WASHINGTON — For the past 44 years, Bruce Johnson has devoted his professional life to telling remarkable stories for WUSA9. Bruce will now be closing this chapter of his amazing professional life at the end of this year on December 31, 2020.
The term “Living Legend” can be sometimes overblown, but is well-earned in Bruce’s case. This natural fighter from Louisville, KY, hometown of Muhammad Ali, has been a journalist of the highest distinction at WUSA9 since 1976, reporting on high impact stories from DC, the nation and around the globe.
Bruce has won 22 Emmys, is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame, the Washington, DC Hall of Fame and soon to be inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame at the University of Kentucky.
He has been honored with nearly every journalism award of distinction, including the Ted Yates Award and the NATAS Board of Governors Award and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Press Club. He has filed special reports from Rome, Bangkok, Moscow, Budapest and Cuba. He has received hundreds of civic awards from DC organizations, from the city’s Mayors and a Resolution in his honor from the DC City Council.
In addition to Bruce’s professional reporting career, he’s the author of two books. Heart to Heart was Bruce’s effort to share his personal journey of recovery from a heart attack in 1992. All or Nothing was his expose on DC basketball star, Victor Page. These two books lay the foundation for Bruce’s post-WUSA9 focus, releasing a book about his own amazing life, set to be published in 2021. In it, he’ll share his own journey from his challenged youth in Louisville, KY, not knowing his father, studying to become a priest, being the first in his family to graduate from college and being a cancer survivor. We know this personal story will become yet another award winner for Bruce.
To say we are truly grateful for Bruce’s contributions is clearly an understatement.
To celebrate his career more fully, we will pay tribute to Bruce during the month of November and pay homage to the many ways he has positively lived out his commitment to journalism in his adopted city. He is truly one of a kind and leaves us with a great legacy of impact.
Please join me in congratulating this Living Legend on an amazing career at WUSA9. We look forward to celebrating Bruce in the coming months.
