Roddy Peeples was a pioneer in farm broadcasting and a member of what is now NAFB since 1956. He passed away on July 7, 2026. He was born on July 3, 1932, and raised on a cotton, cattle and grain farm near Tehuacana, Texas. He graduated from Mexia High School, attended Texas A&M and received a bachelor’s degree in agronomy in 1953. His agricultural radio career began at WTAW in College Station during his senior year at the university.
Roddy was a broadcaster in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri in the 1950s before joining KWFT in Wichita Falls, Texas, as associate farm director, in 1959. Five years later, he established the Voice of Southwest Agriculture (VSA) radio network, which grew to 60 stations throughout Texas. After 31 years as founder and owner of VSA, Peeples sold the network in 1995 to Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio.
The voice of Southwest agriculture was also a pilot and flew his own plane from 1974 to 2002 to attend farm and ranch events across Texas. He served in multiple leadership roles at NAFB, including president in 1982. In 1992, he was named NAFB Farm Broadcaster of the year and nine years later was inducted into the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Hall of Fame. He also received numerous other ag industry awards from soil and water conservation districts, the Texas Farm Bureau, 4-H, livestock associations, and other organizations.
In 2021, then-NAFB Historian Mike Adams interviewed Roddy for a retrospective on the evolution of NAFB. You can listen here.
As one of the longest-serving members of NAFB, memories have been flooding in from fellow broadcasters who remember Roddy as "a true gentleman," "absolute legend," "great broadcaster" and "positive and engaging" -- to name a few.
Ron Hays, director of farm programming at Radio Oklahoma Farm Network and 1991 NAFB president, shares this memory:
After starting as a farm broadcaster in 1974 in Kansas, I headed south in 1977 to help establish the Oklahoma Agrinet in Oklahoma City. I was surrounded by several farm broadcast legends in the region - Russell Pierson, Ken Root, Wayne Liles and Bill Hare in OKC; Earl Sargent in Wichita Falls; and Roddy Peeples in San Angelo.
By the time I came on the scene, there were several ag radio networks that were a prominent part of NAFB. But Roddy was the pioneer as he had started VSA in 1964, which was the first independent ag radio network. As I came to NAFB meetings, rubbing shoulders with these giants of the business was the true highlight of the meetings.
During most meetings I would gravitate to spending time talking with Roddy. He was a humble man who was a real superstar with his audience that stretched across the state of Texas. I asked lots of questions about their programming, their relationship with their radio stations, covering meetings and more. He was always willing to share his thoughts on the business but also life and his faith. Back in the days when we had hospitality rooms, Roddy always seemed to find a piano and he loved playing. His credentials in NAFB were impeccable. He was president and later inducted in the NAFB Hall of Fame.
Later in my career, our company, Clear Channel, bought several NAFB Ag Networks, including VSA from Roddy. Of all the networks we evaluated and bought, VSA was easily the best buy. Listeners loved the VSA and their reports. Radio stations were all loyal to Roddy and his team. He was a class act and built a source of information for farmers and ranchers they highly valued. After he sold to our company, he and his bride Bettimae retired to live in Dallas.
