From farmers across the Midwest to Sioux Falls dance hall regulars to churchgoers across Mid-Missouri, a lot of people might recognize Tom Steever's voice.
The agricultural journalist of more than 40 years, recently inducted into the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Hall of Fame, has lived in Jefferson City since 2003 - when he joined Brownfield Ag News, the original news radio network of Learfield Communications, where he continues to work as an anchor and reporter.
Now "semi-retired" since October, Steever anchors South Dakota agricultural news disseminated across some of Brownfield's 450 or so radio stations across 10 Midwestern states. (Previously, he anchored Missouri and Illinois news as well.)
The role is a good fit, as he grew up on the Steever family farm about 15 miles from Sioux Falls.
"I didn't think I was cut out for farming," Steever said. "Watching my dad do the farming, he could seemingly fix anything, which that job requires. You have to be able to be a mechanic, you have to be able to be an agronomist, you have to be able to be a lot of different things to successfully farm. And I didn't think I had that."
What he did have was a love for photography.
"When I got to journalism school in South Dakota, I took several courses, and one was Intro to Radio and TV - and that really got my attention," he said. "I was smitten by the broadcast part of it."
His first job was as a farm broadcaster at KSOO radio station in Sioux Falls. He stayed there 19 years.
Then he spent four years doing radio and television livestock market broadcasts for the Sioux Falls Stockyards - until a call came from Chicago.
Legendary farm broadcaster Orion Samuelson had tapped Steever to help anchor agriculture television venture Channel Earth.
The project lasted about a year, and Steever moved on to the public relations team for the American Farm Bureau Federation, which was based in Chicago at the time.
When the federation moved to Washington, D.C., he had to choose between following suit or accepting an offer from Brownfield Ag News in Jefferson City.
"We just decided as a family to stay in the Midwest, and that's what brought me here," he said.
Just in the past couple months, Steever might have been found reporting from the Missouri Farm Bureau's annual convention at the Lake of the Ozarks, updating South Dakota farmers' corn harvest, or analyzing the "phase one" trade deal between the United States and China.
"In Missouri, it's the weather, it's the harvest, it's what going on in the field," he said of Brownfield's day-to-day news coverage. "During the legislative session, it's what's going on here at the Capitol."
However, a few assignments through the years stand out.
"Two kinds of stories that are my favorites are the ones that I do on farms with farmers, but also a close second to that are the ones that take me out of the country," Steever said.
He's traveled to 15 countries covering stories for Brownfield - Germany, Denmark, Panama, Chile, Brazil and Colombia, to name a few.
"A year after I got here, I was in China for two weeks and covered trade issues between the U.S. and China - it was China, Taiwan and Vietnam. That was very interesting. A year or two after that, I was in Cuba with the governor of Nebraska on a trade mission," Steever recalled. "It's just very interesting to see another part of the world, to see what their agriculture is like."
Even when stateside, he's found adventure along the way to a story.
Early on in his career, he earned his pilot's license and often flew himself when he needed to travel more than 100 miles.
"I always wanted to fly. I can never remember a time when I didn't want to fly," he said. "And then my sister married a pilot, and he taught me to fly."
Steever actually is a member of more than one hall of fame - his honors also include the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to which he was inducted as a vocalist, guitarist and 18-year member of dance band Mogen's Heroes.
In more recent years, he's shared his musical talents as a member of the Jefferson City Cantorum and with congregations at the Cathedral of St. Joseph and Immaculate Conception Catholic parishes in Jefferson City and St. Andrew parish in Holts Summit, alongside friends and his wife, Lori.
Tom and Lori originally met over a musical backdrop - he caught her attention at a house party in South Dakota performing a rendition of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads."
Now a musical family, their son, Brian, is a drummer based in Kansas City.
Steever was officially inducted into the NAFB Hall of Fame at the association's November convention in Kansas City.
"It's been, to this point, a 43-year career, and this is a very nice capstone," he said.