ISU shutting down market news service
Sunday, September 20, 2009
By Brianna Carlson
The Iowa State University's Extension Service is shutting down WOI-AM's market news service. This service reports the agricultural market reports to the public radio station.
These reports have been a tradition since 1942. They are broadcasted 13 times every weekday. The reports are also online. The site allows you to hear the most recent broadcasting. Agricultural news and analysis was also being provided for half an hour each week on Iowa Public Radio.
Doug Cooper has been running this program since 1990. He was just told that his job would be eliminated so he just decided to take early retirement.
You can find these reports in other places such as on the Internet and in newspapers. The ISU Extension Service just feels it's unnecessary to keep someone hired in this position.
2 comments:
This is a big change in agricultural journalism, and it shows how farmers are changing the ways they get market information. When I was young(er), I remember hearing market reports on most all radio stations. The announcer would carry on for three or five minutes in a monotone about corn yield, soybean prices and pork bellies.
WOI is just about the last station in Iowa to provide this service, and it's always been linked to Iowa State's agricultural mission. But now farmers are getting their market information off the Web, and indeed you're even seeing them in the field with a BlackBerry or iPhone in hand checking the latest from the Chicago Board of Trade.
As newswriting students, this may not seem very important to you. After all, even if you grew up on a farm you're not likely to wind up back there. But it does show how we as journalists must always be thinking about the ways that our audiences access and use information.
I have grown up listening to my parents and grandparents listen to the yields and the market prices. It is also something that when we would go into the elevator we would do. Listen to the markets and drink coffee and eat breakfast. This will be something that apparently won't be happening anymore. It is probably not going to be that big of a deal to the young farmers who are more technology advanced but I know that all of the farmers that are always at the elevator, it will be a big change.
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