Orion Samuelson, Chicago radio broadcaster renowned for farm reporting, dies at 91

Orion Samuelson, a radio journalist known around the country for his reports on the agricultural industry, died this week.

Chicago's WGN Radio, where Samuelson was on the air for 60 years, announced Monday that Samuelson had died at the age of 91.

Samuelson was born March 31, 1934, on a dairy farm near La Crosse, Wisconsin, according to the Radio Hall of Fame. He considered becoming a Lutheran Pastor, but instead went to school to study radio, according to the hall of fame.

Samuelson spent eight years at WKLJ in Sparta, Wisconsin, and then became program director at WHBY in Appleton, according to the Radio Hall of Fame. He also served as farm director of WBAY Radio and WBAY-TV in Green Bay before joining WGN-AM in 1960, according to the hall of fame.

WGN Radio said Samuelson first appeared on the air at the station at "milking time," 5 a.m., on Sept. 26, 1960. He was 26 at the time.

In an interview with Mark DePue for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Samuelson noted that this was just after rival WLS-AM charged formats from the Prairie Farmer station with its National Barn Dance program and switched to rock and roll — leaving a wide-open market for agricultural reporting at WGN.

Samuelson went on presenting agriculture reports every day on WGN-AM all the way up through 2020, and also hosted "The Morning Show" with Max Armstrong on Saturdays.

WGN-AM noted that Samuelson also interviewed nine presidents and broadcast from more than 40 countries.

Beginning in 1964 and running for 22 years until 1996, Samuelson also hosted the show "Top O' the Morning" on WGN-TV Channel 9. He also hosted the U.S. Farm Report television news magazine from 1975 until 2005.

Samuelson was the recipient of several awards. In 1997, Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar rechristened the Junior Livestock Building at the Illinois State Fair as the Orion Samuelson Junior Livestock Building.

Samuelson was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2003. He retired from WGN-AM in December 2020.