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<p>Just to be clear, while he <em>did</em> host &#8220;Dialing for Dollars,&#8221; that&#8217;s almost certainly not where you first saw long-time local news anchor Nolan Johannes.</p><p>Johannes, who died this week at the age of 81, hosted a show of that name at WKBW in Buffalo &#8212; not the afternoon game show/movie that aired on WNEP-TV &#8212; before becoming one of WNEP&#8217;s most enduring and implacable news anchors.</p><p>In fact, according to WKBW&#8217;s website, Johannes was the first anchor of &#8220;Dialing for Dollars&#8221; when it debuted in New York&#8217;s northern market in 1964. That show included &#8220;guest appearances by big-name stars, cooking and fashion segments, musical entertainment &#8230; and those unforgettable call-in contests,&#8221; the website notes. It ran for 14 years.</p><p>Johannes came to WNEP in 1982, replacing anchor Gary Essex. The two not only had different styles, they had different looks. Essex sported a classic &#8217;70s news anchor coif, jet black hair swept across his forehead in a dip that nearly brushed his eyebrows, chiseled face, broad shoulders and pearly white smile.</p><p>Johannes, by comparison was lean, had an every man face, kept his hair cropped short, and let it gray on air as he aged gracefully during 14 years on the desk. Upon retirement, he remained with the station for years, filling in for a stint when his replacement suffered an injury in 1998, and providing a weekend news recap show.</p><p>&#8220;The most unique thing about Nolan was that when he came here and became our news anchor, he didn&#8217;t have a news background,&#8221; WNEP News Director Carl Abraham said. &#8220;But he did very very well.</p><p>&#8220;Nolan was very basic, just a good guy,&#8221; Abraham added. &#8220;There was just nothing phony about him.&#8221;</p><p>Long-time colleague Mike Stevens, the avuncular host of the station&#8217;s folksy &#8220;Pennsylvania Road&#8221; segments, crafted a farewell tribute when Johannes retired in 1996, and began by conceding a truism of media companies in small and mid-sized markets.</p><p>&#8220;We make but a fleeting acquaintance with those who work around us,&#8221; Stevens said in the report, &#8220;To stay in one place as long as Nolan has is remarkable.&#8221; Stevens added that some back-of-the-envelope calculations estimated Johannes had done &#8220;about 6,600 newscasts&#8221; during his tenure at the big desk.</p><p>Stevens summed up Johannes&#8217; appeal, which came courtesy of an even-tempered delivery regardless of the levity or tragedy in the story: It was &#8220;a style that made the impossibly tragic events in our lifetime easy to understand.&#8221;</p><p>WNEP announced the death through a web posting by Abraham, who wrote: &#8220;News is often not good and that&#8217;s how it&#8217;s always been. Still, when Nolan Johannes read it the story somehow became gentler, if that&#8217;s possible. He read it quietly, distinctly, matter-of-factly, with an air of calm and dignity.&#8221;</p><p>Johannes came to Northeastern Pennsylvania in a zig-zag line from his hometown of Wausau, Wisconsin. Johannes earned his degree at Luther College in Iowa, cut his TV teeth doing all sorts of jobs in Buffalo, then settled in at WNEP.</p><p>He retired in Roaring Brook Township in Lackawanna County with his wife Marian, and one tidbit from the early days of social media may hint at why.</p><p>Johannes had a MySpace page with less than a handful of pictures and a &#8220;Playlist&#8221; with only one song: &#8220;Gonna have a Party&#8221; by John Stevens&#8217; Doubleshot, a polka band.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Nolan Johannes </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_nolan1.jpeg</photo0><caption0>Nolan Johannes </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Long-time Northeastern Pennsylvania news anchor Nolan Johannes dies