April 29, 2003 cont'd
I met Bob Flittie at the radio station about 10:30 a.m. intending to turn the tables on him. Last October he had interviewed me for his program on the arts in northeast Nebraska, now I would be interviewing him about how he ended up in West Point, about regional differences between West Point and the area of South Dakota he had previously worked, about "farmer-owned radio," the issues facing rural radio, the issues facing farmers today.
Bob started in broadcasting as a high school student in 1959 and 1960 in Brookings and Sioux Falls, South Dakota; it became a career. Later he worked also in Rapid City, South Dakota, and then in Yankton. When the station in Yankton had a change in ownership, Bob thought he'd get out of broadcasting and teach school. He went back to get the credits he'd need and he did some substitute teaching; but he discovered that his hearing loss - more severe than he had known - prevented him from hearing the commotion going on behind him. Perhaps teaching wasn't the best choice for him. Just at this point he saw an ad for a news director and afternoon host at the radio station in West Point. He's been news director and operations director for WTIC/WPNE for about six years. "It's a 24/7 job," he told me. "You have to be aware of all the issues that might affect Nebraska farmers." Every morning he spends an hour editing the day's news for a fifteen minute newscast, and then continuously updates the stories all day. Bob's style on the air is very personal, comfortable, he treats the microphone as if it were the person he's talking with - "I don't talk over that person, I don't talk at that person, I talk with, with the specific intent to share information. A farmer from up around Bancroft said to me when he met me - 'You're Flittie? How do you do that? When I'm out on the tractor, it's like you're talking to me.'"
God gave Bob a good voice to start with, and he practiced to improve his delivery. He recalled that when he was in college he'd practice reading biology and chemistry texts aloud as if he were Walter Cronkite delivering the news. "That taught me to sight-read smoothly," he said. "I wanted to be able to read unfamiliar material smoothly, so I practiced by reading textbooks." The people he admires - Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, Charles Karault, Charles Osgood, and Michael Josephson - have a command of the language, the right inflection, right diction, the loudness and softness; they use their voices to really tell a story.
The first time I was in West Point Bob had told me that there were cultural differences between West Point and the places he'd worked in South Dakota. For one thing, the pronunciation of names is a little different here, he said. "I still have to ask how to pronounce some names." For another, the heritage here is different. He told about an incident with the men's singing group he belongs to. During an intermission, the fellows on stage got to tell the audience some stories informally. Bob told a Norwegian joke that depended on knowing what lefse is. Dead silence. "You could have heard a pin drop," Bob said. "I asked, How many of you are Norwegian? In the group of one hundred fifty or two hundred people, not a single hand went up."
On fitting into a new community, Bob said it's probably true in all regions that it is difficult. "If you remain stand-off-ish," he thinks, "you won't fit in. You have to involve yourself in the life of the community. Get involved in something and you will be welcomed." There is some responsibility on the part of new people coming into the community to work at fitting in, he thinks.
KTIC/KWPN is part of Nebraska's "farmer-owned" radio network of stations, which includes the flagship station in Lexington, Nebraska, the station here in West Point, and a third station in Scott's Bluff. How and why did the network develop? "In 1949 and 1950 there were two God-awful blizzards," Bob said. "They ravaged the midwest, both with the number of livestock lost and the number of human deaths. The movers and shakers in agriculture said 'Nobody is doing anything for us - they don't tell us when bad weather is coming, they don't tell us what the markets are.' So the people who could get things done from Farm Bureau, Farmers' Union, the state Grange, and the Cooperative Council sat down and said 'Let's do it ourselves.' They hired Max Brown to be their general manager and get the job done. In February of 1951 they put KRVN on the air from Lexington, powerful enough to serve much of Nebraska, but they couldn't quite get into the panhandle nor into eastern Nebraska. So about twenty years ago they purchased the station in Scott's Bluff, then six years ago they acquired the station here in West Point. The mission is - we serve agriculture, period. Our mission and goal is to serve Nebraska agriculture. Information farmers need has to be incorporated into every newscast we do, not relegated to the 'farm show.' What farmers need to know is the news."
"We have no individual owner," Bob said of the network. "We're owned by 5,000 farmers and ranchers who have bought memberships." For major expenses, the network borrows money from large farmers and agricultural organizations and pays it back over time with interest. Profits are all turned back into development of the network." There is a nine-member board of directors that oversees the network.
The issues facing farm radio? "We recognized about a year ago what was happening to the farm economy," Bob said. "It was in decline, much as it had been during the 1980s." The decline, Bob thinks, is partly related to 9/11 and terrorism, but also the sour national economy and the ripple effect in Nebraska. "If the dollars aren't there to buy the product, you can't afford to have as many people producing the product." Accordingly, the station has had to reduce its staff by two full-time positions and two part-time positions.
To be continued....
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