HW Bio: Gil Noble, Harlem’s Media Man (Update)

Gil Noble (born February 22, 1932 in Harlem, New York) is an American television reporter and interviewer. He is the producer and host of New York City television station WABC-TV’s weekly, Like It Is originally co-hosted with Melba Tolliver. The program focuses primarily on issues concerning African Americans and those within the African Diaspora.

Noble joined WABC in July, 1967 as a reporter, and starting in January, 1968 became an anchor of its Saturday and Sunday night newscasts. He became host of Like It Is a few months prior to the rebranding of the station’s newscasts as Eyewitness News in November, 1968. In addition, he was an occasional interviewer on some of WABC’s other public affairs shows, such as Eyewitness Exclusive. From 1986 on, Noble has concentrated exclusively on Like It Is.

Over the years, Noble has interviewed many prominent figures in our society, including the following heads of state: Sekou Ture (Guinea), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Michael Manley and P.J. Patterson (Jamaica), Maurice Bishop (Grenada), Sam Nujoma (Namibia), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), and Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso). In entertainment, his interviews have included Bill Cosby, Erroll Garner, Sarah Vaughan, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Carmen McCrae, Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Nipsey Russell, Lena Horne, Wynton Marsalis, Milt Jackson and Jackie Mclean.

In sports, Noble has interviewed Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Arthur Ashe, and Jim Brown. Noble has interviewed such political figures as: Jesse Jackson, David Dinkins, Harold Washington, Louis Farrakhan, Andrew Young, Stokley Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Bruce Wright.

Noble has also done documentaries on such topics as W. E. B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Decade of Struggle, Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Jack Johnson, Charlie Parker and Essay on Drugs. In 1977, he wrote, directed and produced the first documentary on Paul Robeson, entitled “The Tallest Tree in Our Forest.”

In 1973, Gil reported (for local TV station WABC channel 7) on the first mobile cellular phone invented by Marty Cooper from the NY Hilton in New York.

Gil Noble has been a supporter of The Jazz Foundation of America, hosting the 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007 “A Great Night in Harlem” Concert / Benefit for The Jazz Foundation to support The Musicians Emergency Fund. He is also a member of the Board of Directors.