Tuning in from the tractor - Farmers need accessible, credible news
By Sara Murphy, PhD - Murphy is a freelance writer based in Western North Carolina. Bylines include The New York Times, Atlas Obscura, Lifehacker, and 100 Days in Appalachia.
Farm radio is going strong after over a century on the airwaves.
Is it ready to face the challenges of the future?
Each weekday morning, Jeff Ishee enters his home studio in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley at 6 a.m. to begin producing farm reports. Since 2002, Ishee has run On the Farm Radio, a one-man operation that distributes 11 daily reports of one to eight minutes in length to 95 stations east of the Mississippi River, representing more than 5 million listeners, including at least 430,000 farming operations.
“I try to put myself in the position of being in between the farmer and the consumer,” he said. “What’s available at the farmer’s market this week? Is sweet corn still in season? Can you buy locally produced watermelons in Western North Carolina?”
Graphic by Adam Dixon
Farm radio has been part of commercial radio from its earliest days. Only four months after KDKA in Pittsburgh made history on November 2 by broadcasting live updates on the 1920 presidential election, Illinois grain dealer James Bush began broadcasting market prices under the call sign WDZ.
Even though terrestrial AM/FM radio now faces a lot of competition from podcasts, satellite radio, and streaming services like Spotify, statistics show that large numbers of people still tune in. According to Nielsen Media Research, 82 percent of Americans aged 12 and older listened to radio every week in 2022 — down just 10 percentage points from 2009. Further, 83% of farmers with at least $100,000 of gross farm income listened to farm radio five days per week or more in 2023, according to a National Association of Farm Broadcasters survey.
That doesn’t mean the content and technology of farm radio has stayed static, or that the medium doesn’t face challenges in a digital world. But Ishee still finds radio’s staying power impressive.
“The station that I started with, WSVA, they went on the air in 1935. That means that next year they will be celebrating their 90th anniversary,” he said.
“I’m really amazed that radio has lasted as long as it has.”
Accessible, Credible News
Amy Biehl-Owens, general manager for KRVN (880 AM) in Lexington, Nebraska, loves telling the origin story of the station and the Rural Radio Network, a farmer- and rancher-owned cooperative. After the historic winter of 1948-49 killed an estimated 20 people and thousands of livestock across the state, Nebraska’s Farm Bureau, Cooperative Council, Farmers Union, and Grange wanted to ensure farmers would never again be blindsided by severe weather. Traveling door to door, they sold $10 certificates of ownership until they raised enough money for a station.
Since KRVN’s first broadcast in 1951, the RRN has expanded to 15 stations across the state and over 3,000 owners who now pay $25 for a lifetime membership. Rather than paying dividends, Biehl-Owens said, the money goes back into running the stations. Beyond their robust farm reporting, the RRN works with local TV affiliates and newspapers to cover everything from high school football games to local and state government in both Nebraska and other states, from Kansas to Wyoming.
Radio has retained its popularity in the Corn Belt because much of the region lacks high-speed internet. “If you consider that agriculture is the biggest industry in a not very densely populated state, it makes sense that farm radio would be pretty much king out here,” Biehl-Owens said.
Credibility is another reason that farmers keep tuning in. The 2023 NAFB survey found that 76% of farmers highly trusted farm radio to provide credible and timely information. “We do have a much higher trust rating than general media — significantly higher,” said Sabrina Halvorson, national correspondent at AgNet Media, which serves California and multiple Southeastern states.
But she finds that trust is more easily cultivated by the farmers who listen than general interest listeners, who harbor concerns — sometimes spurred by misinformation — around topics like GMOs. “It’s important to me to have their trust as well,” Halvorson said.
Original story published at Ambrook Research
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