CHICAGO, Ill. — Max Armstrong knows agriculture from the inside out. He grew up on a southwestern Indiana farm and, after college, moved into a career in broadcasting where he’s immersed himself and his audiences for the past 40 years in information critical to success in the field.

Armstrong was 24 when he snagged the spot on WGN Radio in Chicago, working with Orion Samuelson. “I was the youngest on air by nine years,” he said, and he’s worked for WGN for nearly 32 years.

He is heard on approximately 130 stations every day now, bringing listeners news of markets, weather, trade and international ag news. Armstrong is featured on an RFD Network show which is syndicated on 115 stations from Washington to Georgia and from California to New York. He is seen three times each weekend and once during the week on “This Week in Agribusiness,” which he co-founded with Samuelson in 2005.

He is director of broadcasting at Penton Media/Ag Division/Farm Press and is the producer and host of “Farm Progress America” and “Max Armstrong’s Midwest Digest.”

He graduated from Purdue University in 1975 and worked with the Illinois Farm Bureau until 1977. Before college, while he was working on the family farm in Gibson County, Armstrong was on air at the radio station in nearby Mount Carmel, Ill. He said he received his driver’s license and his FCC (Federal Communication Commission) license the same month.

“I always wanted to be on the air in Chicago,” he added.

Not only did he achieve that goal, he says he has broadcast from every state and 32 countries, including Vietnam, Yugoslavia and Algeria. He maintains an aggressive schedule these days and has no intention of retiring anytime soon.

He and his wife, Linda, relocated residence last year to North Carolina near Raleigh, in order to be close by when grandchild No. 1 makes an appearance later this year. He flies back and forth to Chicago every week. They still maintain a small horse operation on the family farm, but they don’t get back much to Gibson County.

“It’s getting so crowded up there,” he said, “with the new mine in Owensville and coal trucks on the road, and the Toyota plant in Princeton.”

Armstrong is one of the original organizers of the Vintage Show held every other year when the Farm Progress Show is sited in Illinois. He owns four old Farmall tractors, but said, “The fun part is the people.”

He recently returned from a trip to South America where he shot video of crops, Chilean fruit farms and Brazilian cattle operations. He said regular rains have been beneficial to the crops in Argentina this year and it appears there will be a bumper soybean yield.

While he has realized his dream of being a broadcaster in Chicago, Armstrong said that’s actually turned out not to be the best part of his career: “Meeting farmers and others, that’s what has made the job so satisfying.” He is writing a book about some of the characters he’s met through the years.

For his service to agriculture, he has received many honors and designations. He earned the National FFA Honorary American Degree in 2007 and the National Assoc. of Farm Broadcasters’ “Farm Broadcaster of the Year” in 2001. He has also been recognized by national associations for corn, soybean, pork and ag marketing.