LEXINGTON-BASED HRRN HEADED TO THE BREEDERS' CUP
By Maryjean Wall, Herald-Leader Racing Writer

The Horse Racing Radio Network, based in Lexington, has come a long way for an operation run out of a suitcase. This fall, for the first time, the network will carry exclusive, live radio coverage of the Breeders' Cup Oct. 26 and 27 at Monmouth Park.

And it will all come out of the small, black suitcase full of broadcast equipment that owners Mike Penna and Pete Kules take with them every weekend when they fly to a selected track. These two "road warriors" build up Grade I numbers in frequent-flier miles. They will have aired 60 broadcasts this year at tracks from Gulfstream Park to Saratoga. Kules and Penna expanded last spring to produce the national radio broadcast of the Belmont Stakes in 16 states. And now it's on to the Breeders' Cup. The advantage radio can offer for an event like the Breeders' Cup is that listeners won't have to sit in front of their televisions all day to hear the races and commentary.

We'll retell our favorite HRRN story here. It concerns that black suitcase that Kules and Penna take with them on their weekly trips. Two years ago they lost the case in the baggage pickup at Albany, N.Y., on their way to Saratoga. Actually, they picked up a black suitcase. But when they opened it at their motel, the bag did not have their radio equipment. It had someone's clothes. Fortunately for Kules and Penna, the airline was able to contact the person who had picked up their bag by mistake and he promptly returned it so they could do their show. As we said, they've come a long way to the Breeders' Cup -- for an outfit run out of a suitcase.

 

HORSE RACING RADIO NETWORK TO PROVIDE 3 HOUR
SUMMIT OF SPEED BROADCAST THIS SATURDAY

The Horse Racing Radio Network (HRRN) will travel to Calder Race Course this Saturday to provide fans with 3 hours of live Summit of Speed day coverage. Beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET, HRRN will broadcast six stakes races including the Grade 3 Azalea BC, Grade 2 Carry Back, Grade 1 Princess Rooney, and Grade 2 Smile Sprint H.

The broadcast, which will be co-hosted by Mike Penna and Jude Feld, can be heard on HRRN’s affiliates throughout Kentucky and southern Indiana – WLXO 96.1 FM in Lexington, and in the Louisville area on WAVG 1450 AM. Penna and Feld will also host the popular Equine Forum show from Calder Saturday morning from 8-10 a.m. ET.
 

Growing network puts horse racing on radio -
Belmont Stakes heard nationally

By Gregory A. Hall
ghall@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Aside from a television network that Churchill Downs Inc. co-owns, the only extensive coverage of today's Stephen Foster Super Saturday stakes races will be on the Lexington-based Horse Racing Radio Network.

With what so far has been primarily a regional broadcast with stations in Lexington and Louisville, the network is looking to go national.

Last week, the broadcaster-owners, Mike Penna and Pete Kules, reached a milestone in that effort by broadcasting the Belmont Stakes over 19 stations in 13 states, including the New York and Los Angeles markets.

"Once we got the national rights to the Belmont Stakes, it was kind of our first step to expanding it nationally," Penna said.

Greg Marsh of Newton, Mass., whose job as a sales manager keeps him on the road a lot, thought he'd miss the Belmont while traveling near Richmond, Va.

"If there's a major race going on, I'm going to try to find a restaurant and a bar to jump into to see it but I didn't have that opportunity … on Saturday," he said in a telephone interview. "And when I came across that thing on the radio it was wonderful because I felt like I was in Elmont, New York."

Marsh, who pulled over to the side of the highway so he didn't lose the signal, said he believes that there's still a place for racing on the radio, even in the age of Internet and satellite broadcasts.

"A good call of a horse race on the radio can really be inspiring," he said.

Kules and Penna readily admit that horse racing on the radio isn't new -- it's one of the main ways the sport was marketed nationally for decades. That's the way, for example, that President Franklin Roosevelt reportedly followed the 1938 match race between Seabiscuit and 1937 Triple Crown-winner War Admiral.

"We need racing to be exposed on as many platforms as possible, whether it's Internet or it's on your cell phones, or it's on radio or it's on television," Penna said. "I mean you look at all these other sports, they've all taken advantage of that."

The network is an outgrowth of a Saturday-morning program, now known as Equine Forum, that Kules and others started in Lexington 20 years ago during Keeneland Race Course meetings.

One of those was the genesis of how Kules and Penna met. Penna came on as a guest when he was working as a horse identifier at Keeneland -- at the same time he was trying to start a handicapping Web site. Penna said he asked Kules about advertising on the show and instead was asked to be its co-host.

"My jaw dropped because … the only time I had been on the radio in my life was that little 10-minute interview I did with (Kules) at Keeneland, and I was shaking like a leaf," Penna said.

Penna said he started with Kules more than four years ago. From there they branched out to races at Churchill Downs and, last year, covered about 150 stakes races at tracks across the country. This year, the total is about 180.

The network's primary stations are 96.1 WLXO-FM in Lexington and 1450 WAVG-AM in Jeffersonville, Ind., which can be heard in Louisville. Five other stations join the network during Keeneland's meets.

This year's Louisiana Derby broadcast from Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans included a local station there. Then 19 stations broadcast the Belmont.

The network hasn't had to pay to broadcast any of the races other than the Belmont.

"It's basically free exposure for" the racetrack, Penna said.

He declined to disclose the cost of the Belmont rights, but said they lost money in the venture.

"It was an investment to getting to where we need to get to," Penna said.

The network's next goals are adding more stations and making bids on all three Triple Crown races -- the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont -- and also the Breeders' Cup.

Kules said he's surprised at the growth of the network.

"We're ahead of the game already," he said.

Horse Racing Radio Network to broadcast 2007 Belmont Stakes after securing national radio rights


LEXINGTON, Ky. – Horse Racing Radio Network (HRRN), a national radio company founded to present major Thoroughbred stakes races each week on public radio, has purchased the exclusive radio rights to the 2007 Belmont Stakes (G1). The Lexington-based company will broadcast the Belmont Stakes and select races from the day’s undercard as part of a 90-minute program that has been syndicated to no less than 18 major markets in the U.S., among them New York and Los Angeles.

“Thoroughbred horse racing needs to be exposed on as many platforms as possible,” said Mike Penna, who owns HRRN along with Pete Kules. “Our goal has always been to establish a national horse racing radio network to help expose and promote this great sport. Thanks to Belmont Park we will be able to accomplish this goal by bringing the Belmont Stakes and several future races to a national radio audience.”

Founded in 2004, HRRN (www.equineforum.net) broadcasts major stakes races from tracks located throughout the U.S. In 2007 alone it will provide national radio coverage of at least 60 prestigious racing days, and to date the HRRN schedule has already covered race cards featuring the Florida Derby (G1), Louisiana Derby (G1) and Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1).

Each broadcast features pre- and post-race interviews and analysis as well as the live call of each race.
“This (Belmont broadcast) is a rebirth of a concept that has been dormant for 50 years,” said Kules.
The Belmont Stakes broadcast will begin at 5:30 pm EDT. The show is currently being syndicated for purchase by radio stations throughout North America. To date prominent stations from 18 cities have signed on to broadcast the show, including WEPN 1050 AM in New York, KLAA 830 AM in Los Angeles and KFNC 97.5 FM in Houston.

Negotiations are currently being finalized to offer the broadcast in Chicago as well as South Florida and Northern California. In addition, HRRN programming includes a weekly two-hour radio show broadcast from its Lexington headquarters. Entitled the Equine Forum, the show is hosted by Penna and Kules and focuses on news and race coverage from around the world and includes prominent guests from all walks of the Thoroughbred industry.

 

Rail birds on the radio -
Broadcasters go on location to fill media nichE

by Maryjean Wall, Herald-Leader Racing Writer

They are the road warriors of the horse world, lugging their special suitcase to the tracks.

They might be any other travellers except for what they drag onto the plane in this carry-on case.

It's the Horse Racing Radio Network in a suitcase: the portable broadcast station belonging to Mike Penna and Pete Kules of Lexington. They own the network, its feature race broadcasts and its Saturday morning show, the Lexus Equine Forum.

This week they were off to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to broadcast a show built around the Travers and three other stakes races. Two weeks ago it was Arlington Race Course near Chicago.

They log more air miles in a month's time than a colt going coast-to-coast on the Kentucky Derby trail. They fill a niche that seems like a throwback to racing's good old days when radio ruled the airwaves.

What makes them unusual in this TV age, according to Jim Williams, Keeneland's director of communications, is "They've taken the initiative to travel around the country and put racing on the radio and give it added exposure."

And what gives them an edge over TVG, Penna and Kules will tell you, is that radio is portable. Not everyone has time to sit in front of a television to watch races.

Their Lexus Equine Forum is one of two weekly horse racing radio shows based in Lexington. But their show has a completely different personality than the other, Horse Tales with Ercel Ellis.

While Ellis broadcasts his show live from a cozy trackside porch at The Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, Penna and Kules usually go on location to a track or a horse farm.

Always, they're lugging that suitcase containing microphones, headsets, a broadcast unit and podcast equipment. The suitcase contains all their working tools. They can't let it out of their sight.

But they did let it out of sight on their last trip to Saratoga in early August -- and lost it. Only through the kindness of a stranger was the case returned to them in time to do their show.

"Usually it fits in the overhead, but the plane was too small, and we had to check it at the gate," said Penna. When they went to claim the bag at Albany, N.Y., someone had walked off with it.

Left in its place was a bag that looked just like theirs. Except this bag had someone's clothes in it. Both cases pulled on wheels, so it was hard to tell them apart, they suspected.

Luckily, the airline was able to contact the owner of the other suitcase on his cell phone. He kindly returned the case belonging to the radio show guys the same afternoon they arrived.

Penna and Kules have come a long way since their first trip 11/2 years ago to Gulfstream Park. While they made about 10 road trips last year, this year they will make about 60.

They make these trips and put together their show at their own expense. They own the show and buy air time by selling commercials themselves.

Penna, 35, and Kules, 72, are from Massachusetts, from towns 40 miles apart. They met in Lexington after they both came here for the horses. Kules, a longtime broadcaster, had his own radio show on racing before bringing in Penna as a partner three years ago.

They're not at all alike in their personalities. But they have a synergy that works for them, on-air and off.

"We go at each other all the time and it works," Kules said. "He thinks I'm an arrogant, conceited SOB and he's right. And he's the easygoing, affable young guy that's trying to tone me down a little."

Rich Nilsen, marketing director for one of their sponsors, Bloodstock Research Information Service, said the show and its Horse Racing Radio Network is filling a real need, "especially for those who are out on the road, with the chance to tune in to some great racing coverage."