North American Trainer - February to April 16 - issue 39

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INDUSTRY

The challenge for television and radio in the social media age While Thoroughbred racing was one of the first sports to present its excitement on television back in the 1950s, it quickly disappeared from the airwaves as the industry thought the medium would keep people from attending the racetrack. Racing learned the hard way that television would become the arbiter of which sports reigned as America’s most popular, but only after that misstep had chased it off sports pages. More than half a century later, the sport has been reexamining its place across all media platforms, no longer caring if people consume the product away from its source WORDS: K.T. DONOVAN PHOTOS: HORSEPHOTOS, SuziE PicOu-OlDHAm, STEVE ByK, miKE PENNA, GWEN DAViS, XBTV

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 39


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