Maddie Weber – Rural Radio Network – Lincoln, Nebraska

June 2026 Update

Hi again! I'm so excited to be back on the Nebraska Corn Board internship team this year as the Agriculture Broadcasting and Digital Communications intern for the Rural Radio Network. Since my first internship with the Nebraska Corn Board in St. Louis in 2024, I've grown my skills and become an even better communicator. I'm excited to bring those skills to the Rural Radio Network to serve Nebraska agriculture this summer.  

My time with the Rural Radio Network so far has been hands-on, fast-paced, and educational. Each week, the team here is sharing agricultural news, creating content, and traveling across Nebraska, and I've gotten involved with all aspects of that work!  

I've taken on at least one agricultural newscast each day, where I research ag news and then record a radio report about those topics. I've improved my interview skills by conducting interviews with numerous farmers and industry professionals. And, I've started recording the ag news segment for NTV News, a local Nebraska TV station that has a partnership with the Rural Radio Network.  

On top of my radio and TV broadcasting duties, I've also been creating content for social media, the Rural Radio Network website pages, and podcasts.  

This internship has given me the opportunity to travel with our team of broadcasters to cover events: I traveled to World Pork Expo with Chad this June, where we attended sessions, conducted interviews, wrote stories, and ate a lot of bacon! Steve and I headed out to Cozad for the Nebraska Cattlemen Mid-Year meeting, where we connected with producers about New World Screwworm and other concerns affecting the cattle industry. Alex leads a Specialty Crops video series, and we've traveled the state visiting orchards, greenhouses, and farm stores to share the stories of those businesses. This week, Rayley and I visited the Kearney Fire Department to see soybean-based firefighting foam in action. And each week, the team visits a farmer to share an update on crop progress through the series Fridays in the Field.  

All of these experiences have contributed to the well-rounded internship experience I'm getting, and have reinforced that ag communications is the industry I'm meant to be in. While we were at World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, Chad gave me a piece of advice: the best way to succeed in agricultural communications is to be curious. While I consider myself a naturally curious person, this internship has intensified that curiosity and made me a better communicator.  

Each day I learn more about agriculture through stories in crops, livestock, policy, natural resources, and ag markets as we report about them. And not only am I learning about those topics through news stories I'm covering, but I'm also meeting farmers and ranchers and seeing the topics we cover on the radio impact them directly. 

I've grown so much through this internship already, and I can't wait to see what the next few weeks brings! If you want to see some of the work I've been up to, check out the Rural Radio Network on social media, or listen for my radio spots on any of our radio stations across the state!