TROTTING OR FOOTBALL?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 325, 14 September 1945, Page 5

TROTTING OR FOOTBALL?

Sir,-I was amazed when listening in to the broadeast of the Metropolitan Trotting Club’s meeting at Addington to find that the broadcast during mid-afternoon was switched over to Station 3YL in order that. 3YA (might re-broadcast a football match at Auckland. Anyone interested in the- football ‘match could have tuned in to 1YA, but very few sets outside Canterbury are’ capable of getting 3YL.-I know that here in Westport we receive. 1YA much better in the daytime than 3YA, and I feel sure that this applies to most other districts in New Zealand. If it was necessary to broadcast the football through 3YA, then could not the broadcast have been interrupted at appropriate intervals to broadcast each race? There were only three races involved, and surely the rebroadcast of the football could have been interrupted for, say, six minutes for each

race:

‘TROTTING FAN"

(Westport).

(We have been supplied with the following reply: "The decision to rebroadcast the North v. South Rugby Match through 3YA was arrived at after numerous requests had been received from listeners in the southern part of the North Island who were unable to receive 1YA during the day. All our southern stations, too, were requested by many listeners to arrange a South Island broadcast of the match as, daylight. reception of 1YA. ip most South Island districts was also not possible. To meet these requests it was

necessary to transfer the Trotting com_™mentaries to 3YL. After all the first five races were broadcast by 3YA and to have interrupted the football description for say 20 to 30 minutes in order to broadcast race descriptions would have brought a storm of protests from the huge number of football fans who were desirous of following the progress of this most important football fixture.)