Gospel Highlights

Some people bounce from job to job looking for that one thing that will make them happy. Others settle for any job because, well, uh, you gotta pay the bills. Then, there are those who know at an early age what they are called to do. Julian ‘Ju’ Joyner is one of those people.

At age five Julian, as he was called back then, loved going to work with his dad, veteran gospel radio host Dr. Ronnie D. Joyner. At the station Dr. Joyner would prop Julian and his older brother, Ronnie, Jr., on his knee and let them be guest announcers. That was all it took for Julian. He was hooked.

Fast-forward a few decades and you’ll still find Ju, as he’s now called, working the mic. However, a few things have changed. Today, he’s running the show in more ways than one. Ju now calls himself ‘The Happiest Man in Radio.’ Why? Well, he’s the Director of Programming and host of The Ju Joyner Show at WGPL 1350 AM in Norfolk, VA, which broadcasts simultaneously on the Internet.

Check out what Ju has to say about his career and future plans.

Gospel Highlights: When did you start working with your father? How far back does it go?

Joyner: At the time it was Julian Joyner and it was probably 1983 and I was about 5-years-old. I was very young and my brother and I would sit on my dad’s lap and we would converse with him on the air. Two years later it was a national syndicated show called Crusade for Christ and my brother and I used to bring that broadcast on every day at 4 p.m. after we got out of school. We would introduce the broadcast. I’ve always been around the radio and radio stations. It was kind of like destined for me to do this and that’s exactly what I’m doing right now.

Gospel Highlights: Did you do radio work while at Norfolk State University?

Joyner: Yes, I’m a Mass Communications major. I was into music production as well. When I was in college, I really wanted to be in news. We had to do radio production classes [and] I aced all the radio classes. It was a wonderful experience. I learned a lot but there’s nothing like being hands-on with it. That’s one of the things you can’t teach. You can’t teach personality. You can teach the basics of radio but as far as the personality aspect, it’s kind of hard to teach because it has to come from within. It’s like you’re talking directly to one person and you have to come across like that.

Gospel Highlights: How did you end up at WGPL 1350 AM?

Joyner: I did weekends at WGPL while I was in college. I came off [the air] for a little while. I had a Web design company. I used to do quite a few Web sites in the area. Then, one day, I received a phone call from one of my good friends, John Willis, who’s a program director at WGPL. He called and said there may be a spot for you here and I said okay cool. [I was] thinking it’s another weekend spot. So I come up and have a meeting with the general manager and she tells me that John wants me to do the morning show. I was excited but I didn’t have on-air [experience] to that extent so I was a bit nervous. I just seized the opportunity and just moved forward from that. Six years later, here we are.