What Radio has done for the Farmer

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 27, 15 January 1932, Page 1

What Radio has done

for the Farmer

No class throughout New Zealand hag benefited more from radio than the farm= ing community. Isolation has been largely conquered, vital information given promptly, social gains extended by brighter. entertainment and economic benefits accorded with a free and liberal hand. Much as has been done, even more may yet be attained. It may be taken for granted that a prime purpose of the new Radio Board will be to expand the service available from radio over larger areas and so extend the benefit of radio to new rural communities. Particularly in these days of economic stress will that coming benefit be appreciated. In the accompanying article, summarised from "This Thing Called Broadcasting," a vision is given of the benefits conferred upon American farmers by radio, and which in equal part may be expected by Dominion farmers in the future.

HAT radio has materially helped in stemming the rural

drift. to cities and in holding a bigger proportion of the population "down on the farm" is a major claim made by the authors in their vitai "work, "This Thing Called Broadcasting." This is their reasoning. In 1900 the rural population represented 57.4 per cent. of the total. In 1910 the percentage was 54.2. By 1920 it was 48.6. Of the rural population 33.1 per cent. in 1910 were farmers and in 1920 only 26.3 per cent. But here’s the point! Between 1900 and 1910 the proportion of rural to urban population declined 3.2 per cent., and in the next 10 years was 5.6 per cent. At that rate of acceleration the drop should have been 8 per cent. between 1920 and 1930. But it wasn’t! Something checked it and that something, it is claimed, was radio, which has contributed so much to persona! comfort and the increased allure of civilisation on the farm. Already in 1925 General Harbord, then president of the Radio Corporation of America, spoke of radio as the farmer’s friend in an address before the Advertising Club of New York. By ending the isolation of farm life radio will be the greatest factor of modern times

in keeping young men on the farms, said he. Recalling the days when he was a boy on a K&gcas farm, General Harbord rpcounted the hardships of farm Rife 40 years ago. "Yet it has thot been the physical hardships," he said, "but the dullness of life. the utter monotony and the lack of recreation that have caused the farm boy or girl, as well as the paid farm labourer to desert the old farm and seek the city. "Through radio the farme: now receives the advice of agricultural authorities. It is a friend in the time of the farmer’s need. Be it insect plague, animal epidemics, threatening weather, or other adverse condi. tions, the radio brings the information necessary to meet the problem. With these utilitarian

benefits there comes a wealth of entertainin ent. The great men of the nation, the Pres ident himself, will ‘speak in the farmer's home.

"The city listeners, tuning in on a station only to hear a voice reeling off the price of White Leghorn eggs, fancy cabbage, red onions and pork, where he had hoped to hear jazz, may not be much impressed witlr the value of market reports. But at that very (Concluded on page 2.)

moment there are thousands of men on farms who have laid aside cyerything else in order to listen in on what is to them business information, a matter of dollars and cents. "But in the long run perhaps the greatest utility of radio to the farmer is in tying in with the extension work ,of agricultural colleges and schools. The agricultural colleges enrol but ‘450,000 students. Radio should bring ‘the advantages of scientific schooling to millions of farmers. It will enable the college student whose course has been interrupted to continue it, often with the same instructors. ; "Of all that may. be said of radio the best is that it will tend.to keep the young, people, on the farm. There is the true independence, there is the real throne of the American sovereign. Entertainment, culture, and throbbing life of the metropolis, carried to the farm by radio, helping to make rural. life more ‘attractive, will sustain that class which is. the very backbone of vur national existence." . ‘ BX 1927, however, the farm popula: tion of America had given sufficient evidence of its wholehearted support of radio that Station KIFIKX, of Hastings, Ne braska, -decided to cater exclusively to farmers. Owned by Westinghouse, KEKX came under the management of the National Broadcasting Company on January 10, 1927. Immediately the N.B.C. decided that the farmers should have a station of their own and began to make KFKX the farmers’ station. In outlining the scope and policies of KYFKX, Mr. H. Aylesworth, president of N.B.G., said, on taking over the station: "Beyond the fact that broadcasting ean bring the city to the farm, its mission is to destroy the isolation which formerly shrouded the lonely farmhouse, as well as to bring a service of weather, market, and other information which will enable the individual farmer to take advantage of market conditions." _ Six separate informational services designed especially to help farmers in their everyday problems were inanugurated shortly after Tanuary 10, 1927, as regular features. Many authorities on various farm subjects presented talks on special phases of agriculture, and a leased wire was installed between the station and the Bureau of BKconomics. U.S. Department of Agriculture, with an operator always on duty. Later other farm services grew in numbers to such an extent that KFKX was discontinued in favour of N.B.C.’s Farmers’ Network. FARMERS were quick to take advantage of this service, making the radio pay dividends right from the start. By May, 1927, ten thousand letters were received by the Department of Agriculture, commenting on the service. Taking advantage of market quotations as they came in over the radio. farmers realised a greater profit from timely sales, and some of them by *egulating shipments of crops and live stock in this way secured top prices. Others planned their work in accordance to radioed weather reports, harvesting and planting according to the forecasts. One farmer regulated the ventilators in his poultry house by the reports. Radio tanght farmers how to ywiake better rations for dairy cows, poultry, feeder cattle, pigs, horses, and slidep. Radio has given tips on crop ro-

tation systems, farm buildings, cultivation methods. It has taught the cotton planter how to get more per acre; it has taught’ his- wife to prepare new dishes. Broadcasting encouraged farmers to organise for co-operative buying. Letters testify that radio "brought church services to our home," "helped out in the back country," "brought me out of the dark,’ "made it possible for us to hear a President speak and opera stars sing,’ "interested my wife in

more efficient means of running the home," "makes me content to stay at home, now I don’t run around — so much." "taught us a number of new wrinkles." And so it goes. Gratified by the wide acceptance of yadio by the farmer, the broadcascs were extended until in short order the Department of Agriculture became rhe largest user of radio for informational purposes in the world, with daily educational programmes, market news reports, and weather forecasts. By October,- 1927, 22 comprehensive farm pvrogrammes had been inaugurated over 100 stations. -Between 4000 and 8000 let~ ters poured into the Department of Agriculture each week, Farmers learned to do: things "the radio way." Of all the: programmes Aunt Sammy’s chais proved the most popular. One old conple. Aunt Liz and Unele John, wrote 4 letter to the Department of Agriculture contrasting radio with covered-wagoun days. Formerly they would run to the window to see every passer-by and talk about it for a week. Now they get all the important events of the world. They hear fill the sports they miss¢d when they ‘were young, They used to play a wheezy organ or drive 18 miles to a camp meeting to participate in the singing. Now they listen to the finest symphonies: They also learn how to kill

rats, "Learn and earn" is the way they put it. The Radio Farm School was another popular feature, teaching farmers how to do ‘things in other than the conventional way. The lack of unity which had been manifest in agricultural thought and action was counteracted by radio, tending to the more equal sharing by all agricultural interests of correct knowledge of production and marketing principles. By January, 1928, 116 representative commercial and agricultural college tadio stations were broadcasting farm radio programmes prepared by the Radio Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There seemed to be no bounds to the enthusiasm of rural radio. It grew and grew. By October, 1928, some of the more popular features, corresponding to the best-known programmes of the Hast, included the Housekeeper’s Chat, a 10-minute talk conducted by Aunt Sammy: two five-day-a-week programme features, the Farm Flashes, answering questions and giving timely tips for each section of the country; thé U.S. Radio Farm Forum, taking up on successive days of each week the major production problems of all pranches of agriculture; Outdoors with the Scientists; the Primer for Town Farmers; and Farm Science Snapshots. In addition: the Agricultural Situation Review gave at the beginning of each month. a national view of the farm outlook. And farm playlets, dramatised rural community life, endeavouring to stress the beauty of rural existence. "So Shall They Reap." YH various Agricultural Hxtension Services conducted numerous suryeys, which showed the tremendous interest of the farmers in radio. The Pennsylrania Department of Agriculture made a survey in 1928 which showed that: Of 852 farm radio owners275 made a special effort to tune in on special farm programmes. 199 depended on market radio reports in buying and selling. 274 replied that radio weather reports helped them in planning their farm work. 383 were sure that their families would not be satisfied without a radio. Dr. Daniel Starch, consultant in commercial research, in 1928 made a survey for the National Broadcasting Company in which 17,099 families tere questioned ‘by the "personal interview" method. The tenth question put to them was: "Do you enjoy talks on agri-+ cultural subjects?’ Dr. Starch sums up the answers as follows :- "Nearly three-fourths of the farmers (72.12 per cent.), representing approximately one-fourth of the population of the United States, one-third (31.44 per cent.) of the families in small towns, one-fourth (18:19 per cent) of the families in large cities, over one-third (86,08 per cent.) of all families-in-eluding farmers-enjoy talks on agricultural subjects, ‘here are slight differences between the preferences’ of farm, town and city

families in respect to several types of programmes. Semi-classical and classical music and grand opera are preferred . more by city than by: town and farm families; whereas religious services, erop and market reports, and children’s programmes are preferred more by farm than by city families." Jo the question, "If you had to give up one or the other, which would you prefer to have left, talk or music?" 2368 preferred talk, and 1538 preferred music. This jars somewhat our preconceived notion that music had a wider appeal than tallks. "The Reaper." HES figures will give the reader a general idea of the scope of work. now being done to aid the farmer by radio. The farmer, well informed éhy those issues which bear on his vi ness, is now better able to farm ei) ciently. He makes more money and bas niore leisure to spend it. The news of the world and its entertainment is his for the turning of a knob. Businesslike, well informed, educated, the farmer of 1980 comes to town to attend the conference of grain-growers. He attends the concert by the same orchestra that he hears weekly in his own home. Neither the orchestra nor the selections are less familiar to him than to the urban residents attending. He stays at the foremost hotels, listening while at dinner to the same fine orchestras that broadcast daily. He talks of the stock market, discusses the grain export prospects of the coming year, the latest developments in farm machinery. Spending a few hours in" the vast department stores of the city, he purchases refinements for his home, perhaps the latest model radio recéiver. And now, as the farmer walks. down the street of the city, smooth-shiaven, neatly dressed, self-possessed--nobody turns to stare. Heis no different from anyone else. His hands are clean. Machinery does most of the work. The style of his clothes is not different from that of the city. No longer is the farmer aman apart. Due in part to the automobile and the movie, due as much to the widespread influence of radio on all cultural and financitl aspects of his daily life. he is truly a citizen of the world. That picture of American attainment can be translated in degreé into pe iity in this Dominion. Much done but paves the way for fu ener attainment: \ 'o 2006) cae pe = |