[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. ____________________