It started as summer internship turned station job turned marketing specialist role. In turn, Whitney Pittman has extensive experience with the Red River Farm Network. In October 2022, she was hired full-time on the network’s farm broadcasting team.

“Agriculture drives society and civilization up here in the Red River Valley. Our job is to make sure that information gets shared,” Pittman explained.

Growing up ranching and riding horses in Bagley, Minnesota, Pittman always has had a passion for agriculture. This led her to Iowa State University as a journalism and mass communications major.

“When I was in college, I had a roommate who was a journalism major, and she was complaining about her classes and the assignments. I was listening to the complaints, and I thought that sounds fun to me,” she said.

During her second year at Iowa State, Pittman’s father asked her to come with him to a radio interview. When the farm broadcaster at the station asked for her career goals, she responded, “Actually, I think it’d be pretty cool to do what you do.”

“I’ve known agriculture my entire life, and it was too much a part of me to not do that,” Pittman shared.

The following summer, Pittman secured an internship with KKCQ 96.7 FM, an affiliate of RRFN; and the rest is history. She worked at that station for a few years then at the Minnesota Farm Bureau as a membership and marketing specialist.

For Minnesota Farm Bureau, she helped with ag education programming and policy development for 13 different counties.

“Watching that passion be put into practice was rewarding and was still broadcasting as you are telling or helping people tell agriculture stories,” Pittman explained.

Bringing her knowledge of farm-news stories, Pittman now covers much more than just the counties along the Canadian border: eastern North Dakota, northwest Minnesota, and northeast South Dakota. Pittman’s broadcasting includes two live half-hour shows on RRFN’s affiliate stations as well as writing stories for the network’s website.