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Since its first experimental broadcasts as 9XM, the staff at the University of Wisconsin station had sought to serve the state’s rural residents with useful programming and live up to the spirit of the Wisconsin Idea. The earliest telegraphic transmissions from 9XM included the weather forecast (1916) and market reports (1919), both of which were designed to be of use to the state’s farmers. The debut of regular voice broadcasts in 1921 included the weather forecast, joined by the market reports later in the year. Malcolm Hanson approached Andrew Hopkins, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Journalism, to provide additional material about agriculture that farmers would find useful . Hopkins recognized that radio offered unique opportunities to present agricultural information. His department’s first contributions consisted of material written specifically for broadcast, which Hanson read on the air during the noontime program, beginning in the spring of 1921. When the noontime educational broadcasts began in May 1922, topics of interest to farmers sometimes were included, as were home economics topics. The farm programming became more formalized in the summer, when the markets reports were suspended. The university’s Press Bulletin reported that in their place “a daily talk on agriculture and country life, prepared by the College of Agriculture, will be broadcasted at 12 noon.” This would be followed by another half hour with music and the educational broadcast.1 This move made the agricultural material a scheduled daily segment instead of the short remarks and bulletins presented up to that time. Hopkins and his staff were now responsible for a regular daily program. The summer schedule had 243 C       1 9  The Farm Program A Half-hour of Useful Information the weather forecast at noon, followed by the new agricultural program through 12:15 p.m. After an intermission the regular educational offering began at 12:25 p.m. After the station changed wavelength from 360 to 485 meters, the weather forecast was repeated by both code and voice, and the time signal went out at 12:59.2 In January 1923 the frequencies were reversed, beginning with the time signals at 11:59 a.m. on 485 meters, weather by code and voice at noon, followed at 12:07 p.m. by the agricultural program. At 12:20 p.m. the educational broadcast was sent at 360 meters.3 Throughout the 1920s the offerings from WHA included agricultural material, even when the station was limited to one or two days of operation per week. In 1926 Monday evening programs were dedicated to farm and homemaker issues and included Farm News of the Minute, presented by F. B. Morrison, assistant director of the Agricultural Experiment Station.4 On September 20, 1927, the Agricultural Radio Committee held its first meeting. The group was formed to oversee the agricultural contributions to WHA’s programs; its members included Hopkins as well as May Reynolds of the home economics department. At the second meeting the following day someone suggested a hookup with WLBL in Stevens Point and that the weekly program be arranged to have three ten-minute talks, one sponsored by the home economics department.5 In 1927 the program was officially called the Agricultural and Home Economics Program and aired on Mondays from 7:30 to 8:15 p.m. It featured three or four speakers, including one from the home economics department.6 By the following March the program was featuring area farmers giving first-person presentations on agricultural topics.7 In April 1929, when WHA returned to the air after being off for a few weeks, it had a new frequency (940 kHz), and program director Louis Mallory split the homemaker segments off from the agricultural offerings, making two separate programs. For the first week the farm segments aired on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but the next week it began a Monday through Saturday schedule.8 The Farm Program would remain a midday offering for nearly forty years. In 1929 the agricultural program was initially hosted by whomever happened to be the announcer on duty during the noon to 1 p.m. time slot, which was given the umbrella title of University Noon Hour Program.9 For the spring and summer Mallory himself was the host, and for several months the program also aired on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays over WTMJ in Milwaukee, which received it over long-distance telephone lines.10 In the fall Mallory said he wanted to...

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