Farmers' Friend?

"If it weren't for my family, I'd throw it out. . . . All you hear is junk and commercials and murder mystery."

That was just one U.S. farmer's opinion of radio. He did not represent a majority of rural listeners. But what he and other farmers had to say about radio was enough to make broadcasters uncomfortable last week. The U.S. farmer, according to a Bureau of Agricultural Economics survey, is not U.S. radio's most ecstatic friend.

During June and July, BAE interviewed some 4,200 rural Americans, checking their radio likes & dislikes. Some findings:

P: Farmers listen to only about three hours of the 16-odd broadcast each day.

P:Three-fourths of rural radio owners said they often turned their sets off because there were no programs fit to hear.

P: News reports scored first in popularity. Soap operas--which occupy more air time than any other type of broadcast show-- were voted the program the nation could best do without.

P: More than half said there was no type of broadcast they would "like to hear more of" than they do now.

Some network officials were soothed by BAE's assurance that the farmer "values radio highly," would miss it if it were taken away. That was neither the question nor the answer. Radio, the modern invention, had long since been proved and approved. What many of the farmers were trying to say: the contraption could be put to better use.

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