Alan Watts – Morning Ag Report

I truly enjoy being a part of the WKDZ-WHVO Ham Broadcasting team. Although I have been with the Ham Broadcasting Family since 1993, my personal family began in 2004 when I married longtime friend Susan Thaxton. Not only did Susan marry me, but she married the Ham Broadcasting family. I tried to keep my first date with Susan a secret, but wound up having a conversation with my General Manager Beth Mann as Susan and I were waiting for our table at Patti’s in Grand Rivers. Our first date went well, even with the phone call. Our second date officially marked our relationship spreading to the community. After a trip to Cindy’s Catfish in Dover, we stopped for ice cream at Sonic in Cadiz. We ran into longtime friends Pat Board and Danny Wagner and several others. Strangely enough after we told our family, Pat and Danny were the first to learn of our engagement. After notifying our family, they were also the first to learn of Susan being pregnant with the star of our lives, our daughter, Jennie Marie, who was affectionately named for her grandmothers. Susan and I often laugh that if she doesn’t hear something I say on the WKDZ Country Club. Jennie now feels at home at WKDZ and WHVO. She and Susan spend every Christmas with me on the WKDZ Country Club, while Santa makes a stop at our house. When we come to the radio station, Jennie immediately heads up front to see her friend, Boss Beth. Likewise when we go to Hancock’s, Jennie always ends up in the office entertaining owner, Mallory Lawrence.

I first lived on Richard Street in Hopkinsville in front of the Western Kentucky State Fairgrounds until moving to South Christian County at age 6. I then moved to the northern suburbs of Herndon to the family farm located near Flatlick Church along Highway 107, the Lafayette Road. I proudly attended South Christian Elementary School through the 6th grade, then attended Christian County Middle and High Schools. I was active in the Christian County FFA, where I served as Treasurer and President.

After graduating from CCHS in 1986, I attended Hopkinsville Community College for two years. I enjoyed classes with Ms. Francis Thomas, Dr. Kevin Felton, William Turner, David Carter, Carl Suddeath and others during my time at HCC. I attended Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green from 1988 until I graduated in May of 1990, with a BA in Mass Communications and a minor in Animal Science. You could say my news career began while I was at Western when I had a chance to see President Ronald Reagan speak during a campaign rally for President George H. Bush. I often bore young radio interns and others with my story of how President Reagan ducked and said “You missed me” when a balloon popped.

During my time growing up on the farm in South Christian, I raised and showed beef cattle and sheep in both the 4-H and FFA. We had our first livestock project in 1977, when we began raising and showing Polled Shorthorn cattle and Suffolk sheep. From the Polled Shorthorns, we transitioned to raising sheep and crossbred cattle on the farm. The crossbred cattle operation led us to raising market steers to show and sell. My brother Andrew and I, along with my cousins Janice, Wendy and Allison Faulkner, had numerous grand champions at the Western Kentucky State Fair in Hopkinsville and the Pennyrile Steer Show at the Christian County Livestock Market. We were also very competitive at the Kentucky State Fair in both the market steer and market lamb shows. In addition to my work with the livestock, I learned to artificially inseminate cattle, mix feed rations and many other lessons. I also judged livestock on both the junior and senior teams for Christian County 4-H and Western Kentucky University. I participated in the Keystone International Livestock Judging Competition in Pennsylvania, the North American Livestock Expo and many other competitions while serving on those teams.

My career in broadcasting began when I met the late Colonel Dink Embry, who was a mainstay on WHOP-FM for more than 40 years. I started working part-time with Dink covering farm meetings and events in 1986. I learned some of the greatest lessons about broadcasting, and life, from Dink. I learned about broadcasting, but more importantly Dink’s love for people was instilled in me early in my broadcast career. He taught me how to interview people and share their stories with listeners on the air every day. I truly gained a love for broadcasting and serving the communities that I love each day.

Every Monday through Friday morning, I have the opportunity to provide the Southern Pennyrile with the news and information they need to know to start their day. After a short stint with WHOP and a year and half in the insurance business, I came to work with DJ Everett and Ham Broadcasting in August of 1993. In the early days I worked with Cindy Allen, Tom Rogers and David Fowler at the original location on Will Jackson Road. I started out answering the telephones and providing weekend news. Soon after I began with the company, I started hosting the 5 PM news Monday through Friday on WKDZ and WKDZ-FM. I have now worked with DJ Everett and Beth Mann. When the opportunity arose, I began hosting the WKDZ Country Club. After recruiting Cindy Allen to read the Community Calendar for me, we have continued to be partners on the Country Club for nearly 20 years.

With the addition of WHVO, we have continued to expand our coverage to provide news for the entire area Southern Pennyrile. When I started doing the news, I wrote stories on an electric typewriter in the back room of the WKDZ Studios on Will Jackson Road. We have grown from just me in the early days, to a staff of three full-time and three part-time people that provide news coverage 24-7. Truly the hardest stories for me to write are those about the people in the communities that I love. I am also most gratified by providing the news and information that the people of Cadiz, Hopkinsville, Princeton, Elkton, Eddyville and the surrounding communities want and need each day.

In 2008, shortly after winning the Kentucky Farm Bureau Communications award, I began hosting the WKDZ Morning Ag Report weekdays at 5 AM. That allowed me to get back to my roots in this business by providing farm and agriculture news to the Southern Pennyrile. H & R Agri-Power owner Wayne Hunt often says we have to tell the agriculture story to help inform a world that is moving farther away from the farm each year. My mission is to help tell the agriculture story to the Southern Pennyrile. I am now a member of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, and have been able to walk in the foot steps of my mentor Dink Embry.

My career has been marked by some very memorable times. I will never forget seeing President George W. Bush at Fort Campbell in November, 2001, the day before the 101st Airborne Division learned they would be heading to Afghanistan to begin fighting in the War On Terror. My mentor in the news business DJ Everett, Beth Mann, Don D. Marcellus and I were at Campbell Army Airfield when President Bush arrived and departed. I can still feel the chills today that I felt that day as I saw Air Force One gracefully land on the runway and taxi to the tarmac. One of my dreams was to see the President come out the door of Air Force One and wave to crowd. During his two terms, I had the privilege of seeing President Bush three other times. I was also on hand at Fort Campbell when President Obama and Vice President Biden came to congratulate the troops for taking out Bin Laden. I also had a chance to become friends with Farm Broadcaster Max Armstrong, interview Rick Pitino, watch Mine That Bird win the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs and fly on Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters.