Airing on the Side of Agriculture

WJBC-AM (Bloomington, IL), is celebrating its 90th Anniversary this year. Carrie Muelhling reports, “While we are doing some special things all year long to mark the milestone, we recently enjoyed some fun programming on April Fool's Day as we brought back a number of former show hosts, reporters and anchors to fill shifts on the air and deliver newscasts throughout the day.” 

The 80th Anniversary of Black Sunday was observed April 14 in Oklahoma City when more than 30 survivors of the huge dust storm that swept across Oklahoma and propelled dust all the way to the East Coast gathered to remember that day, reports Ron Hays (Radio Oklahoma Network, Oklahoma City, OK).  “That whole decade was known as the Dirty Thirties, but the Black Sunday event was the proverbial ‘shot heard around the world’ when it came to the Dust Bowl and the desperate need for conservation to counter the massive clouds of dust that enveloped the region. 

Taking part in ceremonies honoring the 2015 inductees into the Louisiana Agriculture Hall of Distinction are, from left, Louisiana Radio Network Farm Director Don Molino; honoree and Avoyelles Parish farmer Lucien Laborde; Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Dr. Mike Strain; Erle Barham, whose father, Edwards Barham of Morehouse Parish, was honored posthumously; honoree and Jeff Davis Parish farmer Jimmy Hoppe.

John McDonald was inducted into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame May 2 in Murfreesboro, TN. NAFB Executive Director Tom Brand responded to a request from the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame for more information about John, who was 1956 President of the National Association of Television and Radio Farm Directors (NATRFD) and was named to the NAFB Hall of Fame in 1992.

Mike Hergert (Red River Farm Network, Grand Forks, ND) is shown in “action” shots with his dance partner, Chelsey Marchand, at the Dancing with Special Stars event in Grand Forks on April 14.

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.