Ed Johnson (broadcaster)
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Ed Johnson (born G. Edwin Johnson) was the founder of Agri Communicators, Inc., the parent company of the Agri Broadcasting Network (ABN), which has evolved into what is known today as the Buckeye Ag Radio Network (BARN).
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[edit] The ABN
Johnson was the founder, president, and CEO of Agri Communicators Inc., which includes Agri Broadcasting Network (ABN) and Ohio's Country Journal, a monthly farm magazine. Dale Minyo,a young farm reporter began his career at ABN in 1989 and eventually became its new farm director when ABN was sold to Clear Channel Communications and was moved from its original base in Columbus and merged into its Lima, Ohio cluster following Johnson's passing in 2001 until 2006 when the rights to the network and the ABN name were sold to Buckeye Ag as part of Clear Channel's sale of its smaller market stations.
The current incarnation of Agri Communicators includes Ohio's Country Journal and a new network,Ohio Ag-Net co-founded in 2007 by Minyo and Johnson's surviving son Bart as a competitor to Buckeye Ag. Both competing networks give credit to founder Ed Johnson to this day. Bart previously owned WUCO in Marysville and WPTW in Piqua before the founding of Ohio Ag-Net.
The network evolved out of his daily reports aired on Columbus radio station WRFD from 1967 to 1972. He founded the network and ran it from his kitchen table in 1972 after WRFD came under new ownership. His Saturday morning television program, Agri Country, is enjoyed on 11 television stations across Ohio and the Home and Garden Channel in Columbus.
[edit] "From the Farm, Good Morning!"
His morning radio show was broadcast from his farm in Delaware County. In 1972, he started ABN. His famous twice-daily reports were eventually broadcast to 72 radio stations across Ohio, always opened with the trademark phrase "From the Farm, Good Morning!", followed by the crow of his legendary rooster sidekick, Abner.
[edit] Death
Johnson survived a heart attack in the mid 1990's. Dedicated to his work, he was back at the microphone just days after his surgery. Sadly he suffered a massive heart attack in February of 2001 and passed on at the age of 63. Marilyn Johnson still resides on the Delaware County farm she and her husband shared.
