Larry King is an award-winning American television and radio, and is recognized as being one of the premier broadcast interviewers in the United States today. He has conducted some 40, 000 interviews with politicians, athletes, entertainers, and other newsmakers throughout his broadcasting career. King began his broadcasting career as a local Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s and '60s. He gained prominence as an all-night national radio broadcaster beginning in 1978, and then came to dominate the airwaves when he began hosting the nightly interview television program, Larry King Live on CNN, which started in 1985. King has been inducted into five of the nation's leading broadcast halls of fame and is the recipient of the prestigious Allen H. Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism. Both his radio and television shows have won the George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.