Michael Howard King (born December 18, 1962)[1][2] is an American commentator, columnist and
Murrow Award-winning &
Emmy Award-winning television producer.
While still a high school student, King began his first media job in August 1979 as a weekend DJ for Gary radio station
WLTH.[3][4][5] King worked at various other radio stations in
Northern Indiana and the
Washington metropolitan area in the 1980s.[5]
King moved to the
Atlanta metropolitan area in 1994, becoming station manager for
WIGO (later
WALR), a talk radio station targeting black Atlanta listeners.[6][7][8] At WIGO, King launched new programming in January 1995 such as Georgia Live, a daily interview show distributed to seven other stations in Georgia and South Carolina.[9] Beginning with the
1995 All-Star Game, WIGO began carrying
NBA Radio Network game broadcasts in February 1995.[10]
Joining black conservative organization
Project 21 in 1996, King wrote commentaries for Project 21 from 1998 to 2005.[11][5][12] In one 1999 commentary for Project 21, King opposed lowering academic standards for
NCAA student-athletes on the grounds that "the primary purpose for college was to get an education, not to act as a farm system for the NBA."[11][13]
At the end of the 1990s, King was a weekend morning news anchor for
WGST.[14]
In September 2005, King became a producer and reporter with
WXIA-TV Atlanta.[5]
In 2021, King moved from WXIA to Atlanta television station
WUPA as a digital media strategist.[15]
Awards and recognition
At WXIA, King was part of WXIA's news production team that won the 2011
Southeast Emmy Award for News Programming Excellence (Category 1A) and the 11Alive.com website team that won a 2015 regional
RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Website.[16][17]
In 2016, King won the Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting among large market TV stations. This award was for an in-depth report on WXIA about the
American Legislative Exchange Council, "Smart ALEC: The Backroom Where Laws Are Born".[1][18][19]
^"2011 EMMY Awards Nominees"(PDF). National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Southeast. Archived from
the original(PDF) on June 26, 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2023.