Eric Johnson
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Articles by Eric Johnson
14 years after Sandy, I still remember the night the lights went out
It was 14 years ago tonight. Superstorm Sandy came ashore, and the lights went out across New Jersey. For a lot of us, they stayed out for days. For some, weeks. If you lived through it, you probably remember exactly where you were. I was at the station, with a sleeping bag and a case of bottled water. The night Sandy changed New Jersey forever The center of the storm made landfall in Brigantine, but the worst devastation hit Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Bass Pro Shops Sayreville opens Nov. 11: Aquarium, bowling and more
This one’s been a long time coming. Bass Pro Shops first announced a Sayreville store back when it was supposed to open in 2015, according to Trade Only Today. Eleven years later, there’s finally a date on the calendar. The grand opening is Wednesday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
More Canadian provinces are ending time changes. What does it mean for your health?
Canada·New Researchers are raising concerns as parts of Canada move to permanent daylight time, warning that later winter sunrises could have consequences for sleep and health. Sleep scientists say ending the switch is good, but permanent daylight is the wrong choice Eric Michael Johnson · CBC News · Posted: Oct 29, 2026 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.
A fall drive through the Pine Barrens to a ghost town called Ong’s Hat
I had a meeting in Toms River and no good reason to take the scenic route. I took it anyway. The beauty of fall in the Pine Barrens is a subtle one. You won’t find the blazing hillsides of North Jersey down here. Just some color scattered across a background of endless green pitch pine. You have to slow down to see it. So I did. Closed for the season First stop: White Dotte Dairy Bar & Grill, where Routes 38 and 206 meet in Southampton.
NJ property tax relief deadline is Nov. 2. Here’s where to get free help
I’ve spent almost 50 years living by a radio clock. Miss the top of the hour, and everybody hears it. Miss this deadline, and nobody hears a thing. The money just never shows up. You have until Monday, Nov. 2, to apply for ANCHOR, Senior Freeze and Stay NJ. That’s one week from today. Do you even need to file? Maybe not. Here’s how the state breaks it down: Homeowners under 65 and most renters: The state filed for most of you automatically and mailed confirmation letters on Aug. 10.
2 NJ Halloween parades older than most of us, and both are this week
I was a Cub Scout the first time I marched down Main Street in Mays Landing on Mischief Night. A few years later, I did it again as a Mays Landing Laker football player. Before that, I was just a kid on the curb, waiting for the fire trucks. Two New Jersey Halloween parades have been doing this longer than most of us have been alive. One is in my hometown. The other is in Toms River, where I rode in the parade a few times during my years at WOBM. Both happen this week.
Heating oil tops $6 a gallon in NJ. Is natural gas the better bet?
During the 1973-74 energy crisis, my dad had a plan. He installed a Franklin stove in the living room of our small three-bedroom ranch. With the brick pad and hearth, it took up about a quarter of the room. I got the feeling my mom wasn’t crazy about the idea. But she was a kind soul, and she went along with it. For my brother Dean and me, that meant Saturdays hauling wood. A friend of my dad’s was starting a campground and told him to take all the dead standing trees he wanted.
You named the NJ stores you miss most. One won by a mile.
Last week I wrote about the stores I still miss from the Black Horse Pike, like Two Guys, Grants and Rickel. I figured a few of you might chime in. A few? You went shopping in your memories, and you brought a cart full of stores I’d forgotten about. Two Guys won by a mile It wasn’t close. More than a dozen of you named Two Guys, more than any other store. Patrick P. summed it up: “If I could be stuck there for eternity as a kid, I’d be fine with that.” The chain started in 1946 in Harrison.
Remember when NJ feared E-ZPass would track you? Now it may be a sticker
I was an E-ZPass early adopter. When it came to New Jersey in the late ’90s, I signed up right away. Back then, the phones here at New Jersey 101.5 lit up with callers who were afraid E-ZPass would track their every move. I never got it. My thinking was, if I’m not doing anything wrong, what’s the big deal? And I’ll admit it: I felt a little superior flying through the toll plaza while everybody else waited in line to hand over their hard-earned cash.
Your neighbor’s leaves blow into your NJ yard. Whose problem is it?
I do my own yard work. I always have, and I take a lot of pride in it. Most of my friends pay a landscaper to mow the lawn and rake the leaves. Not me. Truth be told, I enjoy it. Radio isn’t physical work, and neither is writing. Last night I was on my couch with a ginger ale and some pretzels, listening to Jersey’s Biggest Hits on New Jersey 101.5. Life was good. On a talk shift, I’m sitting there BSing with my co-host or talking up a song intro. All fun. None of it physical.
Bon Jovi is back at MetLife next summer. Here’s when tickets go on sale
In March 1984, I was 22 years old and working at WPST when a 22-year-old kid from Sayreville walked into our Princeton studio with a brand-new album. I wrote about that day in June, right before Jon Bon Jovi’s comeback at Madison Square Garden. Now that kid is coming home to a stadium. Bon Jovi will play MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Thursday, July 15, 2027, part of new Forever Tour dates announced Monday, Pollstar reported. How to get tickets Fan presale: Wednesday, Oct.
Your neighbor’s leaves blow into your NJ yard. Whose problem is it?
I do my own yard work. I always have, and I take a lot of pride in it. Most of my friends pay a landscaper to mow the lawn and rake the leaves. Not me. Truth be told, I enjoy it. Radio isn’t physical work, and neither is writing. Last night I was on my couch with a ginger ale and some pretzels, listening to Jersey’s Biggest Hits on New Jersey 101.5. Life was good. On a talk shift, I’m sitting there BSing with my co-host or talking up a song intro. All fun. None of it physical.
Two Guys, Grants, Rickel: The NJ stores we still miss
Growing up in Mays Landing, every shopping trip went east. Down the Black Horse Pike, toward Atlantic City. That stretch of road was our whole retail world, and I can still picture every stop. A shuttered Sears, its “clearance” sign left face-up in an empty parking lot. Once, Sears was where you picked up your catalog order. | Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images A shuttered Sears, its “clearance” sign left face-up in an empty parking lot.
Social Security raise for 2027 is 3.6%. Here’s what NJ retirees get.
I was 16 when I fell in love with radio. I’m still in love with it. I’m a few years from what most people call retirement age, and honestly? I’m not in a hurry. As long as I have a voice, something to say and a good idea of what you want to hear, and I stay healthy, I could see myself working into my 70s. Still behind the mic and loving it, here at our Asbury Park studio. Retirement can wait. | Eric ‘EJ’ Johnson / Townsquare Media Still behind the mic and loving it, here at our Asbury Park studio.
NJ ANCHOR payments start today. What to do if yours doesn’t show up.
If you’re under 65, keep an eye on your bank account. New Jersey is expected to start sending ANCHOR property tax relief payments to homeowners and renters under 65 today, Oct. 15. That’s according to Marita Sciarrotta, director of the state Division of Taxation, as WHYY reported. Seniors started getting theirs back in September. Here’s how much you should get, and what to do if it doesn’t arrive. Check your bank account or mailbox: ANCHOR payments for under-65 New Jerseyans start going out Oct. 15.
This NJ mall is a ’70s time capsule, and it’s still open
When I was a little kid, the mall didn’t have a roof. Searstown in Egg Harbor Township opened in 1968 as an open-air shopping center, according to Wikipedia. It was like walking down a sidewalk with no street. Just shrubs, rocks and fountains. To a little kid getting his picture taken with Santa, it was pretty cool. My parents picked up our back-to-school clothes at the back door of Sears, where the catalog department was.
NJ’s smallest town now has 3 residents, and it’s not Walpack
Last week, I told you Walpack went from seven residents to eight. I figured that made it New Jersey’s smallest town. I was wrong. New census estimates put tiny Tavistock in Camden County at just three people, down from nine in the 2020 census. That’s the smallest population of any of New Jersey’s 564 municipalities, according to estimates from the New Jersey Department of Labor. Three people. Fewer than a Wawa on a slow night. A town built for Sunday golf Tavistock has a wild backstory.
Your neighbor’s tree hangs over your house. Can you cut it?
My wife climbed 30 feet up a ladder with a chainsaw. I held the ladder. I know what that says about me. Let me explain. We have a huge elm tree in our backyard. It has to be at least as old as our house, which was built in 1946. Its canopy hangs perfectly over our deck and patio. You don’t see many elms around anymore, and we love that tree. Years ago, we noticed one big limb was about to reach over our next-door neighbor’s house. Being good neighbors meant dealing with it.
Your neighbor’s tree hangs over your house. Can you cut it?
My wife climbed 30 feet up a ladder with a chainsaw. I held the ladder. I know what that says about me. Let me explain. We have a huge elm tree in our backyard. It has to be at least as old as our house, which was built in 1946. Its canopy hangs perfectly over our deck and patio. You don’t see many elms around anymore, and we love that tree. Years ago, we noticed one big limb was about to reach over our next-door neighbor’s house. Being good neighbors meant dealing with it.
Bridging the digital divide
“Digital equity is ultimately about people feeling supported, not overwhelmed,” Lanke said in a press release earlier this week. “By investing in navigators, the Foundation is helping ensure every resident has someone they can turn to — someone who listens, understands their goals, and helps them navigate an increasingly digital world with confidence.” It’s that empowerment aspect that Chavarria said is at the heart of the program.
The town that gained the most residents in every NJ county
When I wrote this week that 498 of New Jersey’s 564 towns are growing, the obvious next question was the one I asked myself: what about my county? So I went back to the state’s population estimates and pulled the town that added the most people in each of our 21 counties, from the 2020 census to July 1, 2025.
I’ve written South Jersey to death — now I’m heading north
Sometime in the late 1990s, I was paddling a canoe down the Delaware River with my family and another family we were close to. The kids were young. We had put in at Milford, Pennsylvania, planned two nights on the river, and were taking out at Bushkill on the PA side. It was one of those trips that becomes a permanent memory — the kind you reference for the rest of your life as a marker of what family actually looks like when everything goes right.
Stay NJ after the cuts: Who qualifies and how much you can get
I spent a good part of last spring writing about the cuts to Stay NJ. A lot of you wrote back, and you were not happy. The budget fight is over now. What's left is a smaller program with a deadline coming fast. If you're a senior homeowner, here's what you can still get, and how to get it before Nov. 2. What Stay NJ pays Stay NJ is built to cut a senior's property tax bill in half. The state Treasury puts it simply: the benefit is 50% of your property taxes, up to a cap. Under the budget Gov.
Still working at 65? What NJ workers should know about Medicare
I have a confession. In my head, I'm still 37. The calendar disagrees. I'm 64 and still working, and I finally had to give in to age and start learning how Medicare works. I'm still learning. But here's what I've figured out so far, because Medicare open enrollment starts Oct. 15, and a lot of people my age think that date is for us. It isn't. Open enrollment is for people already on Medicare Medicare's annual open enrollment runs Oct. 15 through Dec. 7.
NJ towns gaining the most residents in 2026: Is yours on the list?
I have a confession. I've spent a lot of this year writing about people leaving New Jersey. The towns losing residents. The folks who fled to Florida. Why the rest of us stay. Those stories get read more than anything else I write. So fair is fair. It's time to look at the other side of the ledger. And the other side surprised me. Most New Jersey towns are growing The state Department of Labor publishes the Census Bureau's population estimates for all 564 municipalities.
Those white bags on the counter: My NJ apple cider donut trail
My dad got up early. Even on Sundays. This time of year, he was up before the sun. At about that same hour, the bakery on Main Street in Mays Landing was filling its display case, and the window facing the street, with dozens and dozens of donuts. No chain. Just our bakery. On some Sunday mornings, not all of them, I'd come into the kitchen and see white bags on the counter. Pure joy. Then I'd look inside. A bag of chocolate frosted. A bag of jelly. A bag of apple turnovers.
THC seltzers are about to disappear from NJ liquor stores
Sure, I like to have a few drinks during the week. Usually it’s wine with dinner. Maybe it’s a couple of beers while watching a game. On a Friday night, I like a vodka martini to kick off the weekend. Lately I've been trying something different: a THC seltzer. Mine is Mosey, a 10 mg can that says it's made with real fruit juice and has 45 calories. For me, it's a light, pleasant buzz. It doesn't feel as strong as that martini, and it's not stronger than a beer. Would I drive after one? Absolutely not.
$1.2 million won’t last as long in NJ. Here’s where New Jerseyans are taking it.
I'm getting close to 65. And lately, one question comes up at every lunch table, every family dinner and every conversation with friends my age. When? Not whether we'll retire. When. And whether we can actually afford to do it here. A new analysis put a number on it, and for New Jersey, the number isn't kind. What $1.2 million buys you in New Jersey Financial site MoneyLion calculated how long a $1.2 million nest egg lasts in every state. New Jersey ranked 44th.
Your NJ ANCHOR check is coming. Here’s when, and how much.
There's a certain week every fall when New Jersey checks the banking app a little more often. Or walks to the mailbox a little faster. If you're waiting on ANCHOR money, that week is almost here. Patch reports the state has already sent more than $520 million in ANCHOR property tax relief to nearly 400,000 homeowners and renters. That first wave started Sept. 15 and went to residents 65 and older. Everybody else is next.
The nor’easter took the sand. Here’s why I’m not calling it a waste.
When I was a kid, you could stand on the Atlantic City Boardwalk and look straight down at the ocean. It was flat from the boards to the water. No dunes. Nothing in the way. Years later, the dunes went up to protect the boardwalk, the hotels and the casinos. People complained. You couldn't see the beach from the boardwalk anymore. This week, those dunes got cut in half. And the boardwalk is still standing.
The nor’easter took the sand. Here’s why I’m not calling it a waste.
When I was a kid, you could stand on the Atlantic City Boardwalk and look straight down at the ocean. It was flat from the boards to the water. No dunes. Nothing in the way. Years later, the dunes went up to protect the boardwalk, the hotels and the casinos. People complained. You couldn't see the beach from the boardwalk anymore. This week, those dunes got cut in half. And the boardwalk is still standing.
$1.2 million won’t last as long in NJ. Here’s where New Jerseyans are taking it.
I'm getting close to 65. And lately, one question comes up at every lunch table, every family dinner and every conversation with friends my age. When? Not whether we'll retire. When. And whether we can actually afford to do it here. A new analysis put a number on it, and for New Jersey, the number isn't kind. What $1.2 million buys you in New Jersey Financial site MoneyLion calculated how long a $1.2 million nest egg lasts in every state. New Jersey ranked 44th.
New Jersey has been trying to run us off for years — we’re still here
At some point in the last few years — maybe late at night, maybe after opening the property tax bill, maybe after the insurance renewal came in higher than the year before, which was already higher than the year before that — you did the math. You sat there with a pen or a spreadsheet or just your own head and you ran the numbers. And the numbers did not work. You know what you did next. You closed the laptop. You went to bed. You got up in the morning and drove to work. That is not denial.
What Canada's wastewater reveals about drug use in 8 cities
East-Central Saskatchewan 19 hours ago Canada is squandering its Hudson Bay advantage paherald.sk.ca - Troy Media • 19h Marco Navarro-Genie On Monday and Tuesday of last week, while the Prime Minister stood before global investors in Toronto promising ports and … 1 day ago Weather Alert: Warning for Severe Thunderstorms Today (7-Day Forecast 25 Sept-1 Oct 2026) saffarazzi.com - Thandi Mokoena • 1d Friday looks unsettled across parts of the country, with showers and thundershowers expected...
New Jersey towns losing residents fastest in 2026 — is yours next?
Update, September 22: The exodus described below hasn't slowed down. I dug into the county-level numbers again this past July and found something worth adding here: Cape May County was the only county in all of New Jersey to actually lose population last year, while Ocean County's growth is coming almost entirely from Lakewood Township alone. You can read that full breakdown here. The town-by-town picture below still holds.
NJ ghost towns to visit this fall, from Walpack to Weymouth
I have been exploring New Jersey ghost towns since before I knew what to call them. My father was a genealogist. Some weekends meant what he called graveyard picnics. We'd pack a lunch and drive out to old Pine Barrens cemeteries and abandoned villages. We'd look at headstones and foundations and try to feel something of the people who used to live there. I was a kid. I thought it was strange. Now I think it was one of the best things he ever did for me.
A South Jersey kid’s guide to what North Jersey may never understand
Update, September 24: Since this ran in March, I wrote more about exactly what put South Jersey on the map for me — Hammonton's blueberry capital roots and how the blueberry and Jersey tomato became the state's official fruit and vegetable. If this piece is the feeling, that one's the proof. New Jersey is really a tale of two states. Well, three — because Central Jersey absolutely exists, no matter what anyone says, and it serves as a kind of buffer zone between the true north and the true south.
I’m the Scrooge of Halloween, and this $13.5B stat just proved it
Christmas has its Scrooge. I think I might be Halloween's. I've never been the biggest Halloween person. Trick-or-treating was fun as a kid, and I loved taking my own kids out for it. But I have never once understood the appeal of "spooky season." I like summer. Halloween is the opposite of summer. It's dark. It's cold. And, in my front yard's case every October, it's a mess. Labor Day already ruined it for me Labor Day is bad enough on its own — the so-called unofficial end of summer.
I’m the Scrooge of Halloween, and this $13.5B stat just proved it
Christmas has its Scrooge. I think I might be Halloween's. I've never been the biggest Halloween person. Trick-or-treating was fun as a kid, and I loved taking my own kids out for it. But I have never once understood the appeal of "spooky season." I like summer. Halloween is the opposite of summer. It's dark. It's cold. And, in my front yard's case every October, it's a mess. Labor Day already ruined it for me Labor Day is bad enough on its own — the so-called unofficial end of summer.
For every 2 people who left NJ for Florida, 1 just moved back
We've taken these calls for years. A grandparent somewhere in the Carolinas, or Florida, or increasingly Tennessee, phones into the show just to talk about New Jersey. They still read the news out of here. They still know who's mayor of a town they haven't lived in for a decade. And then, almost always, the conversation turns to FaceTime. There's a particular kind of ache in the voice of a grandparent describing a grandchild who only exists to them as a small rectangle on a phone. One-dimensional.
NJ’s most remote places, updated: The town that voted itself out of existence
Earlier this year I wrote about drawing a line across New Jersey my whole life. Route 70. Everything south of it was my territory. Everything north of it was the undiscovered country. What started that whole conversation was one place. Walpack. I have been near Walpack Township twice without knowing it. Once in the late 1990s paddling a canoe down the Delaware River with my family — I floated right past it. Again just a few years ago hiking the Delaware Water Gap in December with my buddy Wayne Cabot.
The Ferris wheel that watched my kids grow up is coming down for good
It's a melancholy morning for me today. Just a random Tuesday at the end of September. Chilly, dark, rainy. I'm in sweats for the first time in recent memory. The air conditioning's off, which I suppose saves a little on the electric bill, small comfort. The windows are closed. These are the last few hours of summer. Fall starts tonight.
Start retesting drivers at 65. I’m getting close, and I mean it.
A 93-year-old woman pressed the gas instead of the brake trying to park outside Meg's Grill in Lavallette Saturday morning. Her car went through the outdoor dining area and into the building. Ursula Keating, 56, the wife of an Ocean County volunteer fire chief, died. Seven others were hurt. The neighboring liquor store took heavy damage too. No charges have been filed. There's a real chance none ever will be, because what happened Saturday wasn't malice.
How Cape May Brewing became New Jersey’s largest independent brewery
Cape May Brewing Co. just got some well-earned recognition. Since opening in 2011, it's grown into New Jersey's largest independent craft brewery, built from what founder Ryan Krill started as a hobby. The numbers behind that growth are genuinely wild. When Cape May Brewing opened, there were only 28 breweries in the entire state. Today there are 251. Nationally, the industry has grown from roughly 1,790 breweries to more than 9,300 over that same stretch.
A NJ farm planned a fun Dolly Parton maze. Then it became something else.
A farm in Manalapan planned a fun corn maze back in February. Nobody involved had any idea what it would come to mean by fall. Happy Day Farm's owners chose Dolly Parton as this year's theme through a nationwide "Get Lost with Dolly" partnership with The MAiZE, which supports her Imagination Library literacy program. Work on the actual maze started in July, when the corn was just three inches tall.
National Coastal Cleanup Day in Florence helps curb microplastics and protect wildlife
KCBY CBS 11 is the news, sports and weather leader for the Coos Bay and North Bend, Oregon area, including Glasgow, Hauser, Barview, Charleston, Bunker Hill, Millington, Allegany, Leneve, Fairview and Coquille.
National Coastal Cleanup Day in Florence helps curb microplastics and protect wildlife Original
Sat, September 19, 2026 at 5:54 PM Updated Sat, September 19, 2026 at 6:28 PM Photo: Eric Johnson / SBG Today is National Coastal Cleanup Day, and with volunteers around the country pitching in to help protect our ecosystem. Photojournalist Eric Johnson hit the beach in Florence and caught up with a pair who hosted a local cleanup event in honor of their late friend who used to do the same.
National Coastal Cleanup Day in Florence helps curb microplastics and protect wildlife
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7 Walmart recalls to check for, with about 60 stores across NJ
It's time to stock the freezer again, or maybe grab a new bike helmet for a fall foliage ride. Either way, worth checking your cart against this list first. With roughly 60 Walmart stores spread across New Jersey, these recent recalls are worth a quick check, whatever's already in your freezer, garage, or closet.
New California Disaster Rebuilding Assistance Program to Help Keep Homeowners in Their Communities Original
New California Disaster Rebuilding Assistance Program to Help Keep Homeowners in Their Communities SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Following Governor Gavin Newsom's announcement of the new Disaster Rebuilding Assistance Program, CalHFA, the state agency administering the program, released program details. "Many families are still navigating the challenges and trauma that follow the loss of a home," said CalHFA Executive Director Tony Sertich.
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