Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – For 48 years, the Potato Picker’s Special – broadcast from the WAGM-TV studio on the Brewer Road in Presque Isle – has been providing a useful service to Aroostook County growers.
Potato Picker’s Special co-hosts, from left, Donald Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, and Timothy Hobbs, director of development/grower relations for the board, discuss pertinent agricultural issues with Maine Agriculture Commissioner Seth “Brad” Bradstreet on the set of the 48th annual Potato Picker’s Special.
“The original purpose – and it’s still what we believe the purpose is today – is to get grower information out to growers’ crews,” said Timothy Hobbs, director of development/grower relations for the Maine Potato Board, who has served as the program’s co-host, alongside Donald Flannery, executive director of the MPB, for the last six years. “Instead of a grower, for example, calling 20 people to let them know, ‘It rained last night. We’re going to go at 9:30 this morning,’ they call one place. They call the studio and then we broadcast that information. That was – and is – the purpose of Potato Picker’s Special.
“On the mornings that it rains or rained the night before and there’s a lot of different messages,” he said, “we concentrate on reading those over and over again. On days where people are going on time, we read the messages from 4:30-5 a.m., and then we do more visiting with the guests.”
During the hour and-a-half broadcast, morning anchor Dick Palm and weatherperson Kelly O’Mara provide news and weather updates. Picker’s also asks a trivia question each day, and breakfast is brought in each morning for the hosts and guests.
This season’s Picker’s began Sept. 15 and wrapped up Oct. 10. Hobbs said with all the rain that’s fallen in the region this harvest, officials thought they might have to extend the schedule a bit, but will stick with the show’s ending date.
“If we had gotten a week of good digging, and then two weeks of real poor digging or nobody going,” he said, “we’d have to lengthen it out, but that’s difficult to do because when they sell ads for this program, they only sell it to a certain date, so anything beyond that costs more money. We might get an extra day or two during a season if we need it, but to stretch it out more than that can cause problems.”
Hobbs begins planning the Picker’s guest list during the summer.
“I have a list that I keep on my computer of people who I would like to have on … people that I may think of or somebody might suggest would make a good guest,” he said. “I’ll start calling people at the end of July or the first of August to get our schedule nailed down.”
Among the guests this season have included Steve Johnson, crops specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension; humorist Gary Crocker, John Keeling, president of the National Potato Council; Gary Keough, director of the New England Field Office, National Agricultural Statistics Service, United States Department of Agriculture; and Maine Agriculture Commissioner Seth “Brad” Bradstreet.
“We try to find guests who are going to be interesting to growers,” said Hobbs. “That’s not a huge audience, but it was the original purpose of the show – to serve growers – and that’s what seems to work well. People who aren’t growers that watch can also learn something about what’s going on within the industry, and it can be entertaining at times, too.”
Bradstreet was the guest Oct. 8. It was his third appearance on the set, which resembles a kitchen … complete with a stove.
“Picker’s is something that everybody gathers around the kitchen table in the morning to watch,” he said. “The activity that goes on and comes through the phone bank here and onto the screen is unique to this country. It’s a great awareness to the industry and a good communication line to the help and the growers.
“The direct connection they have to growers for three to four weeks is very unique,” said Bradstreet. “It’s always a lot of fun to come on and talk about agricultural issues.”
Hobbs said he gets up between 2:30-2:45 a.m. to get ready for the morning show. He joked that he has to be very quiet in the morning, so as not to wake up his family.
“I have to have my clothes all laid out ahead of time,” he said, “and I’ve got the coffeemaker set so that it goes off at 3 a.m.”
Though Picker’s is an early morning task, Hobbs said he enjoys assisting growers in this way.
“It’s fun … it’s nothing I dread,” he said. “We’re thankful it’s only four weeks long, but there’s satisfaction in knowing that you’re providing something to the people that you’re working for that they value, so getting up early to do that isn’t a big deal.
“Whether we’re getting up at 2:30 or 3 a.m. to do this or getting on an airplane first thing in the morning and leaving for seven days to meetings that may or may not thrill you,” said Hobbs, “you do those things because you’re providing a worthwhile service. That’s why we do it.”
The Potato Picker’s Special used to broadcast from 4:30-6:30 a.m., Hobbs said, but with the morning news beginning at 6:30 a.m., there wasn’t enough time to transition from one set to the other.
Recognizing there were “a lot more growers” in the county when the show premiered in 1960 than there are today, Hobbs said today’s growers still appreciate the service Potato Picker’s Special provides.
“I recently heard from a grower in Mapleton who thanked us for doing Picker’s and that it was a value to him,” he said. “They appreciate the show and the service it provides. I can’t go to Wal-Mart during Picker’s without someone saying they saw me on the show, so that’s nice.”
In 2010, the show will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Hobbs said he is looking for early videotape of past shows to use during the show’s golden anniversary.
“If people have anything related to Picker’s prior to 1980, we would like to borrow some of that,” he said. “I need to start accumulating historical pieces now.
“I’d also like to maybe get a nationally recognized television network that does rural/ag type shows to come up and do a story on it,” said Hobbs. “It’s an agricultural show that’s been providing a service to growers for nearly 50 years. That’s probably a little unusual. There’s no other potato state that does something like this.”
Anyone with historical Potato Picker’s Special artifacts can contact the Maine Potato Board at 769-5061.
