NAFB Blog

Al Gustin (Emeritus Member, Mandan, ND) said, “Things are good up here in North Dakota, but we’re praying for rain, which is typical.” He added, “I enjoy your Airing on the Side of Agriculture blogs and thought I'd bring you up to date on something I've been doing.”  Dwayne Walker (left) and Al Gustin have been working side by side as photographer and reporter since 1969.  “We're both retired, but we’re still doing reports for This Week in Agribusiness. 

With two years now under his belt as a radio personality, Carson Horn (Radio Oklahoma Network, Oklahoma City, OK) is starting to get the hang of the broadcast industry and is making a name for himself among the agriculture community in Oklahoma. In June 2016, Carson joined Radio Oklahoma Ag Network as Associate Director of Farm Programming with no prior experience in the broadcast industry. Fast-forward to today, Carson has absorbed a full range of responsibilities at the network on and off the air, covering both markets and news throughout his daily routine. Under the tutelage of Farm Director and Hall of Fame Broadcaster Ron Hays, Carson has become integral to the management of the network’s companion website and newsletter, The Oklahoma Farm Report, aside from his duties on-air.

With the desire to tell the unique stories of the many people throughout the central part of the country and beyond, the crew at KFRM (Clay Center, KS) had a brainstorming session in Kyle Bauer's office one day and, as they say, the rest is history.  Duane Toews reports, “While the vast majority of our programming focused on the dollars and cents of production agriculture and agri-business, we knew there were some really special stories to be told that had nothing to do with what we focus on every day.” On the Front Porch is a long form, talk program with five different hosts covering each day of the week.

Clint Ridley of rural St. Onge, SD, is a commodity market analyst for KBHB (Sturgis, SD). Clint started his radio broadcast journey in 2012, following the departure of NAFB member Chase Adams from the radio chair. For Clint, reporting on the commodity markets isn’t just a job, it’s a way of life. “I run a cattle brokerage business, so understanding the markets, what makes them move, and relaying them to the public came natural to me,” said Clint. He sources feeder cattle to customers from the Dakotas to Texas, along with being a fifth generation rancher on his family ranch. He believes that being diversified in agriculture is important.

Farm broadcaster Michelle Rook is no stranger to farm television. It has been a part of her career since college.  “I had the opportunity to do some television reporting for Ag Communications while I was a student at South Dakota State University.  Since that time, I have always been doing some form of television reporting or on-air work, in tandem with my job in radio,” she says.   She has had every experience in television serving as an editor, producer, anchor, meteorologist and reporter.  Rook will be using those skills as the new anchor of AgWeek TV, a weekly syndicated farm television program seen on stations in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Canada.