Airing on the Side of Agriculture

Tom Donley is a product of Adams County, IL, where he graduated from Unity High School in Mendon. He is studying journalism at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Tom worked with Jim Dewey (WTAD, Quincy, IL) for a couple of weeks during the winter semester break and returned as an intern this summer. “All summer long I have been prepping Tom to cover for me while I traveled to Asia with the United Soybean Board See for Yourself tour.

She began her duties August 31. “Carah will be a huge asset to the Red River Farm Network (RRFN). She is an excellent farm broadcaster and will be a wonderful addition to our organization,” said Mike Hergert, RRFN President, who served as NAFB President in 2001. Carah joins Mike, Don Wick and Randy Koenen.

Making pottery is a favorite hobby for North Carolina farm broadcaster Rhonda Garrison (Southern Farm Network, Raleigh, NC). “For as long as I can remember I’d wanted to learn to make pottery, but had little opportunity or time while living in the Texas Panhandle,” Rhonda said. In the summer of 2007 she moved to North Carolina with three dogs, and only one family member east of the Mississippi so, she said, “I finally had lots of time, and little did I know that I’d moved to the epicenter of handmade pottery on the East Coast!” She explains how she got started. “In the fall of 2008 I took my first class that involved throwing clay on a potter’s wheel at a city-owned art studio, and about the best I could do was throw a fit.

Kelsey Litchfield from Rio, IL, joined the RFD Radio Network team in Bloomington, IL, this summer, reports Rita Frazer. A junior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Kelsey is studying agricultural communications with a concentration in broadcast journalism. She is a member of 4-H House Cooperative Sorority, Collegiate Farm Bureau, Explore ACES steering committee, and Illini Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow. Recently, she was elected to serve as Member Relations Coordinator on the National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow officer team. Also, Kelsey is the 2015 Jim Evans Scholarship recipient sponsored by the AAEA Professional Improvement Foundation.

Marlin Bohling describes new RD-TV Studios in Nashville, “The new RFD-TV studios are a feat of engineering. Designed and constructed by companies from New York, the main television studio room is actually comprised of six different sets located around the periphery of the main room,” reports Marlin Bohling, Markets Editor (RFD-TV and Rural Radio, Nashville, TN).  He added, “The five cameras, including an overhead jib camera, are all located in the center of the room and can pivot to cover all of the different sets, which are used for everything from our ag news and market reports to western sports coverage, weather, stand-up teases, and cozy interviews in a living room setting complete with a realistic ‘digital’ fireplace.” He continued, “Hundreds of lighting components are all computer-controlled and instantly reconfigurable. Ten giant LCD monitors arranged on end and combined in two banks of five serve as an amazing backdrop to our news stage and can show any combination of images, graphics, and videos in any size configuration for a dynamic high-action set. New world-class hardware and software systems allow for top tier production capability rivaling other national networks.” 

Joe Cornely (Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, Columbus, OH) shared this photo from a recent taping of the Ohio Farm Bureau weekly public affairs radio show Town Hall Ohio. Joe put Dave Russell, at left, (Brownfield Network, Dublin, OH) on the other side of the mic when he conducted a roundtable with Ohio agricultural journalists. Along with Dave are Susan Crowell (Farm and Dairy newspaper) and Matt Reese (Ohio's Country Journal and Ohio Ag Net). Joe is senior director of corporate communications for OFBF, and he served as NAFB President in 1995.

AgNet West Radio Network in California is one of the recipients of an NAFB Foundation internship grant. College senior Allison Rosa is joining the team for the 2015 fall semester. Rosa grew up on a small, but popular, dairy farm in Hanford, CA, and is attending Fresno Pacific University and majoring in communications. “Agriculture has been a huge part of my life, not only through my family but also with my participation in FFA, 4-H, and serving as a Kings County Dairy Princess through the California Milk Advisory Board,” she said. “Along with my passion for the agricultural industry, I have an appreciation for news and media. After graduation, I plan on starting a career within the agricultural industry focusing on either radio or print media.” 

While many were preparing for a long holiday July 4th weekend, Red River Farm Network farm broadcaster Mike Hergert (Grand Forks, ND) spent the last week of June in central France on a Limagrain press trip. Founded in 1965, and managed by more than 2,000 French farmers, Limagrain Coop is the leading French seed manufacturer and the fourth-largest seed company worldwide. It is vertically integrated, from wheat and corn breeding, crop production, to milling and baking. A 26-member media delegation from nine countries participated in an exclusive Limagrain tour with Mike being the only U.S. journalist on the trip.