stpauligirl: Sometimes people talk about how they grew up with their parents always listening to…
Sometimes people talk about how they grew up with their parents always listening to NPR, or oldies music stations or stuff like that. But I never had that.
I grew up with my parents listening to AM farm radio.
What is farm radio, you ask?
- detailed long-range weather forecasts
- detailed reporting of rainfall throughout the tri-county area
- agricultural prices and commodity futures from the Chicago Board of Trade
- representative sales and auction schedules from the regional livestock auction houses
- agricultural research and programs from the University of Minnesota Extension Service
- announcements for upcoming farm auctions
- reporting on promotional events for the industry. Did you know that June is “Dairy Month”?
- updates about state legislative issues relating to agriculture
- coverage of the federal Farm Bill provisions, and aid available
- explanations of Medicare, Social Security benefits and retirement options (because so many farmers are senior citizens)
And in my hometown in particular, the AM farm radio station also played polka music. Hand to god, I swear I’m telling the truth. The Saturday afternoon program block was called “Gems in German” and played polka songs from vinyl records.
So no, I didn’t grow up listening to Car Talk or the dulcet tones of erudite journalists out of Boston. I grew up listening to thick Minnesota accents discussing milk prices and whether or not the cold front currently moving through Manitoba would likely cause rain in Minnesota next week, because we needed to precisely time which days we cut alfalfa.
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