Bernard Gent - known to thousands of soccer fans for more than 20 years as the voice of Ayresome Park - can once again be heard by Boro supporters preparing to watch a game.

Communication company NTL has signed up Bernard as Boro TV's first continuity announcer, ensuring that his familiar style is again part of the essential MFC experience.

His voice - so familiar to anyone who was a regular at Ayresome in the late Sixties, Seventies and Eighties - now links items on the channel every night.

And accompanying him is the distinctive music played at all the Boro matches during his time there: the big band sound of the Power Game.

Bernard, from Nunthorpe, said: "I am a lifelong Middlesbrough fan and still go to all the matches. Like many others in this area I live and breathe the Boro and so I am thrilled to be working on Boro TV."

Boro TV presenter Alastair Brownlee was instrumental in bringing Bernard to the channel. He said: "For me, like many other fans, Bernard's voice is synonomous with memories of the promotion years and the Jack Charlton era.

"When I first went to see the Boro play in 1967, hearing Bernard announce the team and the score was an important part of the excitement and atmosphere of Ayresome Park. Now, we're hoping he can recreate that special atmosphere for us on Boro TV."

Boro TV Extra shows all Middlesbrough games in their entirety just 48 hours after they have been played (and three hours after the final whistle for mid-week matches), with Alastair and former Boro player Bernie Slaven among the presenters.

Phone-ins, visits to local schools by Roary the Lion and Bernie, and news programmes that include stories on Hartlepool United and Darlington make up the daily six-hour evening schedule on analogue Ch 8 and digital Ch 770. .