At the time of his death, I wrote an article about Orion Samuelson, the famed radio broadcaster who worked at WGN radio and reported on agricultural news. This weekend, The New York Times reported the news in its obituaries, and the headline certainly caught my eye.
Raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm without electricity or indoor plumbing, Mr. Samuelson got his start as a polka disc jockey in the 1950s before turning to farm journalism and becoming, according to various descriptions, the Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen and Walter Cronkite of agricultural radio.
Politicians saw him as a conduit to farm-belt voters.
In 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy, who was campaigning for the presidency in Wisconsin, requested a meeting with Mr. Samuelson. They met at a hotel bar and discussed dairy farming over cocktails. On Nov. 22, 1963, Mr. Samuelson was on the air when Mr. Kennedy, now president, was winding through Dallas in a motorcade.
“Kenneth Wallace, secretary of the Illinois Milk Producers Association, reported today that directors were re-elected at the association’s annual meeting in Chicago on Wednesday,” Mr. Samuelson said, and then paused.
He continued: “Here is a bulletin from WGN News, just handed me. President Kennedy has been shot and seriously wounded. Kennedy was shot at, just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. A photographer on the scene said he saw blood on the president’s head.”
Mr. Samuelson met with other candidates as well, and interviewed eight presidents. He was so popular in the Midwest that in 2004, Dennis Hastert, then a Republican congressman from Illinois and the speaker of the House, approached him about running for the U.S. Senate against an up-and-coming state senator named Barack Obama.
Mr. Samuelson considered it for several days, but declined for health reasons.
Caffeinated Politics 
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