Dianne Finstad 

Ag21 is hosted by Dianne Finstad. She's been at RDTV for over twenty years, serving as the agriculture director.  Dianne also now co-anchors RDTV's nightly newscast, the Newscrew, with Alan Redel, who's a farm boy himself, from Consort. 

The farming way of life has been important to Dianne, right from the start. She grew up on a ranch south of Manyberries, not far from the Montana border. Throughout her school years, she was active with 4-H beef projects, trips and public speaking. That's where her interest in broadcasting first began to form. 

Following high school, Dianne made her career choice and enrolled in the broadcasting program at Lethbridge Community College. After graduation, she got her first job reading news at a radio station in Taber, 50 kilometres east of Lethbridge. 

Dianne moved from Taber to Red Deer in September of 1981 to take on the task of agricultural programming for CKRD, then a joint television and radio operation. When the two entities became separately owned, Dianne stayed with the television end of the business. That's when farm programming grew from a weekly episode of the show, plus a nightly segment on the newscast...to a full half hour Monday to Friday.

Growing out of Dianne's commitment to rural life is her love for the sport of rodeo. She helped initiate, and hosted, the program called Makin' 8  which for seven years helped to bring pro rodeo to fans across the country. It's a behind-the-chutes look at a variety of Western Canadian rodeos, included  the season end finale, the Canadian Finals Rodeo.  Makin'8 past episodes are still running on the Lonestar Channel.

Dianne is also very involved in her community. She acts as master of ceremonies for dozens of events every year, ranging from livestock shows to charity banquets. She has receive a number of professional and person awards over the years. She's been named an honorary member of the Alberta Institute of Agrologists and a "Distinguished Alumni" of LCC. 

In 1997, Dianne finally took time from her busy schedule to get "hitched", complete with a horse drawn stagecoach! She and her husband Ron Harder live in the country and are involved with volleyball, curling, golf and church activities.