Brenda Curtis-Heiken is employed as a Senior reporter/producer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Radio news and feature service. She has worked for USDA Radio since 1979 covering international trade as it relates to agriculture, economics, the Farm Bill, as well as topics of interest to consumers including landscaping, food safety and financial advice. Brenda Curtis-Heiken's reporting duties for USDA has taken her to World Trade Headquarters in Geneva, World Trade Talks in Seattle, but also to Brussels, Belgium and Montreal. She has reported from every region of the United States. She has covered President Reagan, Bush and Clinton as well as Agriculture Secretaries Bergland, Block, Lyng, Yeutter, Madigan, Espy and Glickman. Brenda has covered research scientists, economists, grain traders, farmers and consumers for USDA Radio. Brenda has received numerous awards for her radio productions including numerous "Gold Screen" Awards.
Brenda Curtis-Heiken is a 1962 graduate of Westfield Academy and Central School, Westfield, New York. A 1967 graduate of Salem College in Salem, West Virginia and did her graduate studies at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. Brenda began her career in commercial television in 1967.
The Radio News and Feature Service, produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is used by commercial radio stations in all parts of the United States as well as the Voice of America.
Any information coming from a government should be factual and without bias. The service must be reliable, of good sound quality and professionally voiced and produced. Otherwise, the radio stations will simply not use your programming, and then you have no purpose.
The information we provide the radio stations is information that cannot be easily accessed by their reporters. Therefore, we try to provide easily understood information about economic trends in agriculture as well as the status of world trade talks and agreements.
Food safety is another area that has become more and more important to our listeners as more is found out about food borne illnesses such as E. Coli and how to prevent those illnesses. Another item that consumers like is the cost of food and the forecasts on food costs. The latest agricultural production methods are important to farm listeners as well as how important conservation farming is to the environment. More and more what we report on not only affects our farmers but our consumers as well. For further information: www.usda.gov
I am very pleased to have the opportunity to inform you of the radio news and feature service that is produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and used by commercial radio stations in all parts of the United States as well as the Voice of America. It is my hope that those of you participating from various governments as well as the FAO may be able to develop a credible and reliable news and feature service for your commercial radio stations.
However, before you start the most important thing to remember is that any information coming from a government should be factual and without bias. This is sometimes hard to achieve because of various political influences. But if you do not keep the material as factual and non biased as possible, then the radio stations will simply not use your programming, and then you have no purpose.
In addition, the service must be reliable. If it is a daily service, then that commitment must be kept. Because the first time you miss a day of news or features, the commercial stations will no longer depend on you as a source. Remember a government radio service simply supplements the commercial radio station's broadcasts and is simply one of many sources commercial farm news operations are going to use.
In addition, your service must be of good sound quality and professionally voiced and produced. The stories must be interesting and often sound effects are important in getting those stories across. We try to use natural as well as produced sound as often as possible. Our news stories are never longer than sixty seconds and our documentary is five minutes in length and other features are nor more than three minutes in length. Good editing is a must and actualities should be kept within 20 to 25 seconds and must be simply stated and understandable.
I also thought it would be helpful to give you some background about USDA Radio as we are called in the United States.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Radio unit better known as USDA Radio has been around since 1926. In 1926, the first extension personnel began broadcasting farm production information over KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Today USDA Radio, headquartered in Washington, has three full time reporter/producers.
Senior radio producer Gary Crawford has worked for the radio section since 1974. He is best known for his brilliant production techniques and has won every major radio production award including the prestigious international radio festival award. He is very well known among extension agents around the country for his unique use of their subject matter. Gary also covers the majority of crop and economic outlook reports and interviews the chief economist on a regular basis.
Senior radio producer, Brenda Curtis has been with USDA radio since 1979 and is best known for her coverage of international trade including the world trade talks as well as all the major trade disputes since 1981. However, Brenda has also covered USDA's conservation efforts, economic reports, farm bill, rural development, food safety and county extension agents since 1979.
Joining the team in November 2000 was Kristi Pettis from Minnesota. Kristi is a former commercial farm radio reporter and most recently communications Coordinator for the Minnesota department of agriculture. Ms. Pettis is covering production agriculture and agricultural research for USDA radio.
USDA Radio personnel also cover the President of the United States when the subject matter involves USDA, and of course the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sub cabinet are covered on a regular basis. In addition, news coverage is provided for the majority of major agriculture hearings involving USDA people before the senate agriculture and house agriculture committees.
USDA radio personnel are responsible for covering news and features from all parts of USDA as well as its land grant universities and extension system.
USDA personnel produce a daily news line that can be accessed by radio stations via a telephone line and from its website at www.usda.gov .
Once you are at the USDA website, scroll down to USDA radio news stories, click twice and you will go directly to the MP3 files. These news items can then be heard on more than 900 stations around the country. In fiscal year 2000, more than 14,000 calls were placed to the radio news line.
On a weekly basis radio personnel produce five agritape features, five consumer time features and one agriculture USA documentary. These are mailed out to 675 subscribing radio stations nation-wide as well as Canada and the Voice of America on a cassette tape. These features can also be accessed via the WEB by going to the USDA home page. And then scrolling down to consumer time, agritape and agriculture USA features. Just click twice and you will once again be at the MP3 files for those radio features.
We have found more and more of our commercial clients downloading the USDA radio material off our website. However, there are still many, many commercial radio stations who simply want to call the telephone line or receives the features on the cassette tape service.
It is important that the information we provide the radio stations is information that cannot be easily accessed by their reporters. Therefore, we try to provide easily understood information about economic trends in agriculture as well as the status of world trade talks and agreements.
Food safety is another area that has become more and more important to our listeners as more is found out about food borne illnesses such as E. Coli and how to prevent those illnesses. Another item that consumers like is the cost of food and the forecasts on food costs. The latest agricultural production methods are important to farm listeners as well as how important conservation farming is to the environment. More and more what we report on not only affects our farmers but our consumers as well.
I thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn more about USDA radio and I will be happy to answer your questions about USDA or our radio service.
For further information: www.usda.gov
