Company type | Media publishing|events company |
---|---|
Industry | Farming, ranching |
Founded | 1819 |
Headquarters | , |
Parent | Informa |
Website | www |
Farm Progress is the publisher of 22 farming and ranching magazines. The company's oldest publication began in 1819. Farm Progress Companies is owned by Informa.
Farm Progress has the oldest known continuously published magazine[ citation needed ], Prairie Farmer, which was launched in 1841. The company publishes 18 regional magazines with local coverage of each agricultural community.
Farm Progress produces four annual farm shows including the Farm Progress Show, which launched in 1953. [1]
The company currently known as "Farm Progress" started in 1819 with the American Farmer magazine. Prairie Farmer started in 1841, followed by Wallaces Farmer in 1855, which helped chronicle the vast changes in Iowa agriculture as well as provide information to help farmers trim costs and boost profits. [2] Three generations of the Wallace family, Henry Cantwell Wallace, Henry A. Wallace, and Henry Browne Wallace, owned and operated Wallaces' Farmer, which was then a newspaper. [3]
The Farm Progress affiliate Prairie Farmer purchased radio station WLS from Sears in 1928 and operated it primarily as a service to farmers. [4] The station moved to the Prairie Farmer Building on West Washington Street in Chicago, Illinois where it remained for 32 years. [5]
In 1959, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters bought the Farm Progress Group, largely to acquire WLS and consolidate it with ABC station WENR. In 1986, ABC merged with Capital Cities. In 1991, Capital Cities/ABC acquired the farm magazines of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. [6] In 1996, the Disney Company purchased Capital Cities/ABC. In 1997, the Disney Company sold the Farm Progress Companies to Rural Press. [7] Rural Press merged with Fairfax in 2007. In 2012, Fairfax sold Farm Progress to Penton Media. [8] On November 2, 2016, Penton was bought by the UK based company Informa. [9] Farm Progress and its publications were integrated into the Informa Markets Division. [10]
Publication | Coverage |
---|---|
American Agriculturist | Northeastern United States |
Carolina-Virginia Farmer | North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia |
Dakota Farmer | North Dakota, South Dakota |
Farm Futures | United States (national coverage) |
The Farmer | Minnesota |
The Farmer-Stockman | New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas |
Indiana Prairie Farmer | Indiana |
Kansas Farmer | Kansas |
Michigan Farmer | Michigan |
Mid-South Farmer | Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi |
Missouri Ruralist | Missouri |
Nebraska Farmer | Nebraska |
The Ohio Farmer | Ohio |
Prairie Farmer | Illinois |
Southern Farmer | Southeastern United States |
Wallaces Farmer | Iowa |
Western Farm Press | California, Arizona |
Western Farmer-Stockman | Northwestern United States |
Wisconsin Agriculturist | Wisconsin |
In 1953, Prairie Farmer teamed with WLS Radio in Chicago to host a field day where farmers could see first-hand the progress being made in farming equipment, along with seed varieties and agricultural chemicals.
In subsequent years, the show evolved to include seed test plots and field demonstrations. The show typically was held annually at different sites in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana.[ citation needed ] As the event grew, it became apparent that temporary sites were inadequate to handle the large crowds and exhibits.
In 2005, a permanent biennial exhibit site was constructed near Decatur, Illinois which hosted its inaugural show in 2005. For the 2007 show, the site was expanded and upgraded with asphalt paved streets. This is one of two permanent biennial sites constructed to host the show.
Boone, Iowa, was selected for the show's second permanent biennial site. In 2008 the site hosted its first show at its newly constructed permanent biennial facility. The show now alternates between these two permanent sites on an annual basis. [11] The Boone site is developed on about 600 acres (2.4 km2) at the intersection of U.S. Highway 30 and Iowa Highway 17, [12] while the Decatur site includes 640 acres (2.6 km2) of exhibits and field demonstrations.
The Farm Progress Show is the oldest outdoor agricultural equipment exhibition in the United States, with more than 500 exhibitors.[ citation needed ] Farm Progress Companies does not release attendance figures, but the Decatur Convention & Visitors Bureau estimates attendance of at least 150,000 for the three days of the 2007 show. [13]
WLS is a commercial AM radio station in Chicago, Illinois. Owned by Cumulus Media, through licensee Radio License Holdings LLC, the station airs a talk radio format. WLS studios are in the NBC Tower on North Columbus Drive in the city's Streeterville neighborhood. The station's programming is also available in the Chicago metropolitan area via a simulcast on the HD2 digital subchannel of sister station WLS-FM.
Larry Lujack, also called Superjock, Lawrence of Chicago, Charming and Delightful Ol' Uncle Lar, and King of the Corn Belt, was a Top 40 music radio disc jockey who was well known for his world-weary sarcastic style. Some of his more popular routines included Klunk Letter of the Day, the darkly humorous Animal Stories with sidekick Tommy Edwards as Little Tommy, and the Cheap Trashy Show Biz Report.
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Henry Cantwell Wallace was an American farmer, journalist, and political activist who served as the secretary of agriculture from 1921 to 1924 under Republican presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. He was the father of Henry A. Wallace, who would follow in his father's footsteps as secretary of agriculture and later became vice president under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was an editor of Wallaces' Farmer from 1916 to 1921.
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Prairie Farmer is a weekly newspaper which covers agricultural and rural news in the state of Illinois. It was first published in 1841 in Chicago, Illinois by John Stephen Wright and was called The Union Agriculturist and Western Prairie Farmer. Its original masthead proclaimed that it was devoted to "western agriculture, mechanics, and education." Prairie Farmer is owned by Farm Progress, a subsidiary of British publisher Informa.
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