RANDY ECONOMY: MY WORLD: RIP: Paul Johnson, NBC4 Today in LA Morning traffic reporter passed away tonight. This man TOUCHED EVERYONE in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA for DECADES!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

RIP: Paul Johnson, NBC4 Today in LA Morning traffic reporter passed away tonight. This man TOUCHED EVERYONE in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA for DECADES!

"Buckle Up and BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!"

--Paul Johnson

By Randy Economy
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
12:02 a.m.
UPDATE

Tonight our world lost a great man with the passing of Paul Johnson.

EVERYONE in Southern California got to know this amazing television news reporter, and "Traffic Czar" for so many wonderful reasons.

Tonight we are all saddened by his death.

Many of us never saw Paul in person, including me, but we trusted him with our lives, day in and day out for decades.

Paul Johnson was that "calm before the storm." You know what I'm talkin' about.

He would come the radio or on Channel 4 Morning News with THAT amazing voice, to inform us that the world was coming to an end on the 405 Freeway due to an overturned tanker truck.

But none of us seemed to care. We ALL LOVED Paul.

We planned our morning drive times around HIS advice....day in and day out for DECADES! We literally trusted our lives with him. The stories he shared with millions of us made us feel special, and he made us all feel "part" of this amazing community known as Southern California.

The deep silky voiced Johnson was 75 years old at the time of his passing in the OC. His wife Nancy and their family and close friends were with him at his bedside.

Here is a posting from the NBC4 News website tonight:

"He put up a heroic fight against a glioblastoma (brain tumor) but on Tuesday, it was time to go, and as his wife Nancy said in a voicemail to his coworkers a few minutes after he left, "He's gone to see Jesus."

The world was a better place while he was in it, telling us to "buckle up, be careful out there," but what he was really telling us is that no matter what was ahead on the road, no matter what obstacles or accidents were in the way, that it was going to be OK."

A LIFETIME OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Johnson has been a part of our local television and radio landscape. Before joining NBC 4, he was with Metro Traffic in August 1982. He has also reported traffic conditions for several Los Angeles radio stations, including KNX, KZLA, KACE, KXEZ and KSRF. KFAC, KUTE, and on KIIS-FM from 1969 to 1972, where he was an on-air personality.

RIP Paul!!

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2 comments:

Buckled up to heaven said...: He was amazing. So so sad. Thanks Paul. RIP!; Tuesday, June 29, 2010 11:36:00 PM
Rick in Riverside said...: So so sad. What a great man. I cannot BELIEVE he was 75! Incredible.; Tuesday, June 29, 2010 11:37:00 PM

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Meet Randy Economy

You may know me from my role as the Senior Advisor and Official Media Spokesman for the Recall Gavin Newsom campaign that established a worldwide blitz of interviews. I conducted more than 2,200 media interviews on behalf of “The People’s Recall” during a 10-month period from November 2020 to September 2021. The iconic magazine Mother Jones in a dramatic feature article called me “A ‘Superhero Pirate’ Radio Host, (and) Gavin Newsom’s Strangest—and Most Dangerous—Threat. Meet Randy Economy, the man behind the effort to recall California’s governor.” I appeared on more than 330 media outlets around the world in my capacity with RecallGavin2020. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Newsmax, NBC Nightly News, ABC News, as well as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Politico, and dozens of other media outlets aired featured reports on my work on behalf of “The People’s Recall.” I am and will always consider myself to be a journalist. Sometimes I think I bleed ink. My talents as an Investigative Journalists in California earned me FIVE top awards from the prestigious Los Angeles Press Club in 2013, 2014, and 2016. I am tenacious. My reporting over the years has led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California. While working for a tiny community newspaper in Southeast Los Angeles County, I worked doggedly to expose the biggest public corruption case in Los Angeles County history when I unearthed a massive pay to play scheme inside the Assessor’s Office that led to the arrest of then Assessor John R. Noguez and four others. However, politics has been in my DNA since I was a child. I have worked on more than 300 political campaigns as a consultant and advisor since 1982 for candidates from all sides of the political spectrum including Democrats and Republicans, and even Libertarians. I am also a small business owner, serving as the President and CEO of Hot Water Studio & Production, LLC. My company works with media outlets across the state, nation, and world exposing public corruption via several new media platforms. I have also overcome personal challenges. I am legally blind with zero vision in my right eye and only 40 percent vision remaining in my left eye. I sometimes wear an eyepatch due to my failed vision. (Hence the nickname of “America’s Political Pirate.”