Cathy Hughes

Cathy Hughes of Radio One. I have been listening to her every since I was 10 years old. If it were not for her vigilance and drive for wanting to inform and keep the Black community aware of what is going on, I would not know half of what I do today.

WOL-AM (Washington, DC) is as much a part of my life as my family and it is the station I rely on for my news. If they don't report it, I don't get it. I appreciate her contribution to the Black race. She is a monument in her own time. With sisters like this on our side, a Brother can't lose.

Your Brother, Hony Rutna

Everyone loves a hero. We love old fashioned rags to riches stories about starting at the bottom and zooming straight to the top. Cathy Hughes' story is one of those. In the world of radio and business, she has built an empire and attained status of truly heroic proportions. A college drop-out who became pregnant at 16, Hughes gained 82 pounds and suffered from depression. However, her son, Alfred, became her inspiration and her motivation. Unstoppable, Hughes pushed forward, saying a prayer every morning, and behind the microphone---raising hell. She has slept nights in a sleeping bag on the station's floor and played her own LPs brought from home to fill air time, working in every aspect of radio from sales to talk show host.

Today, Hughes and her son, Alfred Liggins, the president and CEO, work side by side running Radio One, Inc., the largest African American owned and operated broadcast-company in the nation. It is the first African American company in radio history to dominate several major markets simultaneously, and the first woman-owned radio station to rank #1 in any major market. In 1995, Radio One purchased WKYS in Washington, D.C. for $40 million -- the largest transaction between two Black companies in broadcasting history.