Widely Known Farm Broadcaster Connected Everyone to Agriculture

It’s fitting that a phrase repeated at Orion Samuelson’s funeral was one that he often used to remind farmers and non-farmers alike: “If you eat, you’re involved in agriculture.” Samuelson, a supporter of producer-funded checkoff programs, became well known most notably on WGN Radio in Chicago, as well as for co-founding and co-anchoring the nationally televised U.S. Farm Report and later This Week in Agribusiness. For a year in the late-90s, Soybean Pod host Tom Steever worked for Orion in Chicago on a short-lived DirecTV television venture called Channel Earth. This edition of the Soybean Pod is a conversation with Samuelson’s long-time partner and co-anchor, Max Armstrong, who also worked with Tom at Channel Earth.