M
ax Armstrong spent a lifetime in broadcasting , both in radio and television , but he is also an author . In fact , now he ’ s an author for the second time . His first book was called Stories from the Heartland . Can you guess what the second one is called ? “ It ’ s called More Stories from the Heartland ,” Armstrong says with a laugh . “ Yes , it ’ s a followup to the first book , from the standpoint that it ' s about people I ' ve worked with or people that I ’ ve been around or covered or ran into who were remarkable in their own way . Some of them really left quite an impression on me .”
To find people and stories from the heartland , you couldn ’ t have a more perfect background . Max grew up on a farm in southern Indiana , became an agriculture reporter at WGN , and has spent the last 14 years hosting a television show about Agribusiness . “ I was at WGN full time for 31 years ,” Max explains , “ and about nine of those years , I also did television . I was the weatherman of last resort . Not to age myself , but back in those days , ( WGN weatherman Tom ) Skilling was just getting into computer graphics . The first few times I filled in , we still had an artist drawing the map on the wall .”
That television career continued for 14 years after leaving WGN , but Max has finally called it quits . At the end of June , he called it a career . He now lives in North Carolina . “ Our show has just been bought by Farm Progress ,” he says , “ which is the parent company of Prairie Farmer , which is kind of an interesting full-circle thing . Prairie Farmer is the oldest continually published magazine in the United States . And , of course , they owned WLS for 40 years from the 1920s until the spring of 1960 . The other interesting thing about that is when they sold it ; it opened the door for WGN to start doing farm programming . That was the same year that Ward Quall brought ( Max ’ s mentor and fellow ag reporter ) Orion Samuelson down from Green Bay to work at WGN . So , there are a lot of cross-currents here .”
As you can imagine , the stories are memorable . “ There ' s a story in this book about a guy who posed for Richard Avedon , the famed photographer . He posed totally nude from the waist up and covered with bees all over his torso . Ron Fischer worked for an investment banking firm in Chicago back in 1981 when Avedon photographed him . We referred to him on WGN often , and he would answer questions for us about bees and hornets . For this book , I got the story from him about the day that he posed for Richard Avedon , who had photographed people like Marilyn Monroe , Dwight Eisenhower , and a whole bunch of other famous people .”
The problem with having a background as interesting and varied as Armstrong ’ s is that once the stories started flowing , they didn ’ t
By Rick Kaempfer
MORE STORIES FROM THE HEARTLAND
stop . “ Totally true . I started thinking of other stories after I finished the book . For example , my afternoon with Jesse Jackson . It was during the campaign of 1988 . I was brought in to emcee an event in Washington at the Marriott Hotel . This was July of ‘ 88 . Not many weeks ahead of the presidential election . And Reverend Jackson was late for his appearance . He was upstairs interviewing potential vice presidential candidates . I had to continue to try to entertain for 21 television cameras . There was a secret service agent over to the side of the
Max Armstrong
stage , and he was giving me time cues . He gave me a 15-minute cue . A little bit later , he gave me another one . Finally , when I looked at him the third time , he just threw up his hands and shrugged , like , ‘ You ' re on your own , pal .’ The other thing I remember about that day is that as I finally introduced Jesse , I put my hand on his back . And my immediate reaction was this guy ' s been pumping iron . But that wasn ' t the case . He had been fitted for a bulletproof vest just days before because of a threat against him by some kook down in Decatur .”
I kidded Max that he is like the Taylor Swift of the heartland . “ It ' s a little bit of an overstatement to say I ’ m a star in the farm world ,” he demurs , “ but , you know , just by , I guess , hanging around long enough , people do seem to know me . And I guess that ' s the way I look at this book . It ' s my book of Thanksgiving ; I ' ve really been so fortunate , so blessed to be around some great people and to be in this industry as long as I have . And just by osmosis , I think some of that has rubbed off on me .”
Max and Orion Samuelson have provided a valuable service for America ’ s heartland all these years , although Max notes a difference between the two men . “ They used to call Orion ‘ One-Take-Charlie ’ when he was doing the old US farm report show because he wouldn ' t ever need a second take . He could stand there , having just digested the information , and somehow be able to spew it immediately into the camera . I was never quite that talented .”
The book , More Stories from the Heartland , is available at maxarmstrongbook . com or on Amazon for Kindle , Apple for your iPhone , and an audiobook is coming out soon .
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