Former WSB-TV reporter, NBA on TNT host Ernie Johnson Jr. honored by UGA with broadcasting award

ATHENS, Ga. — Former WSB-TV reporter and current NBA on TNT host Ernie Johnson Jr. was honored in Athens earlier this week.

The Georgia Association of Broadcasters and UGA’s broadcast society DiGamma Kappa named Johnson as this year’s Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient.

Johnson has been the host of TNT’s “Inside the NBA” since 1990, working alongside NBA legends like Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, but he got his career started in Athens and with WSB-TV.

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A UGA graduate, Johnson worked at WSB-TV as a general assignment news reporter starting in 1982.

He then became our weekend sports anchor and reporter a year later and stayed with WSB-TV until 1989 when he accepted a job with Turner Sports.

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Johnson grew up in metro Atlanta, the son of former Atlanta Braves radio announcer Ernie Johnson Sr. He later called games for a few seasons with his dad.

He attended the Marist School and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1978. Johnson and his wife Cheryl live in metro Atlanta.

He isn’t the only former WSB-TV talent to be presented with Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award. Monica

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