Thomas "Tom" Joyner (born November 23, 1949) is an American radio host. host of the nationally syndicated The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and also founder of REACH Media Inc., the Tom Joyner Foundation, and BlackAmericaWeb.com.
Joyner was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, and received a degree in sociology from Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University). While a student at Tuskegee Joyner joined the fraternity Omega Psi Phi.
He began his broadcasting career in Montgomery, Alabama immediately upon graduation, and worked at a number of radio stations in the American South, before moving to Chicago at WJPC (AM) (now WNTD).
In 1994, Joyner was signed by ABC Radio Networks to host a nationally-syndicated program, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, featuring Joyner and a team of comedians and commentators reporting and discussing the latest news and sports of the day, and playing popular R&B songs from the 1970s through the 1990s as well as contemporary R&B hits. Also featured are celebrity guests, on-site remotes (called "Sky Shows"), and an on-air soap opera, It’s Your World. Southwest Airlines is a prominent sponsor of the radio show, especially Joyner's "Sky Shows," and free round-trip airfare to any destination that Southwest flies to is a recurring giveaway on his show.
In 2005, a nationally syndicated television show, The Tom Joyner Show, was launched with Joyner as emcee of a one-hour comedy/variety show, combining sketch comedy featuring the Tom Joyner Show Players (his co-hosts from the radio show), talent contests, and musical performances by such artists as Earth, Wind and Fire, Brian McKnight, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Toni Braxton. The show attracted advertisers such as McDonalds, Chrysler Corporation, WalMart and Southwest Airlines.
In 2005 Warner Books published "I'm Just a DJ but ... It Makes Sense to Me" written with his longtime writer, Mary Flowers Boyce. The book chronicles his childhood and early days in radio as well as offers Joyner's thoughts on HBCUs, the power of the black consumer and fatherhood. In February 2009, Amber Books published Tom Joyner Presents How to Prepare for College, a primer for parents and their children offering specific suggests and advice. The book features a foreword written by Joyner with writers Wil and Thomas LaVeist.
With his first wife Dora, Tom is the father of two sons, Thomas Jr. and Oscar, whom he calls "Killer" and "Thriller". He is currently married to celebrity aerobics instructor/fitness expert Donna Richardson.
On October 7, 2004, Joyner was awarded the NAB Marconi Radio Award.[citation needed]
Joyner was inducted in the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site on January 12, 2008.
Arts & Culture
