As a youngster growing up in Lynchburg, Virginia, Jonathan Mumm was fascinated with broadcasting.
Along with his brothers, he used to pretend to broadcast his own radio and television shows using prop microphones made from blocks of wood and a "TV camera" constructed out of an old silver milk bottle carton with a cardboard toilet-paper-roll tube glued on one end for a lens and the call letters WOWW spelled across the side with black electrical tape. The camera's tripod was a TV tray table with three legs.
The "pretend" turned real while Jonathan was still in high school, when he landed a job at local country music station WBRG at the age of 17. His "foot in the door" led to his hosting the "Johnny Mumm Show" at 4 p.m. each day when he'd get out of school. He would later work for a time at every radio station in Lynchburg, including stints as a rock n' roll deejay for WLLL and WWOD, and as an easy listening announcer for WLGM.
Jonathan majored in Speech and Drama at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., where actress Susan Sarandon was a senior his freshman year. While in college, he would work for WASH radio in the nation's capitol as a disc jockey and news announcer, and after graduation he became a booth announcer for WETA, the Washington PBS television station. He left WETA to take his first on-camera job at Lynchburg TV Station WLVA as a Sports Director/Reporter.
After Jonathan's move to California, he served a stint as News Director at KBAK-TV in Bakersfield and then as a reporter and executive producer for crosstown rival KERO before coming to News 10 in 1983. His tenure at News 10 has seen him win a number of broadcasting awards including five regional Emmy Awards.
