Media mogul, Cathy Hughes is the Founder and Chairperson of Urban One and is the first African-American woman to head a publicly traded company. Fasten your seat belts! This is a fast-paced interview between two very high energy, accomplished people who have a mutual passion for broadcasting generally, and radio in particular and whose 40-year friendship spans racial and generational divides. They genuinely like and respect each other – it’s clear. Andy knows Cathy to be “in charge” and introduces her as “the most important person in the broadcast world.” During her “formative years” in broadcasting, Cathy looked to Andy for advice. She calls him her advisor and mentor during that time and refers to him as Mr. Radio.
Ms. Hughes is as fearless, as she is humble and comes by it honestly. Her mother had an all women 18-piece band during WWII and her grandfather designed the first tour bus in the history of the entertainment industry because “Black girls couldn’t sleep in hotels.” Ms. Hughes drove from Omaha NE to Washington DC in the late 60s to be on the first faculty of Howard University's newly established school of communications - named after her in 2016 (which she never mentions). Although she drops a lot of names (Graham, Buffett, Hagans, Bradlee, Lawson, the list goes on and on) during this interview it is only to tell her story of doing what she was destined to do and of that she is clear - “to uplift my people, to disseminate information, because information is power.”
Ms. Hughes has the most interesting stories to tell of her journey in broadcasting and media over the past 50 years. Her stories of the close calls, her confrontations and collaborations with power players, and her courage as a Black woman to step onto an unlevel playing field of media ownership in the late 1970’s in Our Town are inspirational. And this is just the beginning, we hope to have Ms. Hughes back on, because once is not enough to do her justice.
The entire transcript for this podcast episode can be found on our website here:
https://ourtowndc.com/cathy-hughes-urban-one/ A special thanks to Our Town sponsors GEICO, as well as Attorney Mike Collins, Tony & Joe's Seafood Restaurant and Nicks Riverside Grill, and Living Health Integrative Medicine Regenerative Medicine.