WLRN/Herald News

How WLRN and the Herald work together

Learn about the unique relationship between The Miami Herald and WLRN.

Joshua Johnson - Anchor/Reporter

WLRN Miami Herald Anchor/Reporter Joshua Johnson is truly a product of South Florida. Born and raised in West Palm Beach, he attended Palm Beach County’s public schools throughout his education, graduating from Suncoast High School in Riviera Beach. There he earned the advanced International Baccalaureate diploma, and was voted the male student Most Likely To Succeed in his class. Joshua went on to graduate from the University of Miami School of Communication with an "A" average. His degree is in Broadcasting and Theatre, but he also studied Motion Pictures, Philosophy and Jazz.

His love of radio began in high school, when he volunteered on Fridays for teen segments with the late Jack Cole, on WJNO-AM in West Palm Beach. At U.M., Joshua anchored radio newscasts for two years, winning Best Newscaster after producing a half-hour documentary about the murder of Matthew Shepard. He has worked with the "truth" anti-tobacco campaign, WTVJ-TV (NBC), WPEC-TV (CBS) and WPBT-TV (PBS), before coming to the Herald. Joshua’s free time is mainly spent volunteering with the Miami-based youth group TwentySomethings, as well as working out and going out in his new home of Fort Lauderdale.

Phil Latzman - Anchor/Reporter

Phil Latzman is an award-winning journalist who has spent the last 2 decades covering both news and sports, the last 16 years in south Florida.

Prior to coming to the Miami Herald, Latzman was sports director for WIOD and WINZ, where he hosted a nightly sports-talk show and anchored coverage of both Dolphins and Miami Heat broadcasts. He was also the first voice heard on WQAM when it became South Florida’s first all-sports radio station in 1992. A New York native, Latzman previously worked at WABC Radio, where he served as Rush Limbaugh’s first producer. He also had stints at NBC Sports, assisting talent such as Bob Costas and Marv Albert on the networks’ NFL football and major league baseball coverage.

Phil is currently anchoring and reporting for the Herald’s groundbreaking radio operation. He’s also been familiar to a quarter-million listeners weekly as host of WLRN’s Morning Edition. In his more than 2-decades of broadcast experience, he has garnered several honors, including awards from the Associated Press, International Radio Festival and Achievements in Radio.

Phil is married and lives in Hollywood with wife Jill. They are proud parents of Mitchell, 8 and Marisa, 7.

Leah Fleming - Anchor/Reporter

Leah Fleming is an Anchor/Reporter for WLRN Miami Herald Radio News. Prior to her south Florida arrival she worked as Morning Edition host/reporter at WABE Public Radio in Atlanta, Georgia. There she was acknowledged for her work including winning an award from the National Association of Black Journalists.

Fleming fell in love with the art of radio during a summer internship in college. Since then she has reported, produced and anchored news programs at several stations, including WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany, New York, and WJCT Public Broadcasting in Jacksonville, Florida.

Fleming has also worked at NPR in Washington as a producer, and continues to work with NPR's Next Generation project as a mentor to aspiring journalists. A native New Yorker, Fleming holds a Master of Science degree in communication arts. In her spare time she enjoys doing community service with her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and traveling with her twin sister.

Chris DiMattei - Anchor/Reporter

It was supposed to be a temporary thing.

Years ago, after racking her brains trying to find a fun, engaging, creative nighttime gig to subsidize her acting habit, she decided to ride her commercial voiceover experience into the fast-paced world of radio broadcasting. She started out with traffic reporting, moved on to news . . . and never looked back. Since then, Chris has worked in newsrooms throughout South Florida, producing spot news and features for radio broadcasts and the web.

In her other life, she has given birth to about 15 children, died four times, been married to 12 husbands (including a not-so-wild boar and a garden slug), twice taken vows as a nun and once been abducted by pirates in the Caribbean. And all this by doing English language dubbing for dozens of foreign films, soap operas and cartoons.

Both lives she says have been good.

Professional Motto: "Radio is the ultimate visual medium." -- Paul Harvey