Longtime KDKA-TV talk show host Jon Burnett dies at 71

Samuel Long / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Longtime KDKA-TV talk show host and weather forecaster Jon Burnett has died at age 71, the station reported Thursday.

The station said Burnett, who spent 36 years on the air, died due to complications from suspected chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a brain disorder likely caused by repeated head injuries that causes degeneration in the brain. 

After 36 years with KDKA, Burnett retired in 2019. 

“It is time. Come on, I’m in my mid-60s,” Burnett told the Post-Gazette at the time. 

KDKA-TV first hired Burnett in 1982 to co-host “Evening Magazine,” according to his family. In 1985, the Knoxville, Tenn., native also began hosting “Pittsburgh 2Day,” until the early 1990s when both of the segments ended. He then began working as a weather forecaster, having done weather in his previous TV jobs, and remained a member of the KDKA-TV weather team for nearly 30 years

Corey Martin, executive producer of special projects at KDKA-TV, said Burnett “always had a smile on his face.” From Martin’s first day as a newscast producer in 2006, the two worked together until Burnett’s retirement. 

“I know it might be cliche to say, but he liked to laugh and joke,” Martin said. “He was a prankster, he loved a good joke. He could be serious when he needed to be, especially when it came to severe weather. When he did the weather, he took the weather seriously. He didn’t take himself seriously.”

He was the person who, Martin recalled, “If you were down, he brought you up.” 

After encountering symptoms including memory loss, Burnett, following his retirement, decided to go public in early 2024 with what a cognitive neurologist told him: that he likely suffered from CTE. He decided  to participate in the National Sports Brain Bank (NSBB) at the University of Pittsburgh, dedicated to the research and treatment of brain disorders. 

With his family, Burnett shared his story in a sit-down with Burnett’s friend and onetime colleague Kristine Sorensen that aired Feb. 12. Julia Kofler, head of the NSBB, told the PG that month that, just a week later, the Brain Bank had seen 77 new registrants.

In a Friday interview, Kofler said that, since Burnett’s death on Thursday, 10 more people have signed up to participate in the NSBB — “way more” than it usually experiences.

“He certainly has a lot of public following and people really like following in his footsteps,” Kofler said. “So in that regard, he’s been immensely helpful to us, to people immensely interested and alert about this disease.” 

The condition, impossible to fully diagnose without a brain autopsy, was in part suspected because of his 10 years of playing football, from childhood through college at the University of Tennessee.

Burnett’s donation, Kofler said, can contribute to “dozens” of studies for many years to come — a “lasting legacy” that could have a large benefit to future generations. 

“When we heard the news of the diagnosis and that he and his family had decided to partner with the National Sports Brain Bank, it did not surprise me in the least,” Martin, who helped produce stories about Burnett’s experience with CTE, said. “John’s whole career was about helping others in any way he could. Entertaining, but also informing and helping. He was just a genuine, caring person.”

Martin said he kept close contact with Burnett and his wife, Debbie, after Burnett retired. 

“He is one of the best human beings that I’ve ever met in my life,” Martin said. “His legacy is just putting good out into the world and doing good for others, whether that was on TV through hosting of ‘Evening Magazine’ or ‘Pittsburgh Today Live’ or informing people of severe weather.”