NAFB members reach their audiences.

The roots of modern farm radio began with broadcasting commodity prices to farmers in rural America so they could make the decisions they needed to market their crops. As farm broadcasting evolved over the years, it began to cover all agricultural news that was relevant to producers in the coverage area, both national and local.

Many farm broadcasters today are increasing their information delivery to their audience with multiple "touch points." With the changing demographics and technology of rural America, this effort often takes the form of electronic communication that is direct to the recipient.

TEXT MESSAGING

KRVN Radio, Lexington, NE, recently launched their new text messaging service at Husker Harvest Days called "KRVN Mobile Markets." The paid service provides text message updates on the commodity markets selected by the client.

"KRVN started providing ag news and information to farmers and ranchers on the radio in 1951," says Denny Waddle, KRVN Radio. "Having the legacy of being a leader in ag radio, we continue to seek opportunities to provide the information ag producers need to succeed."

KRVN partners the text messaging service with the Colorado-based company Commodity Updates. Clients can select the specific commodities they wish to follow as well as the number of times per day they would like to receive the messages.

"Since we're owned by 4,000 farmers and ranchers," says Eric Brown, KRVN GM, "we are always looking for better ways to communicate information. In today's market you can't afford to be out of touch, this technology is easy to use by utilizing something you already own, a cell phone."

The service is also offered to listeners in the KTIC (West Point) and KNEB (Scotts Bluff) listening areas.

E-MAIL AND E-NEWSLETTERS

NAFB broadcaster Ron Hays, Radio Oklahoma Network, Oklahoma City, OK, has been producing a daily e-newsletter for the past couple years called the "Oklahoma's Farm News Update." The subscription list has grown to more than 1,500 recipients.

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"The difference between what we offer on our radio reports and what we offer on the e-newsletter is that we can impart more details about stories to our e-mail audience than we have time to do so on the radio," Hays says.

"Often on the air, we will direct our listeners to our Web site for more information on a particular story--and it's the same concept for the e-mail. The added element for the e-mail is that we can hyperlink to audio that we did for radio that is on our Web site, or we can link to even more details on a story that is out there in cyberspace on the Internet."

He has also used times of the year when his farm radio audience historically grows, like harvest, to promote his daily e-mail. He has found that ending reports during wheat harvest season with a tagline about how to sign up for his newsletter has significantly increased the subscription base.

A little further north, in the Dakotas and surrounding area, the Red River Farm Network (RRFN) produces a weekly e-newsletter titled "FarmNetNews."

"It's really the best of both worlds," says the RRFN's Don Wick. "Our on-air product delivers the breaking news. We provide timely information with the power of the human voice, from our team of broadcasters and the newsmakers. Our e-newsletter, FarmNetNews, supplements this and offers news to an audience that likes to have the information on their own terms. The e-newsletter is available in their inbox on a schedule that is convenient to them. And, it's not just fluff; we provide solid information in a concise manner."

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FarmNetNews is now reaching over 5,000 total subscribers. Readers range from producers in the radio coverage area of the RRFN to legislators in Washington, D.C.

The success of the weekly e-newsletter prompted the team to also start the "Farm Bill Focus" Web site. Wick says, "We have been taking turns going to Washington covering all the latest news on the Farm Bill and what it means to our listeners.

"Having a member of the RRFN go to the source in Washington, D.C. on a regular basis has provided a lot of good candid content to this site. We take pride in our direct contact with our listening audience in all the events we attend in the RRFN coverage area, it just made sense to follow this same practice on something as important to agriculture as the Farm Bill."

NAFB members have various stories about how their e-newsletters originated. Many were initiated by recognizing the need for a consolidated brief source of information for their audiences. This was the case for the Ohio Ag Net, launched by Bart Johnson, the son of NAFB Hall of Fame member, the late Ed Johnson.

"One day Bart and I were talking and he asked if I would start sending him a daily e-mail update that contained audio from my Morning Farm Report and some comments on daily news issues," says Ohio Ag Net's Dale Minyo. "He liked it so well we decided that our listeners would also find it useful. This prompted us to start making this update available to our audience. The response has been great."

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Like many NAFB members, they have discovered that their subscriber list for their electronic messages spans the gamut. Many of the readers are outside their traditional radio signal.

"We have everyone from advertising agencies, high school teachers, and politicians who read our daily update," Minyo reports. "This is in addition to our traditional agriculture audience. We like the fact that we can reach someone in downtown Columbus, OH, that might not get one of our affiliates' radio signals. The more we can educate and inform people in our region about issues affecting rural America the better it is for our entire industry."

BLOGS

Blogging on ag news content has also become a regular practice for many NAFB members. One of the leaders in this effort is the Brownfield network. They often create blog content from multiple sources within their organization, from sales representatives to on-air broadcasters.

"When we decided to begin blogging we could have went in 1,000 different directions," says the network's Cyndi Young. "After a lot of internal discussion it became clear that we had a lot of additional content and inside information from many of our news stories that wasn't getting used on air. It is not uncommon for us to have a 20-minute interview with a newsmaker when we cover a story.

"Often only about 60 seconds of this content makes it on the radio. We realized that there was a lot more relevant content that could be 'repurposed' and used on our Web site and blog."

Young will be the first to say that a blog is a "hungry beast to feed." Once the process is started it requires a

lot of attention and material to keep it fresh and interesting to listeners.

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"The blog allows us to give our audience some additional detailed content to a story that is more personal," she says.

"We recently covered an event for the Illinois Soybean Association. After reporting all the hard news from the event on our radio network, we added some additional content on the blog about the fact that in 1968 the board of the Association had matching sport coats and ties made out of fabric with images of soybean pods.

"After some arm-twisting, I persuaded Larry Lewis of Ursa, IL, (who has been involved with the organization for years) to model his jacket for a photo on the blog. This was kind of a humorous aside to the story, but all joking aside, I applauded the dedication and tremendous pride this group of farmers had, and continue to take in their organization and the industry."

WORLD WIDE WEB

Many NAFB members have some unique Web sites that reflect their on-air personalities, but one of the most unique is the Wisconsin Farm Report's own "Fabulous Farm Babe" who also goes by Pare Jahnke.

Pam has utilized several different ways of giving her radio audience additional content. Due to her manpower limitations (actually woman power since she mainly creates the content), she has streamlined her efforts to daily updates of her Web site.

"In addition to my radio, television, and personal appearances, I also put news stories on my Web site daily," Jahnke says. "Sometimes I even update more than once in a day's time. There is a lot of my audience from the area (and beyond) that uses my site on a regular basis. I also put audio files up for people to hear additional interview content that might not have made it on the air."

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Last summer Pfizer Animal Health had an event in her area that she covered. She was able to attend the event, get some quality interviews used for her radio program and also use the sound files and recreate some of the event online.

"I created a special Web site for the Pfizer event that we linked to from our home page. Audio interviews and event coverage was posted very soon after the event," she said. "It worked really well and I was able to beat some of my print competition in getting the news out first. This is easy to do with radio obviously, but with the additional Web component I can expand on the coverage and provide the details and visual images that print can, only faster."

RADIO IS STILL NO. 1

Even with all the electronic content being developed regularly by NAFB members, radio is still king within the organization. Traditional farm broadcasting remains the backbone of the association and the industry it supports.

Young explains, "Our primary content driver is still radio. The Web site and blog are great tools to supplement the news and information our audience needs, but their primary source of consuming this is still our radio network coverage. It remains our main focus and will for the future."

by Jeremy Povenmire, NAFB Member Services Manager