Legendary Chicago Broadcaster Orion Samuelson Dead at 91

A legendary voice on Chicago airwaves, who managed to communicate the complexities of agribusiness and food production in a way digestible to a mass audience, has died at the age of 91.

In Chicago, and particularly outside the city limits, extending beyond to the rural western and southern regions of the larger state of Illinois, the voice of Orion Samuelson was like the voice of the friend. For decades, Samuelson brought his agriculture report to millions who relied on his word for the state of the markets and the evolution of food production.

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Orion's Samuelson's Impact and Legacy:

From 1960 to 2020, Samuelson served as WGN Radio's head agriculture broadcaster. His career led him to have dinner at the White House and travel to 43 countries, including Cuba, during a time where United States/Cuba relations weren't rosy. He interviewed and/or met every U.S. president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Donald Trump, and became one of the station's longest-standing fixtures.

Samuelson's roots go back to Ontario, WI, where he grew up on a dairy farm. Samuelson was expected to take over the family business, but a leg disease prevented him not only from doing heavy-lifting but left him unable to walk for a significant period of time as a teen. He then went into radio, working throughout the Wisconsin area, in places like Appleton and Green Bay, before landing at WGN Radio in 1960.

As if his career wasn't layered enough, he was the one to announce the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on WGN airwaves.

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Samuelson's local success got him a promotion as the host of a farm show with Max Armstrong, which was syndicated to 150 small TV markets across the country. Per WGN, who wrote a lovely eulogy for the man himself, Samuelson was known as "the American farmer's best friend," and is in the Radio Hall of Fame.

He died on March 16th, 2026, just a tick over two weeks before his 92nd birthday. Read more about Orion Samuelson's legacy on his Wikipedia page, and WGN's website.