That’s advice from early in her career that Cyndi Young-Puyear (Brownfield Network, Jefferson City, MO) still reflects on today. “In my first job at a radio station, I answered the phone, wrote advertising copy, deejayed on weekends (with record albums) and performed numerous other tasks that needed to be done. A few months in, the assistant farm director left and Mike Perrine hired me to fill that role. When Mike left, I took over as Farm Director.” Cyndi added, “That was more than 30 years and a million memories ago. As an ag education major with an emphasis in animal science, I did not set out to be a farm broadcaster, but would do it all over again in a heartbeat.” She continued, “Much has changed since I attended my first NAFB Convention in 1987. There were no digital recorders or smartphones in those days. We all used bulky cassette recorders to collect audio, pens and paper to write our notes, and land lines to call in our reports.” Cyndi was named NAFB Farm Broadcaster of the Year in 1997. She served on the NAFB Board of Directors for several years, planned and hosted two regional meetings, chaired Washington Watch and Trade Talk and was in her 11th year of farm broadcasting before she ever had a computer at her desk. “We’ve reported on the changing technologies and tools used on the farm and have experienced changes in technologies used to report on agriculture. I used to think there was nothing better than getting that ‘nugget’ of news or breaking the story our listeners needed to hear. But after managing a team of farm broadcasters for 16 years, there is nothing I love more than seeing them working together and being recognized for their hard work.”
Cyndi Young-Puyear and the Brownfield team. “My greatest successes or accomplishments lie with the farm broadcasters and interns who are or have been a part of the Brownfield team during my management tenure. In 1985, the news director for WJIL Radio offered me simple advice that is useful not only in my role at Brownfield, but in every aspect of my life: ‘Dead air is better than dumb air.’ I’ve learned many things over the past three decades in this business. I hope to be a lifelong learner because curiosity is what inspired me in my early days in farm broadcasting and still inspires me today.”
Cyndi concludes, “When I need a dose of humility and a reminder of why I do what I do, I go home, throw on jeans and boots and get to work on the farm.”
