Cathy Hughes Part 1

Cathy Hughes is the first Black woman to head a publicly traded media company and a true radio pioneer. In part one of a two-part interview, Ms. Hughes joins Questlove Supreme for her first-ever podcast. She discusses her journey into radio, creating The Quiet Storm show format, and helping launch some incredible entertainment careers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quess Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. I'm So Hotter.
This is my very first podcast. Oh my god, that
made you denied many a request, but we made it.
I miss us. I'm Sugar Steve. I love your name.

(00:22):
Thank you? Are you singing? Don't ask about it if
you want to. I just a yoke, joking worries that
you're not looking for I'm serious. I'm in New York.
I don't know where you are, but I know you're
Bill's manager now, so I want to you get a

(00:43):
lot done to that miss usual date. I'm gonna get
paid finally after all these years. How long we're doing
this for way too long that I haven't paid yet? Forever.
It's gonna be super j This is gonna be the
first time that I will admit on the air that
I might be stealing the neighbors WiFi. How I think, No,

(01:06):
they don't know I'm stealing it. Shout out to a
apartment be letting me. This episode of Quest Left Supreme
brought to you by my next door neighbors. Thank you,
plades and gentlemen. This is Question Left Supreme. We are
together again. We're together yea. All five of us. It's
been a minute. Oh yeah, hey William yea here, Hey Bill,

(01:29):
have you you've been going a long time. I went
to Pante's house to get cigarettes. Back. I'm back. I'm
happy to be back. Thank you. So I'm hearing around
the grape vine that you've created yet another Broadway hit.
You know, people seem to like it. People come to
see it. It's excited. I'm you're in the bus. I'm
here in the bus. I think you should come see it.

(01:51):
I think everyone should come see it. It's quite it's
a good show. I tell you, how about Bill is?
Don't I just say that? Or I asked Bill, I said, so,
how long is the show running? He was like, what
you mean? It just run? And I was like, oh,
that's that happened for everybody, Or okay, he just Bill
comes from Hamilton Pettigree, So that means that anything he creates,

(02:13):
you know. Meanwhile, like I've seen like at least four
of my friends kind of have to go back to
the drawing board and you know, shut down their Broadway plays,
and you know, just speaking about things we create. January
nineteenth is the premiere of jam Van starring starring three
fifths of Quest Love Supreme. Laia as the Big Old

(02:33):
Book of Travel. Get it first animation through Yea and
Fonte wrote a song for Duffy Diggs, which is I
believe episode three or four, but anyway, tune in YouTube
Originals YouTube Kids, January nineteenth, first two episodes. Shout out
to Quest Love Supreme. There you go. Yes, we took
care of business. Yeah we are, we are talented. So,

(02:54):
ladies and gentlemen, I will say that as a media
Wait a minute, Yes, am I media personality? Now? Absolutely, yes,
yeah you are. I'm a media personality. I'm not a
drummer anymore. Okay, I'll take that. So I will say
that as a media personality. I gotta think about that.

(03:16):
You know, I was from a generation in which radio
was boss. Radio was the common denominator, even amongst our
QLs fam here. I know that I've had We've talked
about Laia's history as a radio personality in Philadelphia and

(03:36):
other markets. What were your other markets besides Philadelphia, d
n V, the Atlanta. Yes, you've done every shift, You've
done something, You've done the afternoon shifts. You've been midday mommies.
You're you was a midday mommy for for a little bit. Um,
when you start in radio, I know that you start

(03:58):
with weekends and off duty hours, and then you'd start
in the morning. And then when you when they trust
you enough to have your own afternoon show, you become
a midday mommy. Well wait, what's a guy get Like
does a guy get that title? Like in New York anyway,

(04:19):
very few men do mid days. We got to talk
about it's a reason too, Oh I wouldn't. Yeah, this
is going to be the radio educational show. Steve and
I like our bonding even of this this very platform
that we're on. Steve and I always talked and fantasized about,
like both he and I come from a place where
we used to have like as kids, our own uh

(04:42):
you know, pretend radio shows. I know Steve to this
day still has like collections of his You still have
like your fantasy radio shows when you were like twelve, right,
Oh yeah, I have all that stuff. Plus I have
an actual radio show these days on w KCR. I
totally forgot that Stevens Network actually had my own uh

(05:03):
Sugar network. Maybe if maybe heard of it it returning five
years old in February. It's real it's real. Yes, of course,
Steve has his own network fantein Bill. I don't know
what you guys were into, but I would assume that
at some point in your life you two also had
the radio fantasy of just I don't know if Howard
started to hit me with it. Noah, I never did

(05:24):
that doorm No, No I did. I didn't do radio.
I did radio in my uh in college, I had
a had a raid. Me and Pool actually had a
show on audio Net, which is like our campus radio station,
and you could listen to it like in your dorm room.
And so I would do it there. Um, I would
make like tapes and stuff as a kid, and like
act like a radio announcer, and you know, okay, yeah,

(05:47):
I And then I mean our first album WJLR, that
was a fictional radio station. That's right, even on your
own records, you had radio station, multiple album. I will
basically say that, you know, no musical level I know
could resist the fantasy of playing radio station. And even
to this day, like I make mixtapes for friends, I
make these slow Jamp actually our guests is also really

(06:10):
responsible for like a game changing innovation in radio, which
is the quiet storm format. Like I cannot even put
forth any you know and in a short amount of
words of how instrumental and powerful our guest is today
when it comes to radio, simply put you know, between

(06:32):
all the markets I've named the cities Atlanta, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Richmond,
m Absolutely if your fans are Ricky Smiley, Russ Parr,
rev Now Sharpton, TD, Jake's DL, Hughley, Erica Campbell, like

(06:52):
you can name them all. She's literally responsible one of
the most powerful figures in communication. Owner of Urban One
formerly Radio one, TV one, Interactive one. I cannot believe
we pulled this off. Thank you very much. Why Yeah,
we have one of the only Cathy Hughes one question,

(07:12):
Love Supreme. That's probably the longest introduction I've ever given life. Well,
I am so appreciative and it's so interesting. It's my
very first podcast ever. I don't know what my staff
is going to say about this. Are they scared? Are
they nervous? Well, no, they've been trying to get me

(07:33):
to do a podcast, really have not. Yes, you're the
first I've said yes to. But I got to go
back to the pretend radio stations Mine was my bathroom
and my microphone was a toothbrush. There were six of
us in the house, and I locked the bathroom door.
I didn't give a damn that people had to go

(07:54):
to school and work. I was doing a radio show
and I never came out until my show was over,
because I knew when I came out, I was going
to be physically abused by everybody in the house. They
were throwing things at me and banging. And the interesting
thing I only did two things. I did news and
I did commercials. Was the start of my regime. And

(08:16):
the records at all that's been any records to be
I didn't have a turntable in the bathroom, so we
didn't have okay, and I can't sing, and so there
was no music. It was all narrative. I practiced, and
it's so interesting because I was very serious about it.
I did it for years because my aspiration was to

(08:39):
one day be the first African American woman to have
a nationally syndicated radio show. And I knew I had
to practice. And I was twelve years old, and I
did my hour broadcast every single solitary morning. So finally
my mother compromised with me and told me if I
had to have the bathroom for an hour, I had
to do it between the hours four am and five am,

(09:02):
and I cheated. I would do five to six. Okay,
all right, but everybody was always you know, because in
those days, I don't know how people family survived because
it was only one bathroom and all right, yeah, and
we didn't even notice that there was only one bathroom
and we had to go in except in the morning

(09:23):
when I was joining my radio show. So that was
the start of my career. For you. Like when I
mentioned radio, what were your memories of it? Who are
you listening to as a kid? Well? Number one, I
grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and so I listened to
Conway Twitty. What you know about Conway Twitty? Wow, That's

(09:47):
who I listened to. We listened to, We listened to
Righteous Brothers, We listened to listen. It was called country
and Western and m my mother for my twelfth birthday,
for Chris put A, begged her for a radio, a
transistor radio as she put it in lay away for Christmas,

(10:09):
but she couldn't afford to get it out until April,
and so I got it for my birthday and for
the first time I could hear what I thought were
black air personalities. They were really Wolfman, Jack and Hoss
and all of these white personalities sounding like they were
black because they didn't allow black men on radio back then. Wow.

(10:29):
Really okay, And I was fantasizing about being this woman
who was going to be on radio, not knowing that
Hannie McDaniel was the first African American woman to have
a nationally syndicated radio show. She was was forty years
old when I found that out, and all the way
from twelve years old to forty my goal was to

(10:51):
have a nationally syndicated radio shows. I was kind of
thankful that God withheld that information from me, okay. And
it was so because I was in the middle of
teaching a class at Howard and I looked in this
book that I wanted to recommend to my students to read,
and there it was, and it was like the words
popped out of a page my eyes, and I'm like, oh,

(11:14):
my goodness, I've been inspiring. But it's what was driving me.
So I was really kind of glad that I did
not know, because back in those days, syndicated radio was
the thing. The NBC radio series, the ABC Radio series.
Back in those days, people, way before anybody you know
on this podcast was even born, we watched radio. We

(11:37):
set around and when you looked at the radio and
you imagine and you visualize, and I mean some of
my greatest radio memories were the boxing matches because my
daddy was a big sports fan. The crowd, the enthusiasm,
you thought you were actually there. And then my mother

(11:57):
was a very accomplished music and she had a group
called the International Sweethearts of Rhythm eighteen piece all women's
orchestra in the nineteen thirties and forties, and they were
world renowned. They traveled all over Europe. They were in Germany,
they were in France, they were in all these foreign
countries playing for the American soldiers and they would have

(12:21):
to do one night for the black soldiers, another night
for the white soldiers. But the International Sweethearts of Rhythm
were nicknamed by Earl Father Hines as the first Freedom
Writers because they were integrated and the white members of
the band would actually darken their face. They would be
in not black place, but they would have dark makeup

(12:43):
on to pass for blackets. They would travel through the
South and It was really interesting because the police, the
stories they told about how the police would come aboard
their bus. They had the first tour of US ever built.
Because they couldn't stand tells. They took an old, deserted
greyhound bus and put three stacks of bump beds, and

(13:08):
that's where they rehearsed, that's where they lived, that's where
they traveled throughout and the police would come on board
the bus and they would think that the bi racial
women were the white women, and they would think that
the white women were actually the black women because they
would have on the makeup. What would have happened if
they found out that white people and black people were together,

(13:29):
they would have thought they were freedom writers and arrested
them more absolutely, absolutely exactly. It was very dangerous. So,
you know, so radio was like second nature to me
because I've been trying to write this book for thirty years.
And the book starts off when I was five years old,

(13:51):
and it was the first time that I realized my
mother's picture was in the mural at the Apollo and
she's rushing we're late for a performance of her band,
and and I'm saying, they're staring at my mother and
that was the first time that I realized that that

(14:11):
I was growing up in the entertainment industry. I don't
know when you realized it, you know, because you two
chessel grew up in the entertainment industry. But that was
the first time they didn't gone upon me that my
mother was more than just my mama, okay. And then
that evening for the first time when I saw her
on the stage, I was like, oh my goodness. Because

(14:32):
back in those days, they made me sit on the
front road because they wouldn't leave me backstage. I had
seventeen nat so they could baby sit me because even
back then they were worried about molas station and drugs
and they were going on backstage and so did you
experience this, so that they would make me sit on
the front roads so that they can keep an eye

(14:52):
on me. I sat at the bar. I was I
was the only five year old allowed to sit at
the bar. And then once I was seven, like I
was working. I was a stage manager, so they that's
how they didn't believe in babysitters until way later. But
absolutely yeah. And then a year later when I met
moms mabley and read Fox when we reopened the Howard

(15:14):
Theater in DC. They told me about how when I
was a baby that the girls in the band would
pull a drawer out in the hub and when they
would could stay at people's houses or in hotels, and
that was my baths and net, that they would take
a drawer out of the dresser okay, and they would
put covers in it, and that's where I would sleep.

(15:34):
The first time we said Moms Mabley on this podcast,
I was such a big fan of hers as a kid, like,
I'm oh, I love you, thank you for saying her name. Well,
my baby sister's named Jackie after Jackie Moms Mabley. My
mother made huh because Moms Mabley told me she recognized me.

(15:54):
It was strange. I was the general manager of wah
you are at the time. She said, come here, girl.
She said what's your name and I said it's Kathy
and she said your mama named Helen. I said yes, ma'am,
and she said I bought you your first bastin net
because they had you sleeping in a dresser drawer okay,
And I'm like yeah. She said, get your mom on

(16:17):
the phone, okay, okay. I had no idea and then um,
She told me all these stories about how, in addition
everything else, one of the leader tractions of my mother's
group was a woman named Tiny Davis, world renowned trumpet player,
and Tiny was a lesbian and that that moms mable

(16:41):
Lee told me that she was the first openly you know,
lesbian entertainer, and that you know that not only were
they not supposed to have black and white people, they
also were not supposed to have gay and lesbian people, right, okay,
the way they were really pine years in so many
different areas, and it was the nineteen thirties and forties, okay,

(17:09):
so probably you know, in the in the wake of
what I've been sort of going through last year in
terms of after Summer Soul, a lot of people started,
which was thank you, thank you, thank you for that,
thank you God thing that thank you, oh my goodness,

(17:30):
and promoting and still talking about it regularly on all
of our airways. That was the most magnificent piece. That
was almost as significant of when they found Oscar Ma
shows films they had been buried in all. Okay, you
to bring that to life, in my opinion, was an
Oscar Ma show. So forgive me for cutting you off,

(17:51):
but I thank you, tell you that I'll take that compliment.
I appreciate that. Thank you well. I was going to
say to you that, um, I've just beginning so many
like you know, just random archives stuff, and someone was
really incredible enough to give me like almost one hundred
hours of like vintage radio programs. I mean like Hal Jackson,

(18:16):
Sid McCoy, Jaco Henderson. You know what, it's so weird.
Here's the weird thing. The million dollars research right now,
we've been I have a little pack of like maybe
eight or nine cats that like collect these things. For

(18:36):
the life of us. We are are searching high and
low for either Georgie Woods's radio show or the dance
show that he used to have in Philadelphia. That's like
that is gold to us. But I wanted to ask, like,
did you have any interaction with like the first generation
of syndicated radio personalities like like Jaco Henderson or Sid McCoy,

(19:00):
any of those like golden voice gods of kind of
like the fifties. No, because I was still a child,
I was still fantasizing and still growing up in the Omaha, Nebraska.
I knew you more about Johnny Carson. Okay, okay, and
the Fondas and Marlon brand Do all of these were

(19:20):
Omaha folks in the industry. Okay, to get into the pool,
Like what year is do you consider your first professional year?
Not professional year, but the year of Like I guess now,
a person want to have to start as an intern
and the intern too, an assistant, an assistant to sort
of work your way up the ladder. What's the what's

(19:41):
the first step that you had to take to officially
plant some feet inside of that world. I started off
as an owner. Yeah, that's a FLEXI. That's the greatest
flexib all time. That's the show. Good Night, I dropped

(20:03):
the bike right. Omaha's African American community has has produced
some of the greatest athletes of all time. Bob Gibson,
one of the greatest pitchers, Okay, Baseball Hall of Famer,
Johnny Rodgers, Heisman Trophy winner, Bob Boozer, basketball, Paul Silas.

(20:24):
We had all of these incredible athletes, and they decided
to pull their resources and take Willie Nelson off the
radio and put James Brown on. So they decided that
they were going to buy a radio station and create
a black format. And I have always been a saver.

(20:44):
My mother and father both instilled with me, if you
get a dime, you get to spend a nickel and
put a nickel in At that time my cigar box
when I was a child, Okay, that was my bank.
And so I had a little ten thousand dollars saved
when they came up with this venture, and so I invested.
So my experience as an owner, Okay, ten thousand, ten

(21:13):
thousand now might be like five hundred bucks, but ten
thousand then was like five hundred thousand. Now, like where
did you find the patients to what did you have
to sacrifice to save? My father died at forty five, okay,
and my portion of the insurance was about eight thousand. Okay,

(21:34):
So I only had about two thousand and nickels and
times that I had saved myself, but I had ten
thousand dollars. So I invested in this radio station. And
then because I had been bidden by this radio bug
as a child kal wh And on Maha, Nebraska, Um,
I went to start volunteering. My first job was one

(21:57):
of the owners. All of us, all the owners were
actually volunteering. Biggest mistake, biggest, biggest business error. In my
career was when I moved to Washington, DC and I
told them, I said, listen, I have this opportunity to
join the faculty of the Howard University School of Communications.
I don't know any DC. I have a five year

(22:18):
old son. Would you all please, you know, buy me out.
So they bought me out at the same amount that
I had put in, which was a ten thousand dollars.
Years later, all of them made two to three four
hundred thousand dollars a piece opposed the state. But I
didn't have any idea then, okay, that that you know,

(22:39):
the value would appreciate it at that level. So they
gave me my ten thousand dollars back when I moved
to Washington, d C. But I started off my career
in radio as an owner, not working my way up.
I ended up working my way up when I was
the general manager of w h u R and the
staff decided they wanted to union and nice and I

(23:01):
wasn't going to have it because it would have forced
the students out of the facility. Okay, I was not
going to allow the union to come in and deny
The only reason Howard University had whu R with stands
for wh our university radio was for the students. And
yet we had all of these professionals, many of whom

(23:23):
were no longer employable in the industry, holding onto their
positions and denying the students the opportunity to be on
the air. And so they went on strike. And so
when they went on strike, I told the students as
me and you, and we went on the air, and
I was trembling. That was the first time I had

(23:45):
ever been on the air. Okay, So I have these
a group of teenagers and me, and we're going to
keep the station on the air. Because to this day,
thank god, Howard University still is a facility were students
can get commercial training because college radio could not suffice

(24:05):
in getting these kids jobs when they graduated from college.
They needed to have a commercial credential on their resume.
I'll say it again, still the best college radio station too.
I just wanted to say it again to me in
the nation, I will say it. I mean, that's that's
the first even before my own hometown started playing us,

(24:26):
like our university was the early supporter, even before like
our album came out. That's how I run my radio
stations to this day that that is not just about
employing the people who you know, make the salaries, but
it's also about creating jobs for artists, for writers, for producers,

(24:49):
creating opportunities for them that that you know, nobody else
is going to afford them. This was before it black
became fashionable and everybody you know decided, oh my goodness, okay,
this trillion dollars you know, community that we're missing out on,
We're going to hop over here in the black space
with Back then, you know, it was not possible. There

(25:11):
were no crossovers. Okay. You either got played in black
radio or you did okay, or you didn't get played.
And so that's that's been always a priority with my programming.
Because you're an owner, maybe you can explain this to me. Okay.
So when I got in the industry professionally, at least

(25:31):
with the roots, it was like ninety three, And when
our third album came out in ninety six ninety seven,
one of our radio promotion guys at the label was
trying to explain to me, something new is happening at
radio that's going to make it harder for us to
get you guys on radio. And you know, the thing

(25:56):
that they were saying explaining to me was basically at
Whereas when we used to visit radio stations in ninety five,
personalities on the air had control of what they played,
so they were like they were the tastemakers. If hey,
I know about this cool group from Philadelphia, you guys
should hear them, and they played the record, Whereas now

(26:19):
we were coming to radio stations and things were like
preprogrammed almost weeks in advance before you even get there. Yeah,
they consolidated. What they did was limit access to artists.
That's the reason you know we're very unique corporation, Because yeah,

(26:40):
we're very unique corporation because my air personalities still have
control over their breeding list. Simpson, I would never installed
Donnie Simpson by telling him what they played. Okay, all right,
if Donnie Simpson doesn't know what to play, then he
should be on the radio. Okay. Donnie Simpson controls his playlist,

(27:03):
Russ par controls his playlist. Ricky Smiley. Now we give
them some assistance because with automation and things, everything's got
to be in the computer. Okay. But also I have
always believed that, and I think this was my experience
at Howard University when I was the general manager of
w h u R. I think that, you know, some

(27:26):
of the major corporations use it as an excuse to
avoid payola. That they said that, you know, if you
control the playlists corporately, then you eliminate the Okay. Well,
over the years, I have watched a lot of people
figure out how to get around okay, okay, the control playlist.

(27:47):
And the tragedy is that they limited, you know, like
in Atlanta. When I realize how popular the music of
Atlanta was and how unique it was to Atlanta. Okay,
when I recognize go Go as being like the national
anthem of Washington, DC, Baltimore House exactly, Balmore, Yeah, exactly,

(28:13):
I realize that this isn't something that could be controlled corporately.
That that, and the other thing that bothered me very
much is is I've always had an open door policy.
The artist could always get to me, my staff can
always get to me. And when I was hearing that,
you know, they won't play me because I'm local, they
won't play me because I don't have representation. They won't

(28:36):
play me for this reason or that reason. You know,
I failed an obligation to try to be of assistance
to individuals, particularly on the local level. Now, do we
have a system now in place, Yes, because in additionary
also what has happened is technology. We're able to test

(28:56):
the songs immediately for you, okay, And I think that oftentimes, um,
we find ourselves in opposition to what the label wants
to release as opposed to what our audience tells us
they want to hear. And so we still have a

(29:19):
control system, the quasi control system. But at the same time,
my air personalities have the flexibility because I paid them
a lot of money, and a lot of that money
is paid to them because of their knowledge and their
experience and then our expertise. I want them to be
aware of what, you know, the trends are in the clubs,

(29:40):
if we're if it's if you're on my hip hop format.
I want them to really help resurrect some of these
classic R and B X that we're in not for us, okay.
If we had not really conceptualized you know, adult can temporary,

(30:01):
all right, some of these artists would still be working
as sales clerks somewhere as opposed to performing. I have
always booed being in business a lot more than just
making money for the business. I was taught. My family
has a mantra, which is that in order for you

(30:22):
to do well in your life, you must first do
good for other people. And I've always wanted to do
good because I can't tell you how many nights my mama,
as a professional musician, had to feed us scrambled eggs
for dinner because we couldn't afford because some promoter had
paid her or some gig hadn't. So I understood how

(30:44):
life was hard for artists. And my mama was at
top of the game, okay, and she still wasn't making
money all right, because she was playing Sweden. And so
I've always had this commitment with my format. The other
of stations have a lot more resources. They're a lot

(31:05):
larger than us. You know, we're big or black owned media.
We're the biggest in black owned media, but compared to
you know what used to be Clear Channel, which started
the same year as Radio One, okay with Lowry Mays.
But when you look look at these major corporations that
are now in quote the black space, even with their

(31:27):
control of the format, they still have some of the
same problems they had before they controlled it. But At
the same time, because of their size, they're still able
to have a relationship with the artists. I want to
have more than a relationship with an artist. I want
to be able to tell the story of the first
time I played John Legend. His name was John Steve

(31:50):
and okay, all right, and he brought me ten cassette
tapes that he had produced himself with a magic marker,
And when he was selling them at ten dollars piece
that I went up to him and I said, young man,
I'd like to buy all ten and he said, oh no, ma'am.
I'm sorry. I can't sell him to you because I
need to try to get these disc jockeys to listen.
Can't ask why don't this jockey said to be a

(32:12):
kid sell me a little hard of them. That's that's
gassing money to get to the next show. And I'm sorry,
I just got no. This is the less I talk
better because I'm paid. I don't get a commission off
of paid. I represent him. Man, Finally the respect I

(32:36):
deserve after all these years. Thank you, Thank you, You're welcome.
I wanted to ask because you mentioned moving to DC,
but I want you to talk about moving to DC.
I believe you said it was because of that opportunity.
I h you are no, it was actually the opportunity
to be of the faculty, they first school of Communications. Okay,
So talk about moving to DC and the difference of

(32:56):
culture and what you saw, and don't get a twisted
you must have fell in love because you've never left.
Can you talk about that. I grew up in an
environment where they were only white folks and black folks
and Native Americans. I never saw an Asian. I never
saw anyone a Hispanic Latino. I never saw a foreigner. Okay.

(33:19):
Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, it was strictly black folks,
white folks, and our Native American brothers and sisters were
on reservations. When I got to DC, I saw a
black excellence. I used to write back home and say
that my eyes were tired by eyeballs or because I
was just like in Awe. I was like a kid.
I had never seen black doctors, black lawyers, black everything.

(33:43):
Howard University was like to me going to heaven. I
could not believe, Okay, I just because I had never
ever experienced this in my growing up. Because by the
time I was in school, my mother's band had did
the men had come back from the war, so her

(34:03):
all female band was never not no longer in general demand,
and so my mama went and became a nurse. So
when I came to Howard, I was part of the
very first faculty that Tony Brown put together created the
School of Communications around the radio station. They had the
radio station before they had so many Tony Brown right

(34:24):
town from Phil Brown, Tony Brown, who has um Tony
Brown's journal still Oh Tony Brown, Yes, Tony Brown, shout
out Tony Brown. At the age of twelve, when I
went to the Democratic National committing in Kansas City, gave

(34:44):
me two tickets to the Victory Tour because the Jackson's
opened the Victory Tour in Kansas City. Wow, just randomly
gave me two And those are hard tickets to get.
I love Tony Brown just for that. I forgot about
Tony Brown. But that's impired me because the University of
Nebraska did not have a Black studies department because it's

(35:08):
very conservative okay in Nebraska. But we had a Black
Studies committee and I was the chairperson of the Black
Studies Committee, and we would bring Tony Brown to Omaha
to speak all of the time. So when doctor James
Cheek offered him the position of the first dean and
asked him to create the School of Communications, Tony said,

(35:29):
would you like to come and be part of our faculty.
And at that time, again I was a lady. Quincy
Jones was on the faculty. Stand Latham was on the faculty.
Velvin Van Peoples was on the faculty. Oh yes, we
had a faculty that okay, well, then Christmas parties, Oh okay,
I mean it was unbelievable. And my first assignment was

(35:53):
a communications conference. And at the Communications conference, nobody could
attend the Communications Conference conference from Corporate America and the
entertainment industry unless you had guaranteed in writing to Tony
Brown and myself that you would hire at least two students.
We have students from all the HBCUs come and that

(36:17):
very first year, that very first conference, one hundred and
seventy two students of color got jobs in the industry
because of Tony Brown. Tony Brown said, we don't need
for you all to come to window dress if you're
going to come and meet with these students from around
the country. So that was our first kickoff. To the
School of Communications at Howard, which which is now named

(36:39):
the Kathy Human Schools. So, yeah, do you have a
listing of like just some of the who's who of
personalities that have sort of just come through your It's
amazing to me. It's amazing to me as you age,

(37:00):
because you know your life and I still work, so
it keeps, you know, it keeps you know, going on.
But no, it's not a who's whose list. And it's
so amazing to me when people come up to me
and tell me stories about you know, you gave me
my first opportunity, or you played my record okay, or

(37:22):
you did this okay? Are you open this door? You
you know you booked me. The first time I booked
Earth Winning Fire, I had a total of twenty people
in the Crampton Auditorium and I wouldn't stood on the
corner of Georgia Avenue at the entrance to Howard and
bag people to come in. And Jessica Klees was the

(37:42):
lead singer, not Philip Bailey, Okay, all right. And when
I see Verdee Verdee, he was there, you know, he
said to me, just to be all the time, this
is the lady who got us started because she went
out there on the corner and begged people to come in.
And when I tell people that the lead singer for

(38:04):
Earth Winning Fire was Jessica Cleans, they're like, what okay, No, okay,
you know this okay? And like as I had twenty people,
but Jim Brown, Okay, Jim Brown would involved with Jessica Clees,
and he had put money, he had given more recent

(38:25):
white money to start this group called Earth Winning Fire.
All right, and my uncle were very good friends in
Los Angeles, and so my uncle had hooked him up
with me, and so he had brought me this group
called Earth Winning Fire. Okay, So I went on the
We went on the radio and told people to come.
Nobody had heard him. Nobody came, and so I think

(38:47):
before the evening was over, I might have gotten forty
people in there to hear. And then they Crampton Auditorium.
Totium is a fifteen seat hundred seat venue. Right, everyone
gets their start. Was there an act that was a
hard sell? You know? Did you get an awkward prince

(39:10):
back in like nineteen seventy eight when he wasn't ready yet?
Like listen, I can't tell you how many battles. I
fought for Prince because I discovered Prince when he was
like thirteen or fourteen years old, and people thought he
was obscene. It was the word that they used to describe,
you know, And I was like, this voice of musical genius.
This kid is unbelievable. He plays every instrument there is.
What are you talking about out seeing? Oh? His lyrics. Remember,

(39:35):
music and fashion have gone through periods where there was
serious censorship and okay, and certain things weren't allowed, and
you know, lyrics had to become a camouflage like puff.
The Magic Dragon was about weed. Okay, all right, okay,
you know, so you had to camouflage and had to

(39:55):
have you know, the double meaning. But so many but
I guess that probably the John Stephen's story is the
biggest in terms because his accomplishments and still he's still young. Okay, Okay,
nobody knows where he will end up because he's been
like a rocket ship with so many various groups over

(40:17):
the years. But one of the things that I've been
proud is of, quite frankly, was the assistance that we
did provide for the doo wop groups and for the oldies.
But goodies as they call them, because so many of
these individuals were starving, Okay, all right, I mean they
loved the art, they loved the music, but they couldn't

(40:40):
work any longer, and disco just killed so many of
them often. And it was not until we during that
same era, came up with this concept of you know,
basically oldies, but we know, put more sophisticated titles to it,
delt contemporary. Okay, so you help usure in like nostalgia

(41:01):
era or the urban acne category. I mirror. I think
she's saying that they created the urban acne category, no question, okay,
and it was to really provide platforms. We have this
had this event for years until it became too big,
quite frankly for us to handle. I admired the fact

(41:23):
that Philadelphia still is able to do this. It's called
the Stone Soul Picnic. And the Stone Soul Picnic was
only these old groups that you know, the Ohio players
that okay, all these groups that had been dormant, okay,
nobody was buying them, nobody was sampling them, okay, nobody

(41:44):
was recognizing them for their their brilliance, and we start
resurrecting them okay, And I kind of stumbled into it
after I had created the Quiet Storm. Because the Quiet
Storm was love music love. It was bad and I
had to really reach back, all right, to eras where

(42:08):
lyrics told stories. You gotta tell that story. You need
to tell the Quiet Storm story. Where's name from? Explain
to us who Melvin Lindsay was, and how you guys invented.
You guys basically helped triple the population. And let me
tell you that. The reason, the main reason I want
to write my book is because when whu R celebrated anniversary,

(42:31):
there were several inaccurate accountings of the Quiet Storm. Number One,
Melvine Lindsay was not the originator. Melvin Lindsay was my
third who not my first. He was third, all right.
First was a kid named Don Roberts, who broke my

(42:51):
heart because he was the most talented of my first three.
But he was good looking. And he said to me,
I gotta for television, missus ligand said, okay, because I
wasn't even married to doing that. He said, I don't
want to be in a radio studio where no one
could see me. Sure enough, going on to be a
big time anchor in Baltimore, Maryland. Okay, now rob my first.

(43:16):
My second was a young man named Jack Schuler. Jack
Schuler was Melvin Lindsay's best friend. Melvin Lindsay was my
intern that I paid out of my pocket. He picked
my son up from school. He came because Howard said
that they didn't have a budget for interns of and
I needed some of the students to actually be in

(43:39):
a position to earn some money. So Jack Schuler was
vomiting literally after each show or doing the show. He
was so nervous, he was trembling. He said, please don't
make me do this, no more, missus ligands. Please please
Melvin to do it. Melvin to do it. So Melvin
told me he would do the Quiet Storm if I
didn't make him open the microphone. So if there were

(44:03):
any early tapes, then let's looking for it. Yeah. He
would say, good evening and welcome to the Quiet Storm.
The next time you would hear Melvin Lindsay's voice, he
would say, thank you for listening to the Quiet Storm.
I'm Melvin Lindsay. There was nothing in between from Melvin
except the music. Great taste in music. It was my

(44:26):
private music collection and I started it out on Saturday
night and then on Sunday, and then I decided that
it was if the conception of the Quiet Storm was
for a senior to be chosen by the faculty, two seniors,
in fact, one for each semester, to give them a

(44:48):
commercial experience on their resume. Okay. It was never for
one person to host the show. It was never supposed it.
It was supposed to be a rotation opportunity. The closest
I came to it was Milton Allen, who was married
to Pat Prescott in Lay, Sheila Eldridge and Franklin. Those

(45:12):
were my three, Okay, students that I was able to rotate. Okay,
nobody else rotated. Okay. People came and got stuck, including Melbourne. Well,
Melvin did so good that kys Kiss told him that
they would give him an opportunity if he would come
and be on the air at Kiss. So Melvin walks

(45:35):
into my office. Now this, like I told you, he's
a gem turn. I have literally supported him. Okay. His
parents would say to him, well, you need to ask
miss Liggan's first before you do so. And so I
had picked his classes for him, the whole nine yards.
He tells me on a Friday that he's got an
offer and he's going to work at Kiss And I'm
thinking he's talking about after graduation in all this, And

(45:57):
I said, when he said Monday, I was so I rate.
I told him to get out of my office. Yes,
so Dewey Hughes, who at that time had fourteen Emmys
for his productions at the Arc NBC. Fourteen Emmys. Okay,
he created youth News, he created music videos as Quiets

(46:19):
as his character. Anyway, Dewey comes to my office and
he tells me that it's a setup, that NBC just
wanted Melvin off the air, and that they had him
in the mill room and would I please bring him back?
And I said bring him back, and he said, let
me take you to dinner and talk to you about this.

(46:41):
Well ultimately doing, and I got married and Melvin came back. Okay.
And years later, okay there and years later I never
will forget. We were at this big affair and Melvin
was being honored and I was in the audience with Dewey,
and Melvin didn't acknowledge the I was even in the audience,

(47:01):
and Dewey had torn his achilles attended to playing basketball
he was our crutches. He went up to feel the
head table on crutches. He grabbed Melvin Lindsay around the
neck and he said, I'm married because of you. Okay,

(47:24):
and now we went back to the microphone. Well, I'm
so sorry. I didn't know she was here. I didn't.
He grabbed him right in front of the whole room.
It was hilarious because that's how Joey and I ended
up getting married. The reason by name is Kathy Hughes.
How did you get Melvin out of his shinus? Because
I didn't know Melvin Lindsay as a radio personality. I

(47:45):
knew him as when we first got cable. I knew
Melvin Lindsay as a news personality. So he was like
Brian gumbel Ish and I'm like, wait a minute, you
were a quiet storm guy and so sexy and I
was so young to even know it. So I was like, how, so,
how did you? And did the song come up on

(48:06):
the show. I cannot take full credit for getting him
out of his shell. Um number one Melvine was introduced
to the gay lifestyle by I also had the distinction
of hiring the first openly um gay air personality Robin Holden,
Yes question, DC, Robin Holden. I had to talk in

(48:30):
code back in those days. She said, the children will
be meeting this Friday night and so and so she
would talking code, and Howard University was up my rear end. Okay,
are you out of your mind? Conservative? Okay? Exactlytive, conservative, homophobic,
all of that, okay. And at the same time, I'm
getting all these rave reviews from them because DC, as

(48:55):
quiet as is kept m okay, is a big gay
and lesbian sick all right, okay, all right, okay for
many many decades and so okay. So Robin was, and
Robin was an incredible air personality, incredible air personality, all right.

(49:15):
And she helped Melvine come out of his shell because
I think that she made him comfortable with his sexuality.
She made him feel that it was okay because Melvine
was very closeted at that time, which contributed to his okay.
He was engaged. I bought the engagement ring for a
young lady, and she left him because she recognized that

(49:41):
he wasn't comfortable with her. But during those times when
Melvine was quiet and withdrawn and wouldn't open the microphone,
his show was almost like a black musack, and so
it grew in popularity. We didn't have any commercials because
it was a student shift, okay, so the popular we

(50:01):
became number one in a matter of like eighteen months.
We went from no listeners to being number one in
the market because Melvin wouldn't open the mic and I
had no commercials. So it was NonStop love okay, okay, okay,
music at the theme of Philly International. There's a message

(50:23):
in our music, okay. We believed in that, and the
message was one of love and affection and attention. And
so Melvin blossomed and went on to become an incredible personality, incredible,
He grew into himself, he got comfortable with himself. Diana
Williams was very much a part of his growth in development, okay,

(50:45):
because he realized that he could be loved regardless okay,
his sexuality, his sexual preference had no bearing on his talent.
And he really, really really blossomed and became this incredible,
incredible television and radio personality and died too soon, too early,

(51:09):
and so age took him away way too soon. He
was our first, right like I feel like he was
our first major was it just it just hurts me
to my heart to think what he could have been,
what he could have done had he not been discriminated against,

(51:30):
had he not been unable to be who he really was,
because talent personality galore. And once it started coming out,
it was only out for a short period of time
and then he was gone. He still needs to be
in the Radio Hall of Fame somewhere. Absolutely absolutely deserved it.

(51:51):
He became my most popular, but the most popular of
all the hosts of the clysterm was Von Harper in
New York. Von Harper, let's talk about the franchising, the
franchising the Quiet Storm then, yes, I'm sorry, I mean interruption.
Howard wouldn't let me franchising. They wouldn't let me license it.
And at one time it was on there were stations

(52:12):
they actually called themselves the Quiet Storm station. Howard could
have supported not just the School of Communications, they could
have supported the entire school off just licencing. Yes, that's
I was like with the trademark. The reason I left
Howard University was I realized that they had taken a

(52:34):
billion dollar baby that God had given me, you know,
the motherhood of Okay that I had birthed a billion
dollar baby for Howard University, and they had thrown the
baby the bath water and me out of window. And
so I resigned because I resigned telling Doctor Cheek that

(52:56):
I did not want to miss the next billion dollar
baby they might impregnate be with. I would not allow
anyone else to be in charge of my destiny. And
that's what Radio One became. They became that. Okay, that
that baby that God once again blessed me with. Because
before Howard they persecuted me. They punished me for the

(53:18):
quiet storm. Really why terribly. I was very very very
provocative in my days at Howard University. I stood up
for the students. I you know, opened doors and it
wasn't Howard's fall HBCUs. Only you know, recently realized that

(53:43):
education is a business. You have to make money at it, okay.
And all this to be announced, books not being in classrooms,
not being a sign, and had to stand in life
for hours to register, Okay, all of that, that's that's
part of the expert I'm like. Okay, Howard was very

(54:06):
good to me. Howard sent me to Harvard University for
six weeks to learn broadcast management because when they told
me they wanted to put me in the job as
general manager first and sales manager. And I said, I
don't know how to do it, and they said, well,
you know, you know some of the basics. And they
paid my tuition business school. The business school at that time,

(54:31):
they had a six week course called Broadcast Management. And
then they paid my way for a two week course
at the University of Chicago called psychographic Programming. That's when
I came back and created the Quiet Storm. So both times,
so you know, they say that, you know, I was
their best student that never maticulate, triculated at Howard Universe.

(54:55):
But Howard invested in me quite seriously. I would not be,
you know, professionally who I am or what I do
now were it not for University. And so it was
easy for me. When I found out that the School
of Communications was on, you know, in a danger of
not losing its accreditation and perhaps having to close that,

(55:19):
I was like, oh, no, that cannot happen. I can't
allow that to happen because they produced me. Okay, even
though I was never a student. Okay, Howard University produced
who I am professionally. You know, I think that that
over the years that some of the things that I
wanted for the students and for the university have come

(55:39):
to fruition, and for that I'm eternally grateful. I always
wanted to know. Like, Okay, in my mind, to just
establish one radio station seems like a task, But I mean,

(56:00):
you had or have over fifty of these radio stations.
So I guess my two part question is One, how
taxing is it to have eyes? Because I mean, you
seem like a personable figure in terms of you probably

(56:22):
know what works, You know your Atlanta staff like you
probably you know your Dallas staff, probably the way that
you know your Chicago people versus your Philly like I'm
certain that you have to have some sort of personable
relationships with all of these conglomerates. One, why do you
care too? How taxing is it to run an empire?

(56:49):
It's a long way to get an empire. Okay, do
you're saying that it's a long way from an empire?
I'm I'm gonna let you do this small fries talk,
but I'm just saying that, Okay, whoever's like above you, like,
what are you? What are you comparing yourself to? For me,
it's not it's not quantity more than it's the quality.

(57:11):
We do it differently. We do it differently. But let
me say to you, Yeah, behind my back, they call
me dick mama because I have some interesting rules, Like
you can attest to tell us stories, we prepare to
drop in. That's what I'll say. She knows, she knows
that every station when they get word that miss age
might be coming to town, there's a clean up mama

(57:34):
coming home. They're just certain rules that I lived by.
One is that UM, many many years ago, UM, I
had an opportunity to work for Inner City Broadcasting. I
put their station on the air UH in Detroit. It
was LBS, okay, it was you know, BLS reconfigured, and

(57:59):
there was an event with an individual who called a
member of the staff a dumb bitch to her face,
and I heard him and I quit. There are just
certain things that I just will not tolerate. One of
them is any of my employees being cursed at, because

(58:22):
to me, it defeats the ability to get the best
out of them. When somebody is cursed at, particularly by
a superior, they're setting down, Okay, you're not going to
get whatever caused you to curse them out you know,
curse at them or call them out of their name,
you've defeated the purpose. And so as much as I

(58:44):
cursed at home, I don't allow it in my facilities. Okay,
there's certain other things I didn't don't allow. Speaking of
BLS Monday, I was going to surprise Wendy Williams, who
started with me. Wendy Williams is when Individuals had her
very first job with me, and she was interviewing a
snoop and I could smell the weed on the first

(59:06):
floor before I got on the elevator going up. Okay,
I knew snoop was on the air. Okay, and it's funny,
said Wendy. William said, Oh, I just got worried that
Miss Hughes is coming out in the ability, and the
snoop said, I gotta put this joint out because you
don't allow no smoke of her facility. Okay, all right.
And so when he said, well, this is not her facility,

(59:29):
this is inter city, he said, if Miss Hughes is here,
I gotta put it out. Okay. Because the FCC so
few black owners, I was not going to allow my
staff to shoot themselves and deprive themselves of an opportunity
by getting me and them in trouble with the FCC,
so certain things I just prohibited. It kind of gave

(59:50):
me the reputation of being big mama. And okay, I
believe in hugging. I believe that if I know you
on medication, I'm an HR nightmare. Okay, my HR. Yeah, okay,
I'm an HR nightmare. Because if I know that you're
on meds and I can kill you, you're up in
the station. I'm gonna pull you aside and ask you

(01:00:10):
did you forget to take your meds that morning? Because
I don't want you to blow your career. I don't
want you abusing the people who may work for you.
I don't want to say, okay, all right, to know that,
Q okay, it's important for me to know that. Okay,
I don't like I don't like how long you've been depressed. Now, okay,

(01:00:33):
I won't think that you need to talk to somebody.
So I'm gonna recommend a good counselor. And then I'm
gonna check and see did you follow up and call
this person where I gave you a gift certificate. I
was forever giving out gift certificates to go talk to somebody. Okay.
It's literally like working for your auntieam okay. So for you,
of course, I would think that having good numbers is

(01:00:59):
good news as far as like the ratings and whatnot.
I can also imagine for you it's it could be
concerning when you hire personalities that sort of grow in stature.
So how do you immediately not prepare, but how do

(01:01:20):
you handle when you have a media personality that works
for one of your stations that seems to be growing
and growing and you might like if they decide to
go rogue? I mean I never knew, like how like
was Wendy just allowed to do whatever she wanted to
do carte blanche? Or was it always like she just operated?

(01:01:43):
It was like let me suffer the consequences later if
I if I start, you know, burning bridges of the
artists that I talk about, but she still gets the numbers. Like,
how do you handle? Like? Is it? Is it a
nightmare when you're artists when your personalities get bigger than
you planned on them for being at least as effective

(01:02:06):
for the radio station. I hope I asked that question,
how would be as big as they can possibly be.
But most important, isn't that bad business for you? Because
when it comes to like renegotiating the contract or you know,
someone tries to poach them and take them away. Hey, O,
bra Winfrey, we heard you doing weather on this thing.
How would you like your own show? Like? How do

(01:02:27):
you handle that situation? I listen. One of my very
favorite personalities of all time a brother named Jerry Bledsoll.
Jerry Bledsoe worked for me both at Radio one and
at whu R, but when he got an opportunity to

(01:02:48):
double his salary, I helped negotiate that contract for him.
You can't get too big. In my book, the bigger
up to me, rising water lifts all both. Okay, yeah,
I want you to get big. I also want you
to maintain respect. Okay. Respect is very important to me.

(01:03:10):
And the Wendy's biopick was so inaccurate. She accused Diana
Williams of firing her. Dianna wasn't even there, okay, so
Danna could not have done what Wendy said. I've never
smoked in any of my facilities. And I used to
smoke cigarettes a pack of day girl, you know, but

(01:03:30):
I've never smoked in any of my facilities, because most facilities,
because you know it's radio, it's it's you know, confined,
and they stink after the smoke. Okay, the smoke gets
in there. So yeah, and so you know, the true
Wendy's story was that I knew that Wendy had a

(01:03:53):
problem because one evening I had to pay she was
being held hostage by her dealer and I had to
pay to get her release to come to work. And
I was very concerned well being. She was young. I
was her first big market you know, radio job, and
she passed out on the air. The reason Wendy and

(01:04:14):
I parted company is she literally passed out on the
air and the record back in those days, we were
paying you know LPs. It was skipping and I only
lived like three four minutes from the station, and I
ran in there and she was literally passed out, and
we got her you know, medical care, the rescue squad
came and everything, and we then, um, you know, helped

(01:04:37):
her move on to a different position and you know,
a different market. She came back to work for me
many years later. Then, even after her biopick, she requested
that we'd be a second window on her television show
that we're running her television show on CLEOTV, my second network. Yeah, exactly.

(01:05:02):
So Wendy's issue was not her getting too big. Wendy's
issue was the demon that she couldn't overcome, couldn't fight,
that she couldn't win, win against. And so many of
us have, you know, talent, but we also have a
self destructive entity to our personality. Okay, And that's okay,

(01:05:25):
that's what Wendy had, you know. I mean, Tom Joyner
at one time was the biggest their personality. The only
person bigger than him was Howard Stern, and that was
because Howard Stern was on white stations and there were
a lot more white stations. Tom Joyner was on one
hundred and twenty seven radio stations, of which he was
number one and eighty plus of those. Okay, okay, never

(01:05:50):
an issue, never once wanted, okay, him not to continue
to grow. Ricky Smiley now is I'm delighting with how
he's growing. Donnie Simpson came back Okay, to radio to work,
so it's not an issue of them. And yeah, contract
negotiations always are tough, but when you run your company

(01:06:12):
the way we run ours, which is very family oriented,
even with HR and all of the risk, then we
don't have the same type of contract negotiations that you
would have perhaps at an iHeart or someplace else. Okay,
because we're quite transparent with our people. This is how
much money we make off your show, this is what

(01:06:34):
your ratings look like, and this is how much we
can afford to pay you. Okay. I probably have a
Guinness World Book record of people who have worked for me,
who have gotten fired, who have quit, who have come
back more times okay, one of them on this call,
right right, all right, and come that many many, many ties,

(01:07:03):
and some of them you know, white many times. Okay.
But but I just happened to think that we all
grow and we change with life an age and experiences,
and I think just because we might have messed up
at one time, you know, I was hopeful that Wendy

(01:07:25):
would be able to make a comeback, but I you know,
and be kind of doubtful now that that will because
I think that her health it's not being as responsive
as she would need it to be due for you know,
I have a comeback, and Sherry is doing so good
on that show, so lovable, and you know, and he
comes you know off our network. She was on with

(01:07:47):
Tom Joyner for all under years l Underwood. Yeah, now
sear underword was a black Republican on Tom Jordan's show.
First she would just did a feature. Okay, whoa and
so the only one that I really had an issue with.
And now he's back. He's on my Atlanta station, Steve

(01:08:07):
Harvey and Okay, Steve and I party. It was the
best thing that ever happened to Steve. Atlassed him to
become the great LA. People know who Steve Harvey is
because of my company. He did my morning show at
the Beach in Los Angeles. Okay, that was his first

(01:08:27):
major gig, and Steve wanted to do things his way
and that didn't work for me. So I sent a
shock waves through the company the morning and I used
to tell Steve quite honestly, I said, listen, I did
Morning Drive before eleven years. I'm waiting to talk about it. Okay,

(01:08:51):
please do not tip me to replace you with myself,
but to be on the radio in LA. Okay, Steve
think I was serious until that morning and he and
I party company and I said in his chair okay,
and yeah, yeah, you called his blood. What were the

(01:09:14):
things he wanted to do that I guess didn't jail
with you. You say you want to do it his way?
What ideas did he'd have that just didn't work for
what you want to do or things? It just may
not work for radio period. You know, Steve is very talented,
but very dogmatic and his approach to how he wants
to do things and get things done. You know, I

(01:09:35):
don't want to go into specific Yeah, but but how
did y'all come back together? Then? With all of that time,
we came back together almost immediately because it was the
best thing that ever could have happened to him, And
I told him that. Let me just say to you,
you know, I've been married, and I've been in some
serious long term relationships, and I'm friends with all of

(01:09:56):
my excess because to me, just because a person is
your ex whether's professionally or personally, you shouldn't be bad
mouth and then makes you look like you know, you
got good sense, makes you look like you don't have
good Yes, let's talk about it, miss Hughes. Okay, I'm

(01:10:20):
the same way professionally, all right, just because it didn't
work out, I'm not gonna bad mouth for you. I'm
not gonna stop you from getting other opportunities. I'm not
gonna stand in your weight, okay, because it makes me
look like I didn't know what I was doing when
I hired you. Okay, all right, same thing with Xes.
I give this lecture to young women all the time.

(01:10:40):
It is crazy for you to be bad mouthing your
baby daddy. Okay, you got practified him, Okay, you shut
enough of him, okay to have a baby with him,
and now he is low lived dog. And people basically
don't change, so church true. Okay, then that's why he was.

(01:11:05):
When you decide you want let him get you pregnant,
that doesn't reflect very favorably on you. I feel the
same way personally. Hey wait, my paid hold on this.
Use Philosophically speaking, If people don't change, how do you
give them second and third chances? How does that work?
I mean, their basic personalities don't change. People do change.

(01:11:26):
You learn, you learn, your understanding of them changes. Yeah,
your understanding of them changes, and they do change in
terms of how they operate. Okay, all right. We haven't
had any of the issues with Steve being on our
stage state stations in a syndicated capacity. That we had

(01:11:47):
was working for me directly and and I mean right
after Steve came. La La La La was my midday
air personality at Beat. Lalla was a midday mommy too.
Laa was with Chris I'm a lov and Plue daddy.
Remember in Atlanta, that's where she started. I knew La
La when she was an MTV personality, the one the way,

(01:12:09):
we're the one who got her that child. The woman
who was the program director at MTV was Mary Catherine
Mary Mary Catherine Sneed, who was in charge of programming
for all my radio stations. As she said, and listen,
there's a great opportunity. I think Laala would be perfect
for okay, and we negotiated that contract for La La,

(01:12:32):
And again it kind of hurts my feelings because La
La talked about it. I started off in radio. I
would say, could you call her company's name? It would
help us. We're a small black company, you know any Okay,
that's true. I'm so grateful to you having me on this. Please.
You've had all okay, uh, the kings and queens of

(01:12:52):
celebrity don okay, and for you to allow me to
come on is such an honor. I'm so grateful to
all of you all for her fabric of America. What
are you saying? You're a part of the fabric? You
are all of our lives, Hey, y'all, It's like EA.
And that's where we will end Part one of the
Quest of Supreme interview with Kathy Hughes, the first black

(01:13:15):
woman to head a media company publicly traded on the
US Stock Exchange. You may know those companies as TV
one and Radio one, which come together as Urban One.
Miss Hughes has been in my life since the beginning,
so I am truly honored to have her on her
first ever podcast interview with Team Supreme. Yes, stay tuned

(01:13:36):
for Part two, where Kathy speaks about her commitment to
portray black excellence on television, stories on some of her
famed hosts, and the role of radio in the Black
community today. As a QLs tradition, we will continue to
celebrate Women's History Month with some of the strongest female voices,
and that's definitely Kathy Hughes. Don't forget to check out

(01:13:57):
Part two coming soon. M M much Love. Supreme is
the production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit

(01:14:20):
the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.