Nation’s Farmers to Get News Station of Their Own

Wondering about the soil temperature in Kansas? Itching to know the price of soy beans? Beginning in early March, the first nationwide television channel devoted exclusively to the interests of U.S. farmers will attempt to answer these questions and more. Lots more.

Channel Earth, being offered by DirecTV, will provide subscribers to the satellite channel with more than 70 hours a week of agricultural news, ranging from frequent weather updates to statistical releases from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and reports on county fairs.

The show, to be produced by Channel Earth Communications Inc. and broadcast from Chicago, intends to air live reports from around the country. It also will include regular feeds from Washington and the Chicago Board of Trade.

In addition to three staff meteorologists who will detail weather conditions, the show is to include market analysis, news from agricultural schools, call-in shows, advice on the latest crop protection chemicals and legal tips.

Thirty-minute reports to be broadcast at least twice daily will focus on regional topics, such as a look at the California wine industry or a feature on a community issue in a particular rural area.

On the West Coast, Channel Earth will be broadcast from 3 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, and from 4 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

Orion Samuelson, chief executive officer of the Channel Earth company, said that the objective is to “do something that has never been done before: provide farmers, ranchers and other rural consumers with a steady, reliable, up-to-the-minute source of critical information that affects their lives every working day.”

Samuelson, who will anchor the channel, is a nationally known broadcaster on agricultural issues for WGN radio and TV in Chicago. Channel Earth was formed by Samuelson, DirecTV, Max Armstrong (an agricultural journalist with more than 20 years of broadcasting experience) and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, a nonprofit group that was formed in 1986 to link rural populations with the latest telecommunication technology.

DirecTV has more than 2.3 million subscribers, and more than 25% of them live in rural America, according to the company.

The channel will be commercially supported and the company said that it hopes to break even in two years and eventually expand globally.