For 32 years, Bob Johnson brought the news into the living rooms of Chattanoogans as the news anchor at WTVC-TV 9. He died Monday night after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 73.
Johnson, along with Darrell Patterson and the late Don Welch, were fixtures at the station. Johnson joined the station in 1975 at age 28. The station was third in the ratings in a three-station town when he started there and quickly turned things around.
“They had such great chemistry,” said WRCB-TV 3 personality David Carroll.
Patterson said he met Johnson in 1975 in the WTVC parking lot the day that Johnson was hired.
“We stood there and talked for about an hour about radio, our pasts, music,” Patterson said. “We became best friends right there on the spot.”