Lorrie Boyer (KSIR, Fort Morgan, Colorado) started her career in ag media right out of college in 1996 with a degree in technical journalism, specializing in agriculture. She started as a writer for the Ag Journal in La Junta, Colorado. In the meantime, her mom had told her several times that she needed to be in radio. One day, as Lorrie was listening to a local radio station in Lamar, Colorado, she heard an ad saying they were looking for an on-air assistant. After seven months of commuting from McClave to La Junta, and after working very late into the night, she decided to apply. As it turns out, they also were looking for an agriculture news reporter, although not aggressively pursuing anyone. Lorrie was hired as the ag reporter and on-air assistant, performing both duties successfully. Lorrie’s career path has led to opportunities with different types of projects on and off the air, developing and honing her skill sets in radio broadcasting. During her time at KLMR, she did ag reporting in addition to a mid-day show and, later, a mid-morning show. She also hosted Swap Shop along with doing live remotes and other various programming tasks. After four years at KLMR, she accepted an offer at KVAY, where she spent the next five years building their ag news department from scratch. During this time, a couple from Dallas, Texas, became the owners of KVAY and brought big, fresh ideas with them. “It was Bob Delancey who really taught me how to produce high-production commercials, how to be an on-air personality, and how to use the personality to really connect with listeners.” She continued to do the ag and market reporting but also learned the art of entertaining listeners while running the mid-morning show there. Among her career goals was to start an ag news network, but she did not have a timeline for when that would happen. After the birth of her second son, the time came. She returned to KVAY on a part-time basis and started the Colorado Ag News Network. Her desire to work and be home with the baby turned into creating a website with one hand while feeding him with the other. During this time, the previous owners of KVAY did consulting work with the owner of KSIR Radio in Fort Morgan, Colorado; through this connection, Lorrie started working on a part-time basis for KSIR. She helped run a morning show using tie-line technology and sent recorded ag news reports electronically while still living in Lamar. As staff changed at KSIR, she was offered an opportunity to move to northeast Colorado to take over the ag news department and to be the program director. Lorrie spent the next five years in these positions. After a short break from radio to work on her master’s degree in business, she merged the Colorado Ag News Network into BARN Media and then returned to KSIR as the farm news director and KSIR morning show host, where she remains today. Lorrie runs the KSIR Morning Show weekdays and also is the farm news director, where she produces daily ag newscasts and market reports. She also conducts long-form and short-form interviews with national, state, and local ag organizations and representatives for the morning and noon shows on KSIR. Lorrie conducts live “on-farm” remotes throughout northeast Colorado, writes a blog, and is responsible for the ag social media posts. As a longtime broadcaster and member of NAFB, she decided six years ago to get involved in leadership as a way to learn more about the association, grow as a person and broadcaster, and give back to the organization. She served as South Region Vice President for three years. She then was elected National Vice President, served as President-Elect, and assumed the position of National NAFB President as of January 1, 2019. “The things I have enjoyed most during my time on the board are being a part of new programs, such as the Mentor Program, now the Member Network, and learning to have effective and meaningful conversations that include a multitude of opinions and perspectives. It has been fun to learn about agriculture in other parts of the U.S. while traveling for meetings representing NAFB.”
