Bogut & Johnson to enter PA Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame

Pittsburgh radio legend Jack Bogut and recently retired WPXI-TV anchor David Johnson will be inducted into the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame at an event scheduled to be held in Harrisburg on Friday, April 11.

Jack Bogut came to Pittsburgh in 1968 to host the morning show on Westinghouse-owned KDKA-AM (1020) from Salt Lake City. He turned the job down twice because of what he had heard of Pittsburgh and its reputation of being the “Smoky City”. But station management proved to him it was no longer that way and he joined the station he had first heard over a crystal set in his one-room schoolhouse in his native Montana in 1942. After 15 years at KDKA he moved over to Hearst Broadcasting’s WTAE-AM (1250) and WTAE-TV (4). After 5 years he moved over to mornings exclusively on FM at the still-beautiful music WSHH (99.7) owned by Renda Broadcasting. Eventually he made his way to then-sister WJAS (1320) where, at first he was on in the afternoon before taking on the mornings there. When WJAS was sold, he was back to KDKA with his “home movies” and vignettes a few times throughout the day.

David Johnson spent 40 years at Pittsburgh’s WPXI-TV (11). Arriving in 1985 from Cox’s flagship – WSB-TV in Atlanta – he was named the noon anchor and news reporter for Channel 11 News. In 1989 he was named evening anchor as Mike Hambrick departed to return to WBAL-TV in Baltimore (also Channel 11). Upon the departure of Edye Tarbox, Johnson was paired with another new kid in town, Peggy Finnegan, and together they became the longest-running anchor team in Pittsburgh to date – just a little over 30 years until Finnegan’s retirement. Johnson retired from WPXI in December 2024 after 40 years with the station. At the end of his final newscast the staff and crew informed him that the main studio would be named in his honor.