Sacramento, California
August 4, 2005
Paul Ryan, a
veteran, Emmy-winning broadcast journalist with more than 35
years of television experience, has been selected to host
America’s Heartland.
The much-anticipated weekly public television show will
celebrate the miracles of American agriculture, as well as the
proud farm and ranch families who help make it possible.
As host of America’s Heartland, Ryan will
contribute a wealth of broadcast television experience,
journalistic integrity and know-how to the new series, according
to Mike Sanford, executive producer of the ground-breaking
series at
KVIE TV
in Sacramento, Calif.
America’s
Heartland
will debut on the public television airwaves this fall.
“Paul’s professional integrity, his enduring
commitment to the highest journalistic standards and his love
for the land make him a perfect fit to host America’s
Heartland,” Sanford said. “On top of it all, Paul is an
amazing storyteller. He will take America’s Heartland viewers
for weekly treks down our nation’s country roads, across its
fields and through its green pastures in pursuit of the people,
places and products that make American agriculture the world’s
best.”
Most recently, Ryan served as host of the popular
travel series, Experience America. Produced in 2001, the
half-hour series is still widely telecast on PBS stations across
the United States. Ryan said he eagerly anticipates continuing
down the road of success as host of America’s Heartland.
“I’m excited. This is going to be a real
adventure,” Ryan said. “It’s great to be able to work in
television and produce programs like this that are so meaningful
to all Americans. Our stories will take consumers beyond the
grocery store shelves and produce racks, all the way back to the
wonderful families who work the fields and farms. They have
incredible real stories to tell, and I am honored to help them
share those stories with America.”
In his early years, Ryan lived in the small
farming town of Wyoming, Ill., and moved with his family to
California in the mid 1950s. He attended San Francisco State
University where he majored in television and radio production.
The new America’s Heartland host has
served in reporting and anchoring jobs at WBBM/CBS in Chicago
and KRON/NBC, San Francisco. Ryan was also the host of PM
Northwest; a top-rated nightly half-hour show on KOMO/ABC in
Seattle, and the face of Rendezvous, a popular travel
series on the Discovery Channel. In addition, he anchored
Travel News Now and Holiday USA, two
long-running series on the Travel Channel.
In the early 1980s, Ryan joined News Travel
Network in San Francisco, where he became senior reporter/writer
for a company that produced and syndicated daily consumer travel
reports for more than 75 local newscasts across the United
States. His duties took him to places as diverse as Japan,
Hawaii, Alaska, Ireland, Portugal, Thailand and Australia. Among
Ryan’s awards are seven Emmys. He proudly served four years in
the U.S. Marine Corps in its aviation division.
As host of America’s Heartland, Ryan will
profile the people, places and products of U.S. agriculture. The
magazine-style, half-hour program will focus on our national
love for the land, our fascination with food and the bedrock
American values of family, hard work and independence that make
our agricultural system the finest in the world.
America’s Heartland
is produced with the flagship support of Monsanto Company and
the American Farm Bureau Federation, and through additional
support from contributors, including American Soybean
Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton
Council, United Soybean Board and U.S. Grains Council. |