By Gary Cooper
AgNet Media Founder and President
Max Armstrong (L) and Farmall Tractor Museum Owner Stew Paquette talk about the museum in the front entrance area.
During a fast-paced day and a half earlier this week, I connected with Max Armstrong, host and anchor of the national farm news television program “This Week in Agribusiness” to help him with a whirlwind newsgathering tour of Central Florida agriculture.
The syndicated television program airs weekly on RFD-TV and approximately 100-plus television stations throughout the nation. Armstrong, long-time farm broadcaster Orion Samuelson and their video crew have worked together for many years covering national agricultural issues. They are considered leaders in their field, but like many others from different regions of the country, they seldom have time to experience the scope and diversity of agriculture in Florida and the deep Southeast.
“This Week in Agribusiness” is a mix of news and feature material that can include items ranging from a salute to FFA local chapters, to special reports, to on-location news from nearly anywhere in the world. Armstrong happens to also be a fan of antique tractors, and that’s how this Florida ag broadcasting tour got started.
Gary Cooper (left), Sonny Perdue (right).
Armstrong and I are both presently serving on the board of directors of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB). He is president and I’m again representing NAFB’s southern region, a spot I’ve held a few times before in my now nearly 35-year, farm-radio career. At a recent board meeting in Washington D.C., while there to meet with the new agriculture secretary, Armstrong mentioned he planned to soon fulfill a promise to visit Paquette’s Historical Farmall Tractor Museum near Leesburg, Florida. He asked if I wanted to tag along and if I might have some other ideas for ag news items while he was in the area, and the idea was off and running. Farm broadcasters from different areas of the country often share news and connections when travelling in search of interesting topics relevant to their respective regional farm audiences.
Stay tuned for AgNet Media’s series of feature articles about our visit and Central Florida tour with Armstrong and his cameraman sidekick Ryan Ruh. The five-part series will be titled “AgNet Hosts ‘This Week in Agribusiness’” and will include the following segments on the following websites:
• A Prologue (SoutheastAgNet.com, VSCNews.com and CitrusIndustry.net)
• The Antiques (SoutheastAgNet.com)
• The Modern (VSCNews.com)
• A Citrus Update (CitrusIndustry.net)
• An Epilogue (SoutheastAgNet.com, VSCNews.com and CitrusIndustry.net)
Find airtimes and locations for the “This Week in Agribusiness” TV show below. For more information, contact Armstrong at AgBizWeek.com or AgNet Media at www.AgNetMedia.com.
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