Chadron State College student Whitley Reder, who graduated in December with a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism, completed an internship with the Cowboy Channel covering the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Las Vegas.
“It was the best learning experience someone in college could’ve endured. Being an NFR intern you really get to see and learn the ropes of everyone’s job and what they entail. I did tasks that pertain to an associate producer’s role,” Reder said. “Everything in between from generating content ideas, setting the stage for production, interview questions, pre and post-production management, managing and communicating with celebrity guests, and creating production timelines.”
Celebrity guests she met at the NFR included Mo Brings Plenty and Forrie Smith from the TV show Yellowstone, Larry the Cable Guy, Red Steagall, Steve Bono, Adrian Brannon, Chancey Williams, Corb Lund.
“I also met multiple NFR athletes, retired PRCA legends, and well-known nationwide business owners. I’m forever grateful for the connections I made during this internship. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know and for that I’m excited to see what my future holds,” Reder said.
Throughout four years of college rodeo, she competed in barrel racing, breakaway, and team roping with breakaway roping as her focus. After one semester of her freshman year at South Dakota State University she moved home during the pandemic and helped her dad with calving during the spring semester while taking courses from Black Hills State University. After two years at Casper College studying animal science, she decided to start pursue her long-time dream of working for the Cowboy Channel.
Reder transferred from Casper to CSC in part because it is in the same region she was familiar with. Plus, her best friend was transferring to CSC and Reder wanted to stay close to home and liked Chadron’s small-town hometown feel.
“When I showed up at Chadron and didn’t know a single soul besides my roommate. I had my first class with my professor [Mike] Kennedy. When he caught wind that I used to be an ag major, his eyes just lit up and he said, ‘You’re going to come write for me on the Eagle. We’re going to put you in journalism.’ I said, ‘OK I’m going to trust that you know what’s best for me’ and he did,” Reder said.
With help from a family friend, Reder secure an internship with ESPN to provide coverage of the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) in Casper in 2022. The internship included running errands for the production crew, helping generate content ideas, keeping stats and notes during each short-go and performance, contacting contestants for interviews, typing word-for-word notes during interviews, working in a TV truck during the short-go and final championship rounds, and attending production meetings.
She wrote articles for the Eagle during the spring of 2023 and received a second summer internship with ESPN to cover the CNFR in Casper.
“Susan Kanode took me under her wing and wanted me to get more exposure and experience with the overall aspect of what everyone does at the CNFR,” Reder said.
Reder continued all the work she had done the year before, plus new tasks such as organizing contestants’ bios, writing scholarship recipient scripts for the announcer to read during intermission, and helping organize the back number ceremony.
During the internship, Reder also wrote articles for The Breakaway Roping Journal.
“Taylor Vollin asked me if I could cover breakaway providing results. So as soon as each round ended, I wrote about the winner. It was very fast-paced work. We had a huge binder of over 700 contestants I went through to find contact information, then get comments from them and write the story by midnight. That was really cool because two of the contestants that won the round or split the round were girls I knew from college rodeo or high school rodeo in South Dakota,” Reder said.
During the summer of 2023, Reder worked as a waitress and heard from a fellow CSC student BreAnne Benson about her work with Rodeo News. Reder sent a sample of her work to the publication’s editor, Siri Stevens.
“Siri wanted me to do a story on Piper Cordes, who won the South Dakota State High School Finals in the barrel racing. While I was writing the story about her, she ended up going to nationals and becoming the National High School Rodeo Association world champion barrel racer. It was cool because she grew up near the same area I did and they’re a fantastic family,” Reder said.
Reder’s work was noticed and she received a job offer from Sports Illustrated in September.
“I had to do some reflection and realize that I started these baby steps and I wanted to accomplish my dream of TV production with the Cowboy Channel. Even though that was a great opportunity with Sports Illustrated, I declined it so I could stick with my goal and continue,” Reder said.