Farmer and farm radio host Dave Williams, left, receives the Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award from Pennsylvania Farm Bureau (PFB) President Rick Ebert during the PFB 65th Annual Meeting in Hershey, PA. The award is presented to an individual whose dedicated work and service has significantly contributed to the advancement of Pennsylvania agriculture. Besides being the host and owner of the Pennsylvania Farm Country Radio Network, Dave is a vegetable, hay and straw farmer from Honesdale, PA, who served for eight years (2004-2012) on the PFB State Board of Directors. “It is a great honor to receive the Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award,” Dave said. Earlier, he was the 2005 recipient of the PFB Distinguished Local Affairs Leader Award. Dave’s radio show is broadcast six days a week on 24 radio stations in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, and he is the Northeast reporter for Rural TV, which is affiliated with RFD-TV.

Duane Murley (KWMT, Fort Dodge, IA) developed his interest in farm radio as he listened to AM 540 KWMT on the tractor radio while baling hay, cultivating, plowing late at night, or whatever he was doing on the tractor (or combine). Duane was born and raised in Sac City, IA, where his parents, two brothers and their families still reside. 

Long-time KICD AM/FM (Spencer, IA) Farm Director Dan Skelton announced that he will retire at the end of this year. Dan's career with KICD radio started in 1997 as a farm broadcaster and editor. In 2000, Dan became Farm Director. For nearly 19 years, area listeners have relied on his voice for the latest market information and ag-related news locally and nationally. 

Film maker and NAFB allied industry member Conrad Weaver of ConjoStudios, LLC (Emmitsburg, MD) reports that his 2014 documentary the Great American Wheat Harvest film received a Mid-America Regional Emmy Award for Best Documentary – Cultural. “The Great American Wheat Harvest is a story about American harvesters who risk everything to put food on our tables. Each year they travel from Texas north across the Western Plains harvesting wheat and other crops that feed the world. The film follows their journey and tells their stories,” Conrad said. 

At the 2015 Indiana 4-H Congress in October, Gary Truitt, President of Hoosier Ag Today (HAT), presented the Indiana 4-H Foundation Communications Scholarship to Emily Clark, a 10-year 4-H member from Warrick County.  Held at the State Fairgrounds, the 4-H Congress attracted more than 90 of Indiana's top 4-H youth for a day of training and achievement awards. Emily said 4-H has changed her life. "It has changed me as a person, especially my communications skills. I am a quiet person, but 4-H taught me how to express myself in a positive way."  She is a college freshman at Samford University in Birmingham, AL, where she is majoring in communications.