Orion Samuelson was a voice that was familiar to Midwestern farmers for 60 years. Many farmers relied on his farm reports on WGN-AM and WGN-TV based in Chicago to make their decisions regarding when to plant, harvest, or make major financial decisions based off his farm reports.
Samuelson died Monday at the age of 91.
He began at WGN radio in Chicago in 1960 when Dwight Eisenhower was President. In fact, there were a total of 12 different men who had served as U.S. Presidents throughout Samuelson’s career as a farm broadcaster.
In 2020, when Samuelson retired, he shared with the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) one of the highlights of his career:
“I had the opportunity to interview eight Presidents, and I would share this story about my experience with John F. Kennedy. While I was working in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1960, prior to moving to Chicago, then-Senator John F. Kennedy was running against Richard Nixon. Senator Kennedy made a campaign stop in Green Bay. I attended his briefing at a news conference. During the conference, I asked two questions about dairy policy.
“As the conference ended, one of his aides approached me and asked if I would have a few minutes to talk to the Senator about dairy legislation. So, I sat with Senator Kennedy at the hotel bar, sipping a Scotch, and we discussed dairy farming, because they did little of that in Massachusetts.
“A follow up to that story: I was doing my noon radio show on WGN in November 1963 and, sadly, broadcast the bulletin that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.”
Another one of Samuelson’s favorite moments involved another U.S. President.
“My favorite memory happened in 1965 when I was elected the youngest president ever of NAFB, but two other big things happened that year. My adopted son arrived in the Samuelson household. He then became a trader at the Chicago Board of Trade and that was a happy moment. And then at the Convention, we gave an honorary membership to Harry Truman and I had the opportunity to go out to Independence to his home and meet the President and congratulate him.”
Samuelson was also invited to the White House for an extended interview with President George H.W. Bush.
In addition, Samuelson was a long-time advocate for the agriculture community, as he reported not only on the news that impacted farmers, but the needs of producers and rural Americans.
Samuelson was born March 31, 1934 on a dairy farm near Ontario, Wisconsin. At the beginning of his career, Samuelson said he dropped out of the University of Wisconsin after three months because they were not teaching him how to be a radio announcer. He later enrolled at the American Institute of the Air in Minneapolis. His first radio job was in 1952 at WKLJ in Sparta, Wisconsin, where he was a polka disc jockey. It was the summer of 1952.
He worked for three Wisconsin radio stations before he was hired at WGN in Chicago in 1960. He hosted a show called Top O’ The Morning on WGN-TV beginning in the 1960’s. It was also at WGN where he hosted the National Barn Dance, which was the direct precursor of the Grand Ole Opry. The program had originated at WLS-AM in 1924, but was dropped by that station and picked up by WGN-AM in 1960. Samuelson was host until the show’s cancellation in 1968.
Samuelson also hosted U.S. Farm Report, a television farm show with another legendary farm broadcaster Max Armstrong. That program was syndicated to 150 television markets across the country. Both Samuelson and Armstrong were the Chet Huntley and David Brinkley of farm broadcasting. Together, they were the trusted voices for farm news and information for 42 years.
Samuelson was also a leader among farm broadcasters across the country. He was a member of NAFB for nearly 70 years. In 1965, he served as President of NAFB. He was also named NAFB Farm Broadcaster of the Year in 2003 and inducted into the NAFB Hall of Fame in 1999. Samuelson was also inducted in the Radio Hall of Fame in 2003.
