Airing on the Side of Agriculture

Farm broadcaster Clay Patton has shifted into a new role with the Rural Radio Network. Patton will anchor the market desk, providing timely updates and interviews with commodity brokers.

Lynn Ketelsen (Linder Farm Network, Owatonna, Minnesota) received the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council’s 2019 Industry Leader of the Year award.

KC Sheperd is from Canute, a town of about 400 people in western Oklahoma.

Ken Root (Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network, Guttenberg, Iowa) has retired!

“I pulled the plug on my broadcasting career January 3, 2020. Since then I’ve received several emails; and my wife, Jane, put together a party and decorated one wall with letters from friends who wished me good things in retirement and often cited their memories of our interactions during my long and checkered career. I received 100 letters that Jane made into a wall of memories for me,” Root said.

On December 10, 2019, Orion Samuelson (WGN Radio, Chicago, Illinois) marked his 45^th year of doing a live year-end TV-radio interview with the Secretary of Agriculture in his office in Washington, D.C.

If you were confused when you read George Bower (KICD, Spencer, Iowa) is a new NAFB member, you’re not alone. He left broadcasting for 10 months, but now he’s back.

In 2019, on its 100th birthday, Colorado Farm Bureau awarded Farm Broadcaster Brian Allmer  (Brian Allmer Radio Network, Briggsdale, Colorado) with its Service to Agriculture award.

Stu Ellis (WHOW, Decatur, Illinois) has been a well-known agricultural communicator in Illinois for nearly 50 years. 

Mace Thornton is vice president of communications and marketing for the United Soybean Board and U.S. Soybean Export Council.

Avery Davidson has taken the place of Carey Martin at Louisiana Farm Bureau, who recently moved to Waco as manager of the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. Davidson, a native of New Iberia, Louisiana, also co-hosts the Louisiana Farm Bureau’s weekly TV show This Week in Louisiana Agriculture and has covered agriculture for both radio and television for a number of years.