[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 22127-22128]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         TRIBUTE TO TIM JOHNSON

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today I rise to tell you about a man 
I have known for many years now who is a credit to his profession and 
to his community. He is a consummate professional and an even finer 
human being. Tim Johnson has been bringing the news to Brattleboro, VT 
and beyond for more than 20 years now. It is clear that Vermonters know 
a good thing when they hear it.
  Tim, now the news director at WTSA, is a Brattleboro institution. In 
these times of huge media conglomerates and syndicated radio programs, 
Tim Johnson knows Brattleboro--he is a graduate of Brattleboro Union 
High School--and residents have come to rely on him for the news they 
care about. Time, on a typical day, will report on everything from lost 
pets, to school closings and national affairs. As Vermont's Senator for 
more than 20 years, I have had the pleasure of working with Tim 
throughout the years and I have come to appreciate his keen insights 
and his dogged pursuit of the facts. Tim has demonstrated an unflagging 
commitment to keeping his community informed and Brattleboro has been 
the better for it. While we hear so much about what is wrong with the 
media today, Tim Johnson is a shining example of what is right.
  I ask to have printed in the Record a profile of Tim Johnson from The 
Times Argus, dated October 1, 2000.
  The article follows:

             [From the Sunday Rutland Herald, Oct. 1, 2000]

       Tim Johnson: Radio Journalist Keeps an Ear on Brattleboro

                          (By Susan Smallheer)

       Brattleboro.--The studios of WTSA in Brattleboro are on the 
     second floor of an old Victorian home on Western Avenue. It's 
     Tim Johnson's home away from home, sometimes for as long as 
     18 hours a day. He's even slept on a pull-out futon at the 
     station.
       When he's home, though, he's in bed by 10 p.m.--unless 
     there's a close Red Sox game--and up by 4 a.m., and at the 
     station before 5 to prepare for the morning newscast.
       Johnson is the news director of Brattleboro's dominant 
     radio station, WTSA-AM and FM. He works exhausting hours, 
     both locked in the studio and then out on the streets getting 
     the news.
       This is a radio newsman who gets a tan. (Well, a little 
     tan.)
       Johnson, 43, has been on the air since he was a teenager at 
     Brattleboro Union High School, working at WTSA's cross-town 
     competition, WKVT. He was 17 and making $1.60 an hour when he 
     started working weekend shifts at the station, and gradually 
     left behind disc jockey chores for the newsroom.
       Johnson is a self-taught radio expert who never went to 
     college, whose first broadcast challenge was to overcome a 
     stutter. Friends say he overcame it by simple determination. 
     ``The first word I stumbled over was Episcopal,'' he said. 
     ``I mispronounced it three times.''
       His own name, Arsenault, and the problems he has 
     pronouncing it, helped persuade him to choose something 
     simpler for on-air.
       Johnson has been chasing the news in southern Vermont for 
     more than 20 years. No Rolodex for him. He has a memory for 
     telephone numbers, perhaps a 1,000 or more. He goes to house 
     fires, car accidents, board meetings, governor's appearances 
     and homecoming football games.
       ``It's the personal pride of putting a good product out 
     there,'' said Johnson, who puts the emphasis on community.
       ``We're one of the few radio stations that still do lost 
     dog announcements,'' said Johnson, who fields telephone calls 
     on such topics ``Is there softball tonight?'' and ``Is there 
     school?'' and ``Is Brattleboro Bowl open tonight?''
       He is also the technical wizard at the station, and the 
     `scanner head.' He taught himself as the station switched to 
     cyber. There is no such thing as a piece of tape in radio 
     now; it's all digital.
       The high and mighty came calling at Western Avenue, or 
     rendezvous on the road. His ``Live Mike'' van allows him to 
     get news on the spot and broadcast it first. In the 
     competitive Brattleboro news market, WTSA rules.
       ``You don't know how many people call me Mike,'' laughs 
     Johnson over soup and salad at the Jolly Butcher, a popular 
     see-and-be-seen restaurant a mile from the station.
       With his distinctive deep voice, people instantly recognize 
     Johnson, and his relaxed personality invites conversation, 
     ``You can't brush anybody off; they might think you're a snob 
     and word gets around fast in a town like Brattleboro,'' said 
     Johnson, who seems to enjoy the attention.
       At The Jolly Butcher, the jolly chef teases Johnson about 
     the station's recent lobster-eating contest, which raised 
     money for the Winston Prouty Center, a school and day care 
     center for handicapped children. As he leaves, Johnson is 
     hugged by Windham County Side Judge Trish Hain, who once 
     worked for him as an assistant news editor at WKVT. 
     Everybody, it seems, knows him.
       He's chairman of the board of directors of BCTV, 
     Brattleboro's heavily watched community television station. 
     He's moderator for his hometown, serving Vernon as a steady 
     hand during marathon town meetings. He's also the Windham 
     County director of the emergency alert system, which accounts 
     for the second of two beepers on his belt. And he recently 
     became the moderator for the Brattleboro Union High School 
     district.
       He's also a justice of the peace and Vernon's 
     representative to the Windham Regional Commission.
       Johnson relishes the pace, but health problems have forced 
     him to scale back to 55-60 hour work weeks. He's devoting 
     more time now to his wife, family, and three grandchildren, 
     not to mention their dog Loretta. Both he and Sue, the 
     activities programmer at the special needs unit at the Vernon 
     Green Nursing Home, were married before, he said, and family 
     means a great deal to both of them.
       Johnson divorced in his 20s, and his only child, 3-year-old 
     son Jeremiah, was murdered 18 years ago in Texas by his ex-
     wife's drunken half-brother. Johnson says his grief almost 
     destroyed him.
       But his renewed interest in his Christian religion has made 
     him forgive his former brother-in-law, who is out of prison 
     after serving most of a 10-year sentence. ``I forgive him. In 
     God's eyes he's forgiven. But do I think he's a nice person? 
     No.
       ``I don't believe in the death penalty. I'm a death penalty 
     opponent,'' he says.
       Religion helps him, he says, deal with his personal tragedy 
     and job stress. And he uses his voice--``I sing tenor''--in 
     the choir of the South Vernon Advent Christian Church, where 
     both his grandfathers were pastors.
       Back after lunch, Johnson makes a few calls to get the 
     proverbial sound bite to flesh out a story from the AP about 
     an issue in the governor's race relating to homosexuality and 
     public education.
       This afternoon, he will even do double duty, cueing up CDs 
     for a missing DJ,

[[Page 22128]]

     expertly flipping through the playlist, selecting a song to 
     fit the time slot and sliding it into the stacked CD players, 
     all with seconds to go.
       He dashes between music and news, cueing up disks and 
     editing the sound bites he garnered from Vernon NEA President 
     Angelo Dorta, all at amazing speed.
       He's in his element.

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