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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." | 
