV and the live stream, as well as the Japanese Super GT series with the 3rd round of 2016 at Sportsland SUGO, streamed over live video on Nissan's NISMO.TV.
From 2017 onwards, Radio Le Mans will cover the German VLN championship making them the primary and only English commentary for the full series.
American Le Mans Series radio Since the first Petit Le Mans race in 1998, John Hindhaugh and other members of the Radio Le Mans team provided commentary of every round of the American Le Mans Series until the end of 2010 when the series decided to axe its radio coverage as part of its new TV contract.
In the year 2000, the team also covered two European Le Mans Series races, at Silverstone and the Nurburgring, and the Race of 1000 Years held in Adelaide, Australia.
The service, known as the American Le Mans Radio Network, is not only streamed on the internet but also carried on the Sirius satellite radio & XM satellite radio service, usually on XM144 Sport Nation.
The service is also broadcast at each track on 454 MHz, and occasionally also carried on local AM and FM stations.
After the ALMS axed its radio service at the end of 2010, Radio Le Mans continued to cover the races at Sebring and Petit Le Mans, which were also part of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, and Sebring in 2012 which was part of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The ALMS merged with Grand-Am in 2014 to form the United Sports Car Championship, which was run by the International Motor Sport Association (IMSA). In 2015 IMSA and Radio Le Mans' owners RSL launched a radio service for the series called IMSA Radio.
ALMS and IMSA radio commentators and reporters