NO MORE RADIO COMMENTARIES ON 1485 ?

I was in the" rooms " today, & a fellow punter told me he was hacked off cause there is no more racing commentary on 1485 radio station.

Apparently this radio station has had a fall out with Phum....... Robert G is this so ? If so what a pity, many racegoers enjoy listening to the commentaries in our cars ( no matter how bad the reception is ) to keep up with our daily jackpots & P6

If this is true.... P ...patch things up or find another station to relay the commentaries ( its better to listen for free than to pay on our cell phones )

Please I hope it is true and that an FM station can be found asap as the last one I could honestly only hear via my decoder (or if I pulled over on the side of the road)

remember it used to be the only way to listen was via the radio

And it kept people intrested in the game dave as the general public heard a snippet of racing every half hour or so. I know it is an expensive exercise to get off the ground but since Piggs Peak are sponsoring Night Racing perhaps that money should be used to entice an FM station to broadcast the races - I'm sure there are stations that really need the revenue and would welcome the new listnership(last time I checked the SABC was in crisis - time to make deals.

many many punters cannot afford dstv and phoning for commentaries and it would be a sad day if indeed it is true..in natal where i reside east coast radio stopped commentarys many years ago ..as for garner he is just an old journalist given a position he knows zero about.

Pirates this is the very reason we still have small punters in totes - they cannot afford to phone for results or to punt via telebet - If anyone disputes this just go into your local tote and see how many guys are using the racing express(citizen) as a form guide as the R20 for computaform - sportingpost etc would eat into the punting budget - oh and before the high and mighty say who cares - these are the the punters that used to come racing and FILL the cheap seats at racing and make you feel like a king when they cheered your horse home so please think of them now.

The guy who told me about the radio station is a pensioner, he does not have DSTV at home.He pops in and out of the tote, but he used to rely a lot on the radio commentaries.Perhaps he will soon loose interest in taking jackpots & P.A's

How many other small time punters are in this position who may be soon lost to the game ?

" you take care of the pennies, the pounds take care of themselves "

Is 1485FM a jhb radio station?

I am from natal and if I cannot check racing on DSTV, at the course or at the tote, I have to use my cell phone which is expensive and which I do not want to do. I wish we had a radio station here. One of the reasons they also probably took it away is because not everyone could listen to it accross the country. Probably also to keep people at the totes and glued to the tv, which is not possible for working people, to try and play more money. Probably also thought why some people have to pay to listen to the commentary (cell phones) while others could listen to it for free (radio) except if you are in the tote or infront of dstv which is impossible for working people. This idea must have been driven towards increasing their pools. Trust me i have seen it before, people say they just want to go to the tote to watch the race and suddenly they start playing at other venues and more races etc etc. money starts flowing.. money lost.,

One of the main reasons that mainstream Radio failed is that the regular listeners often changed stations when commentaries were broadcast as they had no fondness for the sport(this I was told by a Radio tech from 702 and makes sense) This is a problem but something like Radio 2000 might be the answer.

I agree with you Mr H that maybe Radio 2000 is an option, but with regard to your first sentence. This really should not be the case. Let me give you an example. For instance here in KZN we have ECR. Now some of the radio jockeys I can listen to in their respective slots, but others are just an irritation (referring to 6pm to 9pm) or specific types of music during the day (late evening love songs and jazz which I think most of the young generation hates). Obviously I would change the station, but even if I do, it won't cause them to remove those people or type of music off their station unless they have numerous complaints which first need to be proven and this most of the time must be of MALICIOUS/PROFOUND intent.

Maybe because horse racing is linked to gambling and has a negative affect on children, but over the last couple of years all types of sports have attracted gambling in some form or another especially soccer.

The main thing for a radio show(according to my mate) was not to get people to change stations as they would not return. I think that an underutilized station could do with racing to get listenership - any top station(If I ran one I would fire anyone that put commentaries on) would not jeopardize their position by adding "dead air" - waiting for horses to load, delays etc - to their broadcast. Let's face it racing is not the draw card it used to be so now we'd have to pay stations great sums to adopt the "poor cousin"