Arv Johnson

Inducted 2009

Arv Johnson got his first radio experience during his junior year at Jamestown College in Jamestown, North Dakota.  A music major, Arv sang with his quartet on the air at station KRMC.  The station manager was so impressed with Arv’s deep voice that he made Arv a part-time announcer there in 1937.  His first full-time radio job was in Salt Lake City, Utah, at KUTA, in 1940.  Three years later he enlisted in the U.S. Army, where his duties included serving as a radio code instructor.  He joined KVOX Radio in Moorhead after the war.   By 1951 he had become production manager at the Fargo studios of KCJB, and later worked in Minot at North Dakota’s first TV station.  He spent 1959 as news director at KFGO Radio and KXJB TV in Fargo.  He moved to WCCO Radio in 1960, where he remained until retiring in May 1979.  The work Arv did as government correspondent at WCCO, covering countless county, state, and national conventions, earned him recognition as the “Voice of Minnesota Politics.”  He specialized in the Minnesota Legislature, and guides recalled that seeing Arv was one of the main attractions for people touring the Capitol.  He was easily recognizable with his longish gray hair, glasses, goatee, and especially his trademark cowboy boots.  He passed away at age 63, on the final day of the 1980 legislative session.