JON BURNETT WITH HIS LONGTIME ‘PITTSBURGH TODAY LIVE’ CO-HOST KRISTINE SORENSEN. | PHOTO COURTESY KDKA.

Jon Burnett, the longtime talk-show host and weather forecaster who spent nearly four decades as a fixture on KDKA-TV, died earlier this week at age 71.

Burnett’s death was announced Thursday afternoon on KDKA radio. The cause was reported as “complications from suspected CTE,” the disease arising from repeated head trauma; Burnett believed his condition stemmed from years playing youth and college football.

A Knoxville, Tennessee, native, Burnett came to Pittsburgh in 1982 as the host of its “Evening Magazine” program. He soon added co-hosting duties on “Pittsburgh 2Day,” a distant predecessor of the modern “Pittsburgh Today Live” — which he would also eventually co-host, spending 11 years on the show with co-host Kristine Sorensen.

After “Evening Magazine” and “Pittsburgh 2Day,” Burnett joined KDKA’s weather team, where he remained for the remainder of his career, even after adding “Pittsburgh Today Live” to his slate. He was on the air at KDKA from 1982 until his retirement in 2019.

As CTE (which can only be affirmatively diagnosed after death) began to cause memory problems and neurological issues, Burnett went public with his struggle and committed to participate in the National Sports Brain Bank at the University of Pittsburgh to forward research into the disease. KDKA reported that sign-ups at the Brain Bank more than doubled after it aired a story on Burnett.

In its remembrance, KDKA shared this video highlighting Burnett’s long and lively career.