Joe Madison, a civil rights activist who found his voice as an influential talk radio host known as the Black Eagle and whose decades on the air often pushed listeners to action with his tagline: “What are you going to do about it?,” died at his home in Washington. He was 74.

Madison had prostate cancer, said his daughter, Monesha Lever.

According to The Washington Post, during an era when mainstream talk radio became increasingly dominated by conservative views, “Madison pushed hard in the other direction since the 1980s. He worked the microphones at Black-oriented stations including Washington’s WOL — and later exclusively on satellite radio — with a passion he said was instilled as a young NAACP leader in Detroit.”

According to Wikipedia, 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.

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.

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

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IMAGE: NAACP