Airing on the Side of Agriculture

After retiring from farm broadcasting, Karl Guenther wrote a regular column for the Kalamazoo Gazette. “About three years ago, there were some changes made, including dumping the division for which I was writing – the Hometown Gazette, which was published on Saturday,” Karl said. However, before that actually happened Karl contacted Peter Tanz, operational vice president for Midwest Radio, which owns WKZO and dozens of other small and mid-mark

Katie Miller joined American Ag Network (Fargo, ND) in May 2013 as farm broadcaster working with Rusty Halvorson. “I’ve worked in commodities markets and brokerage for several years. In fact, I still own a market advisory service. Through that, I’d done several radio interviews and market commentaries, especially for Terry Loomis (KQLX, Fargo, ND).” In fact, when she took her job with American Ag Network, she was working in the same building as Terry’s studio.

Cody Glaser (KKOW, Pittsburg, KS) has been in radio for over six years and in that time, he’s done “a little bit of everything around the station jumping in and helping out wherever needed.” He explained, “I've been our production manager, traffic assistant, on-air personality, and now Ag Director.” In describing himself, he said, “I have a general love for broadcasting regardless of what the subject line may be…agriculture, news, music, or weather. I enjoy gathering and delivering the information that our listeners depend on.” He feels that nothing is more exciting than a listener calling to say, “Letting us know about that storm update really helped out,” or “Our farm depends on your market numbers every day. 

The Linder Farm Network began in 1976 with four Linder family-owned radio stations in Minnesota. Network Farm Director Lynn Ketelsen came in from KMA (Shenandoah, IA) radio to establish the initial farm programming and set up the network. Linda Brekke has been with the network for 16 years, and Jeff Stewart has been there for 18 years.

On February 1, 2014, Ken Rahjes launched agview.net as a way to have flexibility “to be there for his parents as they were going through some medical challenges,” but also to “take a leap” and focus on delivering agricultural and rural information to the "next" generation of production agriculture and those who have a real interest in rural issues.  In October 2014, Ken launched AgView Radio and currently has an expanding network of affiliates in Nebraska and Kansas, which carry daily programming that consists of three 2-minute ag business updates and three 2-minute market updates.  

Cyndi Young, Ag Operations Director for Brownfield, announced the additions of farm broadcasters Nicole Heslip and Mark Dorenkamp beginning this week to the Brownfield agriculture network team.  Nicole is the Anchor/Reporter of Michigan Brownfield, the former Michigan Farm Radio Network. Nicole lives in Michigan and is providing on-the-ground coverage of Michigan agriculture. Mark is Anchor/Reporter of Minnesota Brownfield, which replaces former Minnesota Farm Network programming this week. Both will be backed by an award-winning team of 10 agricultural journalists, all Broadcast Council members of NAFB, along with an ag meteorologist, Washington, DC policy analyst and two market analysts. 

Nearly 600 members of the St. Joseph, MO, business community attended the 11th Annual Farm City Breakfast March 20, where Tom Brand, the NAFB Executive Director and former longtime farm broadcaster at KFEQ (St. Joseph, MO) was named the 2015 Hall of Fame Award winner. 

Russell Pierson (WKY, Oklahoma City, OK) died March 31, 2015. He was 103. He became farm director at WKY in 1959 and retired in 1980. He was elected NAFB President in 1973 after being named NAFB Farm Broadcaster of the Year in 1972. He was inducted into the NAFB Hall of Fame in 1992.