Former KOMO TV and radio reporter Bryan Johnson, a pillar of Seattle journalism for more than half a century, has died. He was 89.
“The KOMO News community and the city of Seattle mourn the loss of one of its most enduring storytellers,” noted the KOMO website on Monday. Johnson’s death, which followed a brief illness, was confirmed to KOMO by his family.
Johnson started at KOMO in 1959, working on the station’s radio side before moving to TV news full-time in the 1980s.
“Here’s the guy who reported on the Kennedy assassination, live … who reported on Mount St. Helens erupting, live … who reported on the inauguration of Barack Obama, live,” recalled KIRO Radio 97.3 FM host Charlie Harger, who worked with Johnson at KOMO before Johnson retired in 2012.
Articulate and quick, with a sharp wit and a deep voice straight out of the golden era of TV news, Johnson represented the news “for generations of Seattle households,” Harger added.
Johnson’s dedication to the job, and all its risks, was legendary.
When St. Helens erupted, he took a small plane down to the mountain, only to have the plane disabled by ash, Johnson recalled in a 2023 KOMO profile. “We had to cruise into Portland International Airport with the motor dead.”
“We just barely cleared the [airport] fences,” said Johnson, who nonetheless returned to the scene of the eruption almost immediately to file a story.
That sort of pluck endeared Johnson to listeners and viewers across the region, as did his humor and calm, authoritative tone, which some compared to that of broadcast greats like Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather.
But Johnson, who started his broadcast career at 18, could also provoke anxiety among the region’s political class for his tough interview style.
“You never looked forward to Bryan calling,” said former Seattle mayor Greg Nickels.
“He was a good, hard questioner, and he knew enough about what he was talking about that you really couldn’t get away with a less-than-full answer,” said Nickels.
Johnson was born in the United Kingdom, but emigrated to America as a child, arriving with his mother and sister in Washington state on Christmas Day 1948, according to several accounts, including a bio from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Northwest Chapter, which inducted Johnson into its prestigious Gold Circle in 2013.
After graduating from Vashon High School at age 15, Johnson had a restless academic career. That included studying broadcasting at what is now Bates Technical College in Tacoma and graduating summa cum laude from the University of Washington.
Early on, Johnson worried that his then-strong English accent would keep him from a broadcast career. But with coaching from colleagues and mentors, he learned to speak “almost like an American.”
In 1959, Johnson landed a job at KOMO, which had launched only six years before. He worked on everything from classical music shows to news reporting, and by 1962 had been promoted to news director.
Though radio news was Johnson’s focus for two decades, his style and energy were a natural for TV, and in the early 1960s he started appearing on KOMO television programs.
He worked on cooking shows and documentaries, and wrote the occasional editorial for the station, eventually appearing on KOMO’s weekly commentary segment, “Viewpoint.”
In the 2023 KOMO documentary, Johnson discussed how he tried to balance his two very different roles — objective radio reporter versus opinionated TV commentator.
“You tried to know your own biases and eliminate them to make your reporting as fair as you possibly could,” Johnson explained in the 2023 profile. “Because if you did your reporting balanced, people forgave you your commentary.”
Nickels thinks Johnson successfully walked that line. “I have no idea [whether] he was a Democrat or Republican. I don’t think it mattered.”
Johnson shifted to TV news full-time in the 1980s. He covered some of the region’s biggest stories, including the 1983 Wah Mee massacre, the 1990 collapse of the Interstate 90 floating bridge and the riots that shut down the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999.
Still, it was often Johnson’s work off-camera and away from the microphone that made an impression, especially among journalists. Even competitors recalled Johnson as generous and helpful.
Essex Porter, who recently retired after 39 years at rival KIRO, recalled arriving in a Wenatchee-area neighborhood to interview residents for a story only to find Johnson already wrapping up his own reporting.
Instead of hitting the road, Johnson stayed and told Porter which residents he’d already interviewed, noting who was unlikely to talk to a reporter but also who “will probably give you some good comments,” Porter recalled. “That was incredibly helpful and just so gracious.”
Porter thinks that generosity partly reflected Johnson’s deep competence. “He was so confident he had the story, he didn’t need to elbow anyone else out of the way,” he said.
But Porter thinks it also came out of Johnson’s self-image as “the grown-up” in Seattle-area journalism, whose success carried an obligation to help make sure those coming up behind him also “had the chance to do well.”
Johnson witnessed many changes in the news business, not always happily.
He rued TV news’ growing emphasis on “body counts, accidents and sex,” which he saw emerging in the 1970s as many reporters became “chroniclers of the aberrant,” as he put it in a 2009 interview with a Seattle-area trade publication.
He wasn’t much happier with the rise of blogging (“Rush Limbaugh-style, ditto shouting”) or with social media.
Though he was an avid online reader, he told KOMO in 2023 that he didn’t use Facebook, TikTok, or X.
He lamented that quick social media hits were usurping TV broadcasters as source of news, and he urged his colleagues not to lose faith.
“Many want news in 140 characters or delivered effortlessly by simply following someone,” Johnson wrote in his 2013 Gold Circle award statement.
“But, believe me, democracy needs TV as much in Century 21 as the country needed newspapers and pamphleteers 230 years ago.”
“You don’t have to do it for 50-plus years,” he added, “but please keep on keeping on.”
According to KOMO, Johnson is survived by his children and grandchildren. A date of death was not given.