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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Howard C. Phelps, Chief Operator and News Director for WLBQ
AM 1570, Morgantown, has been named recipient of Kentucky Farm Bureau’s
2004 communications award for a broadcaster.
Phelps was presented the award today at the fall convention of the Kentucky
Broadcasters Association at The Center for Rural Development in Somerset.
The Farm Bureau communications award consists of an engraved plaque, a
$300 cash award, and an expense paid trip to Washington D.C for the annual
Farm Bureau Congressional Tour. It has been presented by Farm Bureau since
1960 to a broadcaster who has done exceptional work in building better
relations and understanding between farmers and the non-farm public. A
similar award is presented annually to a writer.
During his career at WLBQ, Phelps has built a solid reputation as a skilled
farm broadcaster and respected agricultural spokesman. His station’s
coverage area of five Kentucky counties and approximately 11,000 people,
gives his work
distribution in an area where agriculture consistently rates as a top
economic force.
Phelps’ listeners among the community are his most ardent supporters.
Mary Alice Black, who nominated the winner, says that “farm people
and farm problems are always on this newscaster’s agenda for local
news.”
Phelps was born and raised on a tobacco and cattle farm in rural Butler
County. He has served as a Baptist minister, volunteer fire fighter, softball
and basketball coach, board member of Barren River Area Development District
(BRADD), and reporter, editor and executive editor for the Butler County
Post.
He is currently a board member for the Butler, Logan and Simpson Counties
Area Substance Abuse Prevention Program (ASAP), as well as the Butler
County Extension Service Planning Committee.
Phelps says, “I have used my years of education to further local
knowledge of agriculture’s importance to our economy; but more importantly,
to define who we are as a community. Personally, the best aspect of being
from Kentucky is the unique rural environment to raise children and enjoy
a chosen lifestyle.”
Phelps and his wife, Melinda, have four grown children and two grandchildren.
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