Speaker 1: Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. What Up Everybody?
Speaker 1: It's Like Ear Welcome back to Part two of the
Speaker 1: Questlove Supreme interview with Kathy Hughes and part one. Miss
Speaker 1: Hughes spoke about growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, her move
Speaker 1: into radio, and creating the Quiet Storm, which may be
Speaker 1: responsible for a large part of the population today. If
Speaker 1: you still need to listen or watch m please do.
Speaker 1: Here's part two, which is a special episode for me
Speaker 1: because I get to tell Miss Hughes what she means
Speaker 1: to my life and career as she tells more stories
Speaker 1: from her incredible journey. Join us as we celebrate this
Speaker 1: Women's History Month and honor great women year round on QLs.
Speaker 1: I know that you have your shows that are are syndicated,
Speaker 1: I e. Steve Steve, We'll do something from LA, but
Speaker 1: it goes to like whatever, one hundred markets, whatever, Ricky
Speaker 1: in Alabama. Okay, So what I want to know is
Speaker 1: how are you able? Are you the micromanaged type in
Speaker 1: terms of like, Okay, now, I'm certain that there's the
Speaker 1: technology that exists where you can instantly listen to your
Speaker 1: Houston station and quickly switched to your Chicago station if
Speaker 1: you want to How are you able to do that
Speaker 1: back in the day before this technology, before the internet
Speaker 1: just colonized everything and made it accessible. How are you
Speaker 1: able to check your twelve stations back in nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: nine nineteen ninety by going to them? But also remember
Speaker 1: I started on the East coast, So first it was DC,
Speaker 1: then it was Baltimore, Okay, then it was Philadelphia. We
Speaker 1: expanded in a pattern. Okay it wasn't then too. We
Speaker 1: bought the Clear Channel stations, the iHeart stations that we
Speaker 1: actually went to the West coast, that we actually picked
Speaker 1: up Statius stations and like Saint Louis. So we're back
Speaker 1: now basically just concentrated on the East coast because that
Speaker 1: it's easier for us to get to our stations and
Speaker 1: to our people. So back then you just had to
Speaker 1: travel and even though the technology wasn't your computer, and
Speaker 1: then there were phone numbers that you could dial in
Speaker 1: and listen to us just about to say she was
Speaker 1: hotline and out of nowhere too exactly. Oh, so you
Speaker 1: would be like, all right, let me see what light
Speaker 1: he's doing right now, and you would call a hot
Speaker 1: line to hear exactly what's happening in Philly totally. And
Speaker 1: so was she the type to like give you notes
Speaker 1: like you didn't reach the well, I mere you remember,
Speaker 1: we had a warm line and a hot line, right.
Speaker 1: The warm line was the number that all the labels,
Speaker 1: the artists and people had. The hot line was a
Speaker 1: number that only management had. So so when you saw
Speaker 1: that ring, you knew down well it's not the break clak,
Speaker 1: close out the break. Clothe out the break, close out
Speaker 1: the break. Really yeah, warm line, that line all to
Speaker 1: this have a warm bline and we have a hotline.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh and so we did it
Speaker 1: by telephone back then you could actually listen on the stations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we heard them. Okay, we heard them. But um uh,
Speaker 1: the reality is back to your original question about them
Speaker 1: growing big and becoming the way radio has consolidated. They
Speaker 1: ain't a whole bunch of opportunities, even for the big names. Okay,
Speaker 1: so there's not much. There's not a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: opportunity to lose them to another Now they we may
Speaker 1: lose them to another industry, another discipline, another career, but
Speaker 1: there's not much danger in you know. I mean, um,
Speaker 1: Donnie Simpson was retired when we convinced him to come back. Okay,
Speaker 1: if he leaves me, he's going back to retirement. He's
Speaker 1: not going to work at the state. Want to play
Speaker 1: with the grand babies the same way. I mean. D L.
Speaker 1: Hughley and Ricky Smiley both have it perfect because with technology,
Speaker 1: they still do their stand up Okay, they still pack
Speaker 1: houses and so you know where they gonna go. Because
Speaker 1: certain other corporations do have prohibition okay, and limitations on
Speaker 1: what you can do. I want my people to be
Speaker 1: as successful as possible because with their success, like I said,
Speaker 1: a rising tide lifts all boats. That means they can
Speaker 1: employ people. I need you to tell these fine fellows
Speaker 1: the story of how you then become a personality and
Speaker 1: decided to do a morning show was a fellow named
Speaker 1: Dick Gregory and DC. Oh. So, when I had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to buy my first radio station, we did what
Speaker 1: it's called a format search, which tells you where there's
Speaker 1: a whole whole in the market. And the whole in
Speaker 1: the market was information for African Americans, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's perfect. But no one told me was that news
Speaker 1: talk is the most expensive of all radio formats. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and air personality can run their board, can answer their
Speaker 1: own phone, they could do news talk is the most
Speaker 1: expensive because you have to have that. You have to
Speaker 1: have an ensemble. You have to have a team to
Speaker 1: do a show in news talk. Okay. It's not possible
Speaker 1: for one air personality okay, or two people to do it.
Speaker 1: And so I was not able to service my debt. Again,
Speaker 1: I knew how to run radio, I knew how to
Speaker 1: create radio. I did not know that this business of radio.
Speaker 1: And here it is nineteen eighty one. The prime went
Speaker 1: into the mid twenties. I was paying two and a
Speaker 1: half points over prime. My first quarter of being in business,
Speaker 1: my interest rate was twenty seven point five percent. Okay,
Speaker 1: it was impossible for me to service my depth and
Speaker 1: support a news talk format. So after about a year
Speaker 1: of me being my father was a CP eight. And
Speaker 1: my father taught me that one of the things that
Speaker 1: causes a lot of people to fail in business is
Speaker 1: that they destroy their credibility with people that they owe
Speaker 1: money to. And he taught me never to hide from
Speaker 1: a phone call from someone that I owe money to,
Speaker 1: and never not pay them something. And so each month
Speaker 1: during this time, when the interest rates are in the
Speaker 1: mid to upper twenties, and I can't serve my dead
Speaker 1: and run my station. If I owed you a thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: you might get a check for three hundred, but you
Speaker 1: got something every month from me. Okay. So I maintained
Speaker 1: my credibility with my lenders to get me through this period.
Speaker 1: But at a certain point, my lenders came to me
Speaker 1: and they said to me, you can't afford a news
Speaker 1: talk format. You don't have the resources, you don't have
Speaker 1: the experience to do this. You have to go back
Speaker 1: to music. Well, I had already done this research, and
Speaker 1: so I knew the number one I was an AM station.
Speaker 1: How was I going to compete against the monster I
Speaker 1: had created? A whu r? Okay, I had created I
Speaker 1: was an expert on FM. I had, you know, cut
Speaker 1: my teeth on FM in the DC market. So they
Speaker 1: want me to play music up against I have no
Speaker 1: separation of sound, okay, because to this day there's very little,
Speaker 1: if any AM stereo anywhere in radio. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: there is no separation. I'm like, how am I gonna do?
Speaker 1: This is gonna be mono and they stereo? No, this
Speaker 1: isn't gonna work, and so they said to me, if
Speaker 1: you want to keep one shift, it has to be
Speaker 1: morning Drive. And the only way you to keep it
Speaker 1: is for you to do the show yourself, because you're
Speaker 1: the only person you can afford. And it was just
Speaker 1: like a lightbulb going off. It was like, that's a
Speaker 1: great idea, okay, and so I condense my then husband,
Speaker 1: Dewey Hughes that we would go on the air. And
Speaker 1: Dewey lasted about three months because by now he's got
Speaker 1: fourteen emmys, he's in television, he's working for MBC. Okay,
Speaker 1: he's not interested in doing radio, and so he says
Speaker 1: he's gonna move to California and suggested I come with him, okay,
Speaker 1: And I said, no, I can't leave my radio station.
Speaker 1: People are depended on me. Said I'm going to do
Speaker 1: the show by myself, and he said I wouldn't advise that,
Speaker 1: and then out of nowhere, like an angel, Dick Gregory
Speaker 1: descended on me. And one of the jokes on the
Speaker 1: air was that he was my permanent kiss, because Dick,
Speaker 1: some days when I was too tired, or was sick,
Speaker 1: or couldn't do the show, or I had to do
Speaker 1: a promotion or speak somewhere did would do the show
Speaker 1: in my absence, but we used to always joke on
Speaker 1: the air about it's called the Kathy Hughes Morning Show
Speaker 1: with permanent guests Diet Gregory, but for many years Dick
Speaker 1: Gregory was there every morning. Dick Gregory would not accept
Speaker 1: a penny of compensation and said to me that in
Speaker 1: his life and his career that two people had resurrected
Speaker 1: him from where he was and elevated him to where
Speaker 1: God intended for him to be. One was Hugh Heffner,
Speaker 1: who put him in the playboy circuit and really started
Speaker 1: him as a big personality. And me when I allowed
Speaker 1: him to do my morning show with me, because number one,
Speaker 1: if people start booking him again, his popularity started her
Speaker 1: eyes once again. He was being invited to college campuses
Speaker 1: to speak. You know, he was never on Oprah Show
Speaker 1: because oper thought he was too radical. People considered him
Speaker 1: a conspiracy theorist. Okay, and yet everything we ever talked
Speaker 1: about turned out, maybe years later to be the truth. Okay,
Speaker 1: it might have been a conspiracy because but it was
Speaker 1: still a real conspiracy. It was actually taking place, And
Speaker 1: I cannot tell you how blessed. He said that I
Speaker 1: made a difference in his career. He made a difference
Speaker 1: in my life and my career because the topics that
Speaker 1: we covered, the information that we disseminated during Morning Drive.
Speaker 1: I never will forget the morning that Lee at Water
Speaker 1: called in and he said, so, I'm miss us and
Speaker 1: mister Gregory, this is Lee at Water. I am the
Speaker 1: President's blah blah blah. And we said, we know who
Speaker 1: you are. We at Warter okay, And he says, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you are aware, but everybody at the
Speaker 1: White House has to listen to the Kathy Hughes Dick
Speaker 1: Gray We show in the morning because all the staff
Speaker 1: here keeps all the radios tuned. And I said, so
Speaker 1: are you telling me that the president this is stupid
Speaker 1: morning show. We don't have any choice. We all listened
Speaker 1: to it, and he became a regular listener and caller
Speaker 1: to the show. But I know that was because of
Speaker 1: Dick Gregory. Then one day I'm on the national board
Speaker 1: of the Urban League and I tell Dick to come
Speaker 1: go with me. That President Bush was the speaker, and
Speaker 1: so we're going down the receiving line. Afterwards, the President
Speaker 1: and the President talks about how Dick was his graduation
Speaker 1: speaker at Yale University and then start quoting him, and
Speaker 1: the president's handlers are trying to President Bush Prisidon busy
Speaker 1: trying to move him, and he said, whoa, I'm talking
Speaker 1: to mister Gregory, And so Dick said, well, let me
Speaker 1: introduce you to Cat. Oh. I know who this Hughes is.
Speaker 1: I have to listen to her show in the morning.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you're talking about me real bad and you helping her, right, okay,
Speaker 1: and you helped her, But mister Gregory, you changed my
Speaker 1: life with that graduation speech. It brought so much credibility
Speaker 1: and brilliance to that show that to this day, to
Speaker 1: this day, people fill out their diary saying that they
Speaker 1: listened to Cathy Hughes in the morning with Dickson permanent
Speaker 1: guest that Gregory and Dixman did quite a few years now,
Speaker 1: and I've been off the air quite a few years,
Speaker 1: but that was the impact that we had in the
Speaker 1: nation's cap Oh yeah, if that said he couldn't have
Speaker 1: got any blacker and was like, we didn't think of
Speaker 1: gave any black up and hit come was y'all here
Speaker 1: it is? Yeah, I want to know. I want to
Speaker 1: ask you, miss Cathy. You were a young mom and
Speaker 1: like so you talked about you know, you have people
Speaker 1: that were watching kids. How did you balance motherhood? Like
Speaker 1: in the middle of all this, I didn't have to
Speaker 1: balance it. It was my top priority. Okay, my top priority.
Speaker 1: I never my son laughed and says that he had
Speaker 1: to be fourteen before he didn't. He learned that everybody
Speaker 1: didn't work or grew up in a radio station. Melvin
Speaker 1: Lindsay picked him up from school. I love to cook, Okay,
Speaker 1: I cook like somebody's grandmama. Okay, I cook, and so
Speaker 1: I would cook on the weekends for the whole week,
Speaker 1: bring the food to the radio station. I do my
Speaker 1: homework with his homework with him, and then I had
Speaker 1: a sleeping bag if I had to stay late. Okay,
Speaker 1: he was my date. Howard used to complain because I
Speaker 1: had a little tuxedo for him. Okay, we get dressed
Speaker 1: at the radio station. We go to affairs. Because I
Speaker 1: didn't know anybody, I couldn't leave him, but I didn't
Speaker 1: want to leave him with anyone other than Melvin, okay,
Speaker 1: who helped me. And he grew up in the radio station.
Speaker 1: I mean Robin Holden used to put him out all
Speaker 1: the time. She teases him now about that. She said,
Speaker 1: you know how many times I put you out by
Speaker 1: station because he would be down there helping her out.
Speaker 1: And she said, no I needing me help? Okay, But no,
Speaker 1: never was I confused my first priority. I never thought
Speaker 1: that I would have a career. I thought that what
Speaker 1: God intended for me to be was a radio personality
Speaker 1: syndicated I don't really have to work four hours a day,
Speaker 1: and then the rest of the time I would take
Speaker 1: care of the five sons. The God was gonna bless
Speaker 1: me with him and a husband, and that my most
Speaker 1: important decision would be what I was going to cook
Speaker 1: for them that evening. It's said, it's seventeen. The Good
Speaker 1: Lord blessed me with the one child that I would have,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know I'm single now. Um, but you
Speaker 1: know God has blessed me with two husbands, and one
Speaker 1: of whom is deceased, my son's father. And then Dewey Hughes,
Speaker 1: who you know you may remember the movie Talk to Me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I told you about Pete Green. Did you have any
Speaker 1: like what was like with him? To jab? I knew
Speaker 1: Pete Green before I ever met Dewey. Like I told you,
Speaker 1: the way I met Dewey was he was bringing Melvin
Speaker 1: Lindsay back to work for me at whu R. I
Speaker 1: knew Pete because Pete was dating my roommate and a
Speaker 1: spending a lot of nights up in our town house
Speaker 1: and everyone, you know, why weren't you in the movie.
Speaker 1: The reason I was not in the movie was because
Speaker 1: I was not in Washington, d C. By the time
Speaker 1: I got to Washington, d C. Pete Green was bigger
Speaker 1: than life. Okay, we had all these emis. He was
Speaker 1: working in television, and I didn't know him. I knew
Speaker 1: who he was, okay, because they don't mention you only
Speaker 1: because and see Lemons, who you know, just did Um
Speaker 1: Whitney in a movie, the Whitney Houston movie Casey Lemons.
Speaker 1: The way they do movies is they test them, okay,
Speaker 1: and the test ninety percent of everyone they showed the
Speaker 1: movie too, said well where is Kathy? Okay? All right, right,
Speaker 1: and she in the movie. I was in the movie
Speaker 1: because I didn't even know Dewey existed nor Pete. I
Speaker 1: was living in Olmoha during as the end is a lie.
Speaker 1: That's the name's Hollywood. That's cute, Okay, So they added
Speaker 1: it in the line at the end house Cathy showed
Speaker 1: doing and he says, is doing great. That's the end
Speaker 1: of the line. But you know, I'm so honored because
Speaker 1: Don Cheeto says to this day that the Pde Green
Speaker 1: role was his favorite all time role. I was going
Speaker 1: to ask you, how do you think, like you know,
Speaker 1: she would tell how him playing Dewey was that accurate
Speaker 1: to the person united do we tell and doing your friends?
Speaker 1: To this day he was so Okay, Dewey's idol was
Speaker 1: Johnny Carson, Okay, being from Omaha. Part of his you know,
Speaker 1: conversation with me on our first dates had to do
Speaker 1: with Johnny Carson, okay, because Omaha is about as big
Speaker 1: as you all studio, Okay, all right, okay, And so
Speaker 1: everybody in Omaha, and like I told you, it's only
Speaker 1: black folks and white folks. And I think our population
Speaker 1: when I was growing up was right around two hundred
Speaker 1: thousand people, okay, of which about twenty thousand we're black, Okay,
Speaker 1: And so everybody knew everybody. So you know, Dewey's infatuation
Speaker 1: with Johnny Carson. Dewey Dewey is still the same way
Speaker 1: to this day. How do you know when someone who
Speaker 1: wasn't a communications major is ready for prime time, ready
Speaker 1: for the big time, like you know, oftentimes, like a
Speaker 1: lot of people in hip hop, you know, money love
Speaker 1: sort of transitions from hip hop to radio. Chubb Rock
Speaker 1: transitions from hip hop to radio. Like right now, like
Speaker 1: a lot of the people I grew up listening to
Speaker 1: as hip hop mcs and DJs and whatnot are now
Speaker 1: transitioning to like even I'll be sure having this show
Speaker 1: and whatnot. So how do you how do you know?
Speaker 1: Look at LLL Coolj. We just honored him Monday night, okay,
Speaker 1: with the Icon Award and he got left on the
Speaker 1: editing floor. But the LLL Coolja story was LLL Coolja
Speaker 1: was a member of Congressman Flake's church, Floyd Flake Flake
Speaker 1: resigned as a congressman to go serve his congregation. You
Speaker 1: its like I'm not I'm not helping folks being in Congress.
Speaker 1: So he went home and he called me one day
Speaker 1: and he said that a member of his congregation named
Speaker 1: Todd Okay, right, I was asking him about pursuing acting.
Speaker 1: And this is when l L was at the height
Speaker 1: of his hip hop career. Okay, but he was getting
Speaker 1: offers because you know how they used the rappers and
Speaker 1: for cameos and you know, and one of them, like
Speaker 1: most death, I thought was one of the best actors. Okay,
Speaker 1: the movie he did where he played the doctor, which
Speaker 1: was a true story, Okay, urgent, Okay, all right, I
Speaker 1: thought that that was brilliant. I thought he was gonna be,
Speaker 1: you know, as big as Denzel. So anyway, they asked
Speaker 1: my opinion, and I told him that from what I
Speaker 1: had seen of his acting, he was great, and that
Speaker 1: you know, I would encourage him to pursue that. One
Speaker 1: of my blessings is my best friend for many decades
Speaker 1: is Deanna Williams. And Deanna will has an eye and
Speaker 1: an ear for talent like none other, and I depend
Speaker 1: quite heavily on her. Okay, I may have a feeling
Speaker 1: about somebody, but I'll ask d to take a look
Speaker 1: at them, or listen to them, or you know, check
Speaker 1: them out and see what her opinion is. I rely
Speaker 1: very heavily and have for many, many decades. Deanna and
Speaker 1: I have been besties for probably half a century, to
Speaker 1: be honest about it. Okay, And the reality is a
Speaker 1: pen quite heavily on you know, Deanna's input, because she
Speaker 1: has the best eye and ear. Okay, I'm better with
Speaker 1: music because I have been tone death most of my
Speaker 1: life and from a childhood accident. And so it used
Speaker 1: to be when the music reps would come to the station,
Speaker 1: they'd always played the new music for me, because the
Speaker 1: joke was if I could hear a hit, it was
Speaker 1: if it moved me. Okay, seriously, that was the case
Speaker 1: when Gene Riggins was general manager. You were so she said,
Speaker 1: I want you to hear this song. He's from your hometown.
Speaker 1: I said, Nellie is not from my hometown. And it
Speaker 1: was the right country grammar. It was country grammar that
Speaker 1: she was playing for me. Quincy Jones had said to
Speaker 1: me that getting a hit wasn't really as complicated as
Speaker 1: a lot of people figured. You have to hit accord
Speaker 1: that's familiar to the listener. And so when I heard
Speaker 1: Nellie's country grammar, I was like, everybody knows nursery rise,
Speaker 1: I said. I said to Gee, I said I hear this,
Speaker 1: and she said, okay, we're gonna sign him. Okay, and did.
Speaker 1: But in terms of on air talent, the two I
Speaker 1: have been blessed with the two greatest air personalities they
Speaker 1: have lived during my lifetime, Tom Joiner and Deanna Williams.
Speaker 1: I don't think that they have There's no one comparable
Speaker 1: to their level of talent. There is no one comparable
Speaker 1: to what both of them have done in different ways,
Speaker 1: but to help individuals in the communications industry and so
Speaker 1: to have close friendships with both Tom Joyner and Bianna
Speaker 1: makes me look a lot smarter than I really am.
Speaker 1: I get it, we didn't even get to TV one
Speaker 1: and unsung. But there's one thing I do want to know.
Speaker 1: How good are you with the archival part of your
Speaker 1: business as far as maintaining old radio shows from yesteryear
Speaker 1: and whatnot, Because I think oftentimes when we're building and
Speaker 1: I'll say it's an empire. Whether you say it's small fries,
Speaker 1: I say it's an empire. When you're building an nah,
Speaker 1: we think I'm big. You're building an empire. You know.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes we don't think we're making history day to day,
Speaker 1: but then like thirty years go by and like if
Speaker 1: I want to hear you know, what was radio like
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight, blah blah blah blah, blah or whatever,
Speaker 1: like how good are you with archiving? Like historical moments
Speaker 1: that have happened at any of your radio stations. So
Speaker 1: I now have a full time archivist. Ah, that's trying
Speaker 1: to get individuals, my listeners who have recorded things. To
Speaker 1: be very honest with you. I didn't have the money
Speaker 1: to store things. I wasn't going to pay for our storage.
Speaker 1: Ben when I moved, we threw it away. We threw
Speaker 1: the stuff away, okay, because I was living it. Okay,
Speaker 1: I was living it. I was trying to survive. I
Speaker 1: wasn't interested in history, Okay, I was just trying to
Speaker 1: build a company, keep people. You know, I'm blessed to
Speaker 1: say that never once have I had a check bounce
Speaker 1: in the forty three years I've been in business, Not
Speaker 1: once have I had a check bounce. Not once have
Speaker 1: I had an employee who did not get paid. Okay,
Speaker 1: and for a black company to be able to say
Speaker 1: that after forty three years, it's quite an accomplishment, as
Speaker 1: hard as it is and still is to get advertising.
Speaker 1: But no, I didn't maintain those records. So my archivist
Speaker 1: is thrilled every week when she comes across somebody who
Speaker 1: might have a piece of my history. Okay. It's trying
Speaker 1: to reassemble it and pull it in and I'm prized. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, just the other day, Uh, somebody went in
Speaker 1: their garage and they sent me a video of me
Speaker 1: going to a nigh Bob function with Quincy Jones. Okay.
Speaker 1: He and I went to the nag Bob function that evening,
Speaker 1: and uh, this person had a copy of somebody interviewing us, okay,
Speaker 1: and we were talking about James Brown was being honored
Speaker 1: that evening, and Quincy Jones and I were standing there
Speaker 1: and we're talking about it. And then uh, the whoever
Speaker 1: it was that was interviewing and said, well, we hope
Speaker 1: that you all have a great uh time this evening
Speaker 1: on your date. And I said, well, this isn't really
Speaker 1: a date, and Quincy Jones that it is a date. Okay.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh wait wait, Quincy Jones a black woman?
Speaker 1: What happen? Right? It was a story exactly story okay.
Speaker 1: So um, so we're kind of piecing it together quest level.
Speaker 1: Because No, I didn't maintain it. I threw the ship
Speaker 1: away quite frankly. Excuse my lately, okay, because I put
Speaker 1: an a fourth story Okay, and I didn't have any place,
Speaker 1: and you know, if I had an extra space, I
Speaker 1: was trying to put an employee in it. You just
Speaker 1: weren't thinking that you were making history. I still don't think.
Speaker 1: I still don't think that I'm making history. I'm very honored, Okay,
Speaker 1: I am very honored. When still only that's a crazy part.
Speaker 1: You are literally still the only black woman with the
Speaker 1: most radio and teeth, Like, there's nobody that's crazy. And
Speaker 1: you know the other thing is quite frankly, um, I
Speaker 1: think that what happens so often is that if we
Speaker 1: believe our good press, then we get upset with our
Speaker 1: bad press. Okay, and so I'm kind of no press. Okay.
Speaker 1: I have read very few articles about myself. This ARCAVI
Speaker 1: is like, oh look at this, and I was like,
Speaker 1: where was that? And she was like, well, this was
Speaker 1: in so and so magazine or newspaper. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I never saw that. She said, well, you should have
Speaker 1: seen it. Okay, it was front page or it was
Speaker 1: what when I became the general manager of whu R
Speaker 1: it was front page business section of the Washington pot
Speaker 1: It was years afterwards that I actually saw it because
Speaker 1: I tried not to concentrate on me as much as
Speaker 1: I tried to concentrate on the mission. Wait, guys, this
Speaker 1: is a historic moment. So we've been doing this. We've
Speaker 1: been doing this for like what six years now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The running joke is with these guys always ambushing me
Speaker 1: with love and accolades or flowers or whatever. Before flowers, right,
Speaker 1: I've been I was previously notorious for not everyone the
Speaker 1: same thing as you never read compressed, never read the comments.
Speaker 1: Never But you know, I also had to learn in
Speaker 1: the last year that, you know, especially with black people,
Speaker 1: but people in general just don't celebrate themselves. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's but I understand that because we were programmed to
Speaker 1: keep yeah we were we were programmed to just like
Speaker 1: stay small, stay out of trouble, don't cost too much trouble,
Speaker 1: don't bring you know, attention to yourself. And also, like
Speaker 1: you know, if we celebrate ourselves, then we'll get bigheaded
Speaker 1: and whatnot. And I would personally like us to think
Speaker 1: about at least more more refocusing that part of our
Speaker 1: history and accept Wow, I'm actually forcing someone to accept
Speaker 1: flowers on quest left Supreme, you concentrate more on yourself.
Speaker 1: I'm being forced to because everywhere I go I got
Speaker 1: people forcing me to celebrate myself. So yeah, I given
Speaker 1: I've he said you too, right. I think everyone on
Speaker 1: this Zoom could could do well from accepting some flowers. Everybody,
Speaker 1: everybody on this everybody on the Zoom is a very
Speaker 1: humble person who's very successful, very good at what they do.
Speaker 1: And then one with fifty six radio stations and their
Speaker 1: own television network, I think definitely needs to you know,
Speaker 1: we're up to sixty eight. Oh oh yeah, straight. I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you, miss Kathy, So what to you
Speaker 1: in the in the era now of like podcasts and
Speaker 1: you know, everything being kind of on demand with you know,
Speaker 1: streaming and everything. What to you is the purpose of
Speaker 1: radio in twenty twenty three? Well, I don't think the
Speaker 1: purpose has changed, particularly when you talk about radio this
Speaker 1: geared specifically to the black community. UM, we are very
Speaker 1: research oriented and we consistently in our research the listeners
Speaker 1: say second only to the black tre in terms of credibility.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I just I just concluded a
Speaker 1: campaign that brought me so much joy over the last
Speaker 1: two weeks about Stevie Wonders Happy Birthday. Yes, I triggered
Speaker 1: press international national press. I triggered so many individuals realizing
Speaker 1: that you don't go to a black function and don't
Speaker 1: hear the Stevie Wonder version, and most people have no
Speaker 1: idea that they're not singing the lyrics. That the lyrics
Speaker 1: to that song is one of the most beautiful points
Speaker 1: that Steve has ever written. Okay because okay, just the
Speaker 1: fabulous tribute to Doctor King. But more importantly, it was
Speaker 1: a protest song because the US comment will not make
Speaker 1: the holiday exactly, and the movement was dwindling in and
Speaker 1: really on life support, and that song really resurrected. And
Speaker 1: it was very special to me because that's the same
Speaker 1: year that we went into business that he released Hotter
Speaker 1: than July. Okay, Hotter than July was the LP that
Speaker 1: the song was on. The birthday song was on, and
Speaker 1: it even triggered Stevie. Stevie did a Instagram I'm alive
Speaker 1: talking about how you know things haven't changed in forty years.
Speaker 1: I was so proud of that. I still want my
Speaker 1: company to be mission driven. I still want there to
Speaker 1: be a message in our music. I still want there
Speaker 1: to be content in our narrative that really makes people
Speaker 1: stop to think and so, you know, to be able
Speaker 1: to continue doing this, I think it's what keeps the relevance,
Speaker 1: the importance of black own radio alive. And so even
Speaker 1: with technology, the reality is, one time I had to
Speaker 1: compete against my heart, I had to compete against AMFM,
Speaker 1: I had to Now I actually compete against my actual listeners.
Speaker 1: My listeners do their own playlists. My listeners think that
Speaker 1: they're great DJs, my listeners. So not only am I
Speaker 1: competing against corporations, I'm competing against the people that I'm
Speaker 1: trying to serve. Yeah, but as long as they keep
Speaker 1: coming back, I realize that they are without saying it,
Speaker 1: recognizing that we do the value. They recognize the value
Speaker 1: and that value. You know, we're very emotional. One of
Speaker 1: the things that kills a lot of old black folks
Speaker 1: is they go to the same doctor for forty years.
Speaker 1: The doctor don't even see that they got cancer, okay,
Speaker 1: because he's so used to hearing them complain. And sister Sarah,
Speaker 1: theyd been coming here forty years, okay, We don't. We
Speaker 1: are not real quick to change certain things. We don't
Speaker 1: change creatures, we don't change doctors, change change our pieces.
Speaker 1: But it is it seems like black radio is getting
Speaker 1: smaller and smaller and the youth are not going to
Speaker 1: have the relationship that like maybe we had as far
Speaker 1: because people don't realize and that black radio is different.
Speaker 1: And two and you could peace speak to this. I
Speaker 1: don't realize that black radio is different in the sense
Speaker 1: of this relationship with community rock, jazz, country radio. None
Speaker 1: of these kind of genre stations have to have a
Speaker 1: direct connection to the community, go to schools, do being
Speaker 1: and it's so it's sad in a way. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: the relationship has changed that Urban One honors said air
Speaker 1: you know Martin Luther Keen's birthday last night. Okay, it
Speaker 1: did a fifty year tribute to hip hop and the relationship.
Speaker 1: When they came out there with the young man with
Speaker 1: the radio on his shoulder, it just how to warm
Speaker 1: my heart to realize and remember the days where people
Speaker 1: would carry boom boxes on their shoulders. Okay, be on
Speaker 1: Roller States, all right, I mean with the bed with
Speaker 1: the boom box. Okay, that radio was like, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: almost like a chalice is to Catholic priest stuff. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's record, that's right, absolutely, absolutely it's changed and certainly
Speaker 1: with technology um. But technology also, even though it's brought
Speaker 1: on a different level of competition, also has made it
Speaker 1: easier for us in so many ways because of voice tracking,
Speaker 1: because of being able not to have to be at
Speaker 1: a certain like are gathering right now, we're all over
Speaker 1: the country, we're all in different okay, and yet we're
Speaker 1: having this podcast the same as ten years ago. We
Speaker 1: would have all had to have been assembled in your studio, okay,
Speaker 1: looking at each other, you know. So it's helped with
Speaker 1: the delivery of the product. But I really am not
Speaker 1: pessimistic about the future. I think it will change. I
Speaker 1: think that that certain things are already changing. I'm very
Speaker 1: dismayed over the fact that when I started out there
Speaker 1: were almost four hundred black owned radio stations. Now they're
Speaker 1: about a hundred and thirty two black owned radio stations,
Speaker 1: and sixty eight of them belong to me. Based on
Speaker 1: what you would have to get up at four in
Speaker 1: the morning, five in the morning to do in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: As is that human being that's looking in the mirror
Speaker 1: with a brush. Is she satisfied with the path that
Speaker 1: the universe has given her? And is there anything else
Speaker 1: left to to explore or conquer? I want to come
Speaker 1: back and talk about TV okay, because Okay, I want
Speaker 1: to do a second podcast. I like the podcast because
Speaker 1: I've dot very strong opinions about television and how it's
Speaker 1: really changing our perception of who we are people. Wait, actually,
Speaker 1: I really want to come back and talk about that. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's a preview real quick, because now you gave us
Speaker 1: a little bit, you gotta give us more. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was like, what do I know? It's the reality is
Speaker 1: foreign countries see us through the eyes of movies and
Speaker 1: television shows, and our portrayal. One of the reasons that
Speaker 1: I am still the only network in this country that
Speaker 1: will air the Cosby showed because that ensembled that is
Speaker 1: not forgiving what Bill did. What he did was despicable,
Speaker 1: but that show more accurately portrayed black life in America
Speaker 1: than any show has ever and that ensemble should not
Speaker 1: be punished because of the wrongdoing of one human being.
Speaker 1: I don't want the Chinese who only see Housewives of
Speaker 1: Atlanta to think that that's what black women are about,
Speaker 1: fighting with each other, screaming and hollering the way media
Speaker 1: right now, the media is dogging Biden. The reason Hillary
Speaker 1: Clinton never got elected president of the United States, would
Speaker 1: lose to somebody who couldn't even construct a sentence, was
Speaker 1: because of the media dogging her like and my opinion,
Speaker 1: she was more qualified to be the president than her
Speaker 1: husband was qualified to be the president. Nobody had done
Speaker 1: what Hillary had done. But the media now no longer
Speaker 1: is covering the news. It creates the news, and it decides,
Speaker 1: particularly as it relates to people of color, what's important
Speaker 1: and what we should be thinking and what we should
Speaker 1: be doing. Okay, but anyway, that's a whole other podcast.
Speaker 1: I hope that you will invite me back to because
Speaker 1: I think, okay, you might sell that. Okay, because if
Speaker 1: we don't get it under control, all right, I do
Speaker 1: not know what's going to happen to the future of us,
Speaker 1: all right, y'all, we wouldn't know black girls be missing,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you exactly all right and so very important.
Speaker 1: But to your question, no, I have no regrets. Regrets.
Speaker 1: There is absolutely nothing. But I would do differently other
Speaker 1: than have more than one child. Okay, I really really
Speaker 1: really wished that I had I had him so young,
Speaker 1: and it was so you know, traumatizing and so scary
Speaker 1: for me, quite frankly, but I should have adopted. I
Speaker 1: should have made it possible for more than just Alfred
Speaker 1: to benefit for the blessings of this media conglomerate that
Speaker 1: God has blessed me to be able to build. I
Speaker 1: have adopted individuals like like I have. You know other
Speaker 1: individuals that that I have, you know, been a big
Speaker 1: act to or godmother or a grandmother. But I wish
Speaker 1: that I had biological Okay, heirs, do you mind me
Speaker 1: interrupting real quick? I just want to say this because
Speaker 1: we've been through a lot in these forty years something
Speaker 1: years that you know me. But be clear, the only
Speaker 1: reason I wanted to be in radio is because my
Speaker 1: godmother had a best friend named Kathy who who owned
Speaker 1: radio stations. Be clear, the first radio job I ever
Speaker 1: got was at twelve year so when I volunteered at
Speaker 1: w l W m MJ, your first radio station. And
Speaker 1: be clear that when I went to Clark Atlanta University,
Speaker 1: you were the one that made the call to doctor
Speaker 1: Gloria James and said she's an internship at wcl Okay,
Speaker 1: so thank you, and it'd be clear that I had
Speaker 1: the best off female morning radio show on Radio one.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Shamara, you just close the show. I know.
Speaker 1: I was like, that's like some micropion. There's nothing I
Speaker 1: was like to know about Sugar and Bill not saying anything.
Speaker 1: We don't say much. We try to we know what
Speaker 1: to talk. Yeah, I know you said you were single.
Speaker 1: That was my only question, So I have any more questions.
Speaker 1: I wanted to know if this guy is anybody that
Speaker 1: you want on Unsung that you haven't you been able
Speaker 1: to get you wish? Did Stephanie finally given yet? No?
Speaker 1: I know if the fifty mentioned I love them right,
Speaker 1: and their position with me has been we're not Unsung,
Speaker 1: And I was like, that's not the purpose okay of
Speaker 1: the show. Okay, And I said, well, would you at
Speaker 1: least do uncensored? But yeah, I do have right? Uh?
Speaker 1: And they tapped my list every year we pitched them.
Speaker 1: We have pitched them every year. Okay, Wow there, I
Speaker 1: mean they they actually were trend centers. And I think
Speaker 1: that that story needs to be really be told. And
Speaker 1: because I was such always as still am such big fans.
Speaker 1: And then I mean, look how long the marriage has endured.
Speaker 1: Okay it's hard, Okay, all right, Okay, that's very rare okay,
Speaker 1: and I mean remember when Smokey and married right exactly?
Speaker 1: That didn't work. Okay, it's hard to do what they
Speaker 1: have accomplished. The fifth dimensions are and so you have
Speaker 1: to create a format a show called trend setters, or
Speaker 1: at least the title will cater to the ego of
Speaker 1: the artist, because I've heard artists say, well, I'm not unsung,
Speaker 1: so I'm not doing it because I think in their
Speaker 1: mind they think like unsung means failure, but no, it
Speaker 1: just means that. It means that you didn't get your
Speaker 1: just recognition. It showed you more. We should be called flowers. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it should have been more. I thank you all for
Speaker 1: this opportunity. I like doing a podcast. Thank you, what
Speaker 1: do you want to It's gonna be the Cathy Used
Speaker 1: podcast next week for exactly you guys. Sorry, sorry to
Speaker 1: break news to you this way, but yeah, Cathy's taking over.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate it. When you when you retire quest love,
Speaker 1: can I feel in absolutely it's yours. You can buy
Speaker 1: us out right now, okay, okay, I pick us up. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I heart, Yes, I've sold. I just made a deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: family or good faith, it's christ love and closing, I
Speaker 1: know that you don't like the flowers, you don't like
Speaker 1: the accolades, but I'll think the flowers. Okay. The things
Speaker 1: that you have done in your career have been exemplary. Okay,
Speaker 1: I thank you for who you are, not just professionally,
Speaker 1: but but personally. Like I said to me, it's not
Speaker 1: about you know, establishing yourself as a celebrity or you know,
Speaker 1: any of the rest. It's really about who you are
Speaker 1: as a human being. Because in the end of analysis,
Speaker 1: that's all. We came here naked, We're gonna leave out
Speaker 1: here naked, and the only thing we have is that
Speaker 1: which we have done to help other individuals in your
Speaker 1: record stands for itself. So thank you. I'm truly honored
Speaker 1: and truly honored to me two guys, particularly the one
Speaker 1: that's interested in me being single and you mentioned naked,
Speaker 1: So all right, sugar Steve, Bill Franta, And this is
Speaker 1: another episode Much Love Supreme. Thank you very much the
Speaker 1: great Caviews. We're gonna sign it off. Thank you. Much
Speaker 1: Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. Well more
Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,