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Iola Vivian Johnson (born October 10, 1950)[1] is an American television reporter, journalist, and anchor. She was the second African-American news anchor for a Dallas television station.[2]
Johnson was born in Texarkana, Arkansas. One of her first professional positions was with NBC affiliate KVOA in Tucson, Arizona, where she wrote for the 10 o'clock news.[3]
In 1973, she was hired at WFAA in Dallas[3] and debuted as a weekend news anchor in May of that year.[4] In 1975, she was teamed with a fellow reporter named Tracy Rowlett and together they began a ten-year run as co-anchors of the 6 and 10 pm newscasts.[2] Within the first year, the new anchor team catapulted to number one in the ratings. It was the most successful news teams in Dallas-Fort Worth television history.[3] Johnson remained at WFAA-TV for more than 12 years.
Johnson is the former host of Positively Texas[citation needed] (a weekly public affairs television show that aired on TXA 21 KTXA, CBS 11's sister station and former UPN affiliate).
In 1985, Johnson left her anchor position with WFAA-TV to start her own business.[3] (Her last night on WFAA-TV being March 2, 1985.[2]) Iola's second anchor stint was with KTVI in St. Louis. Her co-anchor was Kevin Cokely, who currently works at KXAS, the NBC owned and operated station in Dallas. After working for a short time in St. Louis, she returned to Dallas to work as the managing editor and news reporter for a morning show on KKDA AM radio.[3]
In September 2000, Johnson chose to return to television news to help launch a new hour-long newscast at 4 pm on KTVT CBS 11 in Dallas-Fort Worth with longtime friend and former WFAA colleague Tracy Rowlett[citation needed]. After two years, Tracy and Iola left the 4pm newscast when it was cancelled. In 2012, television came calling again and she was hired as a television contributor for The Texas Daily news program on KTXD-TV, channel 41, an independent station in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. There, she was teamed with former WFAA anchors Jeff Brady, Tracy Rowlett, John Criswell, Phyllis Watson, Midge Hill, Debbie Denmon, and Troy Dungan.
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