Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

big changes at CKNX farm news

This is a copy of an email I recently sent to CKNX radio AM920.ca

I really had to search your am920.ca web site to find out what happened to the 8:30 farm news. You'd think a significant change in a market which really doesn't want any change would garner a banner on your website or at least a highlighted box at the beginning of the farm news/ag biz section. While we are on the subject "farm news" is not a dirty word like SWINE flu (sorry H1N1 flu). Most of us working in the industry actually call farmers by the name they call themselves. That was why the "farmers feed cities" campaign was so successful. People LIKE farmers they aren't so crazy about "agricultural business" which tends to make them think of a "factory Farm" and sweat shop eggs.
Most of your farm listeners are not that tech savvy ( or why would they be listening to the farm news rather than searching it out on the web) Veteran Midwestern Ontario newsman Kevin Bernard would quip when Morning man Dusty Hill was reading the obituaries, known on air as in memoriam "well there go some more of my listeners"
I would think promos running at 8:30 would be a start. Print and television would be even better. Oh i forgot its only farm news and not something important like minor midget triple a broomball.
Your station certainly deserves Kudos for finally putting farm news on the 5 o’clock package. I understand from Senior Farm news director Ray Baynton that the 6:00 markets will remain the same time and that there will actually be more farm programming in the 8-8:30 news package format.
I’ll put the information on my blog which can be found at Ontag.farms.com or Ontarioagriculturematters.blogspot.com because I'm not the only one who tunes in at 8:30 and rarely any other time since you went away from being a country radio station. But don’t worry the under thirty's that you supposedly have made all these changes to attract will always still tune in to the bus cancellations in winter. (I still think the A channel listens to your stations bus cancellations before they broadcast theirs) Maybe you can give them some reason to stay tuned in then. I guess we are supposed to grovel at your feet in a frenzy of self abasement that your station still does farm news.


here 's the story I will run in my blog

Changes in CKNX am920 farm news programing as listed in a AGBIZ news story on am920.ca



“We're adding another farm newscast to the AM 920 programming schedule, Monday through Friday. The new farm newscast will be part of the 5 o'clock magazine - which runs from 5 'till 5:30 weekdays. We're also making some other changes of interest to our farm news listeners. The 8:30 farm news will be part of the new 8 o'clock magazine beginning Monday morning. So rather than running at 8:30 the farm news will be running around 8:15 weekday mornings. And our Midday Magazine program will change from one hour to a half-hour program. Virtually all of the agricultural content will remain in that new package. The farm news will move to around 12:15-12:20 from it's current 12:40 time-slot. Again - those changes coming up on Monday, September 14th. “

I can almost hear Ray Baynton reading this in that oh so cheery voice of the morning person who has been up since 5 a.m. Until I did farm radio I didn't realize 5 o'clock came twice a day. One wonders how few breaths the announcers will be able to have if you to take a 60 minute format cut it into a half hour and have "virtually all" of the information. Perhaps "Rolling Stone" magazines motto of "all the news that fits" should be the new radio slogan instead of "we aren't you grandparents radio station anymore"

Another suggestion would be to postpone controversial changes around the middle of the month. This is deadline time for "the Rural Voice" magazine and it is just way too easy a target for an overworked op-ed farm writer. Besides It will give me another month to write about "Genuity roundup ready to yeild" which will be better timing in the November issue when we will have actual field data yeilds of this latest and greatest crop technology so it won't sound so much like an infomercial.

Oh well as Red Green would say "Keep your stick on the ice, we are all in this together"

John beardsley
crop specialist,
columnist with the rural voice magazine
community director and secretary of Ontario Agri-Food education (OAFE)
Member outreach committee Habitat for Humanity, Huron County
519-357-2458(h)
519-955-4640(c)
check out my Blog www.ontarioagriculturematters.blogspot.com and Ontag.farms.com

Views: 887

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Wayne Black on September 15, 2009 at 8:10am
Oh yeah, the news did change time slots. A great change for my listening schedule. Now I can catch the business news and the farm news within 15 minutes of each other at both 8:10am and 5:10pm. (before I had to listen at two different times or not at all). Yeah - I am in the business of farming, which includes catching all the market closing prices from gold and oil to corn and wheat.
Permalink Reply by John Beardsley on September 15, 2009 at 9:14am
i didn't say the changes were bad but its just when we cancel church we always put a sign on the door just in case the phone chain missed anyone...or they don't listen to CKNX.

Wayne Black said:
Oh yeah, the news did change time slots. A great change for my listening schedule. Now I can catch the business news and the farm news within 15 minutes of each other at both 8:10am and 5:10pm. (before I had to listen at two different times or not at all). Yeah - I am in the business of farming, which includes catching all the market closing prices from gold and oil to corn and wheat.
Permalink Reply by Wayne Black on September 15, 2009 at 3:47pm
Nice analogy - "church".
I guess I got an email from a CKNX employee early last week plus I heard it on the radio sometime on Friday. Yeah - I understand what you are suggesting. Thanks for the laugh John.

John Beardsley said:
i didn't say the changes were bad but its just when we cancel church we always put a sign on the door just in case the phone chain missed anyone...or they don't listen to CKNX.

▶ Reply to Discussion

RSS

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

AFSC Extends Seeding Dates in Parts of Alberta After Wet Spring Delays

Agriculture Financial Services Corp. (AFSC) is extending recommended seeding dates and crop insurance deadlines for several crops in parts of northern Alberta following an unusually wet and prolonged spring that has delayed field operations across the province. The changes apply for the 2026 growing season only and affect the North East, North West, and Peace regions. Above-average snowfall in April, lingering winter conditions, and continued rainfall through May have created excessive soil moisture in many areas, particularly across central, eastern, and northern Alberta, AFSC said in a release Monday. The wet conditions have slowed seeding progress and raised concerns that many producers may struggle to plant crops within the timelines required under AFSC’s crop insurance program, the release said. Crops with normal seeding deadlines between May 25 and June 1 were considered especially vulnerable to delays if rainy weather persists and fields remain inaccessible, it added. AFSC

Saskatchewan Producers Seek Clarity on Crop Insurance as Seeding Delays Persist

The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) says it is working with the provincial Ministry of Agriculture and the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC) to provide producers with clearer guidance on crop insurance coverage as cold and wet conditions continue to delay spring seeding across the province. Saskatchewan seeding progress remains well behind normal levels. As of May 18, provincial planting was estimated at 29% complete, well behind 72% at the same time last year and the 10-year average of 52%. Progress has been especially slow in northeastern and northwestern regions, where wet field conditions have limited operations while recommended seeding dates continue to approach, said an APAS release Tuesday. SCIC recently issued additional guidance confirming that crops remain insurable up to the final seeding deadline of June 20. Losses that are not related to the seeding date, like drought, disease, wind, and hail, are all insured. However, SCIC also

Canadian Farm Income Falls Again in 2025 Despite Record Cash Receipts

Canadian farmers recorded another difficult year for profitability in 2025, as rising expenses and relatively flat crop returns offset a strong performance from livestock. New figures released by Statistics Canada Wednesday showed realized net farm income slipped 0.3% to $8.3 billion in 2025. The modest decline follows on the heels of a much steeper 33.9% decline in 2024. Excluding cannabis, however, 2025 realized net farm income rose 9% to $9.6 billion. Realized net income measures the difference between farm cash receipts and operating expenses, adjusted for depreciation and income in kind. While profitability remained under pressure, Canadian farm cash receipts topped $100 billion for the first time since Statistics Canada began collecting the data in 1926. Total receipts climbed $4.5 billion or 4.7% on the year to a record $102.2 billion in 2025, led by strong gains in Ontario and Alberta. Livestock markets were the main driver behind the increase. Total livestock receipt

We'll 'start letting people go,' racetrack says if Ontario funding doesn't come through soon

The Fort Erie Race Track, which has employed locals for generations, fears it will have to lay off staff if provincial funding delays persist. “If we can’t get those purses up, if we can’t get horsemen … we have to start letting people go if we can’t keep the lights on,” James Culic, Fort Erie Race Track’s communications manager, told CBC Niagara. No immediate job is at risk, Culic says, but next year's budget may mean a different story. “We’re in a very tight spot," he says. The historic racetrack says the annual funding from the province, $35 million total across Ontario, has helped create summer jobs and fund purses — prize money distributed to groomers, trainers and owners of winning racehorses — in the last decade. Culic says the Ontario government is not the problem. In fact, he says they have been financially supporting the racetrack with recuperating revenue loss from slot machines that were removed in 2012. For this year, “everything was lined up with Ontario Racing and O

Experimental farm in Chatham-Kent celebrates its first harvest

The Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprise has harvested its crop of medium-grain rice The Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprise celebrated a milestone Friday, with producers harvesting the farm's first crop of medium-grain sticky rice. Farm manager Wendy Zhang said the experiment was a success, describing the harvested rice as "perfect." "We didn't get any disease or pest problem this year," she said. "The yield should be good — not excellent — because we still do not apply too much fertilizer."FangZheng relied on equipment supplied in part by Tri-Hark Farms to harvest the rice crop. Jim Hawkins, co-owner of Tri-Hawk Farms, said the rice crop looks promising. Despite the farm's successful harvest, John Zandstra, a professor of fruit and vegetable cropping systems at the University of Guelph's Ridgetown campus, explained that there's still quite a bit of work ahead for the initiative. New rice varieties, different planting methods, as well as different crop management strate

© 2026   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service