No Lie: “Fly Jock” Tom Joyner Really Did Have a Daily 800-Air Mile Commute

If you listened to Black radio in Dallas or Chicago in the late 1980s and early 90s, you knew Tom Joyner as “The Hardest Working Man in Radio.” He earned his nickname, “The Fly Jock,” not just because he always dressed to impress, but because he made a daily 800-air mile commute between his morning radio show in Dallas and his afternoon show in Chicago.

And while the idea of spending nearly 35 hours a week in the air might leave most people ready to drop, for Joyner it was a small price to pay for a national platform that let him play the music Black people wanted to hear and talk about the most important issues in their community – a mission that made him the hottest personality in Black radio for over 25 years and the first Black personality to be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

Joyner’s incredible story is subject of the latest episode of Interval Presents’ Amplify Color, a podcast dedicated to the history of Black radio. Host Ryan Cameron shares the stories of how some of the most famous personalities in Black radio found their voice. And as he told The Root, Joyner’s impact on the culture is hard to deny.

“Tom Joyner is the blueprint for the term edutainment. He not only brought powerful information to the Black community, he entertained the masses for decades,” Cameron said. “There are very few people who, if you start singing, “Oh, oh, oh!” don’t answer with, “It’s the Tom Joyner Morning Show! He’s the GOAT.”

Joyner’s reverence for Black music and culture was instilled in him growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama. His grandfather was one of only 3,000 Black physicians when he earned his medical degree in 1909. And his parents were both college grads. Joyner admits he had no idea how lucky he was growing up. And he went to study at Tuskegee University with hopes of of becoming a musician.

After a performance at a local talent show, Joyner decided to join forces with his longtime friend and classmate, Lionel Richie and became one of the early members of The Commodores. But his parents were convinced the group wasn’t going anywhere and forced him to quit to focus on his studies. Six months later, The Commodores landed a record deal. But while Joyner missed his chance at R&B stardom, a protest at a Montgomery, Alabama radio station in the early 1970s put him on a different path to success.

Joyner joined a group protesting the station for not playing Black music and eventually convinced the owner to give them a block of time on Saturdays. Tom jumped at the chance and took his place behind the mic. More determined than ever to make a career in radio, he around moved to markets including Memphis, Dallas and St. Louis throughout the mid 1970s.

By the mid-1980s Joyner’s career took off – literally. In 1983, he signed on to host the morning show on KKDA FM in Dallas, Texas. Two years later, he got an offer from WGCI FM in Chicago. Rather than choosing between the two markets, he decided to make the two-and-a-half hour flight between the cities and do both shows instead.

Hosting two daily shows in two markets is not a job for the weak. Joyner laid out his brutal schedule in the episode. Starting with a 3:30 am wakeup call in Dallas, he was on the go until he made his way back to the Lone Star State from Chicago on a 7:00 pm flight. Sounds exhausting, right?

But in 1994, Joyner got to give his luggage a rest when The Tom Joyner Morning Show was syndicated nationally heard on over 100 stations across the country. With an even bigger platform, he was able to reach more listeners and expand his influence. But as people consumed more music digitally, radio became less popular. And Joyner’s shrinking audience started to impact his paycheck.

“...it got to a point where they would – ‘All right, we’re gonna cut your salary in half.’ ‘Okay.’ ‘And then in half.’ ‘Okay.’ And then in half two years ago,” Joyner said. “Because my salary was based on my results, and not only was I losing affiliates but radio industry as a whole was losing traction,” he told CBS News in a 2019 interview.

Joyner retired from the show in 2019. But he says he would have stayed on the air until his very last breath.

“Shoot, I – my goal was to die on the radio. Have my funeral on the radio,” he said.