Background and career
Joseph Madison (June 16, 1949 – January 31, 2024) was an American Talk radio host and activist heard on the SiriusXM show Urban View. He advocated on voting rights, genocide, anti-lynching and other issues, seeking to mobilize his listeners. He served on the National Board of Directors of the NAACP. He was also known as "The Black Eagle". He was a member of the National Radio Hall of Fame.
Madison was a native of Dayton, Ohio and graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1967. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971 with a degree in sociology, and also played football for their team. His alma mater also awarded him a WashU Arts & Sciences' Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017 and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2019. After his death, his hometown of Dayton gave an honorary designation of "Joe Madison Way" to Cowart Avenue, the street he grew up on.
Madison began his radio career in 1980 on the AM band at Detroit's WXYZ-AM radio station. Later he hosted at 96.5 WWDB-FM Philadelphia. In the early 1990s, he joined an otherwise white lineup at WWRC-AM, where he developed a crossover appeal handling issues that included race but were aimed at the station's multiracial audience. He left in 1998, after the station fired its talent and changed format, to start an online chat show. That summer he moved to Radio One’s 1450 WOL-AM as Program Director and afternoon host. The popularity of his program led to syndication on the Radio One Talk Network and its XM satellite channel, which merged with Sirius to become SiriusXM in 2008. He left WOL in 2013 after more than a decade and moved exclusively to SiriusXM. There he started hosting mornings on their 'Urban View' channel. Later he moved to Mondays through Fridays from 6 am to 10 am. In 2013 Madison moved exclusively to SiriusXM to host mornings on their 'Urban View' channel. He was heard Mondays through Fridays from 6 am to 10 am on 'Urban View' channel 126, SiriusXM. In June 2015 he broadcast live from Cuba. SiriusXM described the broadcast as the first such American radio broadcast from the island in more than 50 years.
He became known as "The Black Eagle". He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2019. He used his radio programs to promote legislation and mobilize listeners. He challenged his listeners to take action on the issues he covered and became known for asking the question; "What are you going to do about it?".
Madison worked with the NAACP as the youngest Executive Director of the NAACP's Detroit branch at age 24. He was appointed the organization's National Political Director in 1974 and served until 1978. In 1986 he was elected to the National Board of Directors and served until 1999.
Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he took his radio program on the road through the Gulf Coast to document conditions and draw attention to the needs of affected communities. He also traveled to Haiti following the 2010 Haiti earthquake and assisted relief workers. On February 25–27, 2015, he hosted a record breaking marathon when he talked for 52 hours on his SiriusXM talk show. The broadcast is officially registered with the Guinness World Records. The broadcast raised more than $250,000 for the National Museum of African American History and Culture..
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
