Dear friends and followers,
It is with a heavy heart - after seven seasons, 187 games, and over 500,000 kilometres, that I must announce the end of Rebel Radio for the foreseeable future.
When I began the service, alongside David Kent, back in February 2013, the club was still very much finding its feet in the Premier Division, with TV coverage at a minimum, and Europe but a distant dream.
When I coined the idea of Rebel Radio, I had no idea whether it would properly work at grounds with limited infrastructure, or whether people would really buy in to the concept of a fans radio for City, or how long it could last after my college years were finished.
To say we've covered almost 200 games, including games in every single European run is amazing - covering both men and women cup final victories on the same day, doing live coverage of the club's historic first UEFA Youth League encounter, and both legs of the subsequent tie against AS Roma, and being pelted with stones at a freezing Mayfield Park.
As the years went on, the coverage got more consistent, we introduced extra bits, a planned 'Soccer Saturday' style presentation on YouTube (which turned out to be a bit ambitious) and a regular podcast last season, with the likes of PJ Gallagher getting involved.
It's been my dream to work full-time with a radio station, last Tuesday that dream became a reality, as I have been offered a full-time role with a regional station outside of Cork, they have given me a chance and for that I am massively grateful.
But if I want to make the most of this opportunity, I can't possibly carry on Rebel Radio, given the amount of time it takes behind the scenes, with ads, social media, updating websites, research, and technical setup for every single broadcast. Particularly with the club's new streaming service, which means there just isn't room for us anymore.
I have seen both Dave and Colm deservedly get their opportunity with commercial radio and leave the service, and now it's my time to try and make a career behind the microphone.
To try and do both would be putting the opportunity of a lifetime in jeopardy, I will be working alongside Drive105 for Friday’s game against Derry City, and then Monday’s live coverage of our game against Finn Harps will be Rebel Radio's last live commentary for the foreseeable future.
Thanks to everyone who has taken an ad, donated, messaged us, listened to live commentaries, spread the word, and kept us company in the last seven years, having done it voluntarily, knowing that people actually got use from it was sometimes the only thing that kept us going.
Thanks in particular to David Kent, who has been not just a radio partner since we began but a close friend.
Thanks also to Colm Cuddihy for his fantastic work in the time that he was with us, and to Ethan McAuliffe, Josh Cooney, Stephen Walsh, Conor Philpott, and John O'Shea, and all of the guests who have been on our various live commentaries and podcasts.
Also huge thanks Éanna Buckley of Cork City FC, who backed us with the service from the get-go.
We really hope our project inspires something similar in the future, whether it's from one of the club's radio partners, or indeed an aspiring journalist like I was when I began aged 19. It's entirely possible, and absolutely worthwhile for the experiences it brings.
I was born and raised a City fan, and hope to be in a position to continue covering the club I love at some point in the future, but for the moment it's goodbye.
City Till I Die,
Kev.