Airing on the Side of Agriculture

“This is my second time participating in the infamous Polar Bear Plunge at the Meadville General Store on the banks of the Niobrara National Scenic River,” reports Monte James (Your Ag Network, Inc., Yankton, South Dakota). “I grew up on a ranch about 10 miles down-river, so I try to make it back to this insane event when time allows. Every year, the local fire department cracks a pathway in the fast moving and stunningly beautiful Niobrara River to allow battle-hardened partiers and urban thrill seekers to gain membership in the Polar Bear Club. This year’s dip took place January 26, and we were fortunate to have a break in the -20 below temperatures we had fore and aft. It was a balmy 12 degrees with a windchill of about 15 below.

“We are excited to have Rhiannon Branch join Brownfield as an anchor/reporter,” says Cyndi Young, Director of Brownfield and Ag Operations.  Rhiannon will be based in south central Illinois. “Her developing skill set as a farm broadcaster coupled with a passion for agriculture make her the perfect fit for our team.”  Rhiannon adds, “Two years ago, I had never considered broadcasting as a career. I took an internship with the Illinois Farm Bureau and RFD Radio because of my interest in their printed publication, but it is obvious that Rita Frazer and DeLoss Jahnke had different plans for me. After being notified about receiving the Orion Samuelson Scholarship and being invited to my first NAFB convention, Rita and DeLoss took me under their wings and set me loose at Trade Talk. It was chaotic, but it was the most fun I had ever had behind a microphone. I made up my mind that day that farm broadcasting was my ‘dream job’ after college.

Greg Merick grew up in the small northwest Oklahoma town of Seiling. Greg’s parents and grandparents owned a farm with a small cattle operation, so Greg spent many hours working cattle, hauling hay, building fence, and living the normal farm life. After high school and a few jobs trying to figure out what he wanted as a career, he decided to do what he had always thought about doing, and that was to get into broadcasting. He went to American Broadcasting School in Oklahoma City, where he graduated in early 2002. That fall, he began his first broadcasting job in the small Alaska village of Galena as the sports director, news director, and operations manager. After a couple months there, he came back to Oklahoma City and went to work for iHeart Media’s KTOK/WKY radio.

Ty Higgins, formerly a farm broadcaster for the Ohio Ag Net, has made a move to the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation as its Director of Media Relations. “When the chance of working with such a trusted and well-respected organization like Ohio Farm Bureau comes, you take it,” Higgins says. “I am so glad I did. I have been involved in agriculture my entire life on both of my grandparents’ farms. Those farms no longer exist, but my love for farming and the deep desire to be a part of agriculture remains.”

Gabriel Osborn was born and raised in Coffeen, Illinois, only 15 miles from the station where he works today as agriculture director for WSMI AM & FM (Litchfield/Hillsboro, Illinois). Growing up in a small town of 650 people, farming was right outside the city limits. Both sides of his family come from farming backgrounds. Through his father’s side of the family, he is one generation removed from a six-generation, centennial family farm that was started sometime  in the late 1850s/early 1860s. The farm unfortunately became a victim of the farm crisis of the 1980s.

With no experience in radio but a love to share the news, Jessica Domel started her radio career on AM 1580 KWED (Seguin, Texas) in 2007. Initially, Jessica was a print production intern for the radio station’s newspaper, the Seguin Daily News, but a willingness to try radio and serve in different roles landed her a full-time job two days after her graduation from Texas Lutheran University. Her first experience on-air was memorable, to say the least. While co-hosting the station’s most popular weekly program, The Trading Post, the bracket holding the microphone broke, crashed onto the sound board, and scattered papers everywhere.

NAFB members covering the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 100th annual convention, held January 2019 in New Orleans, were treated to a ghost and vampire tour of the French Quarter by the Big Easy’s premiere vampire Lord Chaz. New Orleans boasts a colorful and often-tragic history. Tour participants heard of infamous murders, suicides, and other tragedies that have inspired such famous authors as Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, and Robert Lynn Aspirin.

Carey Martin (Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network) organized the two-hour tour on both Saturday and Sunday nights of the convention. The tour took broadcasters and Farm Bureau media staff through the streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter to explore many unsolved murders and haunted buildings on the original streets of the Crescent City.

Lorrie Boyer (KSIR, Fort Morgan, Colorado) started her career in ag media right out of college in 1996 with a degree in technical journalism, specializing in agriculture. She started as a writer for the Ag Journal in La Junta, Colorado. In the meantime, her mom had told her several times that she needed to be in radio. One day, as Lorrie was listening to a local radio station in Lamar, Colorado, she heard an ad saying they were looking for an on-air assistant. After seven months of commuting from McClave to La Junta, and after working very late into the night, she decided to apply

“To be honest, my plan in life after high school was never to be in radio; I hated talking in front of people, but here we are,” said new NAFB member Travis Cleven (WTAQ/DEZ, Green Bay, Wisconsin). Travis grew up in Morrison, Wisconsin, where there are 200 people. “In our town we have a church, an herb shop, a funeral home, a bar, a gas station, and an RV salesman. All of the essentials,” he said. “I was born and raised on my parents’ custom calf raising business, Quiet Crest Farm.

“I started my radio career in the heart of wheat country, but not in agriculture news,” said Glenn Vaagen (Washington Ag Network, Pasco, Washington).  “I got my first radio job in at a country station in Colfax, Washington, not too far from both Washington State University and the University of Idaho. At first, I planned to be the next big country DJ; but soon after starting, I was bitten by the news bug. It was in Colfax that I helped launch my first news product: a three-hour morning news program on KMAX-AM.