R.I.P.: John Bohannon, Former Radio Network Newscaster

John Bohannon

Former NBC radio newsman John Bohannon recently died at age 81.

Bohannon spent more than forty years in commercial radio, mostly in New York City at all three major networks as a news correspondent. But he began his radio career in Tampa in 1955.

After a few formative years at WDAE, the Tampa native left for New York around 1958 and settled on Long Island where he became morning drive host at WBAB AM/FM, Babylon, and then morning drive host at WGBB in Freeport.  Neither station exists today.

After about 15 years at the local radio level, he moved on to New York City and joined ABC Radio as a news correspondent, then NBC as a correspondent on “Monitor,” the network’s weekend news service, and on to CBS. During his time with NBC, he was also assigned to the network’s flagship station, WNBC, where he became the first news anchor for Don Imus. At CBS in 1980, he broke the story of the murder of the Beatles’ John Lennon.

In 1991, after more than 25 years as a network news correspondent, John retired from commercial radio and hosted “The Jazz Café” on New York’s WRHU-FM (the Hofstra University radio station on Long Island).