After dutifully serving and protecting the entire U.S.A. as secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson would not be surprised to get a respectful “thank you” from grateful admirers.
But the thank-you Johnson got this day was not for his Homeland Security service; it was for playing great soul music and conducting informative interviews on his monthly “All Things Soul” radio show on Newark’s popular WBGO 88.3 FM.
“I will encounter people at the train station, and people will say, ‘Thank you so much,’ and I’m thinking they’re thanking me for my service in Washington,” Johnson said. “They’re thanking me because they enjoy listening to my music!”
Except to these devoted WBGO radio listeners, Johnson is better known as the fourth secretary of Homeland Security — the head of a Cabinet-level division that coordinates more than 20 federal departments and agencies to provide a comprehensive strategy for the country. Established in the wake of the September 11th attacks, the Department Homeland Security is ever-present through increased airport security, bolstering cybersecurity, securing the country’s borders and more.
But obviously, Johnson is also making an impression with some Americans as a WBGO radio host. Well, the “All Things Soul” music and talk format does have appeal. In March 2022, Johnson debuted the show with former President Bill Clinton as his guest. In a video chat, Clinton shared his love for jazz, leisurely reminisced about personal musical memories and even weighed in on the war in Ukraine when Johnson asked.
“It was in his music room at his house in Chappaqua, and he [Clinton] wanted to show me some signed record albums he had. And he had an amazing recall,” said Johnson. “I was only hoping to get 15 minutes, but we talked for 27 minutes.”
Following a jazz format on most days, the station hosts its “Rhythm & Song Weekend,” from Friday through Sunday. It’s a mixture of R&B, jazz and blues which features the popular classic soul and dance music specialist Felix Hernandez. Johnson contributes once a month with his “All Things Soul” — a coordinated blend of classic rhythm and blues tracks, and a lineup of high-powered special guests.
For his Martin Luther King Jr. birthday commemoration last month, civil rights icon and King confidant Andrew Young, “one of the few surviving people left in King’s inner circle,” was on the show, Johnson said. Historian Henry Louis Gates, Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson and CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer are some of the other guests Johnson — through clout and connections — has had on the program.
“I’m taking on a new persona, obviously beyond the secretary of Homeland Security, beyond “Face the Nation,” beyond “Meet the Press,” beyond MSNBC,” said Johnson, who has been in demand and featured on big time public affairs TV shows, and other outlets since leaving the Homeland Security post in 2017.
Devoted to every show, Johnson eagerly scours through music libraries and other sources to develop the playlists that he crafts for each program. “I try to build the music around the theme of the interviews,” he said, noting that he also seeks to provide something “newsworthy and significant for folks.”
The source of Johnson’s zeal for the program is multi-faceted and rooted in his love for music, and his special affection for WBGO.
As a youngster, Johnson, like many other listeners, was tuning into WABC radio, 770 AM, whose disc jockeys repeatedly broadcasted the Top Ten music hits of the day for listeners. “So it ranged from Elvis to the Bee Gees to the Rolling Stones to Smokey and Gladys Knight. It was a diverse Top Ten,” he recalled.
High school was “when my ear for music was formed,” he said, remembering his personal taste of shifting solidly to rhythm and blues music, while his radio station of choice became WBLS, 107.5 FM, an R&B powerhouse station in the 1970s through the 1980s.
And his time at Morehouse College in Atlanta only solidified his musical preferences. It was later in life, as a married Columbia University-educated attorney living in New Jersey, that he was introduced to WBGO and Hernandez’s soulful sounds. “From that moment on, I started listening to Felix every Saturday,” he said. “Even when I was in Washington, I would listen to Felix on the Internet!”
But it was in 2002 that Johnson began to be literally drawn into the station. “In a moment of temporary insanity,” during a WBGO fundraising drive, he pledged an amount that would allow him to have an hour-long stint as a WBGO disc jockey — and he was thrilled beyond belief. “November 2002 was my first host-an-hour, and I loved it. It was spectacular,” said Johnson, who continued to do the “host-your-own-show” gigs “every year between 2002 and 2008.”
Then in 2017, Johnson said yes to an offer to join the radio station’s board of directors, and after that, he started assisting Hernandez with station fundraising drives.
And then this happened: “About a year ago, the station manager, Steve Williams asked, ‘How would you like to have your own show?’ And I said, ‘Yes,” accepting the offer and deciding to host the show for free. “I do it pro bono, because I have a day job” — practicing law at the Manhattan-based Paul, Weiss, where he is a partner.
Appreciative for the opportunity to share music and some knowledge through the show, Johnson gives thanks each month to the late Bob Porter, an invaluable 40-year on-air personality at the station. Johnson’s show airs in Porter’s old 8 to 10 a.m. slot on Saturdays.
Johnson’s Feb. 11 show is going to be a fundraiser for WBGO. On a personal note, this Black History Month will be extra special for Johnson, who along with activist-educator Angela Davis will be a guest on the Feb. 21 edition of Gates’ “Finding Your Roots” show on PBS.
