Larry King is an award-winning American writer, journalist and broadcaster. He currently hosts a nightly interview program on CNN called Larry King Live, one of the longest running talk shows on American air.King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jennie (née Gitlitz), a garment worker, and Edward Zeiger, a restaurant owner and defense plant worker. He was raised in a "very cultural[ly] Jewish" family. His father died at 44 of a heart attack when King was nine,and his mother had to go on relief to support Larry and his younger brother. His father's death affected King greatly, and King lost interest in school, ruining his chances to go to college. After graduating from high school, he worked to help support his mother. In his 20s, King worked as a UPS delivery boy and it seemed his dream of a job in radio wouldn't occur.A CBS staff announcer, who King met by chance, told him to go to Florida where there was a growing media market and where there were openings for less experienced radio personalities. King rode a bus to Miami. After initial setbacks, King got his first job in radio through persistence. A small station, WIOD in Miami Beach, hired him to clean up and perform miscellaneous tasks. When one of their announcers quit, they put him on the air. His first broadcast was on May 1, 1957, when he worked as the disc jockey from 9 am to noon. He also did two afternoon newscasts and a sportscast. He was paid $55 a week. He acquired the name Larry King when the general manager said that Zeiger was too ethnic and hard to remember, and instead suggested the surname King, which he got from an ad in The Miami Herald for King's Wholesale Liquor. He started interviewing on a midmorning show for WIOD, at Pumpernik's restaurant in Miami Beach. He would interview anyone who walked in. His first interview was with a waitress at the restaurant. Two days later, singer Bobby Darin, in Miami for a concert later that day, walked into Pumpernick's as a result of coming across King's show on his radio; Darin became King's first celebrity interview guest.

His Miami radio show launched him to local stardom. A few years later, in May 1960, he hosted Miami Undercover, airing Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. on WPST-TV channel 10 (now WPLG). On the show he moderated debates on important issues of the time.