Mark Riley (born September 22, 1951) is an American journalist and commentator. He is the former host/presenter of

WWRL WWRL (1600 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York City. WWRL airs an all-news radio format as an affiliate of the Black Information Network (BIN). The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. By day, WWRL broadcasts at 25,000 wat ...

1600 AM's morning drive talk program. He hosted a four-hour evening news, interview, comment, and culture program, "The Air Americans," on the now-defunct liberal talk radio network

Air America Radio Air America (formerly Air America Radio and Air America Media) was an radio in the United States, American radio network specializing in progressive talk radio. It was on the air from March 2004 to January 2010. The network was founded as a left ...

. His work at Air America also included co-hosting the network's morning-drive show, "Morning Sedition" with stand-up comic

Marc Maron Marcus David Maron (born September 27, 1963) is an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, actor, and musician. In the 1990s and 2000s, Maron was a frequent guest on the '' Late Show with David Letterman'' and has appeared more than forty ...

. Riley was also employed by WLIB 1190AM in New York City, where he worked as a broadcast journalist, program director and air personality. He has also worked with Richard Bey co-hosting the morning drive program at WWRL 1600AM New York.

Career

Riley’s first radio opportunity was as host of the public affairs program ''Urban Notebook'', which skyrocketed in popularity throughout the New York tri-state area. In 1986, Riley moved to the prime time morning slot and broadcast live from the famous

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

. Since that time, Riley has worked his way up through a spectrum of roles including writer, editor, managing editor, executive editor, and program director. During his 1992-1996 tenure as program director of New York's

WLIB WLIB (1190 AM) is an urban contemporary gospel radio station licensed to New York City. WLIB is owned by Emmis Communications, along with sister stations WBLS (107.5 FM) and WQHT (97.1 FM). The three stations share studios in the Hudson Square n ...

(1190 AM), Riley identified the diversity of the WLIB audience and set out to establish more balance between the

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

and

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

dimensions of the station's programming. Riley also pioneered the station's efforts to enhance listener awareness in the political arena, airing full coverage of all Democratic and Republican conventions since 1990, as well as coverage of both Democratic Inaugurals in

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

. In March 2004, Air America Radio began broadcasting from New York, with WLIB as its flagship station. Riley was one of the few holdovers from the WLIB staff, and co-hosted the morning drive program

Morning Sedition ''Morning Sedition'' was a three-hour radio program that premiered April 1, 2004 and ran until December 16, 2005, in the United States. It was hosted by comedian Marc Maron and New York radio veteran Mark Riley. Prior to June 2004, the show was a ...

. In December 2005, he began hosting ''The Mark Riley Show'' (also on Air America), a two-hour morning news program. This show ended on May 11, 2007, so that Riley and his producers could prepare for the launch of ''The Air Americans''. After the cancellation of the show, Riley and

Richard Bey Richard Wayne Bey (born July 22, 1951) is an American talk show host. He was popular in the 1990s as host of '' The Richard Bey Show'', a daytime talk show containing ordinary people's personal stories incorporated into entertaining competitive g ...

became cohosts at

's morning show. On October 3, 2009, Riley launched ''Working New York'', a weekly radio program airing Saturdays on WWRL. In addition to radio presenting, Riley is a TV political analyst with frequent appearances on The Road to City Hall on New York 1 News. Riley has also appeared as a commentator on BET, CNN, The Charles Grodin Show, CNN’s Reporters Roundtable, the Fox News Channel’s Hannity & Colmes, The CBS Early Show, and MSNBC. International credits include work as a frequent contributor for BBC Radio and a documentary producer for the BBC2 in London.TV Credits (Political Pundit): The Lou Dobbs Show/CNN * WCBS Mornings * The Fox News Channel * New York 1 News * BBC Radio London
BBC Up All Night
* BBC Live at Five * Channel 4 UK * The Tavis Smiley Show/BET * Both Sides with Jesse Jackson * The Charles Grodin Show * Caribbean Lifestyles TV Mark Riley is a co-Founder of For The Record (1978), the successor of The New York Record Pool. From this capacity he has built extensive accolades as a Club Music aficionado and is often aligned with some of the most iconic names in the history of Club/Dance Music globally: The Loft, The Garage, David Mancuso, Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, Joey Llanos.

Education

Riley studied English at New York University and is also a graduate of The Gunnery School in Connecticut.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Mark American talk radio hosts 1951 births Living people African-American radio personalities African-American journalists American male journalists American political commentators Mass media in New York (state) 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people