Glenn Frizell
BLACK HISTORY, NOTABLE BROADCASTERS, FEB. 22: Cathy Hughes, is an African-American entrepreneur, radio and television personality and business executive and founder of the media company Radio One and TV One. She is the first and only African-American woman to head a publicly traded corporation at the time. Cathy Hughes was born Catherine Elizabeth Woods in April of 1947 in Omaha, Nebraska to Helen Jones Woods, a trombonist with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, and William Alfred Woods, who was the first African-American to earn an accounting degree from Creighton University. Hughes also attended Creighton University and the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Hughes began her career in 1969 at KOWH in Omaha, but left for Washington, D.C. after she was offered a job as a lecturer at the School of Communications at Howard University. In 1973, she became General Sales Manager of the university’s radio station, WHUR-FM, increasing station revenue from $250,000 to $3 million in her first year. In 1975, Hughes became the first woman Vice President and General Manager of a station in the nation’s capital and created the format known as the “Quiet Storm,” which was aired on over 480 stations nationwide. In 1980, Hughes founded Radio One, and with then-husband Dewey Hughes, bought AM radio station WOL 1450 in Washington, D.C. Facing financial difficulties and subsequently losing her home, Hughes moved with her young son to live at the station. Her fortunes began to change when she revamped the R&B station to a 24-hour talk radio format with the theme, “Information is Power.” Hughes served as the stations Morning Show Host for 11 years. WOL is still the most listened to talk radio station in the nation’s capital. In 1999, Radio One became a publicly traded company, listed under the NASDAQ stock exchange. As of 2007, Hughes’s son, Alfred Liggins, III, serves as CEO and president of Radio One, and Hughes as chairperson. In January 2004, Radio One launched TV One, a national cable and satellite television network which bills itself as the “lifestyle and entertainment network for African-American adults.” In 2007, Hughes served as the John H. Johnson School of Communications Time Warner Endowed Professor at the School of Communications at Howard University.
