Mike Austin (WTAQ-AM/FM & WDEZ, Green Bay, WI), left, was presented the Distinguished Service to Wisconsin Agriculture Award by Jim Holte President of Wisconsin Farm Bureau (WFBF) during the organization’s 96th Annual Meeting December 6. The award is given for outstanding contributions to Wisconsin’s agricultural industry. “Mike has been covering agricultural news and events for more than 30 years both on radio and TV in the Green Bay area. He is the ‘voice of agriculture’,” said WFBF Board Member Rosie Lisowe of Chilton. “His agriculture reports and stories are heard throughout the Green Bay area, and his advocacy for the agriculture industry reaches multiple generations.
Read More
As most broadcasters, Melissa Gregory (KFEQ, St. Joseph, MO) followed a unique path to her communications career. She explained, “A couple of years after high school, I was working for an airline when I got a call from my grandmother who had a friend who worked for a small radio station in Bethany, MO. They had just lost their afternoon girl and needed someone, so I decided to put in an application even though I had no experience. Lo and behold within a couple weeks, I was interviewed and hired.” While there, Melissa did a small amount of farm broadcasting, including getting the area’s cash bids and doing the closing markets. A year later, another coincidence would happen.
Cattle losses from Goliath, the 2015 winter storm, could total more than 50,000 head across New Mexico and Texas Panhandle and South Plains, according to final estimates, reports Jerry Lackey (Agriculture Editor Emeritus for the San Angelo Standard-Times and Abilene Reporter-News and farm broadcaster emeritus for Voice of Southwest Agriculture Radio Network, San Angelo, TX. Jerry writes a regular newspaper column called Windmill Country.) “The blizzard arrived after Christmas and lingered for weeks with snow drifts as high as 14 feet in parts of eastern New Mexico and northwest Texas.
WGFA (Watseka, IL) General Manager Stacey Smith found boat transportation to be the most convenient way to get to work at the station during December flooding. Stacey said, “It's not uncommon to flood here. And unfortunately, the floods are getting more frequent and in some cases severe.” The history of Watseka is that it was founded by Native Americans and settled primarily due to the trapping industry with both the Iroquois River and Sugar Creek meeting in town. “We are also very low in elevation. Similar to a bowl. And we are in the center of it. Our county government is currently working on getting a Federal declaration for Iroquois County. 
“Water is the number one concern in California,” reports Don York (KMJ, Fresno, CA). “Even with recent El Nino generated storms, there is much worry in the San Joaquin Valley about how much water will be available for farmers in 2016. For now, most farmers have to make use of groundwater pumping to irrigate their crops if they want to stay in business. New deep wells are very expensive to drill and could take more than a year of waiting before drilled because of long waiting lists.” Looking ahead, Don said, “This year could bring some relief in the form of surface water deliveries if more snow melts off into the rivers down to the reservoirs.” Don covers a wide range of other stories for a live weekday hour-long farm report on KMJ radio. “I broadcast to about a third of the state, thanks to our powerful AM signal.
After 36 years with Kansas and Oklahoma Farm Bureaus, Sam Knipp retired September 29, 2015. “After a few days, I hungered for continuing advocating for agriculture. American Farmers & Ranchers (AFR) offered me the opportunity to feed that urge. AFR has a 110-year history in Oklahoma as a general farm organization and insurance company servicing rural Oklahoma. Today, AFR has over 100,000 family members and is licensed to provide insurance in 24 states.
Monte James is host of a new start-up radio network called Your Ag Network. He grew up on a ranch on the northern borders of the sprawling Sandhills of Nebraska. His family raised cattle and farmed the Niobrara River Valley in Keya Paha County. His radio career started at a small station in O’Neill, NE, doing everything from hosting the Polka Show to local news and markets. Monte’s “tour of duty” included stops at KSCJ (Sioux City, IA), where he served as morning show host and farm director. Then, he went on to WHO (Des Moines, IA) as part of the Marconi Award winning air-staff, as well as serving a lengthy stint at WNAX (Yankton, SD).
Howard Hale (KSIR, Minatare, NE) and Emily Pile are two western Nebraska residents who were recognized by The University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center for their decades of service to agriculture and Extension. The Service to Panhandle Agriculture Award was presented to Howard Hale and The Service to Panhandle Extension Award was presented to Elaine Pile of Gering, NE.
On November 28, NAFB President Brian Winnekins, owner of WRDN Radio (Durand, WI) hosted a reunion of past staff members. Fifteen staff members dating back as far as 1972 joined Brian and Martha Gingras on air to reminisce about their time working at WRDN. Just like now, agriculture was an important part of the broadcast day at WRDN and many of the staff members remember having to fill in to do the Farm Report. For many of the former staff members, working at WRDN was a stepping stone to larger radio markets or new careers in television.
A special election to fill an unexpired term was held for a seat in the Kansas House of Representatives on December 10 and Ken Rahjes (AgView.net) won the election. On January 11, he will become one of 125 members who will represent the constituents of the 110th District. Ken will continue to do three daily ag business reports to the affiliate radio stations in Kansas and Nebraska and will soon to be expanding to other states. He will also do daily updates on AgView.net and social media.