Jon Robinson (born 1960) is a former longtime radio and television personality in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

. He was also the

public address A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

announcer for the NFL's

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The t ...

from the team's inception in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

until midway through the 2009 season. He also called the first seven editions of the Meineke Car Care Bowl (known as the Continental Tire Bowl from 2002 to 2004). A native of nearby Gastonia, Robinson graduated from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

in 1983 and worked at several Charlotte radio stations before landing the morning drive-time slot at WBT in 1992. In 1997, he moved to then-sister television station

WBTV WBTV (channel 3) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Gray Media. The station's studios are located off Morehead Street, just west of Uptown Charlotte, and its transmitter is ...

as a reporter and fill-in anchor. In 2004, after being passed over for a promotion, he moved to WCBD-TV in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

as the main evening anchor. He commuted to Charlotte for the next two years for Panthers games. In 2006, he moved back to Charlotte as morning host at WDYT, a station in nearby Kings Mountain that had recently boosted its daytime power to cover Charlotte. Almost two years into this job, he was diagnosed with

squamous cell carcinoma Squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC), also known as epidermoid carcinoma, comprises a number of different types of cancer that begin in squamous cells. These cells form on the surface of the skin, on the lining of hollow organs in the body, and on the ...

in his throat. Doctors managed to catch it before it spread, however. Having been laid off from WDYT, he then moved to WKQC as morning host in December 2008. This slot, and his tenure as Panthers PA announcer, ended abruptly in October 2009 when he was arrested for telephoning and texting his estranged second wife in violation of a restraining order. In December 2009, Robinson told ''

The Charlotte Observer ''The Charlotte Observer'' is an American newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina, and its metro area. The Observer was founded in 1886. it has the second-largest circulation of any newspaper in the Carolinas. It is owned by Chatham Asset ...

'' that he'd been abusing drugs almost continuously since he was 12, primarily

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

and

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

. While he tried to quit twice during his tenure at WBT, he had resumed "hot and heavy" abuse since 1998 despite several failed attempts at rehab. He said that his habit got so severe that while he worked in Charleston, he was often high on the air. He lost his job at WCBD soon after getting into a cocaine-fueled street fight, and his second wife left him after a relapse led to a fight at home. His second wife believed his spiral into drug abuse was due to being molested for five years by a man who coached him in basketball.

External links/references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Jon Living people 1960 births People from Gastonia, North Carolina Carolina Panthers NFL public address announcers Television anchors from South Carolina