Joe Madison

Joseph Madison (June 16, 1949 – January 31, 2024), alternatively known as "The Black Eagle" or "Madison", was an American radio talk-show host and activist heard daily on SiriusXM Urban View.

Early life and education
Madison was a native of Dayton, Ohio. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2019.

Radio career
Madison began his broadcasting career in 1980 at Detroit's WXYZ-AM radio station.

Joining an otherwise white lineup at WWRC-AM in the early 1990s, 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.

WOL and XM Satellite Radio
Madison also worked at WOL-AM, and was placed in syndication on the Radio One Talk Network and its XM satellite channel. He left WOL in 2013.

Urban View on Sirius
Madison was heard Mondays through Fridays from 6 am to 10 am on Urban View channel 126, SiriusXM.

On Feb. 25–27, 2015, Joe Madison hosted a record-breaking marathon whereby he talked for 52 hours on his SIRIUS XM talk show. The broadcast is officially registered with the Guinness World Record Organization.

Political activism
He publicized claims of CIA complicity in moving cocaine into the United States, sought evidence, and promoted legislation to declassify possibly related documents. On October 15, 1996, Madison, Dick Gregory, and John Newman launched a hunger strike to promote this legislation.

A quarter century later, he announced another hunger strike: this time to press for voting rights legislation.

Personal life
Madison took a DNA test indicating he has ancestry in Sierra Leone and Mozambique. Research done for Finding Your Roots revealed that his great-grandfather was a white man from South Carolina who fought for the Confederates during the American Civil War; and his biological grandfather was included in the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

Madison lived in Washington, D.C., with his wife Sharon (Sherry) and was a father and grandfather. He earned his bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Madison died of prostate cancer at his home in Washington, D.C. on January 31, 2024, at the age of 74. He was originally diagnosed with cancer in 2009.