Micah Johnson (born July 23 in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

) is an American broadcast journalist. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Entegy Group - MediaStars Worldwide, headquartered in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

. In 1986, Johnson became one of the youngest male anchors at CNN

Cable News Network CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia. At the network, he anchored Headline News,

CNN Radio CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by t ...

, and was one of the primary voices of

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, including

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles ...

On-Air Career

Johnson started his on-air career as a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

at WLEM Radio in Emporium, Pennsylvania at the age of 16. His first television job came at

WSEE-TV WSEE-TV (channel 35) is a television station in Erie, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. It is the flagship television property of locally based Lilly Broadcasting, and is a sister station to NBC affiliate WICU-TV ...

in Erie, Pennsylvania. Johnson went to

WVVA WVVA (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Bluefield, West Virginia, United States, serving the Bluefield– Beckley– Oak Hill market as an affiliate of NBC and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on ...

in Bluefield, West Virginia as primary anchor before being hired at CNN in 1986. In 1990 Johnson moved to

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

in Washington where he anchored morning drive on the NBC Radio Network.

Management career

Johnson briefly moved into politics as senior producer of radio and television in the United States

Senate Republican Conference The Senate Republican Conference is the formal organization of the Republican Senators in the United States Senate, who currently number 50. Over the last century, the mission of the conference has expanded and been shaped as a means of informi ...

. From there he held the position of news director at

KTSM-TV KTSM-TV (channel 9) is a television station in El Paso, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Oregon Street (near El Paso Community College) in northwest El Paso, and it ...

in El Paso, Texas,

WTOV-TV WTOV-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Steubenville, Ohio, United States, serving the Wheeling, West Virginia–Steubenville, Ohio media market, market as an affiliate of NBC and Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. Owned by Sinclair ...

in Steubenville, Ohio/Wheeling, West Virginia,

WBRE-TV WBRE-TV (channel 28) is a television station licensed to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to Scranton-licens ...

in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pennsylvania, WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and

WVIT-TV WVIT (channel 30) is a television station licensed to New Britain, Connecticut, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Hartford–New Haven market. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division ...

in Hartford, Connecticut. In 2002, Johnson joined the Meredith Corporation as Vice president of News Operations - overseeing the broadcast group's 14 television stations. He also created and oversaw Meredith's Washington, DC Bureau. While at Meredith, Johnson recruited entertainment personality

Robin Leach Robin Douglas Leach (29 August 1941 – 24 August 2018) was a British entertainment reporter and writer from London. After beginning his career as a print journalist, first in England and then in the United States, he became best known fo ...

to the television group and with him produced many specialty shows from the Billboard Music Awards, Country Music Awards,

Grammys The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

and original series ''Penthouse F''. After Meredith, Johnson briefly partnered with Leach at KVTE-LP in an attempt to launch an all-Vegas television network. Johnson founded Entegy Group/MediaStars Worldwide which represents on-air talent, producers, writers, and hosts. In 2007, Johnson discovered shark expert Jimmy Hall and placed him on Discovery Channel's popular ''

Shark Week Shark Week is an annual, week long TV programming block at the Discovery Channel, which features shark-based programming. Shark Week originally premiered on July 17, 1988. Featured annually, in July or early August, it was originally devoted to c ...

'' series. In the middle of the shoot, Hall died in a tragic base jumping accident on Baffin Island in Canada.

Education

He attended

Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) is a public research university in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. As of fall 2021, the university enrolled 7,044 undergraduates and 1,865 postgraduates, for a total enrollment of 9,009 students. The univ ...

studying Communications Media. Shortly thereafter, he was awarded the University's ''Distinguished Alumni Award''. Johnson sits on the IUP Alumni Association's Board of Directors.

Awards

Johnson is listed in Who's Who in America.

Memberships

* Academy of Television Arts & Sciences *Vice president for various Associated Press state boards. *Governor -

National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, edu ...

- Rocky Mountain Region *

White House Correspondents' Association The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the president of the United States. The WHCA was founded on February 25, 1914, by journalists in response to an unfounded rumor t ...

Radio-Television News Directors Association The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA, pronounced the same as " rotunda"), formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), is a United States-based membership organization of radio, television, and online news dire ...

* National Press Club (USA) *

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

References

External links

First Time 5 Faces Make The Cover - Arizona Foothills Magazine
* ttp://www.arizonafoothillsmagazine.com/features/people/3462-meet-micah-johnson-most-fashionable-man-over-30.html Micah Johnson 'Best Of Our Valley'br>President Bush Takes Message Directly to Station Groups
* ttp://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/01/abc.nightline/ Nightline Controversybr>Poynter and NightlineMediaStarsVideo clips of Micah Johnson on Headline News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Micah American radio journalists American television news anchors American television reporters and correspondents Living people 1964 births