FAMU alum receives Key to Tampa

Last month, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio surrendered the Key to the City of Tampa to an unwieldy group of pirates during the Gasparilla Pirate Invasion. Yesterday, she willingly handed it over to the hottest sensation in late-night Tampa television.

Iorio presented talk show host Motown Maurice with the ceremonial Key to the City during the filming of The Motown Maurice Show.

On January 23, Motown Maurice began broadcasting The Motown Maurice Show on MyNetworkTV affiliates with the intention of reinventing Tampa as a competing market for late night television shows through his own creation: a high-energy late night talk show with “an old school twist.”

“Motown has such incredible energy and drive,” said Pamela Robinson, owner of the Law Offices of Pamela Y. Robinson P.A. and exclusive sponsor of The Motown Maurice Show. “I have no doubt that his show will put Tampa on the map for late night television.”

With a truly entrepreneurial spirit, Motown has already created his mini media empire in the Tampa Bay area. Motown graduated from Florida A&M University with a Bachelor of Science in broadcast journalism and soon launched his wildly successful open-forum discussion, Wide aWoke Wednesdays, at the University of South Florida.

The Motown Maurice Show developed from the success of Wide aWoke Wednesdays and has featured such guests as Bern Nadette Stanis from the ‘70s sitcom Good Times and Tommy Mikal Ford from the ‘90s sitcom Martin.

According to Motown, “We want to continue reintroducing over three decades of culture, one late night show at a time.”

The Motown Maurice Show airs on Fridays at 1 a.m.