Max Armstrong, known to millions of Midwesterners as the venerable, engaging host of farm machinery and news shows on RFD TV and, prior to that, as the agricultural news reporter for WGN TV and Radio for decades alongside co-host Orion Samuelson, can’t seem to keep away from the Farm Progress Show (FPS).
The largest outdoor farm machinery show in the nation, which returned to Decatur from August 29-31 for its 70th anniversary, has long been a draw for Armstrong, 70, who has a deep love for the “old iron,” meaning antique farm machinery. Even though he retired last year as farm broadcast director for Farm Progress Companies, sponsor of the FPS, Armstrong was back for the 2023 show to assume his old role as an emcee on the Prairie Farmer Pavilion stage and to promote his new book, More Stories From the Heartland.
Armstrong, with his voice that remains corn silk-smooth after decades spent slogging through bean fields and navigating his legendary, cab-less 1962 Farmall 560 tractor in pursuit of the big agricultural stories, sat down with WGLT-WCBU Correspondent Tim Alexander to talk about his long career and new book. It turned out that in addition to being an expert on the old iron, Armstrong is quite knowledgeable about the latest agricultural trends and technologies.
“The voice” in development
Armstrong told WCBU that he developed a love for broadcasting at an early age while growing up on a farm in southern Indiana.
“I’m a guy who always wanted to be on the radio,” he said. “I would sit in the closet and practice being on the radio, and when I finally had the opportunity to do so at the age of 16 I got not only my driver’s license that year but my FCC communications license from the Federal Communications Commission, because you had to have a license to work at a radio station in those days. I was able to do that in the little town of Mount Carmel, Illinois on the banks of the Wabash River.”
From there, Armstrong moved on to radio jobs in Princeton and Lafayette, Indiana while in high school and college. He also worked for the Illinois Farm Bureau in Bloomington, Illinois for a couple of years before hiring on with WGN in Chicago, where he worked for the next 31 years, most of them alongside Samuelson.
In 2016, Armstrong was awarded a plaque on the WGN Radio Walk of Fame in Chicago. The bronze plaque is located in the sidewalk outside the Tribune Tower studios at 435 North Michigan Avenue.
Armstrong went to work around 18 years ago for RFD TV, where he remains as host of the network’s popular This Week in Agribusiness program that he founded with Samuelson. In 2017, he was elected President of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. He is a member of the National Farm Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Scale of production biggest change in ag
Armstrong noted that in the more than five decades he’s been covering agriculture news for television and radio, many advances have been made in machinery, seed and production technologies. These changes, he noted, have resulted in a massive shift in the scale of production achieved by U.S. farmers.
“(Machinery) size and technology have allowed for greater economies of scale in agriculture,” he said. “And the technology of the seed-- many times we forget about that because everyone’s talking about the iron, but if you look at what’s going on this growing season what we are seeing go on before our very eyes with so little moisture in the month of June…almost every grower will tell you they were surprised to see how well these plants can recover and how good the yield is apparently going to turn out after what these plants went through earlier.”
New book chronicles decades of experiences
Building on the success of his 2015 book, Stories From the Heartland, Armstrong’s More Stories From the Heartland draws from his years traveling thousands of miles to record the stories and experiences of the people and places of the American Midwest. In his latest book, Armstrong shares more encounters with folks from all walks of life, including personal stories that have moved him.
“Some of (the stories) are very personal. There is a picture of my wife and me on our wedding day in downtown Bloomington, Illinois. There’s a shot of a couple of our grandkids and some others holding onto a gate at our farm. Some of them are a little bit poignant, such as the one about the homeless man I met one morning just behind the Tribune Building in downtown Chicago as I was trying to get to work,” Armstrong said.
“I call it my book of Thanksgiving, and I really mean that. I have so much to be thankful for, and I feel we all do. To give away just a bit of the book, I encourage people to set aside some time to give thanks regardless of their faith or walk in life, because I really think that it snowballs. It brings more your way for which to be thankful. Maybe I’m terribly naïve about all that, but after all these years of doing what I’ve done and watching this, I really believe it,” he added.
Armstrong’s newest 192-page, full-color book, published by Bantry Bay Publishing of Chicago and Los Angeles, can be ordered for $29.95 at www.maxarmstrongbook.com.
