Susan Littlefield, farm director for KRVN and the Rural Radio Network, is celebrating her 30th anniversary of becoming a volunteer firefighter/EMT.
To start her full-time career, Littlefield began in farm broadcasting by chance.
“I was supposed to be an ag education major, and they had us do a project about radio in class to get used to talking in front of people,” Littlefield said. “I decided teaching ag wasn’t for me, and I fell into farm radio because I had loved that assignment. I started working for a local radio station and have been doing farm broadcasting ever since.”
After her first job, she moved to South Dakota to work for WNAX for a few years. Later, she moved to Nebraska to work for KZN for 18 years and eventually made her way to KRVN.
In 1994, she was living in Wisconsin. Littlefield left the radio station one day after work to go to her husband’s farm when she drove by the local fire station.
“I pulled in and found the fire chief and asked him how to join the department,” Littlefield said. “He told me to come back on Monday to talk about it. When I returned, he pointed me to my gear and told me that I was now part of the department.”
After moving to South Dakota, Littlefield was determined to continue firefighting. She was the first woman to join the Yankton Fire Department. After leaving there, she moved to Nebraska and joined the Columbus Fire Department.
While she works full-time as a farm broadcaster, her employer is supportive of her passion to serve as a volunteer firefighter.
“When I’m not on the air, my boss allows me to do what I need to do as a firefighter,” Littlefield said. “It’s great to have KRVN’s support in this way.”
Her favorite part is the community that fire departments offer.
“There is a brotherhood in firefighting, and these people have become my second family,” Littlefield said. “We’ve got each other’s backs on calls, and we can anticipate the other’s next move without so much as a word. We know each other that well.”
This line of work is not for the faint of heart; it takes guts to do what she does.
“You see the good and bad in everybody, and you’ve got to be able to handle it,” Littlefield said. “It’s tough, and there are days when you think you may be unable to deal with what you’ve seen. However, it’s so rewarding to give back to your community in so many ways.”
