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WELO Tupelo, Miss., an affiliate of the Keystone Broadcasting System, conducts one of its many on-the-scene broadcasts from the farm.
Highlight of his two-week trip through the British Isles, Don Tuttle (third from I.), farm editor, WGY Schenectady, N. Y., interviews on tape the winner of the 1959 World Plowing Matches, held in Northern Ireland. It was aired at home.
FARM\Vf RADIO
"Overall growth, acceptance and increase in
service are major trends in farm radio.
Increases can be seen in the time given to
farm shows, in the number of clients and in revenue."
entertainment needs ol ]j;iiticular locales. The economy and tastes of a particular area dictate the programming base of a radio station. The types of information, service and entertaiinnent differ according to local factors. The degree of success an individual station achieves is generally dependent njjon how well it is able to diagnose and pres(ril)e for the local audience.
This, then, is farm radio: A local medium covering a local business that cumulatively is one of the nation's most vital industries.
In a u. s. RADIO questionnaire survey of farm stations, these observations stand out:
• Farm radio business is up.
• There is a peaceful revolution raging as to whether farm information in programming should be "capsulized" or not.
• The farmer is not an impulse buyer.
• But he /5 a buyer of consumer products as well as farm products.
Accoriling to {imsiioiniairc replies, 1959 was a generally hcahhy year for farm radio business, with the outlook for 1900 even brighter. (For capsule reports on individual advertiser successes with farm radio, see p. 27.)
Although each station's situation differs, cjucstionnaires show that a majority of farm business is national. The breakdown for the average station for 1959 was 57 percent national and l.S percent regional and local. .\ slight trend was indicated in favor of growing national use in a bieakdown for 1958, which showed national business for the axievage station at 5.3 percent with regional and local comprising 47 percent.
The generally optimistic outlook on farm radio is sujjported by Hob Miller, farm program director, WLW Cincinnati:
"Overall growth, acceptance and increase in service are major trends. Increases can be seen in the time given to farm shows, in the number of clients and in revenue.
"This is notable because the glam
our of television had seemed to overshadow radio in the past 10 years. Yet back in the 1910's in radio's 'heyday,' WLW scheduled about five and a half hours of farm programming a week comjjared with double that amount at present, and now has a proportionate increase in clients.
"It is significant, too, that the additions in farm j)rogranuning have been in basic 'strictly farm' shows and well-rounded coverage of news in depth and entertainment geared to the rural population as well as mban."
The overall health of farm radio business is also pointed to by Anthony Koelkev, manager of KMA Shenandoah, la.:
"With 22 hours of farm service jjrogrannning weekly, we don't want to expand much more in that direction, but there are times when the temptation is great because it is a highly saleable commodity.
"At times, we have real problems taking care of competitive farm advertisers and treating them equally and fair. We see nothing but an up
24
U. S. RADIO • February 1960