Induction into the Pennsylvania Association of broadcasters Hall of Fame will take place this year at the Excellence in Broadcasting Awards luncheon. There shall be a radio and television inductee each year. Hall of Fame designation is awarded to persons of broadcast station ownership or management commemorating careers of merit and distinction.

2025 Award Recipients: David Johnson - Television; Jack Bogut - Radio

About David Johnson
David was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and grew up near Daytona Beach.
He graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.
He started his TV news career while in college and has worked at stations in Jacksonville, Chattanooga, Orlando and Atlanta.
He joined WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh in January of 1985 as noon anchor and evening reporter.
He was promoted to evening news anchor in 1989, and the following year he began a 31 year partnership with co-anchor Peggy Finnegan, becoming the longest running anchor team in Pittsburgh history.
They were named the PAB’s Broadcasters of the Year in 2016, the first anchor team to be so honored.
David has won three Mid Atlantic Emmys and numerous Press Club of Western Pennsylvania Golden Quill Awards.
He retired just four months ago after a 40 year career at WPXI.
Upon his retirement, the station named the main news studio in his honor.


About Jack Bogut
Jack Bogut heard KDKA for the first time when he was growing up in rural north central Montana. In 1942, while attending a one-room all-grades school, 6-year-old Bogut’s teacher showed his class a small radio crystal from a Cracker Jack box with instructions detailing how to connect it to a piece of copper wire. If you held the crystal to your ear, you might be able to hear a distant radio station. His classmates only heard static, but Bogut heard a faint voice say the call letters of a station he didn’t recognize then. The call letters were K-D-K-A. 26 years later in 1968, he would become the morning host and favorite personality on the world’s first radio station, KDKA Pittsburgh.

In 1967, Jack and Joni Bogut and their children John, Brenda, and Lisa moved to Pittsburgh from Salt Lake City.

Bogut dominated the Steel City’s ratings for more than 15 consecutive years (1968-1983) while hosting the “Bogut In The Morning Show” on KDKA-AM. During his long and storied career, Jack also served as morning host on WTAE-AM, WSHH-FM, and WJAS-AM. Additionally, he hosted his own namesake television show on WTAE-TV and a business-based talk radio segment on WPTT-AM. As a “pitch man,” Jack selectively represented many of Pittsburgh’s finest businesses and corporations.

Jack used his morning show platform and philanthropic muscle to raise both awareness and millions of dollars for worthy charities, including the Free Care Fund at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Western Pennsylvania.

In 1981, Jack was featured live on ABC Television’s “Good Morning America,” and in USA TODAY, as one of the top morning radio personalities in the nation for not only his consistently high ratings, but his community involvement and work with charities.

In 1983, Jack decided to part ways with KDKA-AM for new combined radio and television roles at both WTAE-AM and WTAE-TV.

In 1988, “Your Bogut” changed addresses again, moving across town to WSHH-FM. With WISH 100 (and later WISH 99.7) his Make-A-Wish broadcasts generated in excess of $2 million annually in support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Western Pennsylvania. Even after Jack moved to WSHH-FM’s sister station WJAS-AM, he maintained a presence and helped advise the Make-A-Wish radio campaign.

Jack’s full-time involvement in Pittsburgh radio concluded when WJAS-AM was sold. Despite new ownership’s attempts to convince him to stay on as morning host, their talk format did not appeal to him. The “Bogut In The Morning” show was retired, but Jack never did. His popularity and Pittsburgh’s thirst for nostalgia brought him back to KDKA-AM where he hosted a series of vignettes; those familiar radio “home movies” that endeared him to his listeners during all those earlier years.

Today, he remains active as an advocate for the soon-to-be realized National Museum of Broadcasting which will feature the reconstruction of the original garage in which Dr. Frank Conrad gave birth to commercial radio in America when he founded KDKA.

Among his many other accolades, Jack was inducted into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame, received a Pittsburgh Radio and Television Club Lifetime Achievement Award and was presented with a March of Dimes A.I.R. (Achievement in Radio) Lifetime Achievement Award. Jack Bogut will forever be remembered for the unparalleled way he harnessed the power of radio and channeled it for philanthropic good.

Past Winners