James B. Hasselman

Jimmy Hasselman was born in Michigan in 1891. He started freelancing for newspapers while teaching English at Michigan Agricultural College in 1915. In 1917, he started Michigan's extension information service.

In 1922, he did agricultural and home economics broadcasts over a student-built radio station, which later became WKAR, the official radio station of Michigan State University. In 1923, he became the first person to broadcast a Michigan State football game. The broadcast was from a telephone booth at the top of the stands of the "Old College Field."

He later moved to the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., where he retired in 1961 as director of information for the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. He died in 1968 in Washington at the age of 77.