Report: Orion Samuelson to Retire After 60 Years at WGN-AM

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, September 23, 2020 | 12:50pm CT

Orion Samuelson

Orion Samuelson, 86, will retire from WGN-AM/Chicago after 60 years with the Nexstar Media Group's News/Talk outlet, reports Chicago media columist Robert Feder. The hall of fame broadcaster and Chicago media icon says he'll end his run at the end of the year. "The Big O," as he's known, will continue to deliver five or six daily business reports for WGN until his exit.

"December 31st will be my last time on the air at WGN," Samuelson told Feder on Tuesday. "I don't know how many broadcasters have been around for 60 or more years, so I don't know if it's that much of a milestone."

"We'll go back and forth to Arizona and not have to worry about setting the alarm clock and making sure I'm ready for the next report," he added. "So I think I'll find things to do."

Feder writes that in addition to hosting his signature farm reports on radio and TV, and anchoring "The Noon Show" from 1960 to 2003, Samuelson emceed "The National Barn Dance" and read the first bulletin on the air of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963. As host of "The U.S. Farm Report" (now "This Week in AgriBusiness" with longtime partner Max Armstrong), he became the best-known voice of agriculture in America.