In the early 1920s, radio stations in American farming regions began broadcasting daily grain, livestock, and other commodity prices to rural listeners, building on earlier market reports distributed by telegraph and newspaper. The United States Department of Agriculture and land-grant universities worked with early radio stations to deliver market information directly to farmers, who had previously relied on local dealers or delayed newspaper listings. The service narrowed the information advantage that grain elevators and dealers had historically held over producers, and similar agricultural price broadcasts later appeared in other grain-exporting countries, including Canada and Australia.
Relevance to Trade History
Broadcasting market prices directly to producers narrowed the information gap between farmers and grain dealers, changing bargaining power in agricultural trade.
Read the full story in our article The Telegraph and Faster Commercial Communication.
Source: Library of Congress. See our Sources & Methodology page for how we select and verify references.