Tom Joyner Sky Show w/Earth Wind and Fire (December 9, 2005)

Thomas Joyner (born November 23, 1949) is an American radio personality, host, philanthropist and former musician. Joyner is the former host of the nationally syndicated The Tom Joyner Morning Show,[1] and also founder of Reach Media Inc., the Tom Joyner Foundation, and BlackAmericaWeb.com.[2] Early life Joyner was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, the son of Frances and Hercules L. Joyner. Tom came from an educated family: his grandfather Oscar was one of only 3,000 black physicians in the United States, earning a degree in medicine in 1909.[3] Both of his parents were graduates of historically black colleges, and both Tom and his brother Albert attended Tuskegee Institute, now known as Tuskegee University. Tom Joyner graduated with a degree in sociology.[4] While a student at Tuskegee, Joyner joined the fraternity Omega Psi Phi. At first, his goal was to be a musician, and he joined a band, the Commodores, that included his college friend Lionel Richie, but the band did not make any money and his family encouraged him to seek another way to make a living.[5] Radio career Joyner had been involved in college radio and began his broadcasting career in Montgomery, Alabama immediately upon graduation, and worked at a number of radio stations in the South and Midwest, including stations in Dallas, Memphis and St. Louis, before moving to Chicago in early 1978.[6] In Chicago, he first worked at WVON, doing the morning show, but left the station after only three months to work at a competitor, WBMX-FM.[7] By late July 1978, however, he had been hired away by Charles Mootry, general manager of station WJPC (AM) (now WNTD). This station, named for "Johnson Publishing Company", was owned by John H. Johnson, publisher of Jet and Ebony.[8] Joyner hosted the morning show at WJPC and, while there, gained his first national television exposure as the first host of the syndicated magazine series Ebony/Jet Celebrity Showcase. In 1983, Joyner returned to Dallas to become morning host at KKDA-FM. Two years later, he was offered an afternoon show at WGCI-FM in Chicago. Instead of choosing between the two, Joyner chose to take the Chicago position while simultaneously remaining at the Dallas station. For eight years (1985–1993) he commuted daily by plane between the two cities, earning him the nicknames "The Fly Jock" and "The Hardest Working Man in Radio".[9] He later told Radio Ink magazine that he racked up seven million frequent flyer miles over the course of his employment at both stations; a travel agent had found him a $30,000 fare that would guarantee him a round-trip seat for five years. Joyner was able to work for both stations concurrently since neither of his two employment contracts had an exclusivity clause.[10] 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 were celebrity guests, on-site remotes (called "Sky Shows"), and an on-air soap opera, It's Your World which is currently not aired. 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 was a recurring giveaway on his show. Upon signing a contract extension with Westwood on October 17, 2017, Joyner announced that he would retire at the agreement's end (2019), declaring "I'm retiring, and for the next two years we're going to reminisce, go down Memory Lane and talk about all the things that we've done for the past 25 years."[11] He retired from his morning show on December 13, 2019.[1]