Heaven has gained another farm broadcaster.
The legendary Evan Slack passed away on Saturday, September 19, at the age of 86. His radio career spanned 68 years including most recently as owner of the Evan Slack Network based in Denver, Colo. During that time, he broadcasted from 45 states, 4 Canadian Provinces and Australia.
Russell Nemetz purchased Evan’s network earlier this year after helping him do the broadcasts for the past four years. “The agriculture and broadcast industries have lost one of their biggest advocates. Not only did he have a positive impact on me, but Evan touched the lives of millions of people during his amazing career and we can all be thankful for that.” Read Russell’s tribute to Evan.
Evan was a leader in the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) and served as president in 1987. He was inducted into the NAFB Hall of Fame in 2009 and won tons of other awards from various industry organizations. Evan was born in Missouri and received a degree in Agriculture with a minor in Journalism from the University of Missouri. After that, he moved westward, into the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, establishing Farm and Ranch departments at two different radio stations and eventually becoming a farm radio network pioneer in the west, working to establish network programming specifically targeted for the farmers and ranchers of that region in the early 1970s. After getting his pilot’s license in 1967, Evan was able to cover the entire western farm and ranch territory and quickly became a well-loved radio personality with the slogan On the Air and In the Air.
He was early to adopt new technology, taking his network on-line in 2006 to distribute his programming to radio stations. He was a Mac man and bought the first iPhone that came out and was quick to see its uses for broadcasting in the field.
He was also a very dear friend of ours and we will be missing that joyful greeting we always received from Evan when we met him at events like the Cattle Industry Conference and NAFB. So long, good friend. Fly high.