Agriculture and radio have always occupied a very important place in my life.
They seem to go well together. In fact, I’ve had a career in both. As a young boy growing up on this farm in McLean County, I played the radio in a small shed, also nicknamed our “playhouse.” The broadcasts reached Dad in the shed and Mum in the house through small intercoms or baby monitors.
I even automated my own radio programming by buying these 120 minute tapes with time sides to constantly loop music and commercials on the tape player. The compact discs were sorted daily, so I knew which songs to listen to, and the tape labels were always handy for correctly naming each blank cassette.
Mom read the news for me while I hosted the morning show, and my brother Curt even got involved with my so-called farm radio station by taping a few commercials. I spent many summers in this little improvised radio studio, which brought me to where I am today.
I was exposed to radio as a child. I remember hearing the elders yelling over the tractor radio while riding with dad. He was probably listening to Oldies 96.7 WIHN from Bloomington-Normal or WIRL 1290 AM from Peoria. That’s when I discovered these great songs by the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Monkees and other bands. One of our old John Deere cordless tractors even had a fender-mounted AM radio. It made mowing with the big mower fun.
My mom had also turned on the radio in our farmhouse kitchen every morning before work and school listening to the Don Munson Morning Show on WJBC 1230 AM. Later we had to switch this radio to the FM dial because I finally got a part-time job at Pontiac WJEZ radio station, so we started listening to the Dave Schmidt Morning Show. Whether it’s listening to the latest school lunch menu, school closures or weather updates, local radio has played an important role in the growth.
It may sound weird, but I was looking forward to being home sick on a weekday so I could hear the local radio station programming during the day. What did the midday market update look like or what was the personality like during the midday hours? These were questions that constantly crossed my mind and to which I found the answers when the radio was on during the day. I was finally able to catch WPOK-WJEZ COO and announcer Marc Edwards presenting the local newscast featuring Roy Frankenhoff. How exciting!
All of these events were precursors to the summer day when a soon-to-be-15-year-old farm boy called the local radio station to see if there were any job vacancies. The rest, as they say, is history.
For the latest farm news, markets, podcasts and farm blogs, visit www.centralillinoisfarmnetwork.com and follow the Central Illinois Farm Network on social media.
