For three decades, WLS listeners have enjoyed Jim Johnson's unique style of news reporting. Jim joined WLS Radio as a street reporter in 1968. He has a BS and a Masters degree in communications from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining WLS Radio Jim worked as a reporter/anchor for WILL Television in Urbana-Champaign. 

Since joining WLS Mr. Johnson has been both a street reporter and anchorman. His regular assignments include City Hall, the Criminal Courts, Federal Courts, and a wide variety of breaking news stories. 

Jim's most memorable stories include the 1968 Democratic Convention, the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 near O'Hare in 1979 (Jim was the first radio reporter on the scene), the school bus-train collision in Fox River Grove in 1995, broadcasting regular reports from the 1996 Democratic Convention, and most recently, Johnson was at his WLS microphone when NATO bombs began falling on the former Yugoslavia.


Johnson is perhaps just as well known for his ability to joust verbally with his on-air colleagues, be they Roe & Garry, Larry Lujack, or Fred Winston. Jim's stories about growing up in Northern Wisconsin have charmed listeners on both sides of the Cheddar Curtain. Johnson claims to be the only reporter in Chicago who grew up with an outhouse in the backyard and a skunk for a housepet. (The skunk's name was Whiff.) Pictures from Jim's childhood are available below.


Mr. Johnson's coverage and reporting on the Fox River Grove schoolbus-train collision earned him a coveted Edward R. Murrow Award for on-the-spot news coverage.

Jim celebrated his thirtieth year at WLS in 1998. He lists among his achievements the invention of the Canarble Wagon.