Ben Nuelle (Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network, Des Moines, IA) is an agricultural journalist who works with farm broadcaster Ken Root. With this being Ben’s first job as a farm broadcaster he felt “learning from one of the best was important.” He added, “I am thrilled to be working for Ken. He has been a great mentor, and I hope to be just as good as him someday.” Ben’s daily routine consists of filing two stories a day for the network while also managing the network’s website. A graduate of Northwest Missouri State University with a B.S. in Mass Media (with an emphasis in Multimedia Journalism). He is a triplet from Higginsville, MO. His two brothers are Alex and Chad. Alex farms hay and cattle with his dad, Bob, and Chad is a district sales manager for LG Seeds. “Growing up on the farm we always had someone to play with.” Ben was born prematurely along with his brothers. In the very beginning when his mom, Phyllis, found out she was having triplets, the doctors said there are three boys, but one was not strong enough, and they didn’t know if he would live. (That boy was Ben.) When the boys were born, they each weighed just over 2 pounds. Ben said his dad could hold him in the palm of his hand he was so small. Ben believes he is alive today because God had a plan for him.
He started in radio at KMZU-FM (Carrollton, MO) working as an evening and overnight board announcer on weekends. There he met then Farm Director Janet Adkison (Washington Bureau chief with RFD-TV and Past NAFB President) who really got him interested in a farm broadcasting career. From there, Ben went to college and began working for NPR affiliate KXCV/KRNW-FM at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville when he was a sophomore. He worked there four years. By his last year at KXCV, he was executive producer for the station’s once a month hour-long program, executive engineer for the Bearcat Radio Network, and local host of Morning Edition. June through July 2015, he was the Program Advisor for the Institute on Political Journalism with The Fund for American Studies in Washington, DC. His job included creating lecture biographies, weekly schedules for interns and scheduling small group site visits to places such as NBC Meet the Press, National Public Radio, and other media outlets in DC. A year earlier, in 2014, he was selected through an application process to attend the Institute on Political Journalism (IPJ). He completed an intense internship working four days a week at Radio America Network, and took three-hour classes, three nights a week at George Mason University. At the end of the summer, he received the IPJ Director’s Award out of 56 other students for showing the most dedication and motivation. Through his experience with the IPJ program, he demonstrated his ability to manage time wisely and meet deadlines. His radio stories have been distributed by Harvest Public Media, aired on KCUR-FM (Kansas City, MO), Radio America Network (syndicated in Washington, DC), KMA-FM (Shenandoah, IA), KXCV/KRNW-FM (Maryville, MO), Bearcat Radio Network and now the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network. “I am excited to enter the world of farm broadcasting and look forward for the journey ahead,” Ben said. Besides radio, Ben has played the piano since he was seven years old and currently plays organ and piano for his church whenever needed.
