Shown here is the victory garden of KNX, Los Angeles. The picture appeared 75 years ago today in the June 7, 1943, issue of Broadcasting magazine.

According to the ad, the station went to work after the call went out from Washington to raise vegetables. It noted that the soil under glamorous Hollywood had been, just a few years earlier, fertile farm land.

So the station ripped out the terrace in front of its studio, plowed the soil, fertilized and cultivated it. As a model to its listeners, the station grew vegetables to show what California was capable of.

The station’s first crop went to the Los Angeles Orphans’ Home. The practical experience of growing crops went by proxy to many thousands of listeners.