Heartland Media Conference

The Minnesota Broadcasters Association, North Dakota Broadcasters Association and South Dakota Broadcasters Association bring you the Heartland Media Conference. The conference will look at ways to innovate, provide opportunities to collaborate with others and celebrate the successes of the radio and TV stations serving the Heartland of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Location

Radisson Blu
201 5th St. N.
Fargo, ND 58102

Timing

Timing and Speakers Subject to Change.

Tuesday, May 5th, 2026

12:00 PM 

Registration, Vendors Open

1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Sessions for Engineers in partnership with SBE with speakers: John George of Broadtech Services Inc., Mike Pappas of Orban and Fred Baumgartner on "Calculating Reliability"

Calculating Reliability for Broadcast Engineers; 

Fred Baumgartner, “Retired” Broadcast Engineer

No one wants down time. But highly reliable systems come at a cost and that cost is driven by design and environment. We can calculate the reliability of a system with some simple mathematics.

When you propose a project or expense that is meant to reduce down time, it often is useful to present this as competing costs – the cost of doing nothing versus the cost of investing in reliability – and the cost of down time. What does it mean to have 5-nines (99.999%) of availability versus 2-nines (99%)? A big part of broadcast engineering is keeping things running. This is how to calculate the return on investment for various design approaches. Your gut feeling might be far from reality for some subtle and not very obvious reasons. Never again will you have to pull a number out of the air or guess -- you will be able to support your decisions with real numbers.

This is a skill and a mindset that every broadcast engineer can benefit from. And the rules are few and the math fairly basic.

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Welcome Reception at Blu Bar at Radisson Blu

Wednesday, May 6th, 2026

7:30 AM - 9:00 AM

Registration, Breakfast, Vendors Open

9:00 AM - 9:45 AM

Advocacy Updates with Curtis LeGeyt, President & CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters

9:45 AM - 10:30 AM

Agencies and AI with Erin Callaghan, President of Enterrpise Partnerships for Futuri

10:30 AM - 10:45 AM

Break

10:45 AM - 11:30 AM

FCC Compliance and Updates with David Oxenford of Wilkinson|Barker|Knauer and John George of Broadtech Services

11:30 AM - 12:00 PM

National Guard and Department of Veterans Affairs

12:45 PM - 1:45 PM

Keynote Session: "Overcoming adversity and mental mindset (no bad days)" with Hunter Pinke

1:45 PM - 2:00 PM

Break

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

"What Elite Sellers do to Get Noticed in 2026" with Jeff Schmidt, Senior VP of Professional Development at the RAB

Keynote Speaker:

Hunter Pinke

Growing up in rural North Dakota, Hunter Pinke spent his childhood summers working at his family’s lumberyard and on his grandparent’s grain farm. After graduating high school in his class of 18 students, he ventured to the University of North Dakota where he played as a tight end in 34 football games. Following his junior season, he suffered a spinal cord injury in a downhill skiing accident, leaving him as a chest-down paraplegic. Pinke finished his college football career as a team captain, on the sidelines in his wheelchair and earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He went on to play three seasons of collegiate wheelchair basketball at the University of Arizona, where the Wildcats were national runner-up two consecutive seasons with Pinke as team captain. Pinke earned second-team academic All-American honors and his graduate degree in real estate development. Today, Hunter Pinke resides in his native rural North Dakota, working in his passions of residential construction, family farming, and is a keynote speaker across North America, delivering messages of finding the joy in every day and living a life with no bad days. 

Hotel Room Block

Radisson Blu
201 5th St. N.
Fargo, ND 58102

$161/night + taxes and fees

Click Here to book a room.

The deadline to book a room in the room block is April 5th, 2026.

Sponsorship and Vendors

Interested in sponsoring or becoming a vendor? Reach out to Rosanne.Rybak@minnesotabroadcasters.com.