"The Voice of Rural America," Chip Flory has been informing growers about the ag industry for decades.
Chip Flory is sometimes called the Voice of Rural America.
Host of the AgriTalk radio program and podcast, he brings ag news, policy updates and expert insights to a network of more than 135 radio stations across the U.S.
So in this episode, we flip the script on Chip, interviewing him at the National Corn Growers Association booth on the show floor at Commodity Classic.
Plus, we finally settle, once and for all, who’s the biggest music buff—Chip Flory or NCGA CEO Jon Doggett—with a classic rock trivia contest for the ages.
Chip Flory:
We went from one day being an operating family farm, a farm that I saw my future on, and the next morning when the bank president called and said, "We've got to have a conversation because things have changed." To being in a position that I felt like I could help farmers make better business decisions, that was really appealing to me.
Dusty Weis:
Hello, and welcome to Wherever Jon May Roam, the National Corn Growers Association Podcast. This is where leaders, growers, and stakeholders in the corn industry can turn for big picture conversations about the state of the industry and its future. I'm Dusty Weis, and I'll be introducing your host association, CEO, Jon Doggett. From the fields of the corn belt to the DC beltway, we're making sure that the growers who feed America have a say in the issues that are important to them with key leaders who are shaping the future of agriculture.
Dusty Weis:
Chip Flory is sometimes called the voice of rural America, host of the AgriTalk radio program and podcast, he brings ag news, policy updates and expert insights to a network of more than 135 radio stations across the US. In this episode, we flipped the script on Chip, interviewing him at the National Corn Growers Association booth on the show floor at Commodity Classic. Plus, we finally settle once and for all who is the biggest music buff, Chip Flory or NCGA CEO, Jon Doggett.
Dusty Weis:
If you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed to this podcast in your favorite app also make sure you follow the NCGA on twitter @nationalcorn and sign up for the National Corn Growers Association newsletter at ncga.com. With that, it's time to once again, introduce Jon. Jon Doggett, the CEO of the National Corn Growers Association and Jon, they say turnabout is fair play, over the years, there's a fellow who's regularly called upon you, picked your brain, raked you over the coals with tough questions on his AgriTalk program and his name's Chip Flory.
Jon Doggett:
His name is Chip Flory. He is a good friend. He is an outstanding ag reporter and I have been on your show, what, a couple dozen times?
Chip Flory:
Oh a couple. Yeah, at least a couple dozen times.
Jon Doggett:
We talked about let's do a podcast at Classic and we kicked ideas around and I said, "Let's get Flory on the program." I am so glad you're here. I have just thoroughly enjoyed being on your show over and over again. I am just tickled to death that you're on mine.
Chip Flory:
I think I'm glad I'm here. I think we'll figure this out as we go. I'm not exactly sure, it's been a long time since I've spent this much time on this side of the mic. I don't know how this is going to go.
Jon Doggett:
Are you at such an age now that you can't go ahead and deal with change?
Chip Flory:
No, I'm not going to say that.
Dusty Weis:
Says the guy who didn't want to use a different set of headphones than he's used to.
Chip Flory:
No, thank you. Thank you so much for asking.
Jon Doggett:
Chip, we're just going to start. Who do you work for? What do you do? Why are you here?
Chip Flory:
I'm the host of AgriTalk. AgriTalk in its original format has been around for more than 25 years. Ken Root was the first host of AgriTalk, Ken and I are good friends today. Mike Adams was after Ken and I took over for Mike four years ago on the morning show. The afternoon show, the second hour of AgriTalk is something that I really am proud of and I'm proud of the morning show, don't get me wrong, I love doing it.
Chip Flory:
The afternoon show with its focus on markets, it's something that we started from scratch. Now, the fine people at Farm Journal with their network that was already in place for AgriTalk, gave us a great platform to go out and build a new show from. To go to market with a brand new, one hour ag based show that starts at 2:00 in the afternoon, that was a stretch, it was a stretch for a lot of stations.
Chip Flory:
Now it's on 135 stations in 19 states. I'm really, really proud of the afternoon show and the market side of things that we cover in the afternoon. I was Pro Farmer editor for 25 years, we talked markets, we talked policy, we talked issues, but the number one thing that we talked about is markets and what to do to manage the risk that you face on a regular basis. To turn what I did for 25 years into a show that people really seem to respond to, that's pretty rewarding.
Jon Doggett:
You have a lot of reason to be proud of that, my friend, you absolutely do. Tell me a little more about your background. Where were you born and raised? How did you get to here?
Chip Flory:
I grew up on a farm in Eastern Iowa, it was a very diverse family farm that went through what farms went through in the late seventies and early eighties. I was 15 years old when we had the farm sale in 1980 and my brother's 10 years older than I am, he and my dad had gotten into a position that the bank said was a bad spot to be in. I was only 15, but I was old enough to know what was going on, but I know that the payments were still being made. I know that everything was being hit, I know that the operation was running as it was supposed to run, it's just that once the rules changed, the rules changed and there was no fighting it.
Chip Flory:
We went from one day being an operating family farm, a farm that I saw my future on, I expected and was planning to be another farmer on that home place. The next morning, when the bank president called and said, "We've got to have a conversation because things have changed." That was a trying time for our family. I've got an appreciation for farming and farmers and for the trials and the tribulations and the risks that they face and to be in a position that I felt like I could help farmers manage those risks, help farmers make better business decisions, that was really appealing to me.
Chip Flory:
It was 1981, I was a sophomore in high school, we were driving down the road, dad and I were, and dad was still farming, even after the farm sale. We were driving down the road and on the radio came on the Pro Farmer Minute, it was a short little, one minute hit with an idea that would be in there, maybe a hint at how you should go about your risk management. Dad stopped the truck, turned around, we went back to the house and he says, "I got to take care of this now. I got to do something about it." By the way, you know who was reporting that Pro Farmer Minute at that time?
Jon Doggett:
Who?
Chip Flory:
Ron Michaelson, the father of one Davis Michaelson.
Jon Doggett:
That's going back a long time ago.
Chip Flory:
Yes, that was 1981. That had such an impact on me, that the one minute that dad heard caused him to turn the truck around and go home and take some action, that left an impression on me, it really did. My mom was a journalist for 60 years, she was a real correspondent. I had the reporting blood in me. I had the love of agriculture. I had the influence from my dad, and then I saw a Pro Farmer in action and it was just something that I decided that I wanted to do. I decided at that time, before I graduated high school, I decided that I wanted to be the editor of Pro Farmer someday.
Jon Doggett:
You were looking for a career rather than a job?
Chip Flory:
Oh, absolutely.
Jon Doggett:
And a mission to boot.
Chip Flory:
Absolutely. I was very active in 4-H, Jon, and the whole goal-driven decision making and the setting of goals and following through and writing out goals, I bought into that stuff, hook, line and sinker. I applied the lessons that I was learning from 4-H, I took it right over to my life and my career. I knew if it was possible, I wanted to do one job interview in my life and that was it.
Jon Doggett:
Those stories, in particular, those of us who were in agriculture in the eighties and I remember vividly my wife and I, shortly after we were married in 1980, going back to the ranch was probably about '82, '83, having the conversation with the family.
Chip Flory:
Yeah.
Jon Doggett:
My brother was already back at the ranch and times were really tough, he'd just bought my uncle out a couple years before and he bought the place next door a few years after that. He just looked at me and said, "I'd love to have you come back, but here's the economic reality." That has stuck with me for the rest of my life and it has driven a lot of what I have done throughout my career as well. Those moments that you all of a sudden realize that this is something, it's something you need to act on.
Chip Flory:
Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly right. When dad wrapped up in the house, whatever it was that he did, I don't remember all the details of it, but whatever it was that Ron Michaelson caused dad to stop and go back and do, it spurred up the most heartfelt conversation between a dad and a 16 year old that it could have ever spurred. It was the conversation of the economic reality of a 200 acre farm in 1981.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah.
Chip Flory:
For mom and dad, it might work. For mom and dad and the next generation, that's not going to work.
Jon Doggett:
Everybody's going to have to work in town.
Chip Flory:
Right.
Jon Doggett:
Then what? You went to Iowa state?
Chip Flory:
Right. I was a little slow in making decisions, I'll admit that, in high school. Like I said, I was very active in 4-H and it was almost like I didn't want that to end, I might have hung on just a little bit too long. I enrolled at Iowa State University a little late, was trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to do and what it should look like. Here I am, a senior in high school, I call up Cedar Falls, Iowa, and the Pro Farmer headquarters, and just asked to talk to an editor and they put Bob Kaufman on the line with me.
Chip Flory:
I explained to him who I was and that I'd been reading Pro Farmer for a couple of years and I'm a big fan of the Pro Farmer Minute, love the impact and love the information and the guidance, the influence that comes from Pro Farmer. I very bluntly said, "Bob, what do I got to do if I want to be the editor or Pro Farmer someday? What do I take at Iowa state?"
Jon Doggett:
A rather audacious question as a senior in high school.
Dusty Weis:
Can I have your job?
Jon Doggett:
Yeah.
Chip Flory:
Yeah. What if I want your job someday? We made a plan. We made a plan on the phone that day. Bob helped me make that plan. I wrote it all down, I took it with me to Iowa State, Vero Fritz was my advisor at Iowa State in the journalism department. I put that piece of paper in front of him and he says, "Ah, I don't know. The top part here we can handle. I don't know about this bottom part, if we can handle that or not."
Chip Flory:
I said, "Oh, well, that's disappointing." He says, "Well, we can't handle it right now. Let's get it figured out." We got Rob Dieter from the ag economics department and we got Paul Lasley from the sociology department, just one of the great minds in rural sociology, Paul Lasley and Rob Dieter was a heck of a teacher too, my favorite. They got together and put together a program, a minor for me that was ag socioeconomics, how money affects the decision-making process, they put that program together for me. I went through, got a degree in ag journalism with a broadcast emphasis and a minor in ag socioeconomics.
Jon Doggett:
Ag socioeconomics.
Chip Flory:
Yep.
Jon Doggett:
That's a mouthful.
Chip Flory:
Yes. Yeah, absolutely, it is. Then you won't believe who called finals week.
Jon Doggett:
Who?
Chip Flory:
Bob Kaufman. He said, "Chip, I just wanted to check up on you and see how things are going." I said, "Bob, your timing is absolutely unbelievable to me. I've got one final left." And he says, "We don't have a job open here, but let's keep in contact." Next day, sitting in the apartment, the phone rings again and it was a guy by the name of Jeff Wilson, who was the bureau chief for Commodity World News, which became Futures World News. It was a wire service owned by Austar Communications, which also owned Pro Farmer and it was a job reporting from the Chicago Board of Trade, reporting on what's happening in the grain markets. I looked at it as my foot in the door to eventually get to Pro Farmer.
Chip Flory:
I had never expected to get the experience that I got spending three and a half years on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, floor of the Mercantile Exchange and the way that the commodity markets and risk management and how the markets flow together, how that bit me, I never expected that to happen. I just thought I'm getting my foot in the door, I'm going to live in Chicago only for as long as I have to and then I'm getting out of there. I'll admit three and a half years in Chicago for this kid was enough, but boy, I tell you what, that's three and a half years that I would never give up there.
Jon Doggett:
Drinking from the fire hose?
Chip Flory:
No, man.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah.
Chip Flory:
Yeah.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah and getting opportunity to make all sorts of mistakes and learning from them. Boy, that has to have been just super.
Chip Flory:
Oh, it was fantastic.
Dusty Weis:
You talked too about how 4-H influenced you and certainly one of the things that they teach you in 4-H is entrepreneurialism and when you talk about approaching your advisors at Iowa State and saying, "Hey, I want you to build a minor for me." That's an entrepreneurial spirit right there, but you went on, you guys have built a network of what did you say? 135 affiliates now.
Chip Flory:
Yeah.
Dusty Weis:
Going into the journalism world and making it there, not a whole lot easier than farming certainly. To go in and succeed the way that you have and to build out a network of 135 affiliates around the country, that takes a lot of entrepreneurialism too.
Chip Flory:
And a heck of a team, an unbelievable team in doing that. Brian Conradi at Farm Journal at broadcast head quarters in South Bend, Indiana, he leads an awesome team. I got so much support from Clinton Griffith Ag Day anchor from Time Morgan, the host of U.S. Farm Report on the broadcast team. I'm the young guy because they've been around at Farm Journal longer than I have.
Chip Flory:
That's really interesting, but coming off of 17 years as editor of Pro Farmer, which I will still contend is the coolest gig ever. I love, love, love what I'm doing, but that time that I spent as editor or Pro Farmer and for the first, I don't know, 10 years, some of it might've been, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe that I'm actually doing this." The opportunities that I had as Pro Farmer editor, get out on the road, talk to people, talk to that guy that's walking by over there right now, Keith Hora. One of my absolute favorites gave me my first break as Pro Farmer editor on a big story, that guy that just walked by.
Jon Doggett:
A great guy too.
Chip Flory:
Absolutely.
Jon Doggett:
Absolutely. .
Chip Flory:
Yes. But the Pro Farmer editor, it's not just being the editor, it is a responsibility to the membership of Professional Farmers of America. Boy, I took that serious and the thing is over the years, the people that I worked with at Pro Farmer, I still work with Jim Weisemeyer. Jim Weisemeyer's the Pro Farmer policy analyst, he's the Washington guy, didn't ever want to be the editor, but a guy that I worked with at Iowa State, a guy that I hired to work with me in Chicago when I was the bureau chief in Chicago, for a period of time.
Chip Flory:
Scott Davis, he worked with him up until it was the early 2000's, but I was in his way, that guy was going to be Pro Farmer editor. I was in his way and I was trying to figure out what it in the world can I do to give him the sense of responsibility, sense of urgency, the sense of ownership that you get when you are the editor of that newsletter. We succeeded on that for several years, but he wanted it as bad as I did and I was in the way, he's now an unbelievably successful risk manager broker up in Rochester. He was one of the guys that I just loved working with Scott.
Chip Flory:
The other guy's, Brian Grady, good Lord, I was definitely in his way and it was starting to become very much apparent and he had ambitions to be the editor, I wanted him to be the editor and then when the opportunity came along to do the afternoon show, get that up and running, get that started. Later the opportunity to add the morning hour, that was plenty of incentive and is still crazy rewarding enough to make the move and I'll say it, to give up the coolest gig there is in ag journalism.
Jon Doggett:
I feel a little bit the same way about, I love being the CEO of the Corn Guards, but you know what, running that Washington office, that was the neatest thing I've ever done in my life. Of course we had some wins and that was great, it's the steps along the way, it's the people along the way. I've had some wonder or mentors throughout my time, Dale Moore, who just announced his retirement yesterday.
Chip Flory:
Yes.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah. In 1988, I moved out to Washington, DC in February and the chief of staff said, "The Congressman Marlon and Congressman Roberts, they're good buds and he's got a guy who's really good on ag stuff, a young guy by the name of Dale Moore, you need to go buy him a cup of coffee." I did, and I've been-
Chip Flory:
Holy smokes.
Jon Doggett:
I've been doing that ever since and people like Dick Newford at Farm Bureau and all those folks along the way, and it wasn't the guys that gave you the praise, it was the ones that said, "Hey, listen you knucklehead, you ought to try something a little bit different." I see Dusty's nodding his head too.
Dusty Weis:
I've gotten that talk a few times over the years, I'll tell you that.Yeah, totally.
Jon Doggett:
I'll tell you, I'm looking over at Larry and he's going, "Yeah, I'm the guy."
Dusty Weis:
Larry and I actually, we just found out a couple weeks ago, we lost a good mentor of ours. Larry and I, of course, Larry, our producer have known each other since we were students at a student radio station at the University of Wisconsin Madison and the general manager, Dave Black is a legend in his own time, passed away recently. Terrible, terrible news and our hearts gone to his family.
Dusty Weis:
It got me thinking about one of the best things that Dave Black ever did for me was when I was a sophomore in college and I had just joined up the radio station, I was kind of loosely involved, I was phoning it in, if I'm being honest, looking back at it. Then at the end of the semester, I went up to Dave Black, I asked him, "Hey, Dave, you write me a letter of recommendations?" He looks at me square in the eyes and goes, "Nope." What do you mean? What do you mean nope?
Dusty Weis:
He looks at me and he says, "I know that you are capable of contributing a lot more to our student radio station. I want to see you get involved and apply yourself and really show me what you've got and frankly, I need to get to know you better because a recommendation is a sacred thing to me. I don't know you well enough to recommend you to anybody. No, I won't write you a letter of recommendation today, that's not to say the door's not open in the future, but show me what you've got." Then a year later, when I came back to them after really putting my back into it for a year and asked him for a letter of recommendation, he was more than happy and signed it with a flourish and it felt all that better for having gotten it that way.
Chip Flory:
Yeah. You bet. Good stuff. That's a tough one to lose right there. Yeah. One of my mentors just recently passed too, Jerry Passer from WMT. I had the WMT scholarship, geez, I think it was 1986. I got to spend the summer with Jerry Passer and Rich Balvans and Jane in the farm department at WMT in Cedar Rapids, that was fun.
Dusty Weis:
Yeah. Certainly, hearing you tell these stories Chip about your time in the industry and agriculture's always been a really tight knit community, but particularly ag media, I think has always had those really deep roots and people that have long histories in this business. How would you say that the ag media landscape has changed in your time here?
Chip Flory:
Somehow, someway they're getting younger.
Jon Doggett:
I've noticed that as well.
Chip Flory:
Is it that I'm just getting old? I don't know. The way that it has changed is on the broadcast side, the people that are still in it can do so much with so little. They've gone through continuous budget cuts, they've gone through the tightening of the screws so many times and to see the job that they still do and the level of commitment, to see their dedication to their station, to their region, to their listeners just blows me away.
Chip Flory:
In so many ways. There are a one man shop, they have to prep the news, they have to deliver the news, then they might go out and cover high school sports that night. Then they have to go and talk with the people that are advertising on the station, then they got to deal with FCC over things.
Chip Flory:
I look at what those guys do and it just blows me away because I study the news. I study the markets. I spend time networking with the smartest people that I can find. I spend time preparing for conversations and somebody else is out there managing the affiliates and somebody else is out there making sales. I look at the team that I've got and it's awesome, but to see the level of commitment of the farm broadcasters that are working out there at an individual station, absolutely blows me away. I spent some time with some up-and-coming farm journalists from Iowa State here just recently, very encouraged there. I think we're going to be just fine, we've got good people, smart people that are coming into the industry, but the complexity of the issues that they're going to have to understand going forward, it just blows me away.
Jon Doggett:
It's so many things that we deal with more and more things, the difference between the policy resolutions that we talked about this morning with the corn guards, is much different than it was 20 years ago. Yeah. We still talk about farm programs, we still talk about ethanol. We still talk about ethanol. We still talk about ethanol, but we're talking about more and more things and we're here at the trade show. Let's just take a look around and take a look at all of the technology that's here and we all have to manage it, but boy.
Chip Flory:
Think of the choices that presents for someone that wants to get into farm journalism right now, if you want to specialize, that's one of the things that I decided very early on was that I was going to specialize in markets and analysis. I think that really benefited me throughout my career. If somebody new decides to focus on technology, they're going to be around for a long time.
Jon Doggett:
Focus on technology, but be able to explain it to people at my generation.
Chip Flory:
Yeah. Right.
Jon Doggett:
66-year-olds don't understand technology nearly as well as my eight-year-old granddaughter. How do we take that? That's the thing I like about what you do and I feel every time I'm on your program, you invest the time to understand the issues, you invest the time and look at the facts, and then you have to turn around and take something that's quite complex and put it in a form that is short, sweet, concise, understandable. That's a talent.
Chip Flory:
Yeah. Believe me. There are many times where I think there's no way that we're going to be able to get all of this into a 10 minute conversation. When you think about lot of the formats that are out there, the interviews are two or three minutes. You know that, when you're on my show, sometimes I feel like there's a weight lifted off of you a bit because you've got a little bit more time, you can explain things a little bit further, we can have a little fun, joke around at the start of something.
Chip Flory:
When you get constrained to that two, two and a half minute, almost sound bite conversation, I understand that those types of interviews are very important, but I consider mine just a little bit longer format in these 10 minute conversations that we get to have. In the afternoon show, when we're talking markets, I have a single guest on for 20 minutes and that's because in 10 minutes you can't really get from them what they are thinking about the markets.
Chip Flory:
Now, when it comes time to talk about tariffs on fertilizer, something like that, we can get you on and in 10 minutes we get to the end of that and I feel like I understand exactly why the NCGA is pushing this as hard as they are. That's the kind of format of info that I enjoy delivering the most.
Jon Doggett:
That's why we're doing this podcast is because we have to have more conversations and fewer soundbites.
Dusty Weis:
Some things don't fit into 140 character tweet.
Jon Doggett:
Oddly enough, no.
Chip Flory:
Unbelievable, isn't it?
Jon Doggett:
Let's go into some other things. Julie, of course you know, Julie, she always has lots of questions and some of which you wrote down, some of which she giggled and laughed and told, me about. Craziest guess you've ever interviewed?
Dusty Weis:
You mean, besides Jon Doggett?
Chip Flory:
Jon's going to make that list.
Jon Doggett:
I'm not going to be at the top of the list though.
Chip Flory:
Okay. Jim Morrison.
Dusty Weis:
The Jim Morrison?
Chip Flory:
Not that Jim Morrison. No. Remember the movie, the Rookie?
Jon Doggett:
Yeah.
Chip Flory:
Okay. Yeah. The pitcher high school coach made his way through minor leagues and made his way to pitch for Texas. At the start of COVID, everybody was just like, "How in the world are we going to get through this? I can't believe that we've been shut down." One night I was watching the Rookie and I texted my producer, Joe Stackler, I texted him immediately and said, "Let's get this Jim Morrison on the show and let's find out what he's doing, see if we could get him on and talk about some motivational for us all." He was an absolute blast. We've had him on, I think three times and he's an absolute blast and he was a big shot of motivation, so that was fun.
Chip Flory:
The time that I was sitting, looking at my call screener screen and saw Oliver North on there. That was-
Jon Doggett:
I bet that was interesting.
Chip Flory:
That was a little intimidating to see that. That was after President Trump ordered the strike on one of the terrorists in the middle east and got him. Okay, I can't remember his name. I wondered exactly what it might mean for relations in the region. Who in the heck would we talk to about it? Just thought let's get the old Colonel on and he agreed to come on and talk about it.
Dusty Weis:
Sometimes you got to shoot your shot.
Chip Flory:
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Oliver North, that was an interesting one and it still blows me away and it's gotten to the point that he's almost a regular on the show now and oh man, I'm going to really show how much of a geek I am here. Jared Bernstein, the White House council of economic advisors when Obama was president, Jared was on CNBC all the time as the economic spokesman for the Obama administration.
Chip Flory:
I can't tell you how many arguments I've had with Jared over the years. He never answered me once, I guess he couldn't hear me through the TV, but I would scream at the TV while he was on there and just dream of the day where I could have a conversation with this guy. He's now kind of a regular on the show and I ask him the questions that I would ask through the TV and he responds, and it is not confrontational at all. He knows that he is going to get, okay, we're going to talk about the jobs report, but then he's probably also going to bring up, I'm going to go to something else in the conversation.
Chip Flory:
The last jobs report that was on, of course, what we went to was when are we going to become energy independent again? When will we see the rules and regulations in this country promote fluid fuel use in this country and open it up? We get the prices at the pump down, he talked about energy independence comes in many different ways, you've got your solar, you've got your wind, you've got this, you've got that.
Chip Flory:
I said, Jared, "That's not what we are talking about. We are talking about pumping more." He says, "That message has been heard at the White House now." He said that last Friday, just this week, you can tell that message has been heard at the White House, that if they don't put more crude, more gasoline, more opportunity to blend some ethanol into the system, that if they thought they were going to get beat next November, they really think they're going to get beat next November now.
Jon Doggett:
Who is the most famous person that you ever interviewed? The one that you felt a little bit intimidated, oh my God, I can't believe that I'm actually talking to the Queen of England. You have not had Queen Elizabeth on your show.
Chip Flory:
I don't know what we'd talk about, honestly.
Jon Doggett:
Corgis.
Chip Flory:
Well, we could do that. They're cute little fellas. Gosh, when I was the editor of Pro Farmer, I was really, really hard on Tom Vilsack 1.0 under Obama, especially in his first two years, because he was not focused on commercial agriculture. He was not focused on the people that feed the world, he was focused on farmer's markets, which is fine, but that's not the responsibility of the secretary of agriculture. By the time he wrapped up his first eight years, I was a fan of his attention to commercial and production agriculture, now that we're onto Vilsack 2.0, I get an opportunity to talk with him on a regular basis. That's pretty cool.
Jon Doggett:
He's a lot more accessible now than he was those first couple years, it was just horrible. Now if you really need to talk to the secretary, you can get on the phone with the secretary if you really need to and he will give you the attention.
Chip Flory:
Yeah, exactly. Senator Chuck Grassley is unbelievably generous with his time on the show. He's on roughly every six weeks, five, six weeks, that's a pretty famous guy. If it wouldn't have been for the fact that I worked 15 miles from his place and he was a Pro Farmer member, every now and then he would stop in the office anyway. If it wasn't for that, I'd probably be really intimidated every time I got on the phone with him, but seeing we had an acquaintance before, it's really cool to get him on and talk with him. He's so influential.
Jon Doggett:
Who is the guest that you wish you could have? Your dream guest that you have not been able to get yet and might not be able to?
Chip Flory:
Okay. Everything stays real upfront and current with me on stuff like that, you know who I can't get?
Jon Doggett:
Who?
Chip Flory:
It's somebody that called you the day that he got the dang job. I cannot get Michael Reagan, EPA administrator. Like I said, it's not like that's somebody that have been chasing for 10 years or anything like that. I don't think there's really anybody that have been chasing for 10 years to get them on the show, but that guy right now, or that person right now is Reagan, the request goes in every week.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah. We've had a request in to meet with the administrator since I think two days after he became confirmed and we have yet to have the courtesy of a reply. Maybe when this podcast goes out, maybe somebody at EPA, I don't know if they'll be listening to this, but we can hope.
Dusty Weis:
We can send it to him.
Chip Flory:
Yeah. We can send it to him. Exactly. At least this little clip.
Dusty Weis:
From new Orleans with love. Yeah.
Chip Flory:
I bet he'd do it.
Jon Doggett:
Chip, we talk in commodity organizations all the time, got to get our voice out, got to get our message out, got to inform people. What can commodity groups do better in your mind to talk to two audiences, one, the audience that you speak to everyday, farmers and people involved in agriculture. What can we do better in your mind to get our message out to a broader audience, consumers or influencers or whoever?
Chip Flory:
I'm of that age now, where I've seen things change and I'm prone to get tied into things, into how I think things should be done. For the first, I don't know, three years, four years, when a younger listener would come up to me and say, "Chip, I listen to your podcast all the time. I love it." Thanks. But it's not really a podcast, it's a radio show and like, "What?" I said, "Well, it's a radio program that just happens to also be a podcast."
Chip Flory:
I stopped fighting that and started embracing that and the change that it made when I was doing it radio-minded first, in the publishing, journalism media business, we have this digital-first attitude. Let's make sure that we get a good story out there as fast as we can and if it comes back later in print, that's fine, but it's digital-first.
Chip Flory:
I was always radio first. To me, based on the training that I had and the attitude that I had, the radio first took a little bit of a different attitude then podcast first. When I just kind of thought, I'm going to have this conversation with Joe, I'm going to have this conversation with Davis Michaelson, my news anchor about this subtle change, maybe we think podcast first, radio second. We did that and all of a sudden, the tone, the tempo of the conversation, everything just kind of changed, picked up, got even more casual than what it was when we were thinking radio first.
Chip Flory:
The response on radio has been fantastic, now the older listeners that before were always very encouraging about what we were doing on the show are even more encouraging now. They still come up and say, "Hey, I listen to you on the radio, love your show, love the way that you and Davis... Love this, love that. Information's great." We've kind of taken on an attitude that we're really Sports Talk radio for farmers, which is really weird because I don't think Davis has ever listened to a day of Sports Talk in his life.
Chip Flory:
Just the simple fact that we take what we do seriously, we know that what we are reporting and conversing on is very important to those people that are listening because so many of them have chosen to listen. It's not that they just jumped in the truck and the show was on and they're listening, these people have chosen to listen by going and actively seeking out the information. If there is a way that you can discover to make your communications, make the membership, seek it out because it's so dang good and so dang important that they come to you and grab it, boy, then you got it.
Jon Doggett:
Neil Caskey my VP of comms is standing right over there and he and I are going to have this conversation as soon as we get done recording here, but you're absolutely right.
Chip Flory:
Yeah. Now I love it just because of my change in attitude. Now I love it when somebody comes up and says, "Man, I love your podcast." I love it. It's because you realize, those people actively went after it, grabbed it and spent an hour listening to it. It blows me away, get them to come get it.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah. That puts a lot of responsibility on you to deliver.
Chip Flory:
Yeah. You can make a misstep once or twice. No, you know what? I do 40 segments a week in radio, if one of them is a bummer and I just go, "Geeze then." Davis is like, "Well, that one's kind of okay, but eh, let's not do that again." We can kind of laugh that off. If it happens a second time in a week, then it's the, "Let's straighten up here, guys. We're doing something wrong." One time out of 40, let's not let that happen again. Two out of 40 it's time to reevaluate, commitment to quality and a respect of the time of the people that are consuming the information.
Jon Doggett:
You certainly have done that as a listener as well as a guest on your program. I greatly value it and currently value-
Chip Flory:
Thank you.
Jon Doggett:
What you do and what you do for our industry and you keep us on our toes occasionally.
Chip Flory:
I try to.
Jon Doggett:
I know you do.
Chip Flory:
If it's going to be something really big I'll call and let you know first. Yeah.
Dusty Weis:
Maybe. Fellas, anyone who listens to Jon's appearances on Chip's show regularly knows that you're both pretty big music buffs.
Chip Flory:
Sure.
Dusty Weis:
I think that's safe to say. In fact, I think that a lot of thought goes into careful selection of whatever the bumper music is.
Jon Doggett:
No, there's no thought going into that.
Dusty Weis:
Leading Jon Doggett, but that much said a little bird suggested to me that it might be fun to settle once and for all who's the king cheese around here in terms of music trivia. If you're amenable, I've got a little trivia game set up here, some classic rock, some sixties, seventies, eighties, rock and roll.
Chip Flory:
I hope you made the crown in his head size, not mine.
Jon Doggett:
Seven and five eights.
Dusty Weis:
Little rock paper scissors to see who leads off. I see Jon Doggett.
Chip Flory:
Yeah. He had scissors. I had paper.
Dusty Weis:
Jon, that's going to give you the option. Do you want to go first or second?
Jon Doggett:
I'll go first.
Dusty Weis:
All right, there we go. First category backing bands. I'm going to rattle off a solo musician, you've got five seconds to tell me the name of their most well-known backing band according to Google auto complete. The answer's going to be in the form of artist and so-and-so. For example, Paul McCartney and wings. We all ready?
Jon Doggett:
Yeah.
Dusty Weis:
All right. Coming to Jon Doggett first, Tom Petty?
Jon Doggett:
And the Heartbreakers.
Dusty Weis:
Chip, Joan Jett?
Chip Flory:
And the Black Hearts.
Dusty Weis:
That's right. Jon, Bob Seger?
Chip Flory:
Oh.
Dusty Weis:
5, 4, 3, 2.
Jon Doggett:
Oh, I'm going to be really-
Dusty Weis:
And the Silver Bullet Band.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah. Yeah. You know who used to play on that was where a couple members of the Eagles.
Dusty Weis:
I did not know that.
Jon Doggett:
Yes.
Dusty Weis:
Yeah. Okay.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah.
Dusty Weis:
Chip, George Thorogood?
Chip Flory:
Is it Destroyers?
Dusty Weis:
Destroyers. He's got it. Very good. Here we go for a one-point lead. Jon Doggett, Elvis Castello?
Jon Doggett:
Oh, I was never an Elvis Castello fan. Ever. Ever. No, I'm not even going to try.
Dusty Weis:
That's all right. These get harder as they go along.
Chip Flory:
Oh, good.
Dusty Weis:
Chip, Iggy Pop?
Chip Flory:
No.
Dusty Weis:
And the Stooges.
Chip Flory:
No, I should've known that one. Woo.
Dusty Weis:
There we go. After round one, Chip's got a two-to-one lead. Coming into the second category, we're doing numbers here. I'm going to ask a question, you're going to give me the answer. It is a number and Jon, we'll start with you again. Jim Morrison, Janice Joplin, Jimmy Hendricks, Kirk Cobain all died tragically young, and they were all what age?
Jon Doggett:
27.
Dusty Weis:
That's correct.
Chip Flory:
Wow.
Dusty Weis:
Point for Jon. They call it the 27 Club. Chip, the title of a 1966 hit by the Rolling Stones is all about having a whole lot of nervous breakdowns. How many?
Chip Flory:
I'm not going to get it. You got it?
Dusty Weis:
Jon Doggett to steal.
Jon Doggett:
Oh. How many?
Dusty Weis:
19th. My 19th.
Chip Flory:
My 19th.
Dusty Weis:
Nervous breakdown.
Chip Flory:
Okay.
Dusty Weis:
Back to Jon Doggett. This revered Prague rock album by Rush is named after year in the future in which the album story is set. Which year is that?
Jon Doggett:
Not a big Rush fan either, but I think I can see the album cover, but I cannot see the title.
Dusty Weis:
Not a big fan of, We Are the Priests to the Temple of Syrinx? Come on.
Jon Doggett:
Hey, Dusty. I hate to break this to you, but I'm a little older than that. A little bit.
Dusty Weis:
2112.
Jon Doggett:
2112.
Dusty Weis:
Is the name of the album.
Jon Doggett:
All right.
Chip Flory:
Man, wouldn't it be something if we all get there?
Jon Doggett:
Yeah. Woo.
Dusty Weis:
Closer every day. Chip, Freddy Mercury lead singer of Queen attributed his extraordinary vocal range to having been born with an extra large mouth. How many extra teeth did he have?
Chip Flory:
Four.
Dusty Weis:
That is correct. Chip's back on the board.
Jon Doggett:
That was great. That was good. I'm impressed.
Dusty Weis:
Jon Doggett.
Chip Flory:
I saw the movie.
Dusty Weis:
It was a good flick. Yeah. Jon Doggett, Pink Floyd dropped their perennial classic Dark Side of the Moon in this year.
Jon Doggett:
1972.
Dusty Weis:
Missed it by that much. '73.
Chip Flory:
That's the year Pro Farmer started.
Jon Doggett:
Dark Side of the Moon is probably one of the quintessential rock albums of all time and it is one of my favorite. In fact, I was on a plane here a couple nights ago and I had it cranked all the way up on the headphones and I was just really enjoying, it is just a great-
Chip Flory:
See, I enjoyed it until September of 1991 and I went on a 20-hour drive with a guy and that was all he played.
Dusty Weis:
Shoot. That'll wear you out on anything. Chip, similar question for you. Led Zeppelin four, it's got Stairway, When the Levee Breaks, Rock and Roll, Battle of Evermore, which year did that one come out?
Chip Flory:
Well, it would've been close to the same time. I'm going to go with his original answer, 1972.
Dusty Weis:
Missed it bye one, 1971.
Jon Doggett:
I was signaling too and I thought it was '72.
Dusty Weis:
All right. We got a good game here going so far. Chip's got three-
Chip Flory:
No, no. It would be a game if there were more correct answers than-
Dusty Weis:
I told you it was going to be hard. That's all right. I expect you guys to slam dunk this one because the third category here is lyrics. I'm going to start a lyrical phrase, you finish it. For a bonus point name the artist and song name. Going to Jon Doggett first, big wheels keep on turning.
Jon Doggett:
Proud Mary keeps on run... It's Proud Mary and its Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Dusty Weis:
I was actually going for Leonard Skynard and Sweet Home Alabama, but I actually think that lyrical phrase is in both of those songs.
Jon Doggett:
I think it is too.
Dusty Weis:
I think that's two points for Jon Doggett, Chip looks like he wants to work the rest-
Chip Flory:
Proud Mary keep on burning in. Rolling. Rolling. Rolling down the river.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah.
Chip Flory:
Yeah.
Dusty Weis:
Wow. I'm stumped. Okay. Did not expect that. Okay. Coming to you Chip, on a dark desert highway.
Chip Flory:
On a dark desert highway, I've been running... No.
Dusty Weis:
This is something I know very little about, nothing in my hair. That's the Eagles. Hotel in California.
Chip Flory:
Okay. I'm terrible at this.
Dusty Weis:
Jon Doggett.
Jon Doggett:
Sir.
Dusty Weis:
Old black water, keep on rolling.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah. That's Creedence. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Dusty Weis:
It's not.
Jon Doggett:
That's Doobie Brothers.
Dusty Weis:
That is Doobie Brothers. What's the next part of the lyric phrase? Old black water keep on rolling. Chip wants to steal.
Chip Flory:
Mississippi moon once you keep on shining on me.
Dusty Weis:
There we go. That's a point for each of you there.
Jon Doggett:
Oh boy. Woo.
Dusty Weis:
I told you this was going to be good. Yeah.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah.
Dusty Weis:
All right. Let's get back to the 1970's here. Chip?
Chip Flory:
Yeah.
Dusty Weis:
Thunder only happened when it's raining. You could sing it if it helps.
Chip Flory:
Lovers only... Oh, what is it? Lovers only. Is that right?
Dusty Weis:
You're so close. You're so close. It's not lovers. I'm going to give you the first one, it's players.
Chip Flory:
Players only-
Jon Doggett:
Keep on playing.
Chip Flory:
I don't know. Oh, I could sing it if it was playing.
Dusty Weis:
Players only love you when they're playing.
Chip Flory:
Players only love you when they're playing.
Dusty Weis:
Dreams. Fleetwood Mac.
Chip Flory:
Yes.
Dusty Weis:
That's the one. Jon, coming to you again. This is a good one. I can't not say it in the cadence, you get up every morning from your alarm clocks warning.
Jon Doggett:
Take the 815 through the city.
Dusty Weis:
There you go. There you go. Band and song?
Jon Doggett:
Oh gosh.
Chip Flory:
Oh, I got it.
Dusty Weis:
Go.
Chip Flory:
Bachman Turner Overdrive, Taking Care of Business.
Dusty Weis:
There you go. BTO.
Jon Doggett:
Yeah. Yeah. You used to play that in the fraternity house all over and over and over and over, getting it on an old, old, old stereo with really bad speakers.
Chip Flory:
Yeah. When the afternoon of AgriTalk first started off, for two years it was called Market Rally. At the bottom of the hour for about six months, we used it for bump every day, Taking Care of Business.
Jon Doggett:
Taking Care of Business.
Dusty Weis:
All right. Last question. Right now, the score Jon six points, Chip five. This is to tie, possibly to break the tie. Chip, welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.
Chip Flory:
My friends to the show that never end come alive-
Dusty Weis:
Doggett's got it.
Chip Flory:
Got it?
Jon Doggett:
It's Beatles, from the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Dusty Weis:
Oh. That's Emerson Lake and Palmer.
Jon Doggett:
Oh God.
Chip Flory:
Emerson Lake and Palmer.
Dusty Weis:
Welcome to the-
Jon Doggett:
Oh. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's the... That never answer. That's the opening of what song?
Chip Flory:
Come alive.
Dusty Weis:
Karn Evil 9, the very strangely named song, it's we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside, come inside. Spoken like a carnival barker. There we go. We settled it. All right. With six points to five, Jon Doggett.
Jon Doggett:
Hey.
Dusty Weis:
Is king cheese of music trivia, at least in the agricultural world.
Jon Doggett:
I missed some that I should not have missed, but you know what? The heat was on and frankly-
Chip Flory:
I'm not sure why were there no Nickelback questions.
Dusty Weis:
Because I value my dignity Chip.
Chip Flory:
No, don't be a fun hater.
Dusty Weis:
Jon, do you want to lock us out here?
Jon Doggett:
You know, I do. I just want to say to Chip, thank you so much for doing this, this has been a lot of fun, we've got 28 podcasts now?
Dusty Weis:
This is number 30.
Jon Doggett:
I'll tell you what, we've had a lot of fun, but this has been probably the most fun and I truly value our friendship, our partnership.
Chip Flory:
Absolutely. I do too.
Jon Doggett:
Just so nice to have you here and be with us today and be here at Commodity Classic. It's always important to have so many different parts of our industry to be here today, it's great to have you here. Chip Flory, host of AgriTalk, which is heard on more than 135 affiliate radio stations and wherever you get podcasts, including Spotify. Thanks for joining us to chat here at Commodity Classic. I'm NCGA CEO, Jon Doggett, and we hope you'll join us again real soon for the next episode of Wherever Jon May Roam, the National Corn Growers Association podcast.
Dusty Weis:
That is going to wrap up this edition of Wherever Jon May Roam, the National Corn Growers Association podcast, new episodes arrive monthly so make sure you subscribe in your favorite app and join us again soon. Visit NCGA.com to learn more or sign up for the Association's email newsletter. Wherever Jon May Roam is brought to you by the National Corn Growers Association with editing and production oversight by Larry Kilgore the third. It's produced by Podcamp Media, a branded podcast production. For businesses, podcampmedia.com. For the National Corn Growers Association, thanks for listening. I'm Dusty Weis.
