54 years and counting is the latest benchmark for Orion Samuelson, reports his longtime colleague, Max Armstrong. “As I continue with him on the Saturday Morning Show broadcast (the hour-long weekly show on WGN Radio), I have been heard on WGN every week for nearly 37 years,” Max reports. “Every few weeks, when Orion is in Arizona, I originate that entire hour from my home studio south of Raleigh, where Linda and I bought a horse farm this year.”

The year has certainly zoomed by and in seven weeks we’ll all gather again for our annual convention in Kansas City. One thing on the agenda this year, is new NAFB research. The board has approved a couple investigative efforts that will be the first in-depth NAFB research since the Wave Study of 2008. 

Just the other day I was talking with Susan Tally and Tom Brand about convention, and it hit me...we will be in Kansas City in a little over a month! Start packing for a packed convention kicking off Wednesday, November 12 at 9 a.m. with several great learning sessions, we start the day with the idea exchange, and followed by a session on Integrating Technology into the Agriculture industry.

Haylie Shipp (Northern Ag Network, Miles City, MT) has accepted a full-time position with her hometown radio station, KLTZ/KLAN (Glasgow, MT) while remaining a part of Northern Ag Network and on their regional airwaves in Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota weekly. She will host a daily "tradio" program, managing a number of the station's sales accounts, and doing some voice-tracking. “Outside of that, they've given me the flexibility to start any and all ag programs I want on the stations,” she said.  “As an affiliate of Northern Ag Network, the stations will continue to carry those programs, but I'll now have the opportunity to make this station even more of a financial and agricultural powerhouse.

KICD/KLLT Radio hired Ben Maurer for a 10-week internship this past summer. “Ben assisted us in the news, weather and farm departments. He traveled with our farm broadcasters, Dan Skelton and Troy Leininger, to some of the county fairs this summer, and he conducted interviews with 4-H’ers showing at the fair,” reports Kevin Tlam, Operations Manager of KICD. Ben is in his senior year at South O’Brien High School and plans to attend Iowa Lakes Community College.