As a child, Wisdom Martin absorbed every note of the beloved Christian gospel hymn his mother, Shirley, sang at home: "If I can help somebody as I pass along, then my living shall not be in vain." That guiding sentiment has shaped the Emmy-winning journalist throughout his 30-year career, including 23 years covering the DMV.
As a friendly face and trusted guide on the early morning airwaves, Martin has reported on some of the area's highest-profile stories. He covered how former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams brought a major league baseball team to the nation's capital in the 2000s and reported on Michael Jordan's final home game in D.C.
For the last three years, he's served as co-anchor on the WUSA 9 morning show, airing weekdays from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. Martin also hosts "Commanders Kickoff," the station's weekly Washington Commanders pregame show. On his streaming show, "A Moment of Wisdom" on WUSA9plus, he sits down with celebrities including actor Kevin Bacon, singer Kevin Ross, and costume designer Ruth E. Carter, the first Black woman to win an Oscar for costume design.
"Meeting so many different people from so many different walks of life is like getting an education every day," Martin says. "You're participating in real-time history, and you have to be knowledgeable about everything. That's what moves and motivates me when it comes to the news. If you're authentic with what you do, people will embrace you—and the people of Washington, D.C. have truly embraced me as their own."
Martin's interest in journalism took shape after he enrolled in Jackson State University, following in his parents' footsteps, where he studied broadcast journalism. Before moving to the DMV in his thirties, he covered sports and news in Jackson, Fresno, and Raleigh. His reporting spans Hurricane Katrina live from New Orleans and several presidential inaugurations from George Bush to Barack Obama to Joe Biden.
He's taken his passion for sports beyond the broadcast studio, too, turning it into his work as a published author. His first book, "Pass Interference: The History of the Black Quarterback in the NFL," chronicles trailblazing Black quarterbacks whose careers reshaped the league. "I interview players from the 1950s to today about their journeys, the obstacles they had to overcome to play football," he says.
His second, "Conventional Wisdom, Volume 2" features career lessons from celebrities like Shaq, Magic Johnson, the Russo Brothers (who produced The Avengers), and actor and tap dance extraordinaire Gregory Hines. Volume 3, scheduled to come out in 2027, will share additional celebrity career stories.
Martin is hard at work on a fourth book, a non-fiction account of the 1970 Jackson State tragedy.
"Jackson State is a small historically Black Southern college, and not a lot of people even know about the tragedy," he says. "But it impacted a lot of lives."
Wisdom is a self-professed history and documentary buff. "If you put a documentary on TV, I'm probably going to watch it." He's a major car enthusiast, and proud owner of his late father's 1970 Cutlass 442 convertible. Wisdom has partially restored the car himself, including installing a new engine. "I love all kinds of cars," says Wisdom, who attends the Washington, D.C. Auto Show every year. "I'm just fascinated by the speed, the quality, the technology." His all-time favorite is the 1966 Corvette Sting Ray.
"I own an old SUV, but what I'd really love is a black Corvette with black wheels." But with mint condition Corvettes often exceeding several hundred thousand dollars, Wisdom says, "At this point I'll take any old Corvette. I don't care what color it is."
When he isn't on the air or writing, Wisdom plays pick-up basketball around Clarksburg, and he loves to cook—Old Bay chicken wings, seasoned salmon, anything he can prepare on his two home grills or smoker. "I love the challenge of cooking," he says. "I'm not opening a restaurant anytime soon," he says, but his wife, Monifa, and kids, Anaya, 21, Wisdom, 18, and Nadira, 17, are well fed.
Wisdom will forgo his 6:30 p.m. daily bedtime to enthusiastically attend his kids' basketball and volleyball games and support their schoolwork. "At the end of the day, family is what it's all about," he says. His own parents, both teachers, stressed the importance of a well-rounded education and of paying it forward.
"Have faith, have a plan, and believe in yourself," Wisdom says. "Have a moral compass pointing in the right direction at all times, even when no one else is looking, and then when you get to a certain point, you pass it along."
Learn more about Martin at wisdommartin.com.
"Have a moral compass pointing in the right direction — even when no one else is looking."
"If you're authentic with what you do, people will embrace you — and the people of Washington, D.C. have truly embraced me as their own."