* 'The important thing is that players aren't told what to say: they do their own thing,' he asserts.
* 'Fans will read a story in the papers but phone in and say they already heard the story through us first. That works wonders for our word-of-mouth PR.' ha ha ha!!!
'* I'm still a journalist at heart. You'll easily see me pacing the MUTV news corridors just as much as sat in my office, growing the station,' says the West Bromwich Albion fan, who is married and has four children. 'After the Joel interview we were bombarded with requests for clips, and it's been seen by millions, all with our logo on the screen.'
* "Not even Paxman could have come up with more probing questions than we did," (about 'exclusive' interview with the Glazers.
Brookes' role demands constant involvement with the club's PR team while maintaining an element of editorial integrity. 'If we were just a PR arm of Manchester United and didn't debate, I'm not sure how attractive a product we would be,' he says.
'We've fallen out with Alex Ferguson because Stuart Pearce made comments about the team's performance that he didn't agree with. On the other hand I'm on the phone every day to the club's head of comms, Phil Townsend, to organise putting players on air.'
These, as well as new player signings, are the kind of stories that make Brookes' day. 'The important thing is that players aren't told what to say: they do their own thing,' he asserts.
He is irritated by what he claims is blatant plagiarism of MUTV interviews at the hands of national sports journalists. 'I've seen journalists transcribing in front of our monitors, only to publish the story without so much of a mention of us,' he moans, adding: 'The regional press are much better - they credit us.'
Brookes is not protective to the point of missing a marketing opportunity though - he does grant tabloids an exclusive if they promise to print MUTV's subscription number.
As far as 'irksome' journalists are concerned, Brookes gives the impression he often has the last laugh: 'Fans will read a story in the papers but phone in and say they already heard the story through us first. That works wonders for our word-of-mouth PR.'