Airing on the Side of Agriculture

In this 75^th anniversary year of NAFB, we invited Jim Evans to share his reflections on the association’s early years. An emeritus faculty member in agricultural communications at the University of Illinois, Jim Evans began his professional career in farm broadcasting. He is a Meritorious Service Award recipient and an honorary member of NAFB.

Delaney Howell (Ag News Daily, Ankeny, Iowa) grew up on a row-crop and livestock farm in southeast Iowa and never really knew she wanted to pursue a career in agriculture until late middle school when she had a phenomenal FFA teacher.

Brent Adams marked a new chapter in his career in January with the launch of Fastline Fast Track, a weekly radio show and biweekly podcast featuring ag industry newsmakers, farm equipment talk, rural lifestyle features, and a country music segment recorded at the legendary Ernest Tubb Record Shop in Nashville, Tennessee.

Besides being an ag news producer, Marjorie Kulba (Farm Journal Broadcasting, South Bend, Indiana) shared she is a wife, a mom, and an amateur genealogist.

Rick Worthington became a member of the Ag Information Network of the West in 2017 as the host of the Farm and Ranch Report. Worthington is a longtime broadcaster who started his radio career in his hometown of Elko, Nevada. 

It’s been a busy month of appearances for the Linder Farm Network, reports Lynn Ketelsen (Owatanna, Minnesota), including Dairy Days across the state, local ag celebrations, and county fairs. “I just returned from a weeklong Linder Farm Network crop tour through Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with daily reports live on the air,” he said.

Nebraska Rural Radio Association (NRRA) General Manager and CEO Craig Larson recently announced he plans to step down from his position on January 1, 2020. Larson informed the NRRA Board of Directors at their quarterly meeting in April. Larson has been with the ag media company for 24 years, serving the last eight years as general manager and CEO. 

Reba McClone is a new farm assistant at the Wisconsin Farm Report and will be learning from Pam Jahnke. Agricultural broadcasting is not what she originally planned to have as her career, but she is glad that those original plans have changed. 

Josh Scramlin became a member of Pam Jahnke’s team on the Wisconsin Farm Report in Madison, Wisconsin, on May 6, 2019. He said he has two passions: agriculture and broadcasting. So, it only seemed natural for him to join Jahnke’s team. 

“One of the opportunities we have as farm broadcasters for the National Association of Farm Broadcasting is participating in the NAFB Foundation Intern Grant program,” said NAFB Vice President Gale Cunningham. “The grant program helps to fund the cost of having an aspiring young potential farm broadcaster in their shop. One of my interns, Madison Mitchell, a student at the College of ACES at the University of Illinois, recently gave me insight that we sometimes miss in our daily agriculture broadcasts.”