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1st Farm Credit Services (FCS) and Farm Credit Services of
Illinois teamed up with Clinton-based WHOW Radio for a
nine-county fair tour this summer to promote Central
Illinois youth.
WHOW 1520 AM Radio has been broadcasting ag programming
since February of 2004.
WHOW fell silent Nov. 5,
2002, after the Federal Communications Commission fined
then-owner Jim Livesay for failing to have the station's
emergency alert system decoder working.
Now
owned by state senator Bill Brady, the station focuses on
agriculture and sports broadcasting, and its 5000 watts of
power make the station’s listenership reach from Streator to
Springfield and Champaign to Peoria.
Ag director Brad Harding hosts a daily farm show at noon
featuring local and national farm news and interviews. This
summer, he took to the roads of Central Illinois and
broadcast from nine different county fairs and the Illinois
State Fair.
The program aired from the Macon County Fair, Livingston
County Fair, Sangamon County Fair, Champaign County Fair,
Piatt County Fair, Logan County Fair, Peoria’s Heart of
Illinois Fair, McLean County Fair and the Illinois State
Fair.
“ It’s
great to get out and meet our listeners now that we’re up
and running at full capacity,” said Jim Sauers, General
Manager, WHOW. “We are proud to also promote the younger
generation of agriculture and 4-H program and recognize them
on the air.”
“This was a great opportunity to support our local radio
farm programming and to provide financial expertise to the
ag community,” said Toni Tripp, Marketing Specialist, 1st
Farm Credit Services. “This format allowed our professionals
to provide in-depth financial and insurance information
important to farmers.”
Harding conducted an interview with a local Farm Credit
employee at each county fair on such topical issues as hail
damage, crop insurance and interest rates. He also held
pre-event interviews with Illinois Director of Agriculture
Chuck Hartke and others to preview the fairs he would
attend.
The Farm Credit name, as well as two Farm Credit
commercials, was heard at each broadcast. In addition, the
banner promoting the tour proudly displayed the Farm Credit
logo. “We appreciate our relationship with Farm Credit
Services,” said Sauers. “It’s important for us to be able
to promote local agriculture when we get out of the studio
and they helped us do just that this summer.”
Listeners will continue to hear promotional messages from
Farm Credit over the next month as a part of the promotion. |
