FARGO — A local TV news icon turned champion of all things tourism in Fargo-Moorhead is calling it a career.
Charley Johnson, 75, president and CEO of Visit Fargo-Moorhead, formerly known as the Fargo-Moorhead Convention and Visitors Bureau, retires this month.
His last day will be Friday, Sept. 19, allowing two weeks of overlap
on the job with his successor, Shirley Hughes, recently named to the position.
Johnson’s 13 years of promoting travel and tourism came on the heels of a near 40-year-career in broadcast news.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
“It was the best thing that could have happened to me. It was a great late-life career change, which I never really expected,” he said.
Mallari Ackerman, director of convention sales at Visit Fargo-Moorhead, was hired a few months before Johnson.
She remembers being starstruck at first, having watched him anchor the news on KVLY-TV.
But the two quickly became friends and “learned the ropes together,” she said, traveling to trade shows around the country and the world to promote Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo as a place to visit.
Contributed / Mallari Ackerman
As a boss, she said Johnson is level-headed and laid back.
“He doesn’t micromanage our team. He also lets us try to find out a solution for ourselves,” Ackerman said.
Sally Mulvena, president and CEO of the Red River Zoo, said Johnson is someone who makes the area better.
“He’s just Fargo. He represents all of those cool, unique, fine things about our community, all wrapped up in one person,” she said.
David Samson / The Forum
Johnson was hired
at what is now Visit Fargo-Moorhead in May 2012,
two years after he resigned as general manager at KVLY-KXJB TV, citing personal reasons.
It was the end of a
more than 36-year stint for him in Fargo-Moorhead media.
Johnson had been news director at KVLY before being promoted to general manager in 1998, and he continued anchoring newscasts until 2007.
During his time at the TV stations, there were five ownership changes in a 12-year span, which he described as “professional whiplash.”
Forum News Service
“I was really proud of the fact that so many of our teams stuck together through almost all of those … but the last one (owner) that came in, it just … didn’t work for me and it didn’t work for them,” he said.
Johnson applied for various jobs that called for management experience, which he had from running newsrooms, entire stations and supervising sales teams, but either didn’t hear back or was rejected.
“Everyone just knows me as the guy who was on TV,” he said. “It was a little moment of despair … because nobody thinks I’m qualified to do anything but sit and read (the news),” he said.
Fortunately, a news anchor position opened at WDAZ TV in Grand Forks, then a sister station to WDAY TV in Fargo, where he was hired to work four days a week, commuting from his home in Moorhead.
“I really enjoyed getting back in the newsroom, producing and anchoring, and met a lot of new friends,” he said.
During that 18-month period at WDAZ, he continued to look for other work and an opportunity came along when Cole Carley announced his retirement after 20 years at the tourism organization in Fargo.
Final work: Convention Center
A recruiter who Johnson talked with early on for the Visit Fargo-Moorhead job told him “you’re not what we’re looking for.”
But he remained patient, finally catching the recruiter’s attention and landing the CEO position.
His connections as a journalist were valuable, as city leaders took his calls and weren’t shy to call him about something that needed attention, Johnson said.
Spider Johnk, creative services at Spider and Company, said his and Johnson’s paths crossed in media circles but they truly became friends in the last 10 years or so.
He draws similarities between Johnson and the late Vince Lindstrom, who started the tourism bureau.
“Vince was fabulous in terms of his enthusiasm. … He would go out and promote an idea like nobody. And I see Charley in that mold, but Charley brings a little bit of realism to it as well,” Johnk said.
Contributed / Mallari Ackerman
He also emphasized Johnson’s sense of humor.
“If you get Charley Johnson laughing, it’s the funniest damn thing in the world. He gets tears rolling down his cheeks, real easy,” Johnk said.
Johnson said since his hiring, Visit Fargo-Moorhead has paid out more than $7 million in grants
to benefit many community projects, including $1.25 million to the Fargo Parks Sports Center.
The grants come through the organization’s capital fund, Johnson said, established by his predecessor, Carley.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Johnson’s last work will be as chair of the Fargo Convention Center Committee,
The committee hopes to advance one proposal for the City Commission to consider for approval.
“Once a project’s picked, then my role will be done,” he said.
Johnson expects the earliest groundbreaking would be fall of 2026, but more likely spring of 2027.
Mulvena said Johnson will be missed in retirement, but she’ll continue to seek him out as a mentor.
“He’s a kind of leader that’s going to be remembered not only for all of the amazing things that he accomplished in his career, but for how he made people feel along the way, and I think that’s probably one of the most amazing legacies a person can leave,” she said.