Ernie Johnson Jr. | |
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Johnson at the Baltimore Orioles ALDS Game on October 7, 2012
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Born |
Ernest Thorwald Johnson Jr. August 7, 1956 Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
Residence | Braselton, Georgia |
Nationality | American |
Other names | E.J., Mr. Smooth, Elevator Ernie |
Education | University of Georgia |
Occupation | On-Air Personality, Turner Sports |
Title | Sportscaster |
Spouse(s) | Cheryl Johnson |
Children | 6 |
Parent(s) |
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Ernest Thorwald "Ernie" Johnson Jr. (born August 7, 1956) is a sportscaster for Turner Sports and CBS Sports. Johnson is currently the lead television voice for Major League Baseball on TBS, hosts Inside the NBA for TNT, and contributes to the joint coverage of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament for Turner and CBS. He is the son of Ernie Johnson Sr., a former Major League Baseball pitcher and Braves play-by-play announcer.
Johnson's career began in 1977 while he was still a student at the University of Georgia, when he took a job as the news and sports director for the radio station WAGQ-FM in Athens, Georgia. He held that job until 1978, when he graduated from Georgia with a B.A. in journalism, summa cum laude. In 1979, Johnson began his broadcasting career at WMAZ-TV in Macon, Georgia. He worked there as a news anchor until 1981, when he moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina to work as a news reporter at WSPA-TV. Johnson moved back to Georgia in 1982, this time taking a job in Atlanta at WSB-TV as a general assignment news reporter. He became the station's weekend sports anchor and reporter in 1983. He held those jobs until 1989, when he left to join Turner Sports.
From 1993 to 1996, Johnson called Atlanta Braves baseball games for SportSouth (now FSN South) with his father, Ernie Johnson Sr..