Speaker 1: Quess Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. I'm So Hotter.
Speaker 1: This is my very first podcast. Oh my god, that
Speaker 1: made you denied many a request, but we made it.
Speaker 1: I miss us. I'm Sugar Steve. I love your name.
Speaker 1: Thank you? Are you singing? Don't ask about it if
Speaker 1: you want to. I just a yoke, joking worries that
Speaker 1: you're not looking for I'm serious. I'm in New York.
Speaker 1: I don't know where you are, but I know you're
Speaker 1: Bill's manager now, so I want to you get a
Speaker 1: lot done to that miss usual date. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: paid finally after all these years. How long we're doing
Speaker 1: this for way too long that I haven't paid yet? Forever.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be super j This is gonna be the
Speaker 1: first time that I will admit on the air that
Speaker 1: I might be stealing the neighbors WiFi. How I think, No,
Speaker 1: they don't know I'm stealing it. Shout out to a
Speaker 1: apartment be letting me. This episode of Quest Left Supreme
Speaker 1: brought to you by my next door neighbors. Thank you,
Speaker 1: plades and gentlemen. This is Question Left Supreme. We are
Speaker 1: together again. We're together yea. All five of us. It's
Speaker 1: been a minute. Oh yeah, hey William yea here, Hey Bill,
Speaker 1: have you you've been going a long time. I went
Speaker 1: to Pante's house to get cigarettes. Back. I'm back. I'm
Speaker 1: happy to be back. Thank you. So I'm hearing around
Speaker 1: the grape vine that you've created yet another Broadway hit.
Speaker 1: You know, people seem to like it. People come to
Speaker 1: see it. It's excited. I'm you're in the bus. I'm
Speaker 1: here in the bus. I think you should come see it.
Speaker 1: I think everyone should come see it. It's quite it's
Speaker 1: a good show. I tell you, how about Bill is?
Speaker 1: Don't I just say that? Or I asked Bill, I said, so,
Speaker 1: how long is the show running? He was like, what
Speaker 1: you mean? It just run? And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's that happened for everybody, Or okay, he just Bill
Speaker 1: comes from Hamilton Pettigree, So that means that anything he creates,
Speaker 1: you know. Meanwhile, like I've seen like at least four
Speaker 1: of my friends kind of have to go back to
Speaker 1: the drawing board and you know, shut down their Broadway plays,
Speaker 1: and you know, just speaking about things we create. January
Speaker 1: nineteenth is the premiere of jam Van starring starring three
Speaker 1: fifths of Quest Love Supreme. Laia as the Big Old
Speaker 1: Book of Travel. Get it first animation through Yea and
Speaker 1: Fonte wrote a song for Duffy Diggs, which is I
Speaker 1: believe episode three or four, but anyway, tune in YouTube
Speaker 1: Originals YouTube Kids, January nineteenth, first two episodes. Shout out
Speaker 1: to Quest Love Supreme. There you go. Yes, we took
Speaker 1: care of business. Yeah we are, we are talented. So,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, I will say that as a media
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, Yes, am I media personality? Now? Absolutely, yes,
Speaker 1: yeah you are. I'm a media personality. I'm not a
Speaker 1: drummer anymore. Okay, I'll take that. So I will say
Speaker 1: that as a media personality. I gotta think about that.
Speaker 1: You know, I was from a generation in which radio
Speaker 1: was boss. Radio was the common denominator, even amongst our
Speaker 1: QLs fam here. I know that I've had We've talked
Speaker 1: about Laia's history as a radio personality in Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: other markets. What were your other markets besides Philadelphia, d
Speaker 1: n V, the Atlanta. Yes, you've done every shift, You've
Speaker 1: done something, You've done the afternoon shifts. You've been midday mommies.
Speaker 1: You're you was a midday mommy for for a little bit. Um,
Speaker 1: when you start in radio, I know that you start
Speaker 1: with weekends and off duty hours, and then you'd start
Speaker 1: in the morning. And then when you when they trust
Speaker 1: you enough to have your own afternoon show, you become
Speaker 1: a midday mommy. Well wait, what's a guy get Like
Speaker 1: does a guy get that title? Like in New York anyway,
Speaker 1: very few men do mid days. We got to talk
Speaker 1: about it's a reason too, Oh I wouldn't. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is going to be the radio educational show. Steve and
Speaker 1: I like our bonding even of this this very platform
Speaker 1: that we're on. Steve and I always talked and fantasized about,
Speaker 1: like both he and I come from a place where
Speaker 1: we used to have like as kids, our own uh
Speaker 1: you know, pretend radio shows. I know Steve to this
Speaker 1: day still has like collections of his You still have
Speaker 1: like your fantasy radio shows when you were like twelve, right,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I have all that stuff. Plus I have
Speaker 1: an actual radio show these days on w KCR. I
Speaker 1: totally forgot that Stevens Network actually had my own uh
Speaker 1: Sugar network. Maybe if maybe heard of it it returning five
Speaker 1: years old in February. It's real it's real. Yes, of course,
Speaker 1: Steve has his own network fantein Bill. I don't know
Speaker 1: what you guys were into, but I would assume that
Speaker 1: at some point in your life you two also had
Speaker 1: the radio fantasy of just I don't know if Howard
Speaker 1: started to hit me with it. Noah, I never did
Speaker 1: that doorm No, No I did. I didn't do radio.
Speaker 1: I did radio in my uh in college, I had
Speaker 1: a had a raid. Me and Pool actually had a
Speaker 1: show on audio Net, which is like our campus radio station,
Speaker 1: and you could listen to it like in your dorm room.
Speaker 1: And so I would do it there. Um, I would
Speaker 1: make like tapes and stuff as a kid, and like
Speaker 1: act like a radio announcer, and you know, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I And then I mean our first album WJLR, that
Speaker 1: was a fictional radio station. That's right, even on your
Speaker 1: own records, you had radio station, multiple album. I will
Speaker 1: basically say that, you know, no musical level I know
Speaker 1: could resist the fantasy of playing radio station. And even
Speaker 1: to this day, like I make mixtapes for friends, I
Speaker 1: make these slow Jamp actually our guests is also really
Speaker 1: responsible for like a game changing innovation in radio, which
Speaker 1: is the quiet storm format. Like I cannot even put
Speaker 1: forth any you know and in a short amount of
Speaker 1: words of how instrumental and powerful our guest is today
Speaker 1: when it comes to radio, simply put you know, between
Speaker 1: all the markets I've named the cities Atlanta, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Richmond,
Speaker 1: m Absolutely if your fans are Ricky Smiley, Russ Parr,
Speaker 1: rev Now Sharpton, TD, Jake's DL, Hughley, Erica Campbell, like
Speaker 1: you can name them all. She's literally responsible one of
Speaker 1: the most powerful figures in communication. Owner of Urban One
Speaker 1: formerly Radio one, TV one, Interactive one. I cannot believe
Speaker 1: we pulled this off. Thank you very much. Why Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have one of the only Cathy Hughes one question,
Speaker 1: Love Supreme. That's probably the longest introduction I've ever given life. Well,
Speaker 1: I am so appreciative and it's so interesting. It's my
Speaker 1: very first podcast ever. I don't know what my staff
Speaker 1: is going to say about this. Are they scared? Are
Speaker 1: they nervous? Well, no, they've been trying to get me
Speaker 1: to do a podcast, really have not. Yes, you're the
Speaker 1: first I've said yes to. But I got to go
Speaker 1: back to the pretend radio stations Mine was my bathroom
Speaker 1: and my microphone was a toothbrush. There were six of
Speaker 1: us in the house, and I locked the bathroom door.
Speaker 1: I didn't give a damn that people had to go
Speaker 1: to school and work. I was doing a radio show
Speaker 1: and I never came out until my show was over,
Speaker 1: because I knew when I came out, I was going
Speaker 1: to be physically abused by everybody in the house. They
Speaker 1: were throwing things at me and banging. And the interesting
Speaker 1: thing I only did two things. I did news and
Speaker 1: I did commercials. Was the start of my regime. And
Speaker 1: the records at all that's been any records to be
Speaker 1: I didn't have a turntable in the bathroom, so we
Speaker 1: didn't have okay, and I can't sing, and so there
Speaker 1: was no music. It was all narrative. I practiced, and
Speaker 1: it's so interesting because I was very serious about it.
Speaker 1: I did it for years because my aspiration was to
Speaker 1: one day be the first African American woman to have
Speaker 1: a nationally syndicated radio show. And I knew I had
Speaker 1: to practice. And I was twelve years old, and I
Speaker 1: did my hour broadcast every single solitary morning. So finally
Speaker 1: my mother compromised with me and told me if I
Speaker 1: had to have the bathroom for an hour, I had
Speaker 1: to do it between the hours four am and five am,
Speaker 1: and I cheated. I would do five to six. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, but everybody was always you know, because in
Speaker 1: those days, I don't know how people family survived because
Speaker 1: it was only one bathroom and all right, yeah, and
Speaker 1: we didn't even notice that there was only one bathroom
Speaker 1: and we had to go in except in the morning
Speaker 1: when I was joining my radio show. So that was
Speaker 1: the start of my career. For you. Like when I
Speaker 1: mentioned radio, what were your memories of it? Who are
Speaker 1: you listening to as a kid? Well? Number one, I
Speaker 1: grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and so I listened to
Speaker 1: Conway Twitty. What you know about Conway Twitty? Wow, That's
Speaker 1: who I listened to. We listened to, We listened to
Speaker 1: Righteous Brothers, We listened to listen. It was called country
Speaker 1: and Western and m my mother for my twelfth birthday,
Speaker 1: for Chris put A, begged her for a radio, a
Speaker 1: transistor radio as she put it in lay away for Christmas,
Speaker 1: but she couldn't afford to get it out until April,
Speaker 1: and so I got it for my birthday and for
Speaker 1: the first time I could hear what I thought were
Speaker 1: black air personalities. They were really Wolfman, Jack and Hoss
Speaker 1: and all of these white personalities sounding like they were
Speaker 1: black because they didn't allow black men on radio back then. Wow.
Speaker 1: Really okay, And I was fantasizing about being this woman
Speaker 1: who was going to be on radio, not knowing that
Speaker 1: Hannie McDaniel was the first African American woman to have
Speaker 1: a nationally syndicated radio show. She was was forty years
Speaker 1: old when I found that out, and all the way
Speaker 1: from twelve years old to forty my goal was to
Speaker 1: have a nationally syndicated radio shows. I was kind of
Speaker 1: thankful that God withheld that information from me, okay. And
Speaker 1: it was so because I was in the middle of
Speaker 1: teaching a class at Howard and I looked in this
Speaker 1: book that I wanted to recommend to my students to read,
Speaker 1: and there it was, and it was like the words
Speaker 1: popped out of a page my eyes, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: my goodness, I've been inspiring. But it's what was driving me.
Speaker 1: So I was really kind of glad that I did
Speaker 1: not know, because back in those days, syndicated radio was
Speaker 1: the thing. The NBC radio series, the ABC Radio series.
Speaker 1: Back in those days, people, way before anybody you know
Speaker 1: on this podcast was even born, we watched radio. We
Speaker 1: set around and when you looked at the radio and
Speaker 1: you imagine and you visualize, and I mean some of
Speaker 1: my greatest radio memories were the boxing matches because my
Speaker 1: daddy was a big sports fan. The crowd, the enthusiasm,
Speaker 1: you thought you were actually there. And then my mother
Speaker 1: was a very accomplished music and she had a group
Speaker 1: called the International Sweethearts of Rhythm eighteen piece all women's
Speaker 1: orchestra in the nineteen thirties and forties, and they were
Speaker 1: world renowned. They traveled all over Europe. They were in Germany,
Speaker 1: they were in France, they were in all these foreign
Speaker 1: countries playing for the American soldiers and they would have
Speaker 1: to do one night for the black soldiers, another night
Speaker 1: for the white soldiers. But the International Sweethearts of Rhythm
Speaker 1: were nicknamed by Earl Father Hines as the first Freedom
Speaker 1: Writers because they were integrated and the white members of
Speaker 1: the band would actually darken their face. They would be
Speaker 1: in not black place, but they would have dark makeup
Speaker 1: on to pass for blackets. They would travel through the
Speaker 1: South and It was really interesting because the police, the
Speaker 1: stories they told about how the police would come aboard
Speaker 1: their bus. They had the first tour of US ever built.
Speaker 1: Because they couldn't stand tells. They took an old, deserted
Speaker 1: greyhound bus and put three stacks of bump beds, and
Speaker 1: that's where they rehearsed, that's where they lived, that's where
Speaker 1: they traveled throughout and the police would come on board
Speaker 1: the bus and they would think that the bi racial
Speaker 1: women were the white women, and they would think that
Speaker 1: the white women were actually the black women because they
Speaker 1: would have on the makeup. What would have happened if
Speaker 1: they found out that white people and black people were together,
Speaker 1: they would have thought they were freedom writers and arrested
Speaker 1: them more absolutely, absolutely exactly. It was very dangerous. So,
Speaker 1: you know, so radio was like second nature to me
Speaker 1: because I've been trying to write this book for thirty years.
Speaker 1: And the book starts off when I was five years old,
Speaker 1: and it was the first time that I realized my
Speaker 1: mother's picture was in the mural at the Apollo and
Speaker 1: she's rushing we're late for a performance of her band,
Speaker 1: and and I'm saying, they're staring at my mother and
Speaker 1: that was the first time that I realized that that
Speaker 1: I was growing up in the entertainment industry. I don't
Speaker 1: know when you realized it, you know, because you two
Speaker 1: chessel grew up in the entertainment industry. But that was
Speaker 1: the first time they didn't gone upon me that my
Speaker 1: mother was more than just my mama, okay. And then
Speaker 1: that evening for the first time when I saw her
Speaker 1: on the stage, I was like, oh my goodness. Because
Speaker 1: back in those days, they made me sit on the
Speaker 1: front road because they wouldn't leave me backstage. I had
Speaker 1: seventeen nat so they could baby sit me because even
Speaker 1: back then they were worried about molas station and drugs
Speaker 1: and they were going on backstage and so did you
Speaker 1: experience this, so that they would make me sit on
Speaker 1: the front roads so that they can keep an eye
Speaker 1: on me. I sat at the bar. I was I
Speaker 1: was the only five year old allowed to sit at
Speaker 1: the bar. And then once I was seven, like I
Speaker 1: was working. I was a stage manager, so they that's
Speaker 1: how they didn't believe in babysitters until way later. But
Speaker 1: absolutely yeah. And then a year later when I met
Speaker 1: moms mabley and read Fox when we reopened the Howard
Speaker 1: Theater in DC. They told me about how when I
Speaker 1: was a baby that the girls in the band would
Speaker 1: pull a drawer out in the hub and when they
Speaker 1: would could stay at people's houses or in hotels, and
Speaker 1: that was my baths and net, that they would take
Speaker 1: a drawer out of the dresser okay, and they would
Speaker 1: put covers in it, and that's where I would sleep.
Speaker 1: The first time we said Moms Mabley on this podcast,
Speaker 1: I was such a big fan of hers as a kid, like,
Speaker 1: I'm oh, I love you, thank you for saying her name. Well,
Speaker 1: my baby sister's named Jackie after Jackie Moms Mabley. My
Speaker 1: mother made huh because Moms Mabley told me she recognized me.
Speaker 1: It was strange. I was the general manager of wah
Speaker 1: you are at the time. She said, come here, girl.
Speaker 1: She said what's your name and I said it's Kathy
Speaker 1: and she said your mama named Helen. I said yes, ma'am,
Speaker 1: and she said I bought you your first bastin net
Speaker 1: because they had you sleeping in a dresser drawer okay,
Speaker 1: And I'm like yeah. She said, get your mom on
Speaker 1: the phone, okay, okay. I had no idea and then um,
Speaker 1: She told me all these stories about how, in addition
Speaker 1: everything else, one of the leader tractions of my mother's
Speaker 1: group was a woman named Tiny Davis, world renowned trumpet player,
Speaker 1: and Tiny was a lesbian and that that moms mable
Speaker 1: Lee told me that she was the first openly you know,
Speaker 1: lesbian entertainer, and that you know that not only were
Speaker 1: they not supposed to have black and white people, they
Speaker 1: also were not supposed to have gay and lesbian people, right, okay,
Speaker 1: the way they were really pine years in so many
Speaker 1: different areas, and it was the nineteen thirties and forties, okay,
Speaker 1: so probably you know, in the in the wake of
Speaker 1: what I've been sort of going through last year in
Speaker 1: terms of after Summer Soul, a lot of people started,
Speaker 1: which was thank you, thank you, thank you for that,
Speaker 1: thank you God thing that thank you, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: and promoting and still talking about it regularly on all
Speaker 1: of our airways. That was the most magnificent piece. That
Speaker 1: was almost as significant of when they found Oscar Ma
Speaker 1: shows films they had been buried in all. Okay, you
Speaker 1: to bring that to life, in my opinion, was an
Speaker 1: Oscar Ma show. So forgive me for cutting you off,
Speaker 1: but I thank you, tell you that I'll take that compliment.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Thank you well. I was going to
Speaker 1: say to you that, um, I've just beginning so many
Speaker 1: like you know, just random archives stuff, and someone was
Speaker 1: really incredible enough to give me like almost one hundred
Speaker 1: hours of like vintage radio programs. I mean like Hal Jackson,
Speaker 1: Sid McCoy, Jaco Henderson. You know what, it's so weird.
Speaker 1: Here's the weird thing. The million dollars research right now,
Speaker 1: we've been I have a little pack of like maybe
Speaker 1: eight or nine cats that like collect these things. For
Speaker 1: the life of us. We are are searching high and
Speaker 1: low for either Georgie Woods's radio show or the dance
Speaker 1: show that he used to have in Philadelphia. That's like
Speaker 1: that is gold to us. But I wanted to ask, like,
Speaker 1: did you have any interaction with like the first generation
Speaker 1: of syndicated radio personalities like like Jaco Henderson or Sid McCoy,
Speaker 1: any of those like golden voice gods of kind of
Speaker 1: like the fifties. No, because I was still a child,
Speaker 1: I was still fantasizing and still growing up in the Omaha, Nebraska.
Speaker 1: I knew you more about Johnny Carson. Okay, okay, and
Speaker 1: the Fondas and Marlon brand Do all of these were
Speaker 1: Omaha folks in the industry. Okay, to get into the pool,
Speaker 1: Like what year is do you consider your first professional year?
Speaker 1: Not professional year, but the year of Like I guess now,
Speaker 1: a person want to have to start as an intern
Speaker 1: and the intern too, an assistant, an assistant to sort
Speaker 1: of work your way up the ladder. What's the what's
Speaker 1: the first step that you had to take to officially
Speaker 1: plant some feet inside of that world. I started off
Speaker 1: as an owner. Yeah, that's a FLEXI. That's the greatest
Speaker 1: flexib all time. That's the show. Good Night, I dropped
Speaker 1: the bike right. Omaha's African American community has has produced
Speaker 1: some of the greatest athletes of all time. Bob Gibson,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest pitchers, Okay, Baseball Hall of Famer,
Speaker 1: Johnny Rodgers, Heisman Trophy winner, Bob Boozer, basketball, Paul Silas.
Speaker 1: We had all of these incredible athletes, and they decided
Speaker 1: to pull their resources and take Willie Nelson off the
Speaker 1: radio and put James Brown on. So they decided that
Speaker 1: they were going to buy a radio station and create
Speaker 1: a black format. And I have always been a saver.
Speaker 1: My mother and father both instilled with me, if you
Speaker 1: get a dime, you get to spend a nickel and
Speaker 1: put a nickel in At that time my cigar box
Speaker 1: when I was a child, Okay, that was my bank.
Speaker 1: And so I had a little ten thousand dollars saved
Speaker 1: when they came up with this venture, and so I invested.
Speaker 1: So my experience as an owner, Okay, ten thousand, ten
Speaker 1: thousand now might be like five hundred bucks, but ten
Speaker 1: thousand then was like five hundred thousand. Now, like where
Speaker 1: did you find the patients to what did you have
Speaker 1: to sacrifice to save? My father died at forty five, okay,
Speaker 1: and my portion of the insurance was about eight thousand. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I only had about two thousand and nickels and
Speaker 1: times that I had saved myself, but I had ten
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. So I invested in this radio station. And
Speaker 1: then because I had been bidden by this radio bug
Speaker 1: as a child kal wh And on Maha, Nebraska, Um,
Speaker 1: I went to start volunteering. My first job was one
Speaker 1: of the owners. All of us, all the owners were
Speaker 1: actually volunteering. Biggest mistake, biggest, biggest business error. In my
Speaker 1: career was when I moved to Washington, DC and I
Speaker 1: told them, I said, listen, I have this opportunity to
Speaker 1: join the faculty of the Howard University School of Communications.
Speaker 1: I don't know any DC. I have a five year
Speaker 1: old son. Would you all please, you know, buy me out.
Speaker 1: So they bought me out at the same amount that
Speaker 1: I had put in, which was a ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Years later, all of them made two to three four
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars a piece opposed the state. But I
Speaker 1: didn't have any idea then, okay, that that you know,
Speaker 1: the value would appreciate it at that level. So they
Speaker 1: gave me my ten thousand dollars back when I moved
Speaker 1: to Washington, d C. But I started off my career
Speaker 1: in radio as an owner, not working my way up.
Speaker 1: I ended up working my way up when I was
Speaker 1: the general manager of w h u R and the
Speaker 1: staff decided they wanted to union and nice and I
Speaker 1: wasn't going to have it because it would have forced
Speaker 1: the students out of the facility. Okay, I was not
Speaker 1: going to allow the union to come in and deny
Speaker 1: The only reason Howard University had whu R with stands
Speaker 1: for wh our university radio was for the students. And
Speaker 1: yet we had all of these professionals, many of whom
Speaker 1: were no longer employable in the industry, holding onto their
Speaker 1: positions and denying the students the opportunity to be on
Speaker 1: the air. And so they went on strike. And so
Speaker 1: when they went on strike, I told the students as
Speaker 1: me and you, and we went on the air, and
Speaker 1: I was trembling. That was the first time I had
Speaker 1: ever been on the air. Okay, So I have these
Speaker 1: a group of teenagers and me, and we're going to
Speaker 1: keep the station on the air. Because to this day,
Speaker 1: thank god, Howard University still is a facility were students
Speaker 1: can get commercial training because college radio could not suffice
Speaker 1: in getting these kids jobs when they graduated from college.
Speaker 1: They needed to have a commercial credential on their resume.
Speaker 1: I'll say it again, still the best college radio station too.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say it again to me in
Speaker 1: the nation, I will say it. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: the first even before my own hometown started playing us,
Speaker 1: like our university was the early supporter, even before like
Speaker 1: our album came out. That's how I run my radio
Speaker 1: stations to this day that that is not just about
Speaker 1: employing the people who you know, make the salaries, but
Speaker 1: it's also about creating jobs for artists, for writers, for producers,
Speaker 1: creating opportunities for them that that you know, nobody else
Speaker 1: is going to afford them. This was before it black
Speaker 1: became fashionable and everybody you know decided, oh my goodness, okay,
Speaker 1: this trillion dollars you know, community that we're missing out on,
Speaker 1: We're going to hop over here in the black space
Speaker 1: with Back then, you know, it was not possible. There
Speaker 1: were no crossovers. Okay. You either got played in black
Speaker 1: radio or you did okay, or you didn't get played.
Speaker 1: And so that's that's been always a priority with my programming.
Speaker 1: Because you're an owner, maybe you can explain this to me. Okay.
Speaker 1: So when I got in the industry professionally, at least
Speaker 1: with the roots, it was like ninety three, And when
Speaker 1: our third album came out in ninety six ninety seven,
Speaker 1: one of our radio promotion guys at the label was
Speaker 1: trying to explain to me, something new is happening at
Speaker 1: radio that's going to make it harder for us to
Speaker 1: get you guys on radio. And you know, the thing
Speaker 1: that they were saying explaining to me was basically at
Speaker 1: Whereas when we used to visit radio stations in ninety five,
Speaker 1: personalities on the air had control of what they played,
Speaker 1: so they were like they were the tastemakers. If hey,
Speaker 1: I know about this cool group from Philadelphia, you guys
Speaker 1: should hear them, and they played the record, Whereas now
Speaker 1: we were coming to radio stations and things were like
Speaker 1: preprogrammed almost weeks in advance before you even get there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they consolidated. What they did was limit access to artists.
Speaker 1: That's the reason you know we're very unique corporation, Because yeah,
Speaker 1: we're very unique corporation because my air personalities still have
Speaker 1: control over their breeding list. Simpson, I would never installed
Speaker 1: Donnie Simpson by telling him what they played. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: if Donnie Simpson doesn't know what to play, then he
Speaker 1: should be on the radio. Okay. Donnie Simpson controls his playlist,
Speaker 1: Russ par controls his playlist. Ricky Smiley. Now we give
Speaker 1: them some assistance because with automation and things, everything's got
Speaker 1: to be in the computer. Okay. But also I have
Speaker 1: always believed that, and I think this was my experience
Speaker 1: at Howard University when I was the general manager of
Speaker 1: w h u R. I think that, you know, some
Speaker 1: of the major corporations use it as an excuse to
Speaker 1: avoid payola. That they said that, you know, if you
Speaker 1: control the playlists corporately, then you eliminate the Okay. Well,
Speaker 1: over the years, I have watched a lot of people
Speaker 1: figure out how to get around okay, okay, the control playlist.
Speaker 1: And the tragedy is that they limited, you know, like
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. When I realize how popular the music of
Speaker 1: Atlanta was and how unique it was to Atlanta. Okay,
Speaker 1: when I recognize go Go as being like the national
Speaker 1: anthem of Washington, DC, Baltimore House exactly, Balmore, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: I realize that this isn't something that could be controlled corporately.
Speaker 1: That that, and the other thing that bothered me very
Speaker 1: much is is I've always had an open door policy.
Speaker 1: The artist could always get to me, my staff can
Speaker 1: always get to me. And when I was hearing that,
Speaker 1: you know, they won't play me because I'm local, they
Speaker 1: won't play me because I don't have representation. They won't
Speaker 1: play me for this reason or that reason. You know,
Speaker 1: I failed an obligation to try to be of assistance
Speaker 1: to individuals, particularly on the local level. Now, do we
Speaker 1: have a system now in place, Yes, because in additionary
Speaker 1: also what has happened is technology. We're able to test
Speaker 1: the songs immediately for you, okay, And I think that oftentimes, um,
Speaker 1: we find ourselves in opposition to what the label wants
Speaker 1: to release as opposed to what our audience tells us
Speaker 1: they want to hear. And so we still have a
Speaker 1: control system, the quasi control system. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: my air personalities have the flexibility because I paid them
Speaker 1: a lot of money, and a lot of that money
Speaker 1: is paid to them because of their knowledge and their
Speaker 1: experience and then our expertise. I want them to be
Speaker 1: aware of what, you know, the trends are in the clubs,
Speaker 1: if we're if it's if you're on my hip hop format.
Speaker 1: I want them to really help resurrect some of these
Speaker 1: classic R and B X that we're in not for us, okay.
Speaker 1: If we had not really conceptualized you know, adult can temporary,
Speaker 1: all right, some of these artists would still be working
Speaker 1: as sales clerks somewhere as opposed to performing. I have
Speaker 1: always booed being in business a lot more than just
Speaker 1: making money for the business. I was taught. My family
Speaker 1: has a mantra, which is that in order for you
Speaker 1: to do well in your life, you must first do
Speaker 1: good for other people. And I've always wanted to do
Speaker 1: good because I can't tell you how many nights my mama,
Speaker 1: as a professional musician, had to feed us scrambled eggs
Speaker 1: for dinner because we couldn't afford because some promoter had
Speaker 1: paid her or some gig hadn't. So I understood how
Speaker 1: life was hard for artists. And my mama was at
Speaker 1: top of the game, okay, and she still wasn't making
Speaker 1: money all right, because she was playing Sweden. And so
Speaker 1: I've always had this commitment with my format. The other
Speaker 1: of stations have a lot more resources. They're a lot
Speaker 1: larger than us. You know, we're big or black owned media.
Speaker 1: We're the biggest in black owned media, but compared to
Speaker 1: you know what used to be Clear Channel, which started
Speaker 1: the same year as Radio One, okay with Lowry Mays.
Speaker 1: But when you look look at these major corporations that
Speaker 1: are now in quote the black space, even with their
Speaker 1: control of the format, they still have some of the
Speaker 1: same problems they had before they controlled it. But At
Speaker 1: the same time, because of their size, they're still able
Speaker 1: to have a relationship with the artists. I want to
Speaker 1: have more than a relationship with an artist. I want
Speaker 1: to be able to tell the story of the first
Speaker 1: time I played John Legend. His name was John Steve
Speaker 1: and okay, all right, and he brought me ten cassette
Speaker 1: tapes that he had produced himself with a magic marker,
Speaker 1: And when he was selling them at ten dollars piece
Speaker 1: that I went up to him and I said, young man,
Speaker 1: I'd like to buy all ten and he said, oh no, ma'am.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I can't sell him to you because I
Speaker 1: need to try to get these disc jockeys to listen.
Speaker 1: Can't ask why don't this jockey said to be a
Speaker 1: kid sell me a little hard of them. That's that's
Speaker 1: gassing money to get to the next show. And I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I just got no. This is the less I talk
Speaker 1: better because I'm paid. I don't get a commission off
Speaker 1: of paid. I represent him. Man, Finally the respect I
Speaker 1: deserve after all these years. Thank you, Thank you, You're welcome.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask because you mentioned moving to DC,
Speaker 1: but I want you to talk about moving to DC.
Speaker 1: I believe you said it was because of that opportunity.
Speaker 1: I h you are no, it was actually the opportunity
Speaker 1: to be of the faculty, they first school of Communications. Okay,
Speaker 1: So talk about moving to DC and the difference of
Speaker 1: culture and what you saw, and don't get a twisted
Speaker 1: you must have fell in love because you've never left.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about that. I grew up in an
Speaker 1: environment where they were only white folks and black folks
Speaker 1: and Native Americans. I never saw an Asian. I never
Speaker 1: saw anyone a Hispanic Latino. I never saw a foreigner. Okay.
Speaker 1: Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, it was strictly black folks,
Speaker 1: white folks, and our Native American brothers and sisters were
Speaker 1: on reservations. When I got to DC, I saw a
Speaker 1: black excellence. I used to write back home and say
Speaker 1: that my eyes were tired by eyeballs or because I
Speaker 1: was just like in Awe. I was like a kid.
Speaker 1: I had never seen black doctors, black lawyers, black everything.
Speaker 1: Howard University was like to me going to heaven. I
Speaker 1: could not believe, Okay, I just because I had never
Speaker 1: ever experienced this in my growing up. Because by the
Speaker 1: time I was in school, my mother's band had did
Speaker 1: the men had come back from the war, so her
Speaker 1: all female band was never not no longer in general demand,
Speaker 1: and so my mama went and became a nurse. So
Speaker 1: when I came to Howard, I was part of the
Speaker 1: very first faculty that Tony Brown put together created the
Speaker 1: School of Communications around the radio station. They had the
Speaker 1: radio station before they had so many Tony Brown right
Speaker 1: town from Phil Brown, Tony Brown, who has um Tony
Speaker 1: Brown's journal still Oh Tony Brown, Yes, Tony Brown, shout
Speaker 1: out Tony Brown. At the age of twelve, when I
Speaker 1: went to the Democratic National committing in Kansas City, gave
Speaker 1: me two tickets to the Victory Tour because the Jackson's
Speaker 1: opened the Victory Tour in Kansas City. Wow, just randomly
Speaker 1: gave me two And those are hard tickets to get.
Speaker 1: I love Tony Brown just for that. I forgot about
Speaker 1: Tony Brown. But that's impired me because the University of
Speaker 1: Nebraska did not have a Black studies department because it's
Speaker 1: very conservative okay in Nebraska. But we had a Black
Speaker 1: Studies committee and I was the chairperson of the Black
Speaker 1: Studies Committee, and we would bring Tony Brown to Omaha
Speaker 1: to speak all of the time. So when doctor James
Speaker 1: Cheek offered him the position of the first dean and
Speaker 1: asked him to create the School of Communications, Tony said,
Speaker 1: would you like to come and be part of our faculty.
Speaker 1: And at that time, again I was a lady. Quincy
Speaker 1: Jones was on the faculty. Stand Latham was on the faculty.
Speaker 1: Velvin Van Peoples was on the faculty. Oh yes, we
Speaker 1: had a faculty that okay, well, then Christmas parties, Oh okay,
Speaker 1: I mean it was unbelievable. And my first assignment was
Speaker 1: a communications conference. And at the Communications conference, nobody could
Speaker 1: attend the Communications Conference conference from Corporate America and the
Speaker 1: entertainment industry unless you had guaranteed in writing to Tony
Speaker 1: Brown and myself that you would hire at least two students.
Speaker 1: We have students from all the HBCUs come and that
Speaker 1: very first year, that very first conference, one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy two students of color got jobs in the industry
Speaker 1: because of Tony Brown. Tony Brown said, we don't need
Speaker 1: for you all to come to window dress if you're
Speaker 1: going to come and meet with these students from around
Speaker 1: the country. So that was our first kickoff. To the
Speaker 1: School of Communications at Howard, which which is now named
Speaker 1: the Kathy Human Schools. So, yeah, do you have a
Speaker 1: listing of like just some of the who's who of
Speaker 1: personalities that have sort of just come through your It's
Speaker 1: amazing to me. It's amazing to me as you age,
Speaker 1: because you know your life and I still work, so
Speaker 1: it keeps, you know, it keeps you know, going on.
Speaker 1: But no, it's not a who's whose list. And it's
Speaker 1: so amazing to me when people come up to me
Speaker 1: and tell me stories about you know, you gave me
Speaker 1: my first opportunity, or you played my record okay, or
Speaker 1: you did this okay? Are you open this door? You
Speaker 1: you know you booked me. The first time I booked
Speaker 1: Earth Winning Fire, I had a total of twenty people
Speaker 1: in the Crampton Auditorium and I wouldn't stood on the
Speaker 1: corner of Georgia Avenue at the entrance to Howard and
Speaker 1: bag people to come in. And Jessica Klees was the
Speaker 1: lead singer, not Philip Bailey, Okay, all right. And when
Speaker 1: I see Verdee Verdee, he was there, you know, he
Speaker 1: said to me, just to be all the time, this
Speaker 1: is the lady who got us started because she went
Speaker 1: out there on the corner and begged people to come in.
Speaker 1: And when I tell people that the lead singer for
Speaker 1: Earth Winning Fire was Jessica Cleans, they're like, what okay, No, okay,
Speaker 1: you know this okay? And like as I had twenty people,
Speaker 1: but Jim Brown, Okay, Jim Brown would involved with Jessica Clees,
Speaker 1: and he had put money, he had given more recent
Speaker 1: white money to start this group called Earth Winning Fire.
Speaker 1: All right, and my uncle were very good friends in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, and so my uncle had hooked him up
Speaker 1: with me, and so he had brought me this group
Speaker 1: called Earth Winning Fire. Okay, So I went on the
Speaker 1: We went on the radio and told people to come.
Speaker 1: Nobody had heard him. Nobody came, and so I think
Speaker 1: before the evening was over, I might have gotten forty
Speaker 1: people in there to hear. And then they Crampton Auditorium.
Speaker 1: Totium is a fifteen seat hundred seat venue. Right, everyone
Speaker 1: gets their start. Was there an act that was a
Speaker 1: hard sell? You know? Did you get an awkward prince
Speaker 1: back in like nineteen seventy eight when he wasn't ready yet?
Speaker 1: Like listen, I can't tell you how many battles. I
Speaker 1: fought for Prince because I discovered Prince when he was
Speaker 1: like thirteen or fourteen years old, and people thought he
Speaker 1: was obscene. It was the word that they used to describe,
Speaker 1: you know, And I was like, this voice of musical genius.
Speaker 1: This kid is unbelievable. He plays every instrument there is.
Speaker 1: What are you talking about out seeing? Oh? His lyrics. Remember,
Speaker 1: music and fashion have gone through periods where there was
Speaker 1: serious censorship and okay, and certain things weren't allowed, and
Speaker 1: you know, lyrics had to become a camouflage like puff.
Speaker 1: The Magic Dragon was about weed. Okay, all right, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, so you had to camouflage and had to
Speaker 1: have you know, the double meaning. But so many but
Speaker 1: I guess that probably the John Stephen's story is the
Speaker 1: biggest in terms because his accomplishments and still he's still young. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: nobody knows where he will end up because he's been
Speaker 1: like a rocket ship with so many various groups over
Speaker 1: the years. But one of the things that I've been
Speaker 1: proud is of, quite frankly, was the assistance that we
Speaker 1: did provide for the doo wop groups and for the oldies.
Speaker 1: But goodies as they call them, because so many of
Speaker 1: these individuals were starving, Okay, all right, I mean they
Speaker 1: loved the art, they loved the music, but they couldn't
Speaker 1: work any longer, and disco just killed so many of
Speaker 1: them often. And it was not until we during that
Speaker 1: same era, came up with this concept of you know,
Speaker 1: basically oldies, but we know, put more sophisticated titles to it,
Speaker 1: delt contemporary. Okay, so you help usure in like nostalgia
Speaker 1: era or the urban acne category. I mirror. I think
Speaker 1: she's saying that they created the urban acne category, no question, okay,
Speaker 1: and it was to really provide platforms. We have this
Speaker 1: had this event for years until it became too big,
Speaker 1: quite frankly for us to handle. I admired the fact
Speaker 1: that Philadelphia still is able to do this. It's called
Speaker 1: the Stone Soul Picnic. And the Stone Soul Picnic was
Speaker 1: only these old groups that you know, the Ohio players
Speaker 1: that okay, all these groups that had been dormant, okay,
Speaker 1: nobody was buying them, nobody was sampling them, okay, nobody
Speaker 1: was recognizing them for their their brilliance, and we start
Speaker 1: resurrecting them okay, And I kind of stumbled into it
Speaker 1: after I had created the Quiet Storm. Because the Quiet
Speaker 1: Storm was love music love. It was bad and I
Speaker 1: had to really reach back, all right, to eras where
Speaker 1: lyrics told stories. You gotta tell that story. You need
Speaker 1: to tell the Quiet Storm story. Where's name from? Explain
Speaker 1: to us who Melvin Lindsay was, and how you guys invented.
Speaker 1: You guys basically helped triple the population. And let me
Speaker 1: tell you that. The reason, the main reason I want
Speaker 1: to write my book is because when whu R celebrated anniversary,
Speaker 1: there were several inaccurate accountings of the Quiet Storm. Number One,
Speaker 1: Melvine Lindsay was not the originator. Melvin Lindsay was my
Speaker 1: third who not my first. He was third, all right.
Speaker 1: First was a kid named Don Roberts, who broke my
Speaker 1: heart because he was the most talented of my first three.
Speaker 1: But he was good looking. And he said to me,
Speaker 1: I gotta for television, missus ligand said, okay, because I
Speaker 1: wasn't even married to doing that. He said, I don't
Speaker 1: want to be in a radio studio where no one
Speaker 1: could see me. Sure enough, going on to be a
Speaker 1: big time anchor in Baltimore, Maryland. Okay, now rob my first.
Speaker 1: My second was a young man named Jack Schuler. Jack
Speaker 1: Schuler was Melvin Lindsay's best friend. Melvin Lindsay was my
Speaker 1: intern that I paid out of my pocket. He picked
Speaker 1: my son up from school. He came because Howard said
Speaker 1: that they didn't have a budget for interns of and
Speaker 1: I needed some of the students to actually be in
Speaker 1: a position to earn some money. So Jack Schuler was
Speaker 1: vomiting literally after each show or doing the show. He
Speaker 1: was so nervous, he was trembling. He said, please don't
Speaker 1: make me do this, no more, missus ligands. Please please
Speaker 1: Melvin to do it. Melvin to do it. So Melvin
Speaker 1: told me he would do the Quiet Storm if I
Speaker 1: didn't make him open the microphone. So if there were
Speaker 1: any early tapes, then let's looking for it. Yeah. He
Speaker 1: would say, good evening and welcome to the Quiet Storm.
Speaker 1: The next time you would hear Melvin Lindsay's voice, he
Speaker 1: would say, thank you for listening to the Quiet Storm.
Speaker 1: I'm Melvin Lindsay. There was nothing in between from Melvin
Speaker 1: except the music. Great taste in music. It was my
Speaker 1: private music collection and I started it out on Saturday
Speaker 1: night and then on Sunday, and then I decided that
Speaker 1: it was if the conception of the Quiet Storm was
Speaker 1: for a senior to be chosen by the faculty, two seniors,
Speaker 1: in fact, one for each semester, to give them a
Speaker 1: commercial experience on their resume. Okay. It was never for
Speaker 1: one person to host the show. It was never supposed it.
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be a rotation opportunity. The closest
Speaker 1: I came to it was Milton Allen, who was married
Speaker 1: to Pat Prescott in Lay, Sheila Eldridge and Franklin. Those
Speaker 1: were my three, Okay, students that I was able to rotate. Okay,
Speaker 1: nobody else rotated. Okay. People came and got stuck, including Melbourne. Well,
Speaker 1: Melvin did so good that kys Kiss told him that
Speaker 1: they would give him an opportunity if he would come
Speaker 1: and be on the air at Kiss. So Melvin walks
Speaker 1: into my office. Now this, like I told you, he's
Speaker 1: a gem turn. I have literally supported him. Okay. His
Speaker 1: parents would say to him, well, you need to ask
Speaker 1: miss Liggan's first before you do so. And so I
Speaker 1: had picked his classes for him, the whole nine yards.
Speaker 1: He tells me on a Friday that he's got an
Speaker 1: offer and he's going to work at Kiss And I'm
Speaker 1: thinking he's talking about after graduation in all this, And
Speaker 1: I said, when he said Monday, I was so I rate.
Speaker 1: I told him to get out of my office. Yes,
Speaker 1: so Dewey Hughes, who at that time had fourteen Emmys
Speaker 1: for his productions at the Arc NBC. Fourteen Emmys. Okay,
Speaker 1: he created youth News, he created music videos as Quiets
Speaker 1: as his character. Anyway, Dewey comes to my office and
Speaker 1: he tells me that it's a setup, that NBC just
Speaker 1: wanted Melvin off the air, and that they had him
Speaker 1: in the mill room and would I please bring him back?
Speaker 1: And I said bring him back, and he said, let
Speaker 1: me take you to dinner and talk to you about this.
Speaker 1: Well ultimately doing, and I got married and Melvin came back. Okay.
Speaker 1: And years later, okay there and years later I never
Speaker 1: will forget. We were at this big affair and Melvin
Speaker 1: was being honored and I was in the audience with Dewey,
Speaker 1: and Melvin didn't acknowledge the I was even in the audience,
Speaker 1: and Dewey had torn his achilles attended to playing basketball
Speaker 1: he was our crutches. He went up to feel the
Speaker 1: head table on crutches. He grabbed Melvin Lindsay around the
Speaker 1: neck and he said, I'm married because of you. Okay,
Speaker 1: and now we went back to the microphone. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: so sorry. I didn't know she was here. I didn't.
Speaker 1: He grabbed him right in front of the whole room.
Speaker 1: It was hilarious because that's how Joey and I ended
Speaker 1: up getting married. The reason by name is Kathy Hughes.
Speaker 1: How did you get Melvin out of his shinus? Because
Speaker 1: I didn't know Melvin Lindsay as a radio personality. I
Speaker 1: knew him as when we first got cable. I knew
Speaker 1: Melvin Lindsay as a news personality. So he was like
Speaker 1: Brian gumbel Ish and I'm like, wait a minute, you
Speaker 1: were a quiet storm guy and so sexy and I
Speaker 1: was so young to even know it. So I was like, how, so,
Speaker 1: how did you? And did the song come up on
Speaker 1: the show. I cannot take full credit for getting him
Speaker 1: out of his shell. Um number one Melvine was introduced
Speaker 1: to the gay lifestyle by I also had the distinction
Speaker 1: of hiring the first openly um gay air personality Robin Holden,
Speaker 1: Yes question, DC, Robin Holden. I had to talk in
Speaker 1: code back in those days. She said, the children will
Speaker 1: be meeting this Friday night and so and so she
Speaker 1: would talking code, and Howard University was up my rear end. Okay,
Speaker 1: are you out of your mind? Conservative? Okay? Exactlytive, conservative, homophobic,
Speaker 1: all of that, okay. And at the same time, I'm
Speaker 1: getting all these rave reviews from them because DC, as
Speaker 1: quiet as is kept m okay, is a big gay
Speaker 1: and lesbian sick all right, okay, all right, okay for
Speaker 1: many many decades and so okay. So Robin was, and
Speaker 1: Robin was an incredible air personality, incredible air personality, all right.
Speaker 1: And she helped Melvine come out of his shell because
Speaker 1: I think that she made him comfortable with his sexuality.
Speaker 1: She made him feel that it was okay because Melvine
Speaker 1: was very closeted at that time, which contributed to his okay.
Speaker 1: He was engaged. I bought the engagement ring for a
Speaker 1: young lady, and she left him because she recognized that
Speaker 1: he wasn't comfortable with her. But during those times when
Speaker 1: Melvine was quiet and withdrawn and wouldn't open the microphone,
Speaker 1: his show was almost like a black musack, and so
Speaker 1: it grew in popularity. We didn't have any commercials because
Speaker 1: it was a student shift, okay, so the popular we
Speaker 1: became number one in a matter of like eighteen months.
Speaker 1: We went from no listeners to being number one in
Speaker 1: the market because Melvin wouldn't open the mic and I
Speaker 1: had no commercials. So it was NonStop love okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: music at the theme of Philly International. There's a message
Speaker 1: in our music, okay. We believed in that, and the
Speaker 1: message was one of love and affection and attention. And
Speaker 1: so Melvin blossomed and went on to become an incredible personality, incredible,
Speaker 1: He grew into himself, he got comfortable with himself. Diana
Speaker 1: Williams was very much a part of his growth in development, okay,
Speaker 1: because he realized that he could be loved regardless okay,
Speaker 1: his sexuality, his sexual preference had no bearing on his talent.
Speaker 1: And he really, really really blossomed and became this incredible,
Speaker 1: incredible television and radio personality and died too soon, too early,
Speaker 1: and so age took him away way too soon. He
Speaker 1: was our first, right like I feel like he was
Speaker 1: our first major was it just it just hurts me
Speaker 1: to my heart to think what he could have been,
Speaker 1: what he could have done had he not been discriminated against,
Speaker 1: had he not been unable to be who he really was,
Speaker 1: because talent personality galore. And once it started coming out,
Speaker 1: it was only out for a short period of time
Speaker 1: and then he was gone. He still needs to be
Speaker 1: in the Radio Hall of Fame somewhere. Absolutely absolutely deserved it.
Speaker 1: He became my most popular, but the most popular of
Speaker 1: all the hosts of the clysterm was Von Harper in
Speaker 1: New York. Von Harper, let's talk about the franchising, the
Speaker 1: franchising the Quiet Storm then, yes, I'm sorry, I mean interruption.
Speaker 1: Howard wouldn't let me franchising. They wouldn't let me license it.
Speaker 1: And at one time it was on there were stations
Speaker 1: they actually called themselves the Quiet Storm station. Howard could
Speaker 1: have supported not just the School of Communications, they could
Speaker 1: have supported the entire school off just licencing. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: I was like with the trademark. The reason I left
Speaker 1: Howard University was I realized that they had taken a
Speaker 1: billion dollar baby that God had given me, you know,
Speaker 1: the motherhood of Okay that I had birthed a billion
Speaker 1: dollar baby for Howard University, and they had thrown the
Speaker 1: baby the bath water and me out of window. And
Speaker 1: so I resigned because I resigned telling Doctor Cheek that
Speaker 1: I did not want to miss the next billion dollar
Speaker 1: baby they might impregnate be with. I would not allow
Speaker 1: anyone else to be in charge of my destiny. And
Speaker 1: that's what Radio One became. They became that. Okay, that
Speaker 1: that baby that God once again blessed me with. Because
Speaker 1: before Howard they persecuted me. They punished me for the
Speaker 1: quiet storm. Really why terribly. I was very very very
Speaker 1: provocative in my days at Howard University. I stood up
Speaker 1: for the students. I you know, opened doors and it
Speaker 1: wasn't Howard's fall HBCUs. Only you know, recently realized that
Speaker 1: education is a business. You have to make money at it, okay.
Speaker 1: And all this to be announced, books not being in classrooms,
Speaker 1: not being a sign, and had to stand in life
Speaker 1: for hours to register, Okay, all of that, that's that's
Speaker 1: part of the expert I'm like. Okay, Howard was very
Speaker 1: good to me. Howard sent me to Harvard University for
Speaker 1: six weeks to learn broadcast management because when they told
Speaker 1: me they wanted to put me in the job as
Speaker 1: general manager first and sales manager. And I said, I
Speaker 1: don't know how to do it, and they said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, you know some of the basics. And they
Speaker 1: paid my tuition business school. The business school at that time,
Speaker 1: they had a six week course called Broadcast Management. And
Speaker 1: then they paid my way for a two week course
Speaker 1: at the University of Chicago called psychographic Programming. That's when
Speaker 1: I came back and created the Quiet Storm. So both times,
Speaker 1: so you know, they say that, you know, I was
Speaker 1: their best student that never maticulate, triculated at Howard Universe.
Speaker 1: But Howard invested in me quite seriously. I would not be,
Speaker 1: you know, professionally who I am or what I do
Speaker 1: now were it not for University. And so it was
Speaker 1: easy for me. When I found out that the School
Speaker 1: of Communications was on, you know, in a danger of
Speaker 1: not losing its accreditation and perhaps having to close that,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, no, that cannot happen. I can't
Speaker 1: allow that to happen because they produced me. Okay, even
Speaker 1: though I was never a student. Okay, Howard University produced
Speaker 1: who I am professionally. You know, I think that that
Speaker 1: over the years that some of the things that I
Speaker 1: wanted for the students and for the university have come
Speaker 1: to fruition, and for that I'm eternally grateful. I always
Speaker 1: wanted to know. Like, Okay, in my mind, to just
Speaker 1: establish one radio station seems like a task, But I mean,
Speaker 1: you had or have over fifty of these radio stations.
Speaker 1: So I guess my two part question is One, how
Speaker 1: taxing is it to have eyes? Because I mean, you
Speaker 1: seem like a personable figure in terms of you probably
Speaker 1: know what works, You know your Atlanta staff like you
Speaker 1: probably you know your Dallas staff, probably the way that
Speaker 1: you know your Chicago people versus your Philly like I'm
Speaker 1: certain that you have to have some sort of personable
Speaker 1: relationships with all of these conglomerates. One, why do you
Speaker 1: care too? How taxing is it to run an empire?
Speaker 1: It's a long way to get an empire. Okay, do
Speaker 1: you're saying that it's a long way from an empire?
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna let you do this small fries talk,
Speaker 1: but I'm just saying that, Okay, whoever's like above you, like,
Speaker 1: what are you? What are you comparing yourself to? For me,
Speaker 1: it's not it's not quantity more than it's the quality.
Speaker 1: We do it differently. We do it differently. But let
Speaker 1: me say to you, Yeah, behind my back, they call
Speaker 1: me dick mama because I have some interesting rules, Like
Speaker 1: you can attest to tell us stories, we prepare to
Speaker 1: drop in. That's what I'll say. She knows, she knows
Speaker 1: that every station when they get word that miss age
Speaker 1: might be coming to town, there's a clean up mama
Speaker 1: coming home. They're just certain rules that I lived by.
Speaker 1: One is that UM, many many years ago, UM, I
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to work for Inner City Broadcasting. I
Speaker 1: put their station on the air UH in Detroit. It
Speaker 1: was LBS, okay, it was you know, BLS reconfigured, and
Speaker 1: there was an event with an individual who called a
Speaker 1: member of the staff a dumb bitch to her face,
Speaker 1: and I heard him and I quit. There are just
Speaker 1: certain things that I just will not tolerate. One of
Speaker 1: them is any of my employees being cursed at, because
Speaker 1: to me, it defeats the ability to get the best
Speaker 1: out of them. When somebody is cursed at, particularly by
Speaker 1: a superior, they're setting down, Okay, you're not going to
Speaker 1: get whatever caused you to curse them out you know,
Speaker 1: curse at them or call them out of their name,
Speaker 1: you've defeated the purpose. And so as much as I
Speaker 1: cursed at home, I don't allow it in my facilities. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's certain other things I didn't don't allow. Speaking of
Speaker 1: BLS Monday, I was going to surprise Wendy Williams, who
Speaker 1: started with me. Wendy Williams is when Individuals had her
Speaker 1: very first job with me, and she was interviewing a
Speaker 1: snoop and I could smell the weed on the first
Speaker 1: floor before I got on the elevator going up. Okay,
Speaker 1: I knew snoop was on the air. Okay, and it's funny,
Speaker 1: said Wendy. William said, Oh, I just got worried that
Speaker 1: Miss Hughes is coming out in the ability, and the
Speaker 1: snoop said, I gotta put this joint out because you
Speaker 1: don't allow no smoke of her facility. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1: And so when he said, well, this is not her facility,
Speaker 1: this is inter city, he said, if Miss Hughes is here,
Speaker 1: I gotta put it out. Okay. Because the FCC so
Speaker 1: few black owners, I was not going to allow my
Speaker 1: staff to shoot themselves and deprive themselves of an opportunity
Speaker 1: by getting me and them in trouble with the FCC,
Speaker 1: so certain things I just prohibited. It kind of gave
Speaker 1: me the reputation of being big mama. And okay, I
Speaker 1: believe in hugging. I believe that if I know you
Speaker 1: on medication, I'm an HR nightmare. Okay, my HR. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm an HR nightmare. Because if I know that you're
Speaker 1: on meds and I can kill you, you're up in
Speaker 1: the station. I'm gonna pull you aside and ask you
Speaker 1: did you forget to take your meds that morning? Because
Speaker 1: I don't want you to blow your career. I don't
Speaker 1: want you abusing the people who may work for you.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say, okay, all right, to know that,
Speaker 1: Q okay, it's important for me to know that. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't like I don't like how long you've been depressed. Now, okay,
Speaker 1: I won't think that you need to talk to somebody.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna recommend a good counselor. And then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna check and see did you follow up and call
Speaker 1: this person where I gave you a gift certificate. I
Speaker 1: was forever giving out gift certificates to go talk to somebody. Okay.
Speaker 1: It's literally like working for your auntieam okay. So for you,
Speaker 1: of course, I would think that having good numbers is
Speaker 1: good news as far as like the ratings and whatnot.
Speaker 1: I can also imagine for you it's it could be
Speaker 1: concerning when you hire personalities that sort of grow in stature.
Speaker 1: So how do you immediately not prepare, but how do
Speaker 1: you handle when you have a media personality that works
Speaker 1: for one of your stations that seems to be growing
Speaker 1: and growing and you might like if they decide to
Speaker 1: go rogue? I mean I never knew, like how like
Speaker 1: was Wendy just allowed to do whatever she wanted to
Speaker 1: do carte blanche? Or was it always like she just operated?
Speaker 1: It was like let me suffer the consequences later if
Speaker 1: I if I start, you know, burning bridges of the
Speaker 1: artists that I talk about, but she still gets the numbers. Like,
Speaker 1: how do you handle? Like? Is it? Is it a
Speaker 1: nightmare when you're artists when your personalities get bigger than
Speaker 1: you planned on them for being at least as effective
Speaker 1: for the radio station. I hope I asked that question,
Speaker 1: how would be as big as they can possibly be.
Speaker 1: But most important, isn't that bad business for you? Because
Speaker 1: when it comes to like renegotiating the contract or you know,
Speaker 1: someone tries to poach them and take them away. Hey, O,
Speaker 1: bra Winfrey, we heard you doing weather on this thing.
Speaker 1: How would you like your own show? Like? How do
Speaker 1: you handle that situation? I listen. One of my very
Speaker 1: favorite personalities of all time a brother named Jerry Bledsoll.
Speaker 1: Jerry Bledsoe worked for me both at Radio one and
Speaker 1: at whu R, but when he got an opportunity to
Speaker 1: double his salary, I helped negotiate that contract for him.
Speaker 1: You can't get too big. In my book, the bigger
Speaker 1: up to me, rising water lifts all both. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want you to get big. I also want you
Speaker 1: to maintain respect. Okay. Respect is very important to me.
Speaker 1: And the Wendy's biopick was so inaccurate. She accused Diana
Speaker 1: Williams of firing her. Dianna wasn't even there, okay, so
Speaker 1: Danna could not have done what Wendy said. I've never
Speaker 1: smoked in any of my facilities. And I used to
Speaker 1: smoke cigarettes a pack of day girl, you know, but
Speaker 1: I've never smoked in any of my facilities, because most facilities,
Speaker 1: because you know it's radio, it's it's you know, confined,
Speaker 1: and they stink after the smoke. Okay, the smoke gets
Speaker 1: in there. So yeah, and so you know, the true
Speaker 1: Wendy's story was that I knew that Wendy had a
Speaker 1: problem because one evening I had to pay she was
Speaker 1: being held hostage by her dealer and I had to
Speaker 1: pay to get her release to come to work. And
Speaker 1: I was very concerned well being. She was young. I
Speaker 1: was her first big market you know, radio job, and
Speaker 1: she passed out on the air. The reason Wendy and
Speaker 1: I parted company is she literally passed out on the
Speaker 1: air and the record back in those days, we were
Speaker 1: paying you know LPs. It was skipping and I only
Speaker 1: lived like three four minutes from the station, and I
Speaker 1: ran in there and she was literally passed out, and
Speaker 1: we got her you know, medical care, the rescue squad
Speaker 1: came and everything, and we then, um, you know, helped
Speaker 1: her move on to a different position and you know,
Speaker 1: a different market. She came back to work for me
Speaker 1: many years later. Then, even after her biopick, she requested
Speaker 1: that we'd be a second window on her television show
Speaker 1: that we're running her television show on CLEOTV, my second network. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So Wendy's issue was not her getting too big. Wendy's
Speaker 1: issue was the demon that she couldn't overcome, couldn't fight,
Speaker 1: that she couldn't win, win against. And so many of
Speaker 1: us have, you know, talent, but we also have a
Speaker 1: self destructive entity to our personality. Okay, And that's okay,
Speaker 1: that's what Wendy had, you know. I mean, Tom Joyner
Speaker 1: at one time was the biggest their personality. The only
Speaker 1: person bigger than him was Howard Stern, and that was
Speaker 1: because Howard Stern was on white stations and there were
Speaker 1: a lot more white stations. Tom Joyner was on one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty seven radio stations, of which he was
Speaker 1: number one and eighty plus of those. Okay, okay, never
Speaker 1: an issue, never once wanted, okay, him not to continue
Speaker 1: to grow. Ricky Smiley now is I'm delighting with how
Speaker 1: he's growing. Donnie Simpson came back Okay, to radio to work,
Speaker 1: so it's not an issue of them. And yeah, contract
Speaker 1: negotiations always are tough, but when you run your company
Speaker 1: the way we run ours, which is very family oriented,
Speaker 1: even with HR and all of the risk, then we
Speaker 1: don't have the same type of contract negotiations that you
Speaker 1: would have perhaps at an iHeart or someplace else. Okay,
Speaker 1: because we're quite transparent with our people. This is how
Speaker 1: much money we make off your show, this is what
Speaker 1: your ratings look like, and this is how much we
Speaker 1: can afford to pay you. Okay. I probably have a
Speaker 1: Guinness World Book record of people who have worked for me,
Speaker 1: who have gotten fired, who have quit, who have come
Speaker 1: back more times okay, one of them on this call,
Speaker 1: right right, all right, and come that many many, many ties,
Speaker 1: and some of them you know, white many times. Okay.
Speaker 1: But but I just happened to think that we all
Speaker 1: grow and we change with life an age and experiences,
Speaker 1: and I think just because we might have messed up
Speaker 1: at one time, you know, I was hopeful that Wendy
Speaker 1: would be able to make a comeback, but I you know,
Speaker 1: and be kind of doubtful now that that will because
Speaker 1: I think that her health it's not being as responsive
Speaker 1: as she would need it to be due for you know,
Speaker 1: I have a comeback, and Sherry is doing so good
Speaker 1: on that show, so lovable, and you know, and he
Speaker 1: comes you know off our network. She was on with
Speaker 1: Tom Joyner for all under years l Underwood. Yeah, now
Speaker 1: sear underword was a black Republican on Tom Jordan's show.
Speaker 1: First she would just did a feature. Okay, whoa and
Speaker 1: so the only one that I really had an issue with.
Speaker 1: And now he's back. He's on my Atlanta station, Steve
Speaker 1: Harvey and Okay, Steve and I party. It was the
Speaker 1: best thing that ever happened to Steve. Atlassed him to
Speaker 1: become the great LA. People know who Steve Harvey is
Speaker 1: because of my company. He did my morning show at
Speaker 1: the Beach in Los Angeles. Okay, that was his first
Speaker 1: major gig, and Steve wanted to do things his way
Speaker 1: and that didn't work for me. So I sent a
Speaker 1: shock waves through the company the morning and I used
Speaker 1: to tell Steve quite honestly, I said, listen, I did
Speaker 1: Morning Drive before eleven years. I'm waiting to talk about it. Okay,
Speaker 1: please do not tip me to replace you with myself,
Speaker 1: but to be on the radio in LA. Okay, Steve
Speaker 1: think I was serious until that morning and he and
Speaker 1: I party company and I said in his chair okay,
Speaker 1: and yeah, yeah, you called his blood. What were the
Speaker 1: things he wanted to do that I guess didn't jail
Speaker 1: with you. You say you want to do it his way?
Speaker 1: What ideas did he'd have that just didn't work for
Speaker 1: what you want to do or things? It just may
Speaker 1: not work for radio period. You know, Steve is very talented,
Speaker 1: but very dogmatic and his approach to how he wants
Speaker 1: to do things and get things done. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to go into specific Yeah, but but how
Speaker 1: did y'all come back together? Then? With all of that time,
Speaker 1: we came back together almost immediately because it was the
Speaker 1: best thing that ever could have happened to him, And
Speaker 1: I told him that. Let me just say to you,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been married, and I've been in some
Speaker 1: serious long term relationships, and I'm friends with all of
Speaker 1: my excess because to me, just because a person is
Speaker 1: your ex whether's professionally or personally, you shouldn't be bad
Speaker 1: mouth and then makes you look like you know, you
Speaker 1: got good sense, makes you look like you don't have
Speaker 1: good Yes, let's talk about it, miss Hughes. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: the same way professionally, all right, just because it didn't
Speaker 1: work out, I'm not gonna bad mouth for you. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna stop you from getting other opportunities. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna stand in your weight, okay, because it makes me
Speaker 1: look like I didn't know what I was doing when
Speaker 1: I hired you. Okay, all right, same thing with Xes.
Speaker 1: I give this lecture to young women all the time.
Speaker 1: It is crazy for you to be bad mouthing your
Speaker 1: baby daddy. Okay, you got practified him, Okay, you shut
Speaker 1: enough of him, okay to have a baby with him,
Speaker 1: and now he is low lived dog. And people basically
Speaker 1: don't change, so church true. Okay, then that's why he was.
Speaker 1: When you decide you want let him get you pregnant,
Speaker 1: that doesn't reflect very favorably on you. I feel the
Speaker 1: same way personally. Hey wait, my paid hold on this.
Speaker 1: Use Philosophically speaking, If people don't change, how do you
Speaker 1: give them second and third chances? How does that work?
Speaker 1: I mean, their basic personalities don't change. People do change.
Speaker 1: You learn, you learn, your understanding of them changes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: your understanding of them changes, and they do change in
Speaker 1: terms of how they operate. Okay, all right. We haven't
Speaker 1: had any of the issues with Steve being on our
Speaker 1: stage state stations in a syndicated capacity. That we had
Speaker 1: was working for me directly and and I mean right
Speaker 1: after Steve came. La La La La was my midday
Speaker 1: air personality at Beat. Lalla was a midday mommy too.
Speaker 1: Laa was with Chris I'm a lov and Plue daddy.
Speaker 1: Remember in Atlanta, that's where she started. I knew La
Speaker 1: La when she was an MTV personality, the one the way,
Speaker 1: we're the one who got her that child. The woman
Speaker 1: who was the program director at MTV was Mary Catherine
Speaker 1: Mary Mary Catherine Sneed, who was in charge of programming
Speaker 1: for all my radio stations. As she said, and listen,
Speaker 1: there's a great opportunity. I think Laala would be perfect
Speaker 1: for okay, and we negotiated that contract for La La,
Speaker 1: And again it kind of hurts my feelings because La
Speaker 1: La talked about it. I started off in radio. I
Speaker 1: would say, could you call her company's name? It would
Speaker 1: help us. We're a small black company, you know any Okay,
Speaker 1: that's true. I'm so grateful to you having me on this. Please.
Speaker 1: You've had all okay, uh, the kings and queens of
Speaker 1: celebrity don okay, and for you to allow me to
Speaker 1: come on is such an honor. I'm so grateful to
Speaker 1: all of you all for her fabric of America. What
Speaker 1: are you saying? You're a part of the fabric? You
Speaker 1: are all of our lives, Hey, y'all, It's like EA.
Speaker 1: And that's where we will end Part one of the
Speaker 1: Quest of Supreme interview with Kathy Hughes, the first black
Speaker 1: woman to head a media company publicly traded on the
Speaker 1: US Stock Exchange. You may know those companies as TV
Speaker 1: one and Radio one, which come together as Urban One.
Speaker 1: Miss Hughes has been in my life since the beginning,
Speaker 1: so I am truly honored to have her on her
Speaker 1: first ever podcast interview with Team Supreme. Yes, stay tuned
Speaker 1: for Part two, where Kathy speaks about her commitment to
Speaker 1: portray black excellence on television, stories on some of her
Speaker 1: famed hosts, and the role of radio in the Black
Speaker 1: community today. As a QLs tradition, we will continue to
Speaker 1: celebrate Women's History Month with some of the strongest female voices,
Speaker 1: and that's definitely Kathy Hughes. Don't forget to check out
Speaker 1: Part two coming soon. M M much Love. Supreme is
Speaker 1: the production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.