Daily Inspiration: Meet Wale Aliyu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wale Aliyu.

Hi Wale, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up, my parents would have the news on in the background and I would be like this is boring. Can you please put on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? There wasn’t really anybody who looked like me behind the desk and I just couldn’t relate.

So how did I go from the guy asking to change a channel to the guy actually behind the desk?

Well when I was 14, my mom signed me up for this summer program that lets kids get work experience and the first year they put me in a hospital doing secretarial work and again gregarious little Wale was bored out of his mind. The next year I begged the program organizers to put me somewhere more fun and they said I think we have something for you so they put me at a TV station.

And there you have it my eyes lit up! That little bit of exposure was all that I needed. It wasn’t boring anymore. I got to see how the sauce was made. So I just started asking everyone who worked there all the steps that they had to take to get to where they were, and then I simply followed them..

Here’s my bio:

Emmy Award-winning journalist Wale Aliyu anchors weeknight newscasts on Atlanta News First, joining the ANF team in 2025 after a distinguished career marked by impactful storytelling, community engagement, and numerous awards and nominations from his reporting and anchoring in major cities across the country.

Before coming to Atlanta, Wale served as the evening anchor at the ABC affiliate in San Diego, where he made history as the city’s first African American male to hold a main anchor role. While there, he distinguished himself as the only journalist in the market to consistently anchor entire newscasts on-site of big stories while pressing community leaders for solutions.” Some of his notable coverage include record breaking floods that left thousands of minorities in the community homeless and the ongoing migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border.

Prior to San Diego, Wale anchored and reported for Boston 25 News, guiding viewers through the COVID-19 pandemic, nightly protests following the murder of George Floyd, and several deep playoff runs. He also launched a series examining the challenges of policing in Massachusetts—work that began even before Floyd’s death.

Earlier in his career, Wale worked in the nation’s largest media market at WNBC in New York City, where he regularly covered major breaking news including helicopter crashes, the Trump Tower fire, multiple New Year’s Eve celebrations, and a series of suspicious packages that surfaced across the city. He also provided coverage of the trial of Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo.”

Before his time in New York, Wale spent six years reporting in Ohio for WKYC-TV in Cleveland and WKEF/WRGT-TV in Dayton. In Cleveland, he helped lead his station’s coverage of the tragic police-involved shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice—earning the trust of Rice’s mother for her first interview—and reported from the 2016 Republican National Convention. One of his most memorable assignments was reporting live as the Cleveland Cavaliers captured their historic 2016 NBA Championship, ending the city’s 52-year championship drought.

Wale began his journalism career in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri, where he reported across multiple media platforms, including radio, television, and digital outlets.

A proud graduate of the prestigious University of Missouri Journalism School, Wale earned his degree in Convergence/Broadcast Journalism, cum laude.” He goes back to the school yearly to coach prospective college students who want to one day be in his shoes.

When he’s not on the anchor desk, you can probably find Wale at one of your events as he is a much sought-after emcee and motivational speaker. Wale also enjoys coaching people who are public speakers who seek media training.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been anything but smooth, but every time there is a challenge along the way, I just dug a little deeper. I still keep the emails from viewers when I started saying “You suck.” Sometimes it wasn’t a viewer, sometimes it was my actual bosses, but in those moments, I just had to study my craft a little bit more, get around experienced mentors, ask a ton of questions, and then grow.

One of the biggest challenges is how often I’ve had to move around just to get to where I am now. That’s kind of how it works in this business. To make more money to be “”more successful”” you have to be willing to move to a different city, to different markets, get more experience, more exposure, take on a different role, etc… I’ve never been shy to do that and while that can be fun to learn new cities and make new friends it can also be stressful to have to learn new cities and make new friends..

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I anchor and report Monday through Friday at Atlanta News First through all of the evening newscast. Most consistently right now, you’ll find me every night at the 10 o’clock newscast and maybe reporting in the other newscasts especially if there’s some breaking news.

I think the thing that sets me apart in my industry or at least what I’ve heard people say along the way is that I try to be a breath of fresh air when you turn on the TV. I don’t ever want the little kid watching to say “Mama change the channel. This is boring.” I like to inject life into every story in every newscast, whether that’s through personality, deeply caring about the story and the people involved, or just offering a smile every time you need it..

How do you define success?
One of my favorite artists NF defined it perfectly in his verse of his song Hope and I couldn’t have said it any better:

Listening to what your heart says
Standing up for what you know is
Right, while everybody else is
Tucking their tail between their legs
What’s my definition of success?
Creating something no one else can
Being brave enough to dream big
Grinding when you’re told to just quit
Giving more when you got nothing left
It’s a person that’ll take a chance on
Something they were told could never happen
It’s a person that can see the bright side
Through the dark times when there ain’t one
It’s when someone who ain’t never had nothin’
Ain’t afraid to walk away from
More profit ’cause they’d rather do somethin’
That they really love and take the pay cut
It’s a person that would never waver
Or change who they are
Just to try to and gain some credibility
So they could feel accepted by a stranger
It’s a person that can take the failures in their life and turn them into motivation
It’s believing in yourself when no one else does,

Contact Info:

• Website: https://betterbemagic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walealiyutv/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaleAliyuTV/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/walealiyu/
• Twitter: https://x.com/WaleAliyu
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/WaleAliyu