Statement on the Racing "Ban" by Mr Harris

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 1, 20 July 1928, Page 5

Statement on the Racing "Ban" by Mr Harris

"THE Broadcasting Company has always made it quite Clear in its public statements and correspondence that if the racing and trotting clubs did not consider it in their own interests to haye their meetings broadcast, they had only to so adyise the company and their wishes woulkl be respected," said Mr. A. R. Harris, generai manager, in referring to the decision of the Racing Conference. He added that the Broadcasting Company did not presume to tell other people how to run their business. . "When. however, the Trotting and Racing Conferences based their refusal to permit further broadecasting on such reasons as those set out in the resolutions, then the logic of their decision is certainly open to question," he said. "We do not admit that broadcasting facilitates illegal betting. If the Conference has eyi- | dence of the prevalence of illegal betting, then obviously that evidence should have been placed in the hands of the proper authorities. If on the other hand they have no substantial evidence, why should the law-abiding listeners be penalised? So far as the. promotion of legitimate sport is concerned, the present method of descriptive broadcasting of the actual racing does more good for the sport than the alternative evening broadcast of an ordinary report as suggested by the Conference could possibly achieve. The Broadcasting Company ‘is quite as desirous as is the Racing Conference that the laws of the land should be defended; its best interests lie in promoting the moral and material welfare of the people whom it serves} but I cannot see the logic

of that part of the resolution which alleges it to be disadvantageous to the business community that the attention of those not attending race meetings should be attracted by broadcasting, while implying that no disadvantage to the business community is incurred by those who actually attend the meetings." N a further statement to the "Radio Record,’ My. Harris stated that the Conference suggested that the Company should be afforded facilities to obtain reports of every racing or trotting meeting throughout the Dominion, such reports to be broadcast from the Company's stations after the conclusion of the day's racing, ~ This, as he had said, would be but a poor substitute for the descriptive broadcast, but further than that it seemed to him that the evils about which the Conference would appear to be concerned would be intensified rather than lessened were the alternative to be adopted und applied to anything like the extent suggested. As a matter of fact the Company had no-intention to broadcast reports of every meeting, and he was quite sure that listeners had no desire that this should be done, All that the Company had done in the past, and all that it desired to do was to broadcast one or two meetings. a year from each of the four main centres, and which meetings were usually held on public holidays. This, he believed, was far less likely to disturb industrial life and encourage illegal betting than was the alternative suggested by the Conference.