Iola Vivian Johnson (born October 10, 1950)"Iola Vivian Johnson" in ''Who's Who Among African Americans'', 23rd edition Gale, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2010. was the second

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

for a

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

television station.

Career

Johnson was born in

Texarkana, Arkansas Texarkana is a city in the U.S. state of Arkansas and the county seat of Miller County, on the southwest border of the state. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 29,387. The city is located across the state line from its twin city ...

. One of her first professional positions was with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

affiliate

KVOA KVOA (channel 4) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Allen Media Broadcasting. The station's studios are located on West Elm Street north of downtown Tucson, and its primary transmitter is ...

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, where she wrote for the 10 o'clock news. In 1973, she was hired at

WFAA WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29), ...

in Dallas and debuted as a weekend news anchor in May of that year. In 1975, she was teamed with a fellow reporter named

Tracy Rowlett Charles Tracy Rowlett (; born June 16, 1942), known professionally as Tracy Rowlett, is an American journalist, formerly anchor and managing editor of the CBS owned and operated station in Dallas-Fort Worth, KTVT. Rowlett's last broadcast with K ...

and together they began a ten-year run as co-anchors of the 6 and 10 pm newscasts. Within the first year, the new anchor team catapulted to number one in the ratings. It was the most successful news teams in Dallas-Fort Worth television history. Johnson remained at WFAA-TV for more than 12 years. Johnson is the former host of ''Positively Texas'' (a weekly public affairs television show that aired on TXA 21

KTXA KTXA (channel 21) is an independent television station in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside Fort Worth–based CBS station KTVT (channel 11). Bo ...

, CBS 11's sister station and former

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...

affiliate). In 1985, Johnson left her anchor position with WFAA-TV to start her own business. (Her last night on WFAA-TV being March 2, 1985.) Iola's second anchor stint was with KTVI in St. Louis. Her co-anchor was Kevin Cokely, who currently works at

KXAS KXAS-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division along ...

, the NBC owned and operated station in Dallas. After working for a short time in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, she returned to Dallas to work as the managing editor and news reporter for a morning show on KKDA AM radio. In September 2000, Johnson chose to return to television news to help launch a new hour-long newscast at 4 pm on

KTVT KTVT (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, broadcasting CBS programming to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Independent statio ...

CBS 11 in Dallas-Fort Worth with longtime friend and former WFAA colleague

. After two years, Tracy and Iola left the 4pm newscast when it was cancelled. In 2012, television came calling again and she was hired as a television contributor for The Texas Daily news program on KTXD, an independent station in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. There, she was teamed with former WFAA anchors Jeff Brady, Tracy Rowlett, John Criswell, Phyllis Watson, Midge Hill, Debbie Denmon, and Troy Dungan.

References

Living people 1950 births African-American television personalities 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people {{Tv-actor-stub