I’ve mentioned how I got interested in radio when I had to do a report in Mr. Bob Doyle’s Social Studies class in 9th grade. The assignment was to write a paper on some occupation. We were allowed to choose any occupation. I told my classmate Louie Loosbrock during a study hall session that I had no idea what I was going to write about. Louie thought for a second and he goes: ‘How ‘bout disc jockey?’ I go yes, that’s what I’ll write about. And that’s where the spark started the fire. Little did I know that assignment led me to a career in radio. I followed up after high school by going to radio school, Brown Institute, in Minneapolis.
Over the years, I met several people in radio or former radio people who also got their start at Brown. When I lived and worked in Nebraska, I would interview U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, who later was Secretary of Defense. We got talking and it turned out that he also was a graduate of Brown Institute. Hagel had a great voice and could have been another Tom Brokaw but he took a government job. That was a good choice on his part. Later when I was in Washington D.C. with the Nebraska Corn Growers Association, we were doing some Capitol Hill visits and Hagel’s office was one of our stops. Chuck saw me and remembered our connection of being ‘Brownies’ and when I asked if we could do a short interview he took me into a side room where we probably did a 10 to 12 minute interview.
Then he walked out and met with the corn growers who had been waiting in his office for him to show up. I stood in the back of the room while they talked to him about their concerns and then he had to leave. Some of the corn growers asked if I was going to get an interview with him. I told them I already did an interview, that’s why he was late to your meeting. Well that cost me the first round of beers later that night.
I never thought that a farm kid from Minnesota would be able to meet and talk with so many influential people. Leaders from the agriculture sector to the government sector from townships all the way to the White House. I also got to meet and interview some in the entertainment sector with most of those in the country music industry. There was Alan Jackson, Lee Greenwood, LeRoy Van Dyke and Kenny Rogers, just to drop a few names.
One of the pictures with this column shows a couple of government leaders that I got to know and interview. Ann Veneman was Secretary of Agriculture during my 3 years as a national officer in the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB). Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsylvania, was the nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security during this time. One of the real highlights which I’ve written about before was to be one of the few farm broadcasters back in 2000 to be invited to the White House to take part in an East Room meeting about trade relations with China. In the receiving line after the meeting, I got to meet and shake hands with 3 Presidents, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. Here was this nerdy farm kid from little old West Concord, meeting Presidents in the White House. Talk about a fish out of water…that was me!
4 years later, I invited Gerald Ford’s son Steve to come and speak at our NAFB annual meeting in Kansas City. We stayed in touch for a few years after that. Steve, in his younger days, was a professional horse trainer and he was tutored in rodeo bronc riding by Casey Tibbs. Tibbs, if you are not familiar, was from Fort Pierre, South Dakota, and was a 9 time World Champion. The Casey Tibbs Museum, which I’ve been to, is in Fort Pierre. Tibbs was also an actor appearing in a few movies.
I was a good friend with fellow farm broadcaster Cliff Mitchell from Albany, Minnesota. Cliff, along with his radio work, was an auctioneer and was a rodeo guy when he was young. His claim to fame was that one time in a rodeo competition; he defeated Casey Tibbs, which almost never happened.
So kids, if you’re reading this, do your Social Studies homework, you never know what it might lead to. I know I didn’t.
