Tuned to The Tom Joyner Morning Show during their coffee and bagels and traffic snarls, Joyner's radio fans more than five million nationwide---are by now accustomed to his poise and self-assurance. Loyal enthusiasts, remembering some of his more well-known stunts and on-air antics, are particularly enamoured of Joyner's fondness for uncharted territory. But in the late 60s, after graduating from what was then Tuskegee Institute, "the Hardest Working Man in Radio" found himself in a familiar place sociology degree in hand and unemployed. My wife, Dora, would get up and go to work, he says now, and I'd just get up.  

Joyner admits to having a so-so academic career himself, but he encourages you to take the opportunities higher education offers for all they're worth. Whether you're going into radio or into whatever field that interests you, he advises, the college experience helps you deal competitively in a professional environment. It enables you to network, to get a job done. College teaches you how to use your resources. And these are things you don't get grades for, but lessons you learn in the four years you're there. 

I think the real lessons that you learn from college are not from the classes you take or the grades you make. God knows, if that was the case, I would definitely not be where I am today. But what I did learn in college, and what I think college teaches you best in a very subtle way, is how to compete, because you have to learn how to do things that you don't necessarily like to do.

Joyner had worked his way through school as Tuskegee's student announcer and continued to host a weekend show on the small town's only commercial radio station. Eventually, those experiences brought him an offer to work as a radio news announcer in nearby Montgomery, Ala. He decided to take the offer.  The more involved he became, the more he liked it. I fell into radio, he says. It was just dumb luck. But once I was there, I discovered it was something that I could do pretty well, and I enjoyed it. I learned how to cut commercials and do a little production work. I became the 'fill-in jock,' filling in whenever someone got sick, or was on vacation, or got drunk the night before and couldn't come in. I had finally found my niche and the money--$90 a week--wasn't bad, either.

You shouldn't expect success, says Joyner, to drop in your laps like manna from heaven. You have to play to win. You can't be outside the game and expect to walk into a situation and have it all happen for you, he says. As long as you're sitting at the table, you're going to be dealt some cards, and, eventually, you're going to get a blackjack. It's happening for me, but it hasn't always been like this. I've tried more things and failed than I've tried and succeeded. But the point is I'm in the game. Sooner or later something is going to come your way and you'll be that right person at the right place at the right time.  

In the right place when another opportunity came his way, Joyner next accepted a job in Memphis, his first full-time music show. From there he worked at a station in St. Louis before landing in Dallas for the first time in 1972. At KKDA-AM he made a name for himself as the persistent jock with a knack for tracking down hard-to-find celebrities like Muhammad Ali. I would get Ali on the air and he would talk noise and do a few rhymes before his Joe Frazier fight, says Joyner, or before George Forman, or whomever he was fighting. He'd be out training and I'd call him and I just kept calling and calling. Most of the time I wouldn't get him, but sometimes I would.

Joyner's next opportunity came five years later when he got a call from Chicago. Again, he packed up his family, which now included sons Thomas, Jr. (Killer) and Oscar (Thriller), and this time headed to WVON-AM. Within a year of arriving in the Windy City, he moved again, down the dial to  WBMX, where he caught the attention of African-American media mogul John H. Johnson. Joyner's charismatic charm, Johnson was convinced, was just what his station, WJPC, needed to lift itself out of the ratings basement.

I learned everything I know about radio from people and from my experiences in trying to make things happen, says Joyner. Trying different ideas, that's how I learned. There's no text that can teach success. Success doesn't have a blueprint. It doesn't have a class outline. You try some things and you fail. And you get back up and you try some more things. You might fail at all of them. But you learn from each experience and that's how people become successful. Very few just walk into it.

Joyner returned to Dallas after his stint at WJPC where he took over the morning shift at K104-FM. Within six months his show had eclipsed all of his ratings competitors, making him so popular, the local media dubbed him "Mr. Dallas," voice of morning drive-time. It was a city first for an African-American deejay. 

You're always going to be challenged because you're Black. You're always going to have to double-step, says Joyner. You may be just as or more talented than your white counterpart, but you're going to have to prove that to everybody. You're going to have to overcompensate for what people think. That's going to happen in any field and radio is no different.

Joyner's most famous opportunity came along in 1985, when, at the same time he was renegotiating his K104 contract, WGCI-FM in Chicago offered him the station's afternoon slot. "Both K104 and WGCI asked me what it would take for me to be the jock," he says. "Both knew they had offers on the table. I gave them both the same proposal and I said, 'Alright, whichever one takes it, that's the one I'll go with.' But to my surprise, they both said yes." 

Faced with a pleasant, albeit, difficult choice, Joyner did something that had never been done before or since. He accepted both offers. Almost immediately, industry insiders began whispering that this was just another one of his quirky publicity stunts. Friends called to check on his sanity. Wild speculations and dire predictions circulated in the national press as to just how long it would take him to fall flat on his face. 

Joyner took it all in stride and was soon the country's most talked about deejay. Not because he had made a fool of himself, but because he was hosting daily, No. 1-rated shows in cities some 1,600 miles apart. He had been dealt what he considered a dynamite hand, had bet his entire pot on it, and won.  Logistically, Joyner would handle his morning drive radio show in Dallas each weekday and fly to Chicago each weekday afternoon to host his afternoon drive radio show in the Windy City. Each night, he'd fly back to Dallas and repeat the same schedule the next day.  It's hard to imagine the "Fly Jock" maintaining this hectic pace for about eight years, but he did turning out to be what some of his friends called a "radio iron man."

The Fly jock's immense popularity has earned him a slew of industry awards, and last Fall he became the first African American voted into the Radio Hall of Fame. The risks he has taken have paid off, but Joyner insists that at heart, he is not a risk-taker. "I'm just the kind of person who doesn't mind looking into how to do something even though it hasn't been done before," he says.

Tired after eight years and satisfied he had made his mark, Joyner announced his impending retirement from radio. But before he could fold his cards and leave the table, another offer came along a five-year, multimillion-dollar contract with ABC Radio Networks to host a syndicated weekly morning show. 

Just get in the game, says Joyner. Don't be afraid to try some ideas. Don't be afraid to get fired. Don't be afraid to fail and if you do, learn from your failures. Learn from your successes. But stay in the game in any way you can because eventually the game will come to you.  

Debuting in January 1994, The Tom Joyner Morning Show is heard from Tallahassee to Los Angeles via satellite on more than 95 stations, including the Armed Forces Network. The first syndicated radio program hosted and produced by an African American, it has experienced phenomenal success and continues to raise industry standards. But as was the case when he began his historic commute, pundits declared the project a failure before it began. Radio has traditionally been a local medium and audiences have come to expect localized programming. How could Joyner broadcast from a Dallas studio without making audiences feel as if they were tuned into network television? He has silenced his critics by interspersing hometown news, weather, and sports throughout the show. Stations around the country have gotten so good at personalized programming, in fact, that many listeners sincerely believe Joyner broadcasts from their respective cities. 

The Hardest Working Man in Radio is now one of the industry's most respected and revered personalities, but he is quick to credit his cast of "certified nuts." By offering their audience daily doses of music, comedy, and lively discussions with national celebrities and newsmakers, the show's popularity is growing by leaps and bounds. Stand-up comedian J. Anthony Brown contributes daily from a Los Angeles studio. Out of Dallas, Sybil Wilkes, the show's other regular, keeps track of breaking news. Political pundit, Tavis Smiley host of BET Talk, provides commentaries two days a week from an East Coast studio. And veteran comedian George Wallace delivers a Monday satirical commentary from wherever he happens to be. Myra J., another professional comic, parcels out tips for the single mom. She and "Voodoo Priestess" Ms. Dupree, both out of Los Angeles, are co-writers of the show's on-air soap opera, It's Your World.

Smiley has released On Air: The Best of Tavis Smiley on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, a collection of his most well-known commentaries. Partial proceeds from the book are being donated to Dollars For Scholars, a scholarship program sponsored by the Tom Joyner Foundation. Joyner has since divorced and his eldest son, Thomas Jr., a graduate of Howard University, runs the Foundation for him. While Oscar, a Florida A&M MBA, assists his father in his private business dealings.

Each month a new historically African-American college or university is chosen to receive the donations averaging approximately $25,000. Last year, the Foundation partnered with the United Negro College Fund, which donates fifty cents on every dollar raised. As he has the last several years, Joyner recently co-hosted UNCF's annual fundraising gala, An Evening of Stars.

Syndicated programming has been around since 1929 when Jack Cooper debuted his show, The All-Negro Hour. However, in the late 80s and early 90s, satellite and computer technologies that enable Joyner and his crew to broadcast simultaneously from across the country began to significantly impact the entire industry. Much the same way that advanced technologies have revolutionized the telephone industry and cable and network television, they are changing how we regard radio broadcasting. 

By eliminating ownership restrictions, the Telecom Act of 1996 revolutionized the medium. Passage of the Act resulted in a corporate buying frenzy, triggering radio station buy-outs, mergers and acquisitions on a massive nationwide scale. As a result, the need for high-quality, cost-efficient programming has never been greater.

With no end in sight to the technological advancements that allow him to broadcast seamless, localized programming to stations from Beaumont, TX, to Miami, FL, Joyner says if you want to break into radio, consider working behind the scenes. Sales and marketing are where the best opportunities are in the business, he says. These big conglomerates aren't interested in micro-managing their properties. They want to own the properties, get their money out of them, and just buy up more property. They're looking for proven results. They don't want the hassle. So, that means the big conglomerates are going to be coming after more syndicated programming. 

I suggest to anyone in college who wants to be in this business to look at these conglomerates, look at consolidation, and look at syndication. Figure out how you can get involved in that aspect of the business because that's where the opportunities are.