NAFB Blog

Duane Murley (KWMT, Fort Dodge, IA) developed his interest in farm radio as he listened to AM 540 KWMT on the tractor radio while baling hay, cultivating, plowing late at night, or whatever he was doing on the tractor (or combine). Duane was born and raised in Sac City, IA, where his parents, two brothers and their families still reside. 

Susan Risinger joined the WJAG/KEXL & KQKX staff in 1989 as assistant news director and has been the farm director since 1991. “As for how I got into this business,” Susan said, “totally by accident.”  She explains, “In 1981, I started working as a typesetter (now an ancient job description) for the weekly newspaper in Neligh, about 35 miles west of Norfolk, NE.

Jesse Stewart (KGLO AM-1300, Mason City, IA) was hired as a farm broadcaster in May 2013.  He earned a BA in Multimedia Journalism from Simpson College in Indianola, IA.   “I actually kind of fell into farm broadcasting by accident. I had never considered it as a career in the industry until having some conversations with some of the staff I knew in Mason City. I had interned with the station the summer before my senior year and got to know the whole staff. 

Patrick Cavanaugh (California Ag Today Network, Clovis, CA) said to respond to current debates on water use by agriculture their radio network is educating listeners about transpiration of moisture by plants. Almonds and all other crops transpire most water they take up, he said. Allan Fulton, an Irrigation and Water Resources Farm Advisor with UC Cooperative Extension in Redbluff, CA, has been their network’s resource person.

A crowd of more than 1,000 people packed the Orr Building in August on Ag Day at the Illinois State Fairgrounds to celebrate Illinois' number one industry. The morning started off with a breakfast, featuring the dedication of the Illinois Department of Agriculture administration building as the John R. Block Building. Illinois HB 5540, sponsored by State Senator Darin LaHood and State Representative Don Moffitt, named the administration building after John Rusling Block, the only Illinois agriculture director to become U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. John Block said he was both “excited and humbled” that the Illinois Department of Agriculture building now bears his name.