Ontario Agriculture

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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

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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.

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