#MediaMonday – Floyd Alvin Galloway
Today’s MediaMonday comes to us from longtime Arizona resident Floyd Alvin Galloway, a freelance reporter, photographer, entrepreneur and all-around troublemaker. He is the host/producer of The Alvin Galloway Show (TAGS), which airs Sundays, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m., on radiophoenix.org. TAGS is now in its seventh year.
Alvin, time to share:
As a freelancer, I have contributed to Minority Engineer Magazine, Arizona Informant Newspaper, Trice Edney News Wire service and other media outlets, including WVON’s Perri Small Show.
I have been a news junkie since my early childhood, reading the local newspaper with my father before he, a factory worker and union organizer, left for work early in the morning. Then becoming a paperboy, which is no joke in the Illinois winters. But it had its perks, especially from my favorite client, Joe Spaggioli (sp) who owned Joe’s Dairyette, a little restaurant up the street from my house. He paid his bill on time, gave me tips and free food when I came to his restaurant.
Some of my journalism heroes are Gordon Parks, Vernon Jarrett, David Brinkley and Chet Hundley, Charlene Hunter-Gault among others.
I had been approached a number of times for several years by Victor Arnrow, one of the founders of Radio Phoenix, to have a show but didn’t feel I had the time to do it. Then one day a host of another show, Leah Marche, asked me to be a guest on her show to talk about community affairs. Then a couple months later Cephas and Beatrice Johnson, who are Oscar Grant’s uncle and aunt (Oscar Grant was killed by BART police New Year’s Day in 2009), and my friends, were in town and I co-hosted a show interviewing them. Leah encouraged me to start my own show.
A few days before my show was initially going to kick-off, my father died. I thoughts of not doing the show but then I began thinking of the times my father and I would read the paper together and discuss current events, so I started a month later.
TAGS’ target audience is the Black community, but I have all kinds of guests, on all ethnicities, talking about all types of subjects, from politics, art, music, to community events. You name it, it might be a topic or guest on my show.
I began my journalism journey in early ‘80s after coming to Arizona in 1977 initially to study electronic engineering at DeVry Institute of Technology, I found myself taking a journalism class at Scottsdale Community College with Native American journalist Don Cole. Don persuaded me to work on the school newspaper. One of my first assignments was to cover a Black History program which featured Pulitzer Prize poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Interviewing her left me awestruck.
While at the event I met two gentlemen who were engineers at Motorola and they invited me to a meeting regarding the formation of a community-based engineers and scientists organization, of which I became the public relations chair.
This led me to meet Cloves Campbell Sr., co-founder of the Arizona Informant Newspaper, who happened to be a member of my church and I sat next to on many occasions, but I didn’t know who he was or what he did until I was formally introduced to him. After submitting several press releases to him about our organization, he “persuaded” me to do some work for his publication. It led to a four decades long relationship. I guess I was destined to work in journalism.
A community advocate, I have served in leadership positions in civil rights and community organizations. I am the past board treasurer of the Arizona Center for Disability Law and continue to serve on the ACDL board. I have been very active in my church, the Historic Tanner Chapel AME Church, a former Boy Scout leader and have served in numerous auxiliaries including Trustee Board, Jubilee Choir, Men’s Day and others.
In 1993 I led the reactivation of the East Valley Branch of the NAACP with the late Minister James Toppin. I served as East Valley NAACP President for nearly 10 years, instituting numerous programs and initiatives during my tenure. I am a former NAACP Western Region 1 Resolutions committee member of the NAACP National Convention.
Because of my community work I have been honored to the receive several awards including inaugural Si Se Puede – Cesar Chavez Community Service award in 2001, the East Valley NAACP President’s award recipient twice, African Methodist Episcopal Man of Thunder award 2013, the National Council of Negro Women- Metropolitan Phoenix Chapter’s Man of Valor awardee in 2013, Honorable Coy C. Payne Man of the Year award 2015, Society of Professional Journalists Sun Valley Chapter – Silver Key award recipient and others.
The father of Jessica Nia Anne, and the grandfather of Jordynn, my eight-year old granddaughter, and four-year-old grandson Elias, they are the joys of my life. I love jazz, the blues, walking, biking, history, reading and eating. Some of my friends call me Mikey (like the kid in the Life cereal commercial) because I love any kind of food.
My life motto is: “Today is a great day to make somebody’s day great!”
You can follow TAGS, The Alvin Galloway Show on Facebook and Instagram, and twitter handle @the1answerman.
I encourage listeners to “Tune In for an Intellectual Tune-Up.”
