Cathy Hughes

Cathy Hughes was an American entrepreneur and media executive who made history in 1999 when, after her media company Radio One went public, she became the first African-American woman to own a publicly traded company. Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Hughes grew up in a working class family who encouraged her creative spirit. Her mother was a prominent jazz trombonist in Omaha, while her father became the first African-American man to graduate with an accounting degree from Omaha's Creighton University. Needless to say, from a very young age, Hughes was inspired to dream big. Equipped with that positive mindset, Hughes embarked on a journalism career in Omaha in the early 1960s. She wrote for a newspaper called the Omaha Star, which mostly covered African-American issues, and found that she enjoyed the process of writing about the people in her community. Hughes left Omaha in 1969 and moved to Washington, D.C. to take a position as a lecturer at Howard University's School of Communications. It was during her tenure at Howard that Hughes became intrigued by the University's student radio station. She took a job as the station's sales manager, and eventually became so successful at the position that she was promoted to General Manager. It was also during this time that Hughes became instrumental in launching the "Quiet Storm" radio format that revolutionized R&B radio. With her radio career on the rise, Hughes co-founded the media company Radio One in 1980. The company, which supplied radio stations targeted to African-American audiences, eventually expanded into several major markets all across the country. When Radio One went public in 1999, Cathy Hughes made history by becoming the first African-American woman to own a media company. Building on the success of Radio One, Hughes launched TV One in 2004. Much like Radio One, TV One was a cable TV network that offered quality programming, including entertainment shows and interviews, for an African-American audience.