Radio, the Farmer's Stock Ticker

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 24, 28 December 1928, Page 6

Radio, the Farmer's Stock Ticker

Great Influence on Stabilising Markets "THE radio set has become the stock ticker down on the farm," writes J. C. Gilbert, the Department of Agriculture’s specialist in radio market news, in a recent issue of "Farm Life" (Spencer, Ind., U.S.A.). It seems that there are now 107 broadcasting stations in America which send out market reports on regular daily and weekly schedule, and the Federal Bureau, with which Mr. Gilbert is connected, helps out by maintaining about eight thousand miles of leased telegraph wires connecting all of the market news branch offices, We read further: | | "AS the service of broadcasting market reports has developed, the radio stations in the cities where the market news offices are located broadcast the quotations and flash the reports that must be handled quickly, and the summaries and reviews and comment reports are sent by mail to the more distant stations. In spite of the expense, a few stations have. paid the telegraph charges on some of the reports, because the owners felt that the value of the service to the farmers justified the expense. ‘‘From the exchange, the auction rooms, the stock yards, and the "street," the reporters prepare their local reports, which are flashed over leased wires to all the other offices to Washington. : "Rach reporter has his own report and those from the other. offices for distribution, and a wide distribution it is. "California grape-growers are advised what New York and Boston paid for their malagas and tokays. Texas cattle shippers learn what their steers sold for in Chicago and Kansas City, and soon, all-over the country the leased wire telegraph and the radio are speeding the news." Commenting on Mr. Gilbert’s story, the editor of "Farm Life" sets it down as an indisputable fact "that radio promises to do more’ to stabilise the markets than anything we have yet discovered." It is the only thing giving the farmer information he can act upon immediately. For instance, down in Fort Worth, Texas, one day recently, a hundred carloads of cattle came in and there was a slump in prices. The situation was broadeast over Station WBAP by the government market reporter, and the next day there were only two carloads, and the market recovered at once. If the South-western farmers had been conipelled to wait for the slower reports by mail and daily paper, the flow of cattle to Fort Worth could not have been stopped for two or three days. And in Chicago it is being noted that a broadcast of the estimates for next day’s expected arrivals of live stock reacts instantly on-ship-ments. Carloads already on the way are frequently diverted to other points if the radio says Chicago is about to be congested with cattle or hogs. | , eens