Verne Sheppard’s voice is more familiar to western South Dakotans than perhaps anybody else’s. Whether the weather, the farm market reports, the morning news, or a ballgame, it could be his voice coming into the homes and cars of the West River country. Sheppard is Rapid City’s best-known broadcasting voice of agriculture since 1950. He was farm-ranch director for 26 of his 37 years at KOTA radio. He was also farm-ranch director at KTOQ and handled special farm-ranch assignments for KEVN-TV. <p>Through his radio and television work, Sheppard has interviewed many celebrities, including Lawrence Welk, President Ronald Reagan, many Secretaries of Agriculture, Art Linkletter, and Bob Hope.