Civic Media Brings the Fabulous Farm Babe to Wisconsin’s Airwaves in Green Bay, Oshkosh, Racine, Richland Center, Amery, Hayward, and Waukesha

January 9, 2024 3:18 PM CDT

Born in Northeastern Wisconsin, Pam Jahnke grew up in agriculture. Raised on her family’s 200-acre dairy farm, Jahnke certainly learned the “farm work ethic” first hand. She’s been dedicated to agriculture throughout her life, actively involved in both 4-H and FFA activities – even serving as a 4-H camp counselor – was a dairy exhibitor in county fairs, and reigned as Oconto County’s Dairy Queen.

At the University of Wisconsin–River Falls, Pam studied broadcast journalism and broad area agriculture. She started that campus’s first ever “Farm Show” on the radio and earned the top national scholarship from the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB). After college, Pam moved into her chosen field of farm broadcasting and never looked back. 

“Communicating on behalf of food producers is exactly what I was made for,” says Jahnke. “And Civic Media is now bringing our show into seven new markets around Wisconsin so we couldn’t be more excited.”

Pam has received many honors over her decades in farm broadcasting, including the “Honorary Recognition” award from UW-Madison’s College of Agriculture, her honorary “American FFA Degree,” as well as numerous citations from the Wisconsin State Senate. Pam’s also been named “Friend of Agriculture” by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture for her assistance in raising awareness of the “Harvest of Hope” program and has been  honored as “Agri Marketing Person Of The Year” by the Badger chapter of the National Agrimarketing Association. In 2010 Pam served as President of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, and in 2013 was named Farm Broadcaster of the Year.

Civic Media’s Director of Programming Kathryn Lake adds, “Pam was part of my early broadcasting experience in Madison. I won’t say I ‘grew up listening to her’ – because I think I may even be a little older than her – but she was certainly my idol. Pam just embodies what professional broadcasting is all about. I was thrilled to learn that Civic Media’s CEO Sage Weil was already working to bring Pam on board even before I started.”

“Civic Media’s mission is to inform, entertain and celebrate local communities as the glue that binds us all together–as a state and as a nation,” says CEO Sage Weil. “We believe hometown radio plays a crucial role in strengthening that bond, and agriculture and farming is an enormous part of that.”

In her spare time, Pam is active in farming in partnership with her brother, sister, and parents on the home farm. You can hear her early morning broadcasts at 5:00 a.m. on seven Civic Media stations: 

1. WAUK 540 AM and 101.1 FM in Waukesha
2. WRJN 1400 AM and 99.9 FM in Racine and 98.1 in Kenosha
3. WGBW 1590 AM and 97.9 FM in Green Bay
4. WLAK 1260 AM and 107.5 FM in Amery
5. WBZH 910 AM in Hayward
6. WISS 1100 AM and 98.3 FM in Oshkosh
7. WRCE 1450 AM and 107.7 FM in Richland Center

If you are outside the broadcast area, you can tune in via the Civic Media App.

CIVIC MEDIA is a network of 20 radio stations across Wisconsin in 12 distinct news/talk media markets, including Waukesha.  

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Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality broadcast and digital hometown radio focusing on local, regional, and state issues, covering the stories that are most relevant to the markets we serve. We believe radio plays a crucial role in the practice of democracy in our local communities, so we aim to provide programming that advances the understanding and engagement of its principles within our audience.