From a high school weekend DJ job to vice president of news for Hoosier Ag Today (HAT; Zanesville, Indiana) and Michigan Ag Today, Eric Pfeiffer’s path to farm radio was a winding and unexpected one.
It all started in 2003 when Pfeiffer was playing high-school baseball in Logansport, Indiana. The local radio station, WSAL, carried every Logansport Berries baseball game and conducted a “spotlight interview” prior to each game with one of the players. Pfeiffer’s interview was heard by WSAL General Manager Andy Eubank, who requested to meet with him about a part-time job opening.
“He must have liked what he heard,” says Pfeiffer. “I went in later that week for the interview, and he offered me a part-time job. It was a lot better than washing dishes or flipping burgers.”
Pfeiffer took the job and started running the board for high-school football and basketball games. One Friday night, the junior varsity basketball game went into double overtime, delaying the start of the varsity game to be aired. Pfeiffer took to the microphone for the very first time to let the audience know about the delayed start and introduced Tom Cochrane’s “Life is a Highway.”
“That was the moment I fell in love with radio,” Pfeiffer reminisced. “I knew right then that being behind a microphone is where I belonged.”
Over the course of the next few years, Pfeiffer stuck around and became the morning show host on WSAL’s sister station, WLHM. He then became the morning show host on WSAL hosting the daily talk show, “Talk of the Town.” Pfeiffer then became news director for WSAL and WLHM at age 20.
Later that year, Pfeiffer left full-time radio to work in retail. While he was a store manager for AT&T, he still did radio part-time as the play-by-play voice of Lewis Cass High School football and basketball on WLHM.
After spending about eight years working retail, Pfeiffer wanted to spend more time with family and transitioned to Purdue University, where he worked in information technology. While at Purdue, Pfeiffer still had the itch for radio and became the play-by-play voice of the new collegiate summer baseball team in Lafayette, the Aviators.
“Still having the opportunity to do radio was a blessing, but I really missed doing it full-time. I knew I would need to find the perfect situation to leave a pretty good job at Purdue if I wanted to get back to doing radio as a career,” Pfeiffer said.
A few years later, HAT was looking to expand, and Pfeiffer heard from his old boss, Andy Eubank, about potentially joining the team and getting back into radio full-time. He jumped at the opportunity to work with Eubank again along with longtime farm broadcaster Gary Truitt.
Over the past few years, Pfeiffer has cultivated relationships with agriculture leaders and farmers across the state to help continue HAT’s reputation as the most listened to and trusted farm radio network in Indiana. He currently oversees the news operation for both Hoosier Ag Today and Michigan Ag Today. Pfeiffer, Truitt, Eubank, Ashley Davenport, and Meteorologist Ryan Martin are heard on nearly 90 stations across Indiana and Michigan, bringing the latest farm news, markets, and weather.
Pfeiffer is blessed with a wonderful family, including his wife, Aubrey, and their three children Andrew, Cecilia, and Dominic. He spends his spare time coaching the kids in baseball and basketball. He resides in West Lafayette, Indiana, just minutes away from agriculture news hub Purdue University.
Bottom photo: Eric Pfeiffer interviews Kyle Albertson, this year’s Purdue University’s Tyler Trent Courage and Resilience Award winner
