[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 114 (Monday, July 9, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4838-S4839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO ALAN WATTS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to 
congratulate Alan Watts, an indispensable broadcaster in western 
Kentucky, who will soon celebrate his 25th year with WKDZ/WHVO Radio in 
Cadiz. When the listeners of Caldwell, Christian, Lyon, Todd, and Trigg 
Counties tune in for the news, a trusted voice provides them with the 
information important to their lives.
  Even before he graduated from high school, radio broadcasting had 
piqued Alan's interest. He worked part-time at WHOP in Hopkinsville 
through college, and he proudly remembers that his news career began 
when he attended a rally featuring Presidents Ronald Reagan and George 
H.W. Bush.
  Alan's time at WKDZ began in 1993 not with a formal contract, but 
rather with a handwritten agreement with the owner, D.J. Everett. He 
started by answering phones, writing stories on an electric typewriter, 
and delivering the weekend news. As the station has grown and expanded 
during the last 25 years, Alan has taken on more responsibility and has 
become a well-known local figure.
  On weekdays at 5 a.m., Alan goes on air for his ``Morning Ag 
Report.'' The program debuted in 2008 with the mission to tell the 
southern Pennyrile region's agriculture story. In his own words, ``Each 
morning I start my day at 3 with a much-needed cup of coffee and a 
fresh outlook on life.'' Bringing the latest news to farm families, 
Alan and his team have earned the strong support of the community, but 
he doesn't sign off after a single program. Alan also hosts the ``WKDZ 
Country Club'' program for 3 hours, sharing news and local events and 
hosting a number of guests. It is his way to help listeners throughout 
the region begin their day.
  As if 4 hours of daily broadcast weren't enough, Alan doesn't stop 
there. This January, he became the host of the Kentucky Farm Bureau's 
``Across Kentucky'' program that airs on more than 140 radio stations 
across the Commonwealth. He is also a frequent guest on RDF-TV, the 
first 24-hour TV network with programming focused on agribusiness and 
rural lifestyles. Winning such praise as the 2007 Kentucky Farm Bureau 
Communications Award and the 2018 Christian County Friend of 
Agriculture, Alan has clearly earned the respect of his listeners and 
his peers.
  I have enjoyed my many opportunities to join Alan's program over the 
phone, in studio, and here in my office in the U.S. Capitol. Covering 
everything from farm bills to tax reform and the Supreme Court, we have 
discussed the issues that are important to western Kentucky. When I 
join his show, I know that my constituents in the region are listening.
  I would like to thank Alan for his years of dedication to his 
agricultural community and, once again, to congratulate him on this 
milestone accomplishment. As he continues his impressive career, I send 
my best wishes to him, his wife, Susan, and their daughter Jennie. I 
urge my Senate colleagues to join me.
  Mr. President, the Kentucky New Era recently published a profile on 
Alan's career. I ask unanimous consent that the article be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Kentucky New Era, June 20, 2018]

   Alan Watts: Interviews Behind the Camera Set Stage for Career in 
                              Broadcasting

                          (By Tonya S. Grace)

       As a youngster, Alan Watts used to go to LaFayette and drop 
     into Jimmy Landers' general store.
       He recalls the seeds, which, much like the familiar penny 
     candy sought by eager kids in past decades, were scooped up 
     by the pound by families who bought them for planting on the 
     farm.
       ``Jimmy Landers had a store (where you) dipped seeds out of 
     a bucket,'' remembers Watts, a Herndon farm kid who grew up 
     to become the news and farm director at WKDZ/WHVO Radio in 
     Cadiz. ``He had a dipper, and you would dip out however much 
     you wanted, a pound or whatever.''
       Landers operated his store until 2003.
       Five years later, Watts' Morning Ag Report debuted on the 
     air, and it has gained a following of folks as nearby as 
     Christian and Trigg counties, as far away as Stewart and 
     Montgomery counties in Tennessee.
       Now a resident of PeeDee in south Christian County, Watts 
     has made a living apart from his life on the family farm; in 
     almost three decades in broadcast journalism, he's seen four 
     presidents in person, met Fox news journalist Geraldo Rivera 
     (a tiny little guy, Watts says) and followed his fellow 
     broadcaster and late mentor Dink Embry into the Washington, 
     D.C.,-based National Association of Farm Broadcasting.
       Only 150 or so people are members of the organization whose 
     programs and services promote agriculture throughout the 
     country,

[[Page S4839]]

     and Watts says he is honored to be counted among their ranks.
       He considers the countless people whose stories he has 
     shared with his broadcast audiences through the years and 
     says it is those stories about people that he enjoys the most 
     about what he does.
       ``I really care about the people I talk about and the 
     people I do stories on,'' notes Watts, who celebrates his 
     25th year with WKDZ come August. ``I really love to tell the 
     story of people. It's nothing about me, but about the people 
     you meet, the average common people who are wonderful 
     people.''
       Some of the stories hurt, the one about the murders of 
     three children in 2008 in Roaring Springs, for example, or 
     more recently, about the murders four years ago of Trigg 
     Countian Lindsey Champion, his wife and daughter.
       Champion had been a listener as well as a guest of Watts' 
     Morning Ag Report and was just ``a genuinely nice man,'' 
     Watts recalls, He has fond memories of Champion, who had been 
     retired from the Farm Credit Services office in Hopkinsville 
     and was active in his family's Champion Farms in Cadiz.
       Through the years, Watts has gained an affinity, a 
     closeness, with the people he speaks with in his capacity as 
     a broadcaster, the folks who are the subjects of the stories 
     that are his livelihood. There are those who know him even 
     though he may actually have never met them before, Watts 
     muses.
       Worth it every day.
       They feel like they're a part of my life and I'm a part of 
     their life,'' observes Watts, who is the second-longest 
     tenured employee at WKDZ. ``And that's what makes it worth it 
     every day.''
       Seated recently inside the studios at the Cadiz station, 
     Watts recalls how Embry, a longtime radio man at WHOP in 
     Hopkinsville, and colleague Bob McGaughey at rival WKOA, 
     first piqued his interest in the medium. The older men 
     frequently interviewed Watts, then a teenager showing his 
     family's cattle and sheep at the Western Kentucky State Fair, 
     for their farm programs.
       Watts found the process an intriguing one
       ``Where I really got my interest was watching Dink Embry,'' 
     Watts explains. ``What Dink Embry did on the radio fascinated 
     me.''
       He eventually began hanging out with Embry, helped him set 
     up equipment and ``enjoyed seeing what was going on and 
     learning from him.''
       He began working part-time at WHOP in 1985 or 1986, 
     conducting farm interviews for the station. Graduating from 
     high school in 1986, he went on to Hopkinsville Community 
     College before transferring to Western Kentucky University in 
     Bowling Green, where he received a degree in mass 
     communications with a minor in animal science. Were it not 
     for radio, Watts says, a career in animal genetics would have 
     captured his attention.
       He continued to work at WHOP throughout college and, after 
     graduating in 1990, began his career with the station, 
     working as a disc jockey and announcer. For a brief time, he 
     left radio for the insurance business.
       But he discovered sales was not for him and so, in 1993, 
     Embry made a phone call on Watts' behalf and spoke with owner 
     D.J. Everett at WKDZ.
       Watts came on board in August of that same year, just four 
     months after Cindy Allen Lax, who is now the station's senior 
     marketing specialist.
       Watts says he likely is one of the few people who do not 
     have a contract.
       ``D.J, never had me sign a contract,'' he recalls of the 
     agreement handwritten on a piece of paper that signified his 
     hiring at the radio station.
       Everett, he notes, had great expectations of his new 
     employee and was tough, but he also became a great friend and 
     mentor to Watts. From Everett, Watts learned a ``tremendous 
     amount of knowledge'' that taught him how to look for news, 
     how to gather it and how to report the news to listeners.
       In his early days with the station, Watts wrote his news on 
     a typewriter in the newsroom, and, at a time when the station 
     had only four employees, he also helped answer the telephones 
     and did things in the business office.
       ``In those days, you did everything,'' Watts recalls.
       Agriculture is big.
       At the time, he said he didn't address agriculture much but 
     did incorporate it into his regular newscasts, something he 
     made a point of doing because ``agriculture is such a big 
     industry here,'' he explains.
       In 2007, Watts received the Kentucky Farm Bureau 
     Communications Award, recognizing his efforts to highlight 
     the work that farmers do while also helping others understand 
     the importance of agriculture.
       His Morning Ag Report with Alan Watts began the following 
     year, its beginnings taking shape with the germ of an idea 
     after he attended a meeting.
       The Ag Edge website was developed not long after the 
     morning show.
       Watts and David Fourqurean, an ag extension agent in McLean 
     County, were returning from a Farm Bureau meeting, and Watts 
     decided WKDZ should do something, given agriculture's impact 
     in the area and his knowledge of it.
       The program airs from 5 to 6 a.m. Monday through Friday.
       Fourqurean and other agents have been frequent guests on 
     the popular program. Watts interviews local farmers, features 
     agriculture-related things going on in the community and 
     highlights other current news events.
       People comment about how the program reminds them of 
     growing up on the farm, and they talk about how much they 
     enjoy the conversation.
       Watts is mindful of listeners who live on the farm and 
     elsewhere, and for those who are not involved in agriculture, 
     there's a need to explain what that load of tobacco they're 
     following down the highway means to them, he notes.
       This past January Watts saw President Donald J. Trump when 
     the president was a featured speaker at the American Farm 
     Bureau Federation's annual convention in Nashville; Trump was 
     interesting to see, noted Watts, who said the president 
     connected so well with his rural audience on that day.
       ``He reminded me a lot of (former President Ronald) Reagan, 
     with less finesse,'' Watts said of the 40th president known 
     as ``the great communicator.''
       Watts saw Reagan speak at Western's Diddle Arena, and he 
     recalled the president's reaction when a balloon popped 
     during his presentation.
       Reagan, who was shot by attempted assassin John Hinckley 
     Jr. in 1981, ducked upon hearing the noise and called out 
     ``Oh, you missed me.''
       In the ensuing years, Watts also saw former presidents 
     Barack Obama and George W. Bush and interviewed former U.S. 
     Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, These days, Watts is a 
     frequent guest on RFD-TV, where he shares what is going on in 
     agriculture in western Kentucky with viewers.
       He has taken over as host and producer of Kentucky Farm 
     Bureau's ``Across Kentucky'' broadcast and, in Cadiz, he co-
     hosts the Trigg County Farm Tour.
       Earlier this year, Watts was named the 2018 Christian 
     County Friend of Agriculture by the Christian County 
     Agribusiness Association.
       He notes that there are so many neat people to meet in 
     agriculture, and Watts, who rises early every morning to 
     prepare for his Morning Ag Report, declares that he looks 
     forward to those early mornings every day.
       ``I don't think there's anything I'd rather do,'' he says 
     of his love of agriculture and of the people he meets in his 
     local community. ``It's still fun and exciting every day.''
       Watts and his wife Susan Watts have a daughter, 10-year-old 
     Jennie Watts, who continues to work on her family's farm in 
     south Christian County.

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