Johnny Mountain is a retired weathercaster for both

KABC-TV KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains stud ...

and

KCBS-TV KCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent outl ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He has been described as "one of the most recognizable faces -- and names -- in local TV news."Greg Braxton
"KCBS' Johnny Mountain to retire"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', March 22, 2010.

Early career

Mountain began his television career in the 1960s at WTVK (now

WVLT-TV WVLT-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Crossville-licensed CW affiliate WBXX-TV (channel 20). Both stations share st ...

) in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

. At WTVK, Mountain did weather for WTVK's newscasts and was also their local

Bozo the Clown Bozo the Clown, sometimes billed as "Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown", is a clown character created for children's entertainment, widely popular in the second half of the 20th century. He was introduced in the United States in 1946, and to te ...

. In 1977, Mountain joined

WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on North State S ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. While at WLS-TV, Mountain encountered

Dr. George Fischbeck George Richard Fischbeck (July 1, 1922 – March 25, 2015) was an American television weatherman on KOB-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico from the early 1960s to early 1970s. In 1972 he moved to KABC-TV in Los Angeles, replacing Alan Sloane, where h ...

in Los Angeles. Fischbeck, who was appearing as a guest meteorologist on WLS-TV, persuaded Mountain, who was disenchanted with changes that had occurred at WLS-TV to join KABC-TV.

Career in Los Angeles

In 1978, Mountain joined KABC-TV to become an weekend meteorologist. A few years later, he made the transition to weekday afternoons. Fischbeck would later step down and Mountain would add weeknights to his schedule. In the early 1990s, Mountain was shifted to weekday mornings from 5:00-7:00 a.m. and afternoon at 5:00 p.m. when his partner

Dallas Raines Dallas Raines is an American chief meteorologist at KABC-TV in Los Angeles and was also certified by the American Meteorological Society (AMS). He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Florida State University where he studied broadcast ...

took Mountain's 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. spots. Mountain also guest hosted on KABC-TV's local programs ''A.M. Los Angeles'' and ''330''. He also was a contributor on the ABC late night program ''Eye on Hollywood''. Mountain was notable for his off-the-wall humor; on one occasion, in response to a viewer question about grunion fish, he held up a specimen during his weathercast, explaining "This is a front view of a grunion; this is a side view; and this..." (placing a small paper bag with "eye holes" over the fish) "...is the Unknown Grunion." In January 2005, Mountain decided to leave KABC and gave an on-air farewell. However in May 2005, he joined

to reunite with his former KABC partners Ann Martin (1994), Harold Greene (2001),

Laura Diaz Laura Diaz (born April 27, 1975) is an American professional golfer. Diaz was born Laura Philo in Scotia, New York. She won the 1995 North and South Women's Amateur at Pinehurst. In 1996 she won the Eastern Women's Amateur Championship and mad ...

(2002) and sportcaster Jim Hill (who first joined in 1976, then rejoined in 1992). Mountain retired in March 2010 as part of a "restructuring" of KCBS news operations.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mountain, Johnny Television anchors from Los Angeles Television anchors from Chicago Living people Year of birth missing (living people)