Pattern for FM Profits:

Rural Radio Network

4: PROGRAMMING
How the Rural Radio Network is Developing its Programming
to Serve the Specific Habits, Preferences, and Needs of its Audience

What do rural listeners want from radio? We don't know all the answers. but we know many of them. and we are learning rapidly. But there are some things we do know.

Statistics for Basic Planning:

We know that rural listeners include farmers and non-farmers living and working in rural areas. We know that farming in New York State is highly diversified, and that fruit, vegetable, poultry and dairy farmers keep different hours at different times of the year. They have different needs and face different kinds of problems. We know that many of the retail and service businesses in rural areas start their work day at 8:00 a.m., and some of them as early as 7:00. Rural New York State is 90% electrified, which means running water and radios; that more than 80% of the farms have at least one automobile that 74% of the farm homes are owner-occupied, that New York State farms and buildings are valued at more than $1 billion, that New York State farmers had a cash income of $550 million in 1945 even though only 16% of New York’s 13,500.000 people live in rural areas.

We know also that rural education, typified by New York State Central Schools, is as good if not better than in metropolitan areas. As a result, the Rural Radio Network’s audience is literate. And from the activities of our audience, Granges, Farm Bureaus, Home Bureaus, and co-operatives we know that these people are socially, financially, and politically aware of their responsibilities and obligations as citizens, businessmen, homemakers, and wage earners.

We have found that people working in the towns and villages, with very few exceptions, go home for lunch just as the farmer does. People live nearer their jobs than city workers. Contrary to the popular notion, not every farmer is up at 5:00 or even 6:00 a.m. Few of the rural wage earners are near radios during the day, but most of the homemakers are closer to their radios during the day than their big-town sisters. Also that juvenile listeners are available at various times according to their age groups. These are some of the things we have culled from our experiences in Rural Radio Network. We also know that never before has anyone attempted to program an entire network broadcast week specifically for the diversified interests of the rural New York audience.

Timing, Needs, Preferences:

With all these facts in mind, we started out to program the Rural Radio Network.

Since big-city radio has been serving rural listeners for so many years, we realized that our audience has likes and dislikes essentially akin to those of metropolitan audiences, plus the desire to have less of the programs it finds irritating, and the need for more farm information.

For example, news to the farmer is the same as news to the cityman. However, the farmers need news of northeastern agriculture. We give them world, national, state, and local news, plus information of dollars and cents value, gathered from many parts of the nation. As an example: the price of the first picking of sour cherries in Michigan indicates the price of the sour cherry crop in New York State on the following day.

For another instance, let’s take the weather, urban listeners are generally satisfied to know that it will be either clear, cloudy or rainy. The farmers, on the other hand , must have specific information on local weather. They need to know whether there will he a thunderstorm tomorrow morning or afternoon, if tonight will be clear without frost. Only with such detailed, local information can they plan and execute their planting or harvesting operations to best advantage.

Consequently, Rural Radio has weather instruments at each of its six transmitters and. by close cooperation with the Weather Bureau, is able to air fairly specific local weathercasts. Most particularly, it is possible to give warnings of sudden changes in weather conditions, or take the market reports.

Some years back, the home station of a major network staged a breakfast party celebration for its early morning farm service program, no doubt, the program had urban listeners, but farmers are not assisted by a morning broadcast of yesterday’s market prices, or in state-wide weather reports. Besides, most farmers were out doing a their morning chores when that program was on the air. From the farmers’ point of view, that program gave no cause for celebration. That is why R.R.N. airs today’s market prices for fruit, eggs, vegetables and livestock as early as they are available.

The reason for this is simple. It’s not much use to give yesterday’s prices today because farmers cannot get today’s produce to market before tomorrow. By then, prices forty-eight hours old may be all out of line. But given today’s prices today, plus a report of market trends, farmers can estimate prices their produce will bring at the market tomorrow.

We have developed our own ideas about home economics programs for rural women. They are not interested in general information about freezing or canning food. After all, the older women have been freezing and canning for years and the girls have learned from helping their mothers. What they want to know is whether or not blanching for 10 seconds longer than recommended will spoil them for freezing.

Since women listen more hours each day than do other members of the family, our women's programs are broadcast when, according to the farm women's organizations, they can best listen.

Where villages outnumber towns and crossroads communities outnumber both, it is only understandable that organizational activities are important news. Anyone that has ever read the Correspondent's Column of a weekly paper knows what I mean. So, local news is important to R.R.N. listeners. WVCV, our Cherry Valley station, has already started a weekly local-news program. Eventually, as much as two hours per day will originate from each of the six studios across the state. During these hours each will operate as a local station. In this connection, it should be noted that, although WVFC Ithaca is connected to a city studio by an ST link, studio facilities are provided for the other stations at their respective transmitter buildings.

R.R.N. Programs:

Currently R.R.N. is operating nine and one-half hours a day, from 11:45 A.M. to 9:15 p.m. Most of our programs are aired across the board by the network. The best time for news and information directed at the man of the house is noon to 1 :00 p.m. At 1:15 the farm wife wants, and gets. her own program. At 4:45 p.m., between school bus and chores, the youngsters of high school age get their show. "Youth R.F.D." Children’s stories, aimed at the 5-to-15-year-old group, are aired at 5:30 daily. At 7:00 we broadcast the evening farm and home program with our Farm Reporter bringing informative and entertaining programs to rural adults before they leave home for evening organization meetings or social commitments. The final program each day is news, world, national and state news, plus items of interest to New York farmers.

Invariably and inevitably, visitors to Rural Radio Network headquarters ask "What do you do about soap operas?" Here's our answer: A survey made two years ago reported that one-fourth of the farm women contacted named soap operas as the program they would miss the least. Another fourth said they'd miss them most. So we do not carry soap operas. Instead we offer readings of continued stories every afternoon, keeping in mind the comment of one woman who said. “There is never a happy family life in the soap box opera type of program.” Since family life is important to rural audiences, we’ve never forgotten that comment. The stories we broadcast give what we think is a truer picture of American home life, using humour as a substitute it for tragedy.

As for remote pickups, our mobile transmitter covers the whole farm scene, everything from Grange meetings to Potato Field Days and County Fairs. Rural listeners, like their city cousins like to "be there" when anything is happening.

Our printed schedules, titled Rural Radio Network Bulletin list the programs for two weeks. The Sunday schedule is specifically adjusted to the special activities of that day, both as to timing and program content. Emphasis is put on music, and such features as the Chatauqua Symphony Orchestra and the locally renowned Cooperstown Community Sing, attended by some 4,500 people.

Weekdays we follow a fairly uniform pattern. For example, here is the schedule for Wednesday, October 15:

11:45 Morning Prayer--Noon Country Music
12:00 The World at Noon
12:15 Weather Round-up
12:25 Markets
12:30 Cornell Farm & Home Hour
12:45 Bob Child’s Farm Highlight
1:00 Tom Moread--Singing for You
1:15 Country Home, with Claire Banister
1:30 Memory Time with Jack Deal
1:45 Joy Beaty at the Keyboard
2:00 Music in the Modern Mood
2:30 Adventures in Harmony
3:00 News
3:05 Meditation
3:15 Selected Short Stories
3:30 Mail Box Tunes
4:00 Meet Miss Mason
4:45 Nature Study
5:00 Treasure Island
5:30 Folk Music
5:45 Portraits in Black & White, by Jack Goodman
6:00 Memo for Tomorrow with Charles Hodges
6:15 Markets
6:25 Weather for Tomorrow
6:30 Sports with Sam Woodside
6:40 Farm Magazine Digest
6:45 Excursion in Science
7:00 Rym Berry & Jack Deal
7:15 Twilight Melodies
7:30 News
7:35 Serenade in Blue, Cynthia Syphax
7:45 Here’s To Veterans
8:00 Welcome, WVBN, Turin
8:00 Rural Music Shoppe
8:25 The Lamplighter
8:35 Welcome, WSLB, Ogdensburg
9:00 Today’s News & Tomorrow’s Headlines
9:15 Evening Prayer

While the foregoing is typical of our present programming, we are keeping close contact with audience reactions through every available channel. Already, revisions are in the making. and others are in the planning stage.

While only the Ithaca transmitter has a remote studio, facilities are available at each of the other transmitters for orginating programs. The purpose of this is arrangement is to permit special, IocaI features to be broadcast without making it necessary for the participants to travel to Ithaca. In this way, we can tie in the people and the activities of each individual area.

FM and Television/September 1948 Robert B. Child/Program Director, Rural Radio Network, Ithica, NY