Airing on the Side of Agriculture

One of this year’s NAFB interns is Rhiannon Branch from Iuka, IL, in Marion County. Her mentor is Rita Frazer (RFD Radio Network, Bloomington, IL) Rhiannon is a recent graduate of Kaskaskia College and will be transferring to Murray State University (MSU) this fall to pursue an agri-science technology degree with a communications emphasis.

Although Tim Slusarczyk (Ag Radio Network, Inc., Barneveld, NY) is new to NAFB membership, he has been involved in farm radio for his whole life thanks to his grandfather Edwin Slusarczyk. From an early age, Tim spent time at Ag Radio Network, Inc., and even before he was officially on the payroll you could find him stuffing cassettes into envelopes for their affiliates and quietly observing Ed's talent in the recording booth during broadcasts.

Mick Kjar (Farm Talk Radio Network, KQLX, Fargo, ND) claims he is of the Baby Boomer generation, growing up in the 50s and 60s with cows and corn in southeast North Dakota. “I spent my teenage years cultivating corn and getting chased by angry momma cows.” Mick recalls, “The early 60s was the heyday of top-40 rock and roll radio and coincidentally the tractor radio. So, as I spent hours upon hours in the corn field or making hay, I fell in love with radio.

Shawna Olson has been in the television industry since 1999. “I started out as a general assignment reporter, anchor and eventually became a meteorologist for the NBC and CBS affiliates in Fargo, ND,” she said. “I left the television industry to pursue a career in agriculture about seven years ago.

NAFB members at work during this year’s National Farmers Union Convention in San Diego, CA, interviewing Chuck Conner, President, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. Shown from left are Brian Winnekins (WRDN, Durand, WI), Chuck Conner, Mike Hergert (Red River Farm Network, Grand Forks, ND) and Sara Wyant (Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc., Camdenton, MO).

Rick Shields (WKZO, Kalamazoo, MI) said, “I've spent all of my adult life talking -- on the air and in the classroom for several years. A couple of years back I decided it was time to spend more time listening. I got hooked on travel early in life and had visited all the lower 48 states by the time I had finished high school.

That’s advice from early in her career that Cyndi Young-Puyear (Brownfield Network, Jefferson City, MO) still reflects on today. “In my first job at a radio station, I answered the phone, wrote advertising copy, deejayed on weekends (with record albums) and performed numerous other tasks that needed to be done.