BY AYANA ARCHIE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NABJ Monitor<\/em> After 25 years of making waves in the radio industry, \u201cThe Hardest Working Man in Radio\u201d and this year\u2019s honorary NABJ convention chair, Tom Joyner, reflected on his storied career and what\u2019s next for him after retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: What does the title \u201cHardest Working Man in Radio\u201d mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A: I got that when I was travelling back and forth from Dallas to Chicago doing daily shows. I\u2019d get up in the morning, do the morning show in Dallas and was off at 9. My plane would leave at 9:30. I\u2019d run to the gate, get to Chicago around noon, go exercise and wake up, on the air from 2 to 6 (p.m.), haul ass to O\u2019Hare at 6:30, for a 6:30 flight and home by 9 or 10 to check homework. That\u2019s why I am and always will be the hardest working man in radio, even though I don\u2019t have that schedule. But Gen. Colin Powell is still a general, isn\u2019t he?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. Why is supporting NABJ so important for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A: Anytime you have an organization that focuses on the needs of black people, either in journalism or anything else, there\u2019s a need for it. And I’m just so glad that the founders came up with NABJ. It has been very effective in leveling the playing field in broadcasting. NABJ is very effective and should continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: Did you ever consider any career path other than radio?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A: Yeah, truck driving. In my little town, my best friend\u2019s daddy owned a gas station and the trucks would come and fill up. It would take them hours and they would talk to us little kids, telling us stories, stories we weren\u2019t supposed to hear, and I was so impressed. I was halfway through college and I still wanted to be a truck driver. Q: So why did you move into radio?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A: I was protesting that the radio station in my hometown didn\u2019t play black music. And the man came outside, and said \u2018I see y\u2019all protesting. I don\u2019t need this, so which one of y\u2019all want to go on the radio in the afternoon on Saturdays?\u2019 And that\u2019s how I built. It started from a protest. Q: What is one moment in your career that\u2019s made you very proud?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A: Every day, every day something incredible happens. Right now we\u2019re doing the memories of the shows from 25 years and I don’t listen back because every day something extraordinary happens, so I’m hearing interviews and stuff that I\u2019ve done that I never listen to and it gets me every time. It\u2019s every day for me, literally, every day of my broadcast career is an incredible day. My worst day is somebody else\u2019s very good day.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: What will you do with your free time after you retire?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A: I’m going to concentrate all of my efforts and all of my time on HBCUs and the Tom Joyner Foundation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY AYANA ARCHIE NABJ Monitor After 25 years of making waves in the radio industry, \u201cThe Hardest Working Man in Radio\u201d and this year\u2019s honorary NABJ convention chair, Tom Joyner, reflected on his storied career […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,38,83],"tags":[33,82,119,118],"class_list":{"0":"post-1305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-archives","8":"category-features","9":"category-nabj-19","10":"tag-nabj","11":"tag-nabj19","12":"tag-radio","13":"tag-tom-joyner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1306,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions\/1306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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