Cathy Hughes was born 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.
KOWH (AM) was owned by a group of African-American professionals and counted Warren Buffet as an advisor.
In the early 70’s Ms. Hughes moved to DC and became a lecturer at Howard University.
She parlayed her experience into a position as Sales Manager and, eventually, General Manager.
While at WHUR, Ms. Hughes created The Quiet Storm format which at one time was heard on nearly a thousand radio stations. Ms. H sought to license The Quiet Storm but Howard University declined claiming that it was not commercially viable.
Ms. Hughes left Howard University to work at WYCB(AM), which Radio One coincidentally purchased in 1998, in order to have more creative control and start the process of acquiring a station of her own.
1980 was the year when the Company we now know as Radio One purchased its first station.
The Company was originally named Almic Broadcasting, a shorthand tribute to Alfred Liggins and Michael Hughes,
the son of Dewey Hughes, Ms. Hughes’ then husband and business partner.
Radio One purchased WOL(AM) in Washington, D.C. for $900,000 using funds from her own pocket, from 10 local investors, and from Syncom, a Black-owned venture capital fund. Funds to operate in the amount of $1,000,000 were still needed and with dogged determination Ms. Hughes knocked on the doors of 32 banks where every male loan officer said no. On the 33rd try, a Puerto Rican female loan officer said YES!
Station WOL(AM) launched a pioneering news/talk format from a Black perspective. Ms. Hughes became the AM morning host and cracked the mike every day thereafter for the next 11 years and stayed true to her motto of Information is Power.
Ms. H named Alfred Liggins President of Radio One in 1989 and he assumed the position of CEO in 1997.
On May 5, 1999, Radio One sold 7,150,000 shares of common stock to the public and Ms. Hughes became the first African-American woman to head a publicly traded company.
Between 1999 and 2000, Radio One purchased 35 radio stations from 10 different owners in such major markets as Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Houston and Dallas, which quadrupled the number of radio stations owned and transformed the Company into a national media powerhouse.
The growth and success of Radio One became a case study at the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 2000.
On January 19, 2004 (on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday), Radio One, in partnership with Comcast, launched TV One in 2,200,000 households.
By the end of 2005, TV One had added DirecTV as an investor and was available in 20,000,000 homes.
In February 2005, Radio One acquired Reach Media, a company that had been formed two years earlier, to own, syndicate and market The Tom Joyner Morning Show.
Interactive One launched in 2007 and in conjunction with acquiring Community Connect in 2008 created four brand new national websites to attract and satisfy the needs of news junkies (Newsone.com), women (HelloBeautiful.com), the faithful (Elev8.com) and trendsetters (TheUrbandaily.com).
One Solution was created in 2008 to leverage all of our assets in an effort to drive incremental revenue through cross-platform integrated marketing solutions.
TV One entered into an agreement with the NAACP in 2013 to become the exclusive cable and broadcast partner to televise the prestigious and iconic Image Awards through 2018. The inaugural airing in 2014 premiered as the number one program in TV One history among total households.
In 2014, Radio One adopts a new mission statement and commits to build upon its 35-year history of being the most trusted source in the African-American community by informing, entertaining and inspiring our audience.
In 2015, Radio One bought out Comcast’s minority interest in TV One and became the only African-American owned cable television network in the country.