Rural Radio Network

The Rural Radio Network (RRN) was an interconnected group of six commercial FM radio stations spread across upstate New York and operated from Ithaca, New York—the first all-radio, no-wireline network in the world. It began operation in 1948 as an innovative broadcast service to the agricultural community, but competition from television—and a lack of affordable, well-performing FM receivers—caused the founders' original business plan to fail. The stations changed ownership, as well as Radio formats, several times in futile attempts to achieve profitability. Perhaps the group's most notable owner was the Christian Broadcasting Network, headed by televangelist Pat Robertson, which acquired the stations through a corporate donation in 1969. A decade later, Robertson decided to sell the stations and the licenses were gradually transferred to individual owners in 1981 and 1982, thus dissolving one of the nation's earliest FM networks.

The concept of building the world's first farmer-owned network originated at the Cooperative Grange League Federation Exchange (commonly known as "GLF"), an agricultural co-op founded in 1920 in Ithaca, which later merged with another co-op to form the Agway organization that remains today. GLF, also noted for its role in founding the P&C Foods supermarket chain, began to use radio several years before the start of World War II and later assembled an informal network of about ten AM stations, connected by leased telephone lines, over which a weekly five-minute program was aired. The value of this early "network" was proven during the war when GLF members found it difficult to attend regular meetings.

In December 1946, GLF's directors approved a plan to expand the use of radio and allocated $10,000 to form the Rural Radio Foundation, a non-profit organization that would embrace several agricultural interest groups including the New York State Grange, Dairymen's League, and New York Artificial Breeder's Co-op. This foundation, which formally incorporated on March 18, 1947, would be sole owner of a subsidiary commercial broadcasting corporation, The Rural Radio Network, Inc., with any operating profits to be turned back to the founding groups for educational and research purposes. Corporate officers included president H.L. Creal, vice-president Clifford Snyder, and secretary-treasurer George Slocum. They were convinced that the recently opened 88-108 MHz FM band offered superior reliability over AM "standard broadcast"—particularly before sunrise when many farmers would start their daily tasks—and broader opportunities to establish new stations where needed. In April 1947, GLF appropriated an additional $200,000 to launch the new FM network.

R. B. Gervan, head of GLF's Information Service, was granted a leave of absence from that position to serve as General Manager of RRN until it was well established. Robert B. Child, an experienced farm broadcaster, was hired away from Schenectady's WGY to serve as Program Director. Donald K. de Neuf was hired as Chief Engineer, and with optimism he began planning the network's technical facilities.

A primary objective was to provide satisfactory rural coverage throughout the "milkshed" of New York State extending from the Niagara Frontier to the Capital District, and north to the Saint Lawrence Valley. The network would be headquartered in Ithaca, near the geographical center of this region and home of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, the state's land grant institution. With the help of engineering consultants Dr. Miller McClintock, Murray Crosby, and William S. Halstead (the latter two would later develop an FM stereo system), six hilltop transmitter sites, each over 2,000 ft (610m) AMSL and spaced roughly 50 miles (80km) apart across line-of-sight paths, were identified and acquired for the project. Based on 50 μV/m (34 dBμ) rural service contour predictions, these stations would have a combined coverage area encompassing 118,000 farms, 76 percent of the total farms in New York state at that time. Space for RRN's studios and offices was leased in the existing Ithaca Savings Bank building at 306 East State St. in downtown Ithaca, and General Electric, which then manufactured broadcast products at the Electronics Park plant in nearby Syracuse, was chosen as the prime equipment supplier. Applications for the six FM construction permits were filed with the FCC in mid-July 1947 and granted three months later.

Gervan had promised his managers that the network would be ready for operation by the summer of 1948, requiring de Neuf's engineering staff and contractors to construct transmitter buildings and towers through the winter season. The likelihood of heavy precipitation in upstate New York's snowbelt required temporary heated shells to be erected around each building site, allowing concrete to be poured and masonry work to proceed on schedule. The worst weather conditions, by far, were encountered at the Turin site on the highest point of the Tug Hill Plateau, a remote area due east of Lake Ontario known for record lake-effect snowfall. Pending installation of telephone service, RRN engineers assigned to each construction site kept in contact by means of high-band VHF mobile two-way radios that were later modified for remote-pickup use.

Meanwhile, the GLF laboratory began testing various AM/FM table radios to determine which product would be carried in its farm supply stores. None of the existing models offered sufficient sensitivity to perform at all locations within the network's expected coverage area, so North American Philips was contracted to design a special high-sensitivity GLF-branded "farm radio" and serve as its OEM. Designated the GLF model F-770, the set was priced at $87.50 (more than $700 in 2005 dollars after adjustment for inflation), a considerable expense for many farm families in 1948. A $15 two-section outdoor "turnstile antenna", manufactured by the Technical Appliance Corporation (TACO) of Sherburne, New York, was offered as an accessory.

Construction of five of the transmitter facilities concluded in time for the network to begin operation as scheduled, but the Turin site could not be completed until the fall of 1948. A major complication was the lack of electric power at Turin; the site was so remote that the local utility would not run lines, so a redundant pair of Smith-Meeker 15 kW Diesel generators were installed along with a 12,000-gallon fuel tank, sufficient to operate the station for four months.