A RODEO COWBOY...while a student at Texas A&M University, Charlie Rankin (Emeritus and retired, KURV, Edinburg, TX) proudly displays his 60-year membership certificate from NAFB on his apartment wall in Boerne, TX. In 1947, he won the all-around title at the Texas A&M Rodeo. He was part of the group of college contestants who organized the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. But, he left the rodeo ring behind after graduation from A&M in 1950. After serving with the Navy in Korea, Charlie worked for the Soil Conservation Service in Pecos, TX, for two years before beginning his career in radio and television. Growing up he had listened to Murray Cox (WFAA, Dallas, TX) and he personally sought advice from Bill McReynolds (WOAI, San Antonio, TX), George Roesner (KTRH, Houston, TX) and Johnny Watkins (KWTX, Waco, TX). Johnny recommended Charlie for his first farm broadcaster job beginning in January 1954 at WACO (Waco, TX), even though he was in a competitive time slot to Johnny. Johnny Watkins and Murray Cox urged Charlie to join NAFB, and he’s been a member ever since. He worked for WACO a year before becoming farm director on KRGV TV and radio near Weslaco, TX. His farm show aired on KRGV for 90 minutes each morning and 30 minutes at noon. He was farm director there until 1967, when he formed the Voice of Valley Agriculture in Edinburg, TX. In 1983, he and five other investors bought KURV-Edinburg and Charlie’s farm show continued. In 1990, he sold his percentage of the radio station to his son and general manager while he stayed on the air until retirement in 1999. Charlie’s son has his own "talk show” on KURV each afternoon. Charlie said his philosophy was “Sell yourself first, then sell broadcast time to advertisers.”

In the fall of 2014, Charlie joined his longtime colleague and mentor Bill McReynolds and two other local radio personalities Rickey Ware and Jud Ashmore to interview Bill Soyars, a longtime south Texas rancher from San Marcos, TX, for an Ol’ Timers Radio Program, heard Sunday afternoons on KULP (New Braunfels, TX). Soyars was a classmate and Aggie Rodeo Team member with Charlie in 1948-49. “We four had a blast taking turns asking Soyars about his life, about 88 years. In fact, Charlie is looking forward to celebrating his 90th birthday in June of 2015.  

(Editor’s Note:  We offer a special “thank you” to Siri Stevens, Rodeo News/Publisher, www.therodeonews.com, for granting us permission to use the rodeo photograph and other biographical information about Charlie Rankin.)