Next time you find yourself in a hotel room in Sydney, Jakarta or Cape Town and switch the television on to catch highlights of football's Champions League, chances are the commentary voice will be soon that of Edinburgh sports journalist, Mark Donaldson.
Donaldson – who cut his journalism teeth at the now no longer Edinburgh radio station, Scot FM (which was to become Real Radio Scotland), and who spent almost a decade as sports editor at the capital's Radio Forth radio station – is joining sports broadcasters, ESPN International, broadcasting out of the company's HQ in the USA – in Connecticut.
He'll be joined in the States by his fiancée, Elaine, to whom he proposed in Central Park, New York, in June.
A week-and-a-half ago at half-time on the pitch at Tynecastle footballstadium – during a match between Hearts and Dundee United – he was given a surprise presentation, in recognition of his eight years providing audio commentary for the Hearts website.
He has written two books about the football club and also served as sports editor and Drivetime presenter at Edinburgh-based all-speech radio station, talk107, as well as being Scottish football correspondent for London-based talkSPORT radio for the last three years.
When talk107 was closed, just before Christmas two years ago, Donaldson set up his own company – multimediasport -and secured regular work with the likes of Sky Sports while at the same time penning various articles for a variety of national newspapers.
He told allmediascotland.com: “Since I started in radio in 1995 it has always been an ambition of mine to work abroad. The chance to live and work in the United States does not come about very often for journalists in this country so to get the opportunity to do so – and for such a massive organisation – at the age of just 33 was impossible to turn down.
“It’s quite a nervous time right now, waiting to find out if my working visa application has been successful. If it is, then I would hope to start employment with ESPN International at the beginning of next month.”
