The Farm Radio Forum, which brought farm families together to discuss current events that affected rural Canadians, was the topic of a recent meeting of the Mapleton Historical Society.
Jointly sponsored by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Canadian Association for Adult Education and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the project’s objectives were to present authentic social and economic materials.
These materials were then translated to appeal to farm listeners and serve as a link for groups across Canada.
Unfortunately, the guest speaker scheduled for the March 7 historical society was called out of the province on an emergency. Local historian Jean Campbell filled in as speaker at the meeting held at Drayton United Church.
“Farmers were encouraged to form study groups called forums. These groups met in each other’s homes, rural schools or church basements,” Campbell said.
“The half-hour radio broadcasts, printed background material and suggested questions were used as aids to discussions on social and economic problems.
“The topic for the following week was announced at the end of each program.”
Group conclusions were collected centrally and broadcast across Canada. General conclusions were reported as percentages and others were noted and on occasion the individual group was named in the report. Conclusions were then mailed to the appropriate provincial and federal governments.
“The program was aired on Monday nights at eight o’clock. I remember being at the forum held in the Cumnock area as a child,” audience member Bert Black said. “The radio crackled a lot and was hard to hear.”
Black passed around pictures of the Cumnock group that has only two surviving members, including himself.
“My mother Isobel was the secretary of the Wellington County Farm Forum. She would bundle up all the different forum’s conclusions and mail them to the Ontario government,” Black said.
He shared a picture of his mother in her home office, bundling up documents in 1947.
Other members of the audience commented that a group that originally began as a Farm Radio Forum is still meeting regularly as a card party group in the Parker area.
Grant Schieck’s family attended meetings in the Stirton area.
“The radio we listened to ran on a battery that had to be warmed up before the show started. Little ones were put to bed and us younger ones had to be so quiet as the radio was hard to hear. It was a nice way to pass the winter. After the discussions, there were card games and lunch,” Schieck said.
Campbell covered the basics of the Farm Radio Forum, including a brief history, government involvement, program features, community action programs that were a spin-off of the program and its popularity in countries around the globe.
“From my research, I found that the forum ran from 1941-1965. I have my opinion on its demise after such a successful run,” she said.
“No matter how many discussions were held or how many decisions were made resulting in the improvements to farming, the bottom line is this: rural folks being the social-loving people we are, always had time for a few rounds of euchre and lunch at the end of each forum,” Campbell said.
Campbell will continue her research on the Farm Radio Forum and organizations that formed because of individual groups’ responses to rural issues presented on the weekly broadcast. She will feature her findings in one of her Musings columns published in the Community News.
