WWL-TV editorialist Phil Johnson dies at 80
Times Picayune 03-23-2010
Submitted By NOVA

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Famed WWL-TV editorialist Phil Johnson died late Monday after a long illness, according to a
report from the station. He was 80.

The bearded Johnson, a 1946 graduate of Jesuit High School and 1950 graduate of Loyola
University New Orleans, spent 39 years at WWL-TV before retiring in 1999. He wrote and broadcast
editorials for all but two of those years and won three Peabody awards for documentaries he
produced, the station said.

Johnson greeted his audiences with a calm, resonant, "Good evening." He served as a station
manager and news director and played a hand in hiring and grooming some of New Orleans' most-
recognized personalities in the news industry: Angela Hill, Garland Robinette, Jim Henderson,
Hap Glaudi, Jim Metcalf, Nash Roberts, Eric Paulsen, Sally-Ann Roberts and Dennis Woltering. The
station said "his hires, news philosophy and news judgment helped propel WWL into first place in
the local ratings, a position it has maintained to this day."

Johnson delivered his editorials five days a week from 1962 to 1998 and twice a week for six
months starting in July 1999.

"No one can replace Phil Johnson," station Vice President and General Manager Jimmie Phillips
told The Times-Picayune in 1999.

Johnson added, "I did everything there was to do in TV except sell commercial time."

He is survived by his wife, five children and eight grandchildren.