The NAFB Foundation awarded scholarship numbers 98-100 today at the annual convention in Kansas City to three promising young industry leaders. From left to right, they are Liz Koehler of Illinois, Joel Penhorwood of Ohio, and Shannon Yokely of Missouri. Liz is a senior at the University of Illinois majoring in agricultural communications, Joel is a junior at The Ohio …
2014 NAFB Convention is Underway
The 71st annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting is officially underway here in Kansas City with the theme “From Our Roots, Our Future Grows.” Susan Littlefield of KZEN radio in Columbus, Nebraska is NAFB President-Elect and this year’s convention organizer. “We’ve got a variety of different speakers to hit everyone’s tastes,” said Susan, from new technology to …
Farms and Legs Relay
Twelve runners represented agriculture this past weekend on a more than 200 mile run through California wine country in the annual Ragnar Napa Valley relay. The “Farms & Legs” team, organized by Case IH, started out Friday morning from Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and ran 36 legs for 34 hours to wind up in Calistoga near the northern …
NAFB Purchases Office Building
In case you missed it, the National Association of Farm Broadcasting has purchased the office building where it is located. This was announced in President Janet Adkinson’s eChats President’s Report. Here’s an excerpt. NAFB Executive Director Tom Brand put it this way, “Just like finding the perfect piece of farm land, the opportunity to purchase a building in a growing …
Agri-Pulse Hires NAFB Scholarship Winner
Young farm broadcaster Spencer Chase is now an associate editor for Agri-Pulse. A broadcast and news editorial journalism graduate of South Dakota State University, Chase is originally from a farm near Wolsey, South Dakota where his family raises crops and livestock. He served as a summer intern with Agri-Pulse in 2013, covering agricultural policy issues on Capitol Hill, interviewing lawmakers …
Farm Broadcasters in Washington
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting is holding its annual Washington Watch program this week. Here’s the happy smiling group with our U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. These agricultural journalists get to spend a couple days hearing from various elected and appointed officials with plenty of time to conduct interviews. I’ve enjoyed all the programs I’ve attended over the …
The Big O is 8-0!
It was a big celebration last week when NAFB past president and long time WGN Radio farm broadcaster, Orion Samuelson turned 80. Orion has been on WGN Radio for 53 and a half years. Yes, the half counts! As a young girl growing up in Illinois, I have listened to Orion report the numbers, listened to his noon shows with …
Former NAFB President Passes Away
NAFB Past President, Jack Crowner, passed away this week. Jack was a veteran of over 45 years in Farm Broadcasting, owning and operating the FARM SERVICE RADIO NETWORK, serving radio stations in Kentucky, Indiana, and other states, providing farm news and information daily over local rural radio stations that provide necessary farm and market information to their listeners. Jack served …
NAFB Names Marketing & Communications Manager
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) has brought Melinda (Mindy) Oberly on as their Marketing and Communications Manager. NAFB Executive Director Tom Brand says, “Mindy’s past experience and knowledge of agricultural marketing, client relationships, project management and communications planning will be beneficial as the association launches the NAFB Planner Tool this year.” Mindy spent the last 12-plus years with …
Passing of Gary Wilhelmi
Sad to hear that long-time market analyst Gary Wilhelmi has passed away. We remember spending so much time with him on the phone during our days at Brownfield when he would do the midday market analysis. Will always fondly recall his droll sense of humor and great sense of what the markets were doing. Rest in Peace, friend. Here’s the …