WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Cathy Hughes Part 1 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.000 Post Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.040 I'm so honored. This is my very first podcast. 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:14.880 Oh my god. That means you've denied many a requests, 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:15.520 but we made it. 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:17.720 I misues, I'm sugar Steve. 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:21.800 I love your name. 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:23.079 Thank you a single. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:29.319 Don't ask about it if you want to. 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.159 Say, don't make any inquiries that you're not looking for it. 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:36.120 Yeah, I'm serious. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:36.360 Man. 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:39.599 I don't know where you are, but I know your 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:40.599 Bill's managing now. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:43.960 But so I want to you get a lot done today. 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:49.640 Dis years, I'm gonna get paid finally. All we've doing 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:50.600 this for way too. 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:55.960 Long that I haven't paid yet. It would be super jinky. 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:57.720 This is gonna be the first time that I will 0:00:57.760 --> 0:00:59.880 admit on the air that I might be stealing the 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:06.960 neighbors and Wi Fi. I was thinking, no, they don't 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.320 know I'm stealing it. Shout out to apartment b letting me. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.200 This episode of Quest Left Supreme brought to you by 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.360 my next door neighbors. Thank you, pladies and gentlemen. This 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:22.120 is Quest Left Supreme. We are together again. We're together, 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:25.880 all five of us. It's been a minute. 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:29.240 Oh yeah, hey William here. 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:31.640 Hey Bill, have you you've been going a long time. 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.399 I went to Fante's house to get cigarettes and I'm back. 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.360 I'm back. I'm happy to be back. Thank you. 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.680 So I'm hearing around the grape vine that you've created 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.160 yet another Broadway hit. 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.080 You know, people seem to like it. People come to 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:48.080 see it. It's exciting. 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:49.880 I'm you're in the buzz. I'm here in the buzz. 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:51.840 I think you should come see it. I think everyone 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:54.440 should come to see it. It's quite it's a good show. 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.640 Tell you how Bill is? Just say that a mer 0:01:57.720 --> 0:01:59.400 I asked Bill. I said, so, how long is the 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:01.800 show running? He was like, what do you mean? It 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.040 just run? And I was like, oh, that's that happened 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.200 to everybody, or okay, it's just Broadway into. 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.400 Bill comes from Hamilton pedigree, so that means that anything 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.760 he creates, you know. Meanwhile, like I've seen, like at 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.800 least four of my friends kind of have to go 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:21.040 back to the drawing board and you know, shut down 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.240 there Broadway plays and you know. 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.560 Oh sobar just speaking about things we create. January nineteenth 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.880 is the premiere of jam Van Starry, starring three fifths 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:33.920 of Quest Love Supreme Laiah as the Big Old Book 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:34.840 of Travel. 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.200 Get it first animation role Yep. 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.280 And Fonte wrote a song for Davie Diggs, which is 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:41.360 I believe episode three or four. But anyway, tune in 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:46.840 YouTube Originals YouTube Kids, January nineteenth, first two episodes. Shout 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:48.320 out to Quest Love Supreme. There you go. 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:52.920 Yes, we took care of business. Yeah we are, we 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.359 are talented. So, ladies and gentlemen, I will say that 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:02.320 as a media Wait a minute, yes, media personality, now, absolutely, 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:07.720 yeah you are. I'm a media personality. I'm not a 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.680 drummer anymore. Okay, I'll take that. So I will say 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.280 that as a media personality. I gotta think about that. 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:22.560 You know, I was from a generation which radio was boss. 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:28.600 Radio was the common denominator, even amongst our qols fam here. 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.480 I know that I've had We've talked about Whyia's history 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:37.000 as a radio personality in Philadelphia and other markets. 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:42.720 What were your other markets besides Philadelphia? Atlanta, DMV, the Atlanta. 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:46.640 Yes, you've done every shift, you've done, You've done the 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:51.920 afternoon shifts. You've been midday mommies. You're you why it 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.760 was a mid day mommy for a little bit. When 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.400 you start in radio, I know that you start with 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.880 weekends and off duty hours, and then you'd start in 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.080 the morning, and then when you when they trust you 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.360 enough to have your own afternoon show, you become a 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:09.320 midday mommy. 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:12.320 Wait, what's a guy get like does a guy get 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:12.840 that title? 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.760 Like York? No? 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:21.120 Anyway, very few men mid days. 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.279 We got to talk about it's a reason too. 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:25.960 Oh I wouldn't. Yeah, this is going to be the 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:27.280 radio educational show. 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.040 Steve and I like are bonding even of this this 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:35.000 very platform that we're on. Steve and I always talked 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:37.920 and fantasized about, like both he and I come from 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.200 a place where we used to have like as kids, 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:44.880 our own uh you know, pretend radio shows. I know 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.320 Steve to this day still has like collections of his 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:50.960 You still have like your fantasy radio shows when you 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:52.680 were like twelve, right, Oh. 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.000 Yeah, I have all that stuff. Plus I have an 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:59.360 actual radio show these days on WKCR. I totally forgot 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:04.560 that Steven Network actually had my own Sugar Network. Maybe 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:08.440 I've maybe heard we're turning five years old in February. 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.719 It's real, it's real. Yes, of course, Steve has his 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.039 own network Fonte and Bill. I don't know what you 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:16.000 guys were into. But I would assume that at some 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.520 point in your life you two also had the radio 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:22.720 fantasy of just I don't know Howard's tart is about 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:24.080 to hit me with that. Noah, I never did that, 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:25.520 do no, No, I did well. 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:26.719 I didn't do radio. 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:29.920 I did radio in my uh in college. I had 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.200 a had a rat Meadpool actually had a show on 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:36.480 audio Net, which is like our campus radio station, and 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:38.360 you could listen to it like in your dorm room, 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.360 and so I would do it there. I would make 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:43.960 like tapes and stuff as a kid, and like act 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.320 like a radio announcer, and you know, okay, yeah I 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:50.120 And then I mean our first album WJLR, that was 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:51.160 a fictional radio station. 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:53.320 That's right, even on your own records, you. 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:58.400 Had radio station multiple album I will basically say that 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.839 you know, no music lever I know could resist the 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.800 fantasy of playing radio station. And even to this day, 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.480 like I make mixtapes for friends, I make the slow Jamp. Actually, 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:12.760 our guest is also really responsible for like a game 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.760 changing innovation in radio, which is the quiet storem for 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:23.000 for met like I cannot even put forth any you know, 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.880 and and a short amount of words of how instrumental 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.119 and powerful our guest is today when it comes to radio. 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:33.480 Simply put you know, between all the markets I've named 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:39.760 the cities Atlanta, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Richmond, the dm. 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:41.360 LS. 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:47.320 Absolutely if your fans of Ricky Smiley, Russ Parr, Reverend 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:48.200 NOWD Sharpton, T. D. 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.960 Jakes, D L. Hughley, Erica Campbell like you can name 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:53.560 them all. 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:59.040 She's literally responsible one of the most powerful figures in communication. 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:04.479 Owner of Urban One formerly Radio one, TV one, Interactive one. 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.960 I cannot believe we pulled this off. Thank you very much. 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.800 We have the one and only Kathy Hughes one quest 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:13.480 Love Supreme. 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.760 That's probably the longest introduction I've ever given them life. 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.560 I am so appreciative and it's so interesting. It's my 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.240 very first podcast ever. I don't know what my staff 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:26.640 is going to say about this. 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:30.760 Are they scared? Are they nervous? 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.200 Well, no, they've been trying to get me to do 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:38.360 a podcast, really have not. Yes, you're the first I've 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.360 said yes to. But I got to go back to 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.320 the pretend radio stations. Mine was my bathroom and my 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:50.080 microphone was a toothbrush. Really, there were six of us 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.120 in the house, and I locked the bathroom door. I 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.080 didn't give a damn that people had to go to 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.720 school and work. I was doing a radio show and 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:01.360 I never came out until my show is over, because 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:03.080 I knew when I came out, I was going to 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:06.600 be physically abused by everybody in the house. They were 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.880 throwing things at me and banging. And the interesting thing, 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.880 I only did two things. I did news and I 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:16.320 did commercials. That was the start of my. 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:17.840 Resiaon and the records at all. 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.960 That's been any records being I didn't have a turntable 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.400 in the bathroom, so we didn't have okay, and I 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.200 can't sing, and so there was no music. It was 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:33.839 all narrative. I practiced, and it's so interesting because I 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.360 was very serious about it. I did it for years 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.040 because my aspiration was to one day be the first 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.280 African American woman to have a nationally syndicated radio show. 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:47.880 And I knew I had to practice. And I was 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:52.000 twelve years old, and I did my hour broadcast every 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.280 single solitary morning. So finally my mother compromised with me 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:57.400 and told me, if I had to have the bathroom 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.480 for an hour. I had to do it between hours 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.880 four am and five am, and I cheated. I would 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:08.040 do five to six, okay, all right, but everybody was 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:11.320 always you know, because in those days, I don't know 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:15.439 how people family survived because it was only one bathroom 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.840 and now all right, yeah, and we didn't even notice 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.160 that there was only one bathroom and we had to 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:24.439 go in except in the morning when I was joining 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:26.720 my radio show. So that was the start of my 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:28.240 career for you. 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:33.080 Like when I mentioned radio, what were your memories of it? 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:35.400 Who were you listening to as a kid? 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.120 Well? Number one, I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:42.160 so I listened to Conway Twitty. 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:45.720 What you know about Conway Twitty? 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:48.960 Wow, That's who I listened to. We listened to all 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:54.240 we listened to Righteous Brothers. We listened to. It was 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:59.640 called country and Western. And my mother, for my twelfth birthday, 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:05.080 for Chrisristmas, put a baker for a radio, a transistor 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:09.440 radio as she put it in Layoway for Christmas. But 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.920 she couldn't afford to get it out until April, and 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.480 so I got it for my birthday and for the 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.360 first time I could hear what I thought were black 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:22.440 air personalities. They were really wolf Man, Jack and Hoss 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.600 and all of these white personalities sounded like they were 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:29.679 black because they didn't allow black men on radio back then. Wow. 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:33.800 Really okay, And I was fantasizing about being this woman 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.480 who was going to be on radio, not knowing that 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.880 Hattie McDaniel was the first African American woman to have 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:45.280 a nationally syndicated radio show. She was was forty years 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.520 old when I found that out, and all the way 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:51.720 from twelve years old to forty, my goal was to 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.560 have a nationally syndicated radio show. So I was kind 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.840 of thankful that God withheld that information from me. Okay. 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:01.120 And it was so it because I was in the 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:04.080 middle of teaching a class at Howard and I looked 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:07.120 in this book that I wanted to recommend to my 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.800 students to read, and there it was, and it was 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.960 like the words popped out of a page in my eyes, 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.520 and I'm like, oh, my goodness, I've been inspiring. But 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.120 it's what was driving me. So I was really kind 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.200 of glad that I did not know, because back in 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:26.280 those days, syndicated radio was the thing. The NBC Radio series, 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:30.960 the ABC Radio series, back in those days people way 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:35.360 before anybody you know on this podcast was even born. 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.360 We watched radio. We set around and when you look 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:43.000 at the radio and you imagine and you visualize, and 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:47.320 I mean some of my greatest radio memories were the 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.360 boxing matches because my daddy was a big sports fan. 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:54.719 Oh wow, the crowd, the enthusiasm, you felt you were 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:59.920 actually there. And then my mother was a very accomplished music. 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:03.280 She had a group called the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:07.600 eighteen piece all women's orchestra in the nineteen thirties and forties, 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.959 and they were world renowned. They traveled all over Europe. 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.720 They were in Germany, they were in France, they were 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:20.679 in all these foreign countries playing for the American soldiers 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:22.760 and they would have to do one night for the 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.040 black soldiers, another night for the white soldiers. But the 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:31.280 International Sweethearts of Rhythm were nicknamed by Earl Father Hines 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:36.040 as the first Freedom writers because they were integrated and 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:40.000 the white members of the band would actually darken their face. 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.120 They would be in not black face, but they would 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.600 have dark makeup on to pass for black. As they 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.000 would travel through the South. And it was really interesting 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:53.840 because the police. The stories they told about how the 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.400 police would come aboard their bus. They had the first 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.719 tour bus ever built. Because they couldn't stand tells. They 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:05.600 took an old, deserted greyhound bus and put three stacks 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.880 of bump bands, and that's where they rehearsed, that's where 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.320 they lived, that's where they traveled throughout and the police 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:16.440 would come on board the bus and they would think 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.160 that the biracial women were the white women, and they 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:22.360 would think that the white women were actually the black 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.240 women because they would have them to make up. 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:27.280 Oh what would have happened if they found out that 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:30.240 white people and black people were together. They would have 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.679 thought they were freedom writers and arrested. 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:38.880 Them more absolutely, absolutely exactly. It was very dangerous. So, 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.319 you know, so radio was like second nature to me 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:47.080 because I've been trying to write this book for thirty years. 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:50.520 And the book starts off when I was five years old, 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.960 and it was the first time that I realized. My 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.840 mother's picture was in the mirror at the Apollo and 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:03.400 she's rushing. We're late for her a performance of her band, 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:08.200 and I'm staying there staring at my mother. And that 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:11.560 was the first time that I realized that that I 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.160 was growing up in the entertainment industry. I don't know 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.960 what you realized it, you know, because you tooques Love 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.280 grew up in the entertainment industry. But that was the 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:23.520 first time they had dawned up on me that my 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.880 mother was more than just my mama, okay. And then 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.120 that evening for the first time when I saw her 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.880 on the stage, I was like, oh my goodness. Because 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:34.920 back in those days, they made me sit on the 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.280 front row because they wouldn't leave me backstage. I had 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.720 seventeen aunties, so they can babysit me, because even back 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:47.000 then they were worried about molestation and drugs were going 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.680 on backstage, and so did you experience this, so that 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:51.400 they would make me sit on the front road, so 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:53.200 did they keep an eye on me. 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:56.000 I sat at the bar. I was I was the 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:57.880 only five year old allowed to sit at the bar. 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.640 And then once I was seven, like I was working, 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.400 I was stage manager. So they that's how they didn't 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:06.160 believe in babysitters until way later. 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:10.720 But absolutely yeah. And then a years later when I 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.800 met Moms Maybley and read Fox when we reopened the 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:18.280 Howard Theater in DC, They told me about how when 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:20.600 I was a baby that the girls in the band 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.560 would pull a drawer out in the hall and when 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.920 they can stay in people's houses or in hotels, and 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.280 that was my bass and net. They would take a 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:32.240 drawer out of the dresser okay, and they would put 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:34.360 covers in it, and that's where I would sleep. 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.680 The first time we said Mom Maybley on this podcast, 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.480 I was such a big fan of hers as a kid, 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.440 like I'm I love you, thank you for saying her name. 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:49.600 Well, my baby sister is named Jackie after Jackie moms Mabley. Wow, 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:54.760 my mother named because Moms Maypley told me she recognized me. 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:56.720 It was strange. I was the general manager of w 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.360 h you are at the time. She said, come here, girl. 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.680 She said what's your name? And I said it's Kathy 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.480 And she said your mama named Helen. I said yes, ma'am, 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.320 And she said I bought you your first bassinet because 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:16.280 they had you sleeping in a dresser drawer. She said, 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:21.000 get your mama on the phone. Okay, okay. I had 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.400 no idea, And then she told me all these stories 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.080 about how, in addition everything else, one of the leader 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:33.760 tractions of my mother's group was a woman named Tiny Davis, 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:39.120 world renowned trumpet player, and Tiny was a lesbian and 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.560 that that Moms Mapley told me that she was the 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:47.800 first openly, you know, a lesbian entertainer, and that you 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.040 know that not only were they not supposed to have 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.680 black and white people, they also were not supposed to 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:55.440 have gay and lesbian people. 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:57.480 Right, Okay, I think it was my raining the way 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:58.000 I'm okay. 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.240 They were really pighan years in so many different areas, 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:04.040 and it was the nineteen thirties. 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:13.280 And forties, Okay, so probably you know, in the in 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.520 the wake of what I've been sort of going through 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.720 last year in terms of After Summer Soul, a lot 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:23.200 of people started. 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.000 Which was thank you, thank you, thank you for that, thank. 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:28.479 You God, thank you for receiving that. 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.200 Thank you, Oh my goodness, no, and promoting and still 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:36.080 talking about it regularly on all of our airwaves. That 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:40.000 was the most magnificent piece. That was almost a significant 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.560 of when they found oscarm shows films they had been 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:47.080 buried in oh all the okay, for you to bring 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.040 that to life, in my opinion, was an oscar show. 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.000 So forgive me for cutting you off, but I thank 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:52.640 you to tell you. 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.399 That I'll take that compliment. I appreciate that. Thank you. 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:56.160 Well. 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:57.560 I was going to say to you that. 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:03.760 I've just beginning so many like you know, just random 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:07.920 archive stuff, and someone was really incredible enough to give 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:14.320 me like almost one hundred hours of like vintage radio programs. 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:21.840 I mean like Hal Jackson, Sid McCoy, Jacko Henderson. You 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:25.040 know what is So here's the weird thing, the million 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:29.680 dollar research right now, we've been I have a little 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:30.440 pack of like. 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:35.760 Maybe eight or nine cats that like collect these things. 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.840 For the life of us. We are are searching high and. 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:43.520 Low for either Georgie Woods's radio show or the dance 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:45.640 show that he used to have in Philadelphia. 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.080 That's like thats goal to us. 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.480 But I wanted to ask, like, did you have any 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:57.280 interaction with like the first generation of syndicated radio personalities 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.960 like like Jocko Henderson or Sid McCoy, any of those 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:05.200 like golden voice gods of kind of like the fifties. 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.440 No, because I was still a child, I was still 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:13.119 fantasizing and still growing up in Omaha, Nebraska. I knew 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:18.720 more about Johnny Carson okay, okay, and the fondas and 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:22.280 Marlon brand Do. All of these were Omaha folks in 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:23.720 the industry. 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.760 Okay, to get into the pool, Like what year is 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:31.840 do you consider your first professional year? Not professional year, 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:34.920 but the year of Like I guess now, a person 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:36.640 want to have to start as an intern and then 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:38.800 in turn to an assistant and assistant. 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:40.560 To sort of work your way up the ladder. 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.639 What's the what's the first step that you had to 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:48.520 take to officially plant some feet inside of that world? 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:50.480 I started off as an owner. 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:54.320 But yeah, that's a flex. 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:59.320 That's the greatest flex of all time. That's the show. 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.040 Good night, Omaha. 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:08.600 I dropped the bike right. Omaha's African American community has 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.760 produced some of the greatest athletes of all time. Bob Gibson, 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:17.400 one of the greatest pictures, Okay, Baseball Hall of Famer, 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:24.320 Johnny Rogers, Heisman Trophy winner, Bob Boozer, basketball, Paul Silas. 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:28.119 We had all of these incredible athletes, and they decided 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.359 to pull their resources and take Willie Nilson off the 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.280 radio and put James Brown on. So they decided that 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.119 they were going to buy a radio station and create 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:43.960 a black format. And I have always been a saver. 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:48.399 My mother and father both instilled in me if you 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:50.359 get a dime, you get to spend a nickel and 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:52.920 put a nickel in At that time my cigar box 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.639 when I was a child, Okay, that was my bank. 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.479 And so I had my little ten thousand dollars saved 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:03.000 when they came up with this venture, and so I invested. 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:09.920 So my my experience was as an owner. 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:16.600 Ten thousand, ten thousand now might be like five hundred bucks, 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:21.639 but ten thousand then was like five hundred thousand. Now like, 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.919 where did you find the patience to what did you 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:26.160 have to sacrifice to save? 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:30.159 My father died at forty five, okay, and my portion 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:34.239 of the insurance was about eight thousand. Okay, So I 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:37.240 only had about two thousand in nickels and dimes that 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:39.879 I had saved myself. But I had ten thousand dollars. 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:45.840 So I invested in this radio station. And then because 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:48.399 I had been bitten by this radio bug as a 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:53.479 child ko w H and Omaha, Nebraska, I went to 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:57.920 start volunteering. My first job was one of the owners, 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:02.119 all of us, all the owners were actually volunteering. Biggest mistake, biggest, 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:07.080 biggest business error in my career was when I moved 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:09.600 to Washington, d C. And I told them, I said, listen, 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:12.199 I have this opportunity to join the faculty of the 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:16.680 Howard University School of Communications. I don't know any d C. 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:20.600 I have a five year old son. Would you all please, 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:23.680 you know, buy me out. So they bought me out 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.280 at the same amount that I had put in, which 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.760 was a ten thousand dollars. Years later all of them 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:32.959 made two three, four hundred thousand dollars a piece. Then 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:37.200 they proposed the state but I didn't have any idea then, 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:41.760 okay that that you know, the value would appreciate at 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:44.119 that level. So they gave me my ten thousand dollars 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:46.879 back when I moved to Washington, d C. But I 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:50.440 started off my career in radio as an owner, not 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:54.280 working my way up. I ended up working my way 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.440 up when I was the general manager of whu R 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:01.240 and the staff decided they wanted to union nice and 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:03.280 I wasn't going to have it because it would have 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:07.919 forced the students out of the facility. Okay, I was 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:10.199 not going to allow the union to come in and 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:14.600 deny the only reason Howard University had whu R with 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:20.080 Stanford wh Howard university radio was for the students, and 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:23.359 yet we had all of these professionals, many of whom 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.920 were no longer employable in the industry, holding on to 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:32.240 their positions and denying the students the opportunity to be 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:38.200 on the air. And so they went on strike. And 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:41.159 so when they went on strike, I told the students, 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:42.800 it's me and you, and we went on the air, 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:45.240 and I was trembling. That was the first time I 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:46.879 had ever been on the air. 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:47.760 OK. 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:50.720 So I have these a group of teenagers and me, 0:23:51.280 --> 0:23:53.040 and we're going to keep the station on the air. 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:58.640 Because to this day, thank god, Howard University still is 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:04.359 a facility students can get commercial training because college radio 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:07.760 could not suffice in getting these kids' jobs when they 0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:12.840 graduated from college. They needed to have a commercial credential 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:14.120 on their resume. 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:17.320 I'll say it again, still the best college radio station too. 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:19.320 I just wanted to say it again to me in 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:20.040 the nation. 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:21.040 I will say it. 0:24:21.240 --> 0:24:25.040 I mean, that's that's the first, even before my own 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:31.040 hometown started playing us, like Howard University was the early supporter, 0:24:31.200 --> 0:24:33.480 even before like our album came out. 0:24:33.800 --> 0:24:36.080 That's how I run my radio stations to this day. 0:24:36.640 --> 0:24:41.040 That that is not just about employing the people who 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:45.240 you know, make the salaries, but it's also about creating 0:24:45.400 --> 0:24:50.560 jobs for artists, for writers, for producers, creating opportunities for 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:55.280 them that you know, nobody else is going to afford them. 0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:59.239 This was before if black became fashionable and everybody you 0:24:59.240 --> 0:25:03.080 know decided, oh my goodness, okay, this trillion dollar you 0:25:03.119 --> 0:25:05.960 know community that we're missing out on, we're going to 0:25:06.040 --> 0:25:08.200 hop over here in the black space. But back then, 0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:14.040 you know, it was not possible. There were no crossovers. Okay, 0:25:14.440 --> 0:25:17.320 you neither got played in black radio or you did Okay, 0:25:17.480 --> 0:25:20.960 you didn't get played. And so that's that's been always 0:25:21.000 --> 0:25:23.120 a priority with my programming. 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:27.240 Because you're an owner, maybe you can explain this to me. Okay. 0:25:27.320 --> 0:25:32.000 So when I got in the industry professionally, at least 0:25:32.000 --> 0:25:34.280 with the roots, it was like ninety. 0:25:34.000 --> 0:25:38.200 Three, And when our third album. 0:25:37.880 --> 0:25:42.560 Came out in ninety six, ninety six, ninety seven, one 0:25:42.600 --> 0:25:45.360 of our radio promotion guys at the label was trying 0:25:45.359 --> 0:25:49.600 to explain to me, something new is happening at radio 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:51.760 that's going to make it harder for us to get 0:25:51.800 --> 0:25:56.119 you guys on radio. And you know the thing that 0:25:56.160 --> 0:26:00.119 they were saying, explaining to me was was basically that. 0:26:00.960 --> 0:26:03.840 Whereas when we used to visit radio stations in ninety three, 0:26:03.920 --> 0:26:08.320 ninety four, ninety five, personalities on the air had control 0:26:08.359 --> 0:26:10.760 of what they played. So they were like they were 0:26:10.800 --> 0:26:13.680 the taste makers. If hey, I know about this cool 0:26:13.720 --> 0:26:16.680 group from Philadelphia, you guys should hear them, and they 0:26:16.720 --> 0:26:21.000 played the record, Whereas now we were coming to radio 0:26:21.000 --> 0:26:25.720 stations and things were like pre programmed almost weeks in 0:26:25.760 --> 0:26:27.359 advance before you even get there. 0:26:28.119 --> 0:26:34.480 Yeah, they consolidated. What they did was limit access to artists. 0:26:34.720 --> 0:26:38.480 That's the reason you know we're a very unique corporation, 0:26:39.520 --> 0:26:43.959 Because yeah, we're very unique corporation because my air personalities 0:26:44.400 --> 0:26:50.360 still have control over their dott Simpson, I would never 0:26:51.240 --> 0:26:54.840 in soul the Donnie Simpson by telling him what to play. Okay, 0:26:55.200 --> 0:26:58.000 all right, If Donnie Simpson didn't know what to play, 0:26:58.040 --> 0:27:01.880 then he shouldn't be on the radio, Okay. Nannie Simpson 0:27:01.960 --> 0:27:06.359 controls his playlist, Russ Park controls his plist. Ricky Smiley. 0:27:06.840 --> 0:27:10.399 Now we give them some assistance because with automation and things, 0:27:10.440 --> 0:27:13.800 everything's got to be in the computer. Okay. But also 0:27:14.359 --> 0:27:18.840 I have always believed that, and I think This was 0:27:18.880 --> 0:27:21.399 my experience at Howard University when I was the general 0:27:21.440 --> 0:27:25.639 manager of w h u R. I think that, you know, 0:27:26.080 --> 0:27:28.840 some of the major corporations use it as an excuse 0:27:28.880 --> 0:27:32.680 to avoid Paola that they said that, you know, if 0:27:32.720 --> 0:27:38.560 you control the playlist corporately, then you eliminate the Okay. Well, 0:27:38.600 --> 0:27:41.959 over the years, I have watched a lot of people 0:27:42.119 --> 0:27:47.480 figure out how to get around okay, okay, the controlled playlist, 0:27:47.840 --> 0:27:50.479 and the tragedy is that they limited, you know, like 0:27:50.560 --> 0:27:55.199 in Atlanta. When I realized how popular the music of 0:27:55.240 --> 0:28:00.359 Atlanta was and how unique it was to Atlanta. Okay, 0:28:00.560 --> 0:28:05.240 when I recognized Go Go as being like the national 0:28:05.280 --> 0:28:06.960 anthem of Washington. 0:28:06.600 --> 0:28:06.879 D C. 0:28:08.920 --> 0:28:15.400 Baltimore House exactly, Baltimore, Yeah, exactly, I realized that this 0:28:15.480 --> 0:28:19.679 isn't something that could be controlled corporately. That and the 0:28:19.760 --> 0:28:22.680 other thing that bothered me very much is is I've 0:28:22.680 --> 0:28:26.199 always had an open door policy. The artist can always 0:28:26.200 --> 0:28:28.320 get to me, my staff can always get to me. 0:28:28.760 --> 0:28:31.440 And when I was hearing that, you know, they won't 0:28:31.440 --> 0:28:34.080 play me because I'm local, they won't play me because 0:28:34.119 --> 0:28:37.239 I don't have representation. They won't play me for this 0:28:37.400 --> 0:28:41.240 reason or that reason. You know, I felt an obligation 0:28:41.360 --> 0:28:45.600 to try to be of assistance to individuals, particularly on 0:28:45.800 --> 0:28:48.760 the local level. Now do we have a system now 0:28:48.880 --> 0:28:52.640 in place, Yes, because in additionary now else what has 0:28:52.720 --> 0:28:58.320 happened is technology. We're able to test the songs immediately 0:28:58.400 --> 0:29:05.760 for you, okay. And I think that oftentimes we find 0:29:05.760 --> 0:29:09.240 ourselves in opposition to what the label wants to release 0:29:09.920 --> 0:29:13.000 as opposed to what our audience tells us they want 0:29:13.000 --> 0:29:20.200 to hear. And so we still have a control system, 0:29:20.360 --> 0:29:23.120 the quasi control system. But at the same time, my 0:29:23.200 --> 0:29:28.080 air personalities have the flexibility because I paid them a 0:29:28.080 --> 0:29:30.959 lot of money, and a lot of that money is 0:29:31.000 --> 0:29:33.800 paid to them because of their knowledge and their experience 0:29:33.840 --> 0:29:38.080 and their expertise. I want them to be aware of what, 0:29:38.360 --> 0:29:41.080 you know, the trends are in the clubs, if we're 0:29:41.440 --> 0:29:44.239 if it's if you're on my hip hop format. I 0:29:44.280 --> 0:29:49.520 want them to really help resurrect some of these classic 0:29:50.560 --> 0:29:54.400 R and B X that we're not for us okay. 0:29:54.920 --> 0:30:00.760 If we had not really conceptualized you know, adult can temporary, 0:30:01.680 --> 0:30:05.240 all right, some of these artists would still be working 0:30:05.280 --> 0:30:09.640 as sales clerks somewhere as opposed to performing. I have 0:30:09.680 --> 0:30:14.560 always been being in business a lot more than just 0:30:14.680 --> 0:30:18.760 making money for the business. I was taught. My family 0:30:18.800 --> 0:30:22.200 has a mantra, which is that in order for you 0:30:22.600 --> 0:30:25.600 to do well in your life, you must first do 0:30:25.720 --> 0:30:29.520 good for other people. And I've always wanted to do 0:30:29.680 --> 0:30:33.160 good because I can't tell you how many nights my mama, 0:30:33.200 --> 0:30:36.200 as a professional musician, had to feed us scrambled eggs 0:30:36.240 --> 0:30:39.320 for dinner because we couldn't afford because some promoter hadn't 0:30:39.360 --> 0:30:43.600 paid her, or some gig hadn't worked. So I understood 0:30:43.640 --> 0:30:49.360 how life was hard for artists. And my mama was 0:30:49.400 --> 0:30:52.000 at top of the game, okay, and she still wasn't 0:30:52.040 --> 0:30:55.840 making money all right, because she was playing swing. And 0:30:55.920 --> 0:31:00.560 so I've always had this commitment with my format. The 0:31:00.640 --> 0:31:05.520 other stations have a lot more resources. They're a lot 0:31:05.640 --> 0:31:09.200 larger than us. You know, we're big or black owned media. 0:31:09.240 --> 0:31:11.960 We're the biggest in black owned media, but compared to 0:31:12.240 --> 0:31:15.240 you know what used to be Clear Channel, which started 0:31:15.240 --> 0:31:19.600 the same year as Radio One, okay, with lowry mains. 0:31:20.680 --> 0:31:23.680 But when you look look at these major corporations that 0:31:23.760 --> 0:31:28.040 are now in the black space, even with their control 0:31:28.240 --> 0:31:32.000 of the format, they still have some of the same 0:31:32.080 --> 0:31:35.040 problems they had before they controlled it. But at the 0:31:35.080 --> 0:31:38.200 same time, because of their size, they're still able to 0:31:38.280 --> 0:31:41.160 have a relationship with the artists. I want to have 0:31:41.240 --> 0:31:43.720 more than a relationship with an artist. I want to 0:31:43.720 --> 0:31:46.400 be able to tell the story of the first time 0:31:46.760 --> 0:31:52.000 I played John Legend. His name was John Steve and okay, 0:31:52.040 --> 0:31:54.760 all right, and he brought me ten cassette tapes that 0:31:54.840 --> 0:31:58.080 he had produced himself with a magic marker, and when 0:31:58.400 --> 0:32:00.880 he was selling them at ten dollars piece that I 0:32:00.920 --> 0:32:02.680 went up to him and I said, young man, I'd 0:32:02.760 --> 0:32:04.880 like to buy all ten and he said, oh no, ma'am. 0:32:04.920 --> 0:32:06.680 I'm sorry. I can't suwm to you because I need 0:32:06.720 --> 0:32:10.520 to try to get these disc jockeys to listen. I said, well, 0:32:10.520 --> 0:32:12.760 I know this jockey say to be your kid and 0:32:12.880 --> 0:32:13.200 tell me. 0:32:17.040 --> 0:32:21.520 Hard that's that's gas money to get to the next show. 0:32:21.800 --> 0:32:29.040 And I'm sorry, I know this is the less I talk. 0:32:28.120 --> 0:32:30.920 Because I'm paid. I will get a condition off of paid. 0:32:30.960 --> 0:32:32.040 I represented him. 0:32:32.080 --> 0:32:38.000 Now, finally the respect I deserve after all these years. 0:32:38.280 --> 0:32:40.480 Thank you, Thank you, You're welcome. 0:32:40.600 --> 0:32:42.680 I wanted to ask because you mentioned moving to d C, 0:32:42.840 --> 0:32:44.880 but I want you to talk about moving to d C. 0:32:45.080 --> 0:32:47.280 I believe you said it was because of that opportunity 0:32:47.320 --> 0:32:48.080 at hu are. 0:32:48.560 --> 0:32:50.840 No, it was actually the opportunity to be on the 0:32:50.840 --> 0:32:53.920 faculty in the first school of Communications. 0:32:54.000 --> 0:32:56.760 Okay, So talk about moving to DC and the difference 0:32:56.800 --> 0:32:58.600 of culture and what you saw, and don't get a 0:32:58.640 --> 0:33:01.760 twisted you must have fell in love because you've never left. 0:33:02.680 --> 0:33:04.320 Can you talk about that. 0:33:04.800 --> 0:33:06.920 I grew up in an environment where they were only 0:33:06.960 --> 0:33:11.400 white folks and black folks and Native Americans. I never 0:33:11.440 --> 0:33:16.480 saw an Asian. I never saw anyone a Hispanic Latino. 0:33:17.560 --> 0:33:21.520 I never saw a foreigner. Okay. Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, 0:33:21.600 --> 0:33:24.200 it was strictly black folks, white folks, and our Native 0:33:24.200 --> 0:33:28.200 American brothers and sisters were on reservations. When I got 0:33:28.240 --> 0:33:31.320 to DC, I saw black excellence. I used to write 0:33:31.360 --> 0:33:34.240 back home and say that my eyes were tired, my 0:33:34.400 --> 0:33:37.120 eyeballs were because I was just like an awe. I 0:33:37.160 --> 0:33:40.480 was like a kid. I had never seen black doctors, 0:33:40.520 --> 0:33:45.360 black lawyers, black everything. Howard University was like to me 0:33:45.640 --> 0:33:49.880 going to heaven. I could not believe. Okay, I just 0:33:50.080 --> 0:33:54.800 because I had never ever experienced this in my growing up. 0:33:55.360 --> 0:33:59.160 Because by the time I was in school, my mother's 0:33:59.280 --> 0:34:01.800 band had the men had come back from the war, 0:34:02.280 --> 0:34:05.719 so her all female band was never not no longer 0:34:05.760 --> 0:34:10.320 in demand, and so my mama went and became a nurse. 0:34:10.880 --> 0:34:14.040 So when I came to Howard, I was part of 0:34:14.080 --> 0:34:17.560 the very first faculty that Tony Brown put together and 0:34:17.680 --> 0:34:21.279 created the School of Communications around the radio station. They 0:34:21.280 --> 0:34:22.640 had the radio station before. 0:34:22.640 --> 0:34:23.400 They had so many to. 0:34:27.160 --> 0:34:36.720 Tony Brown. Who has Tony Brown's journal still Brown, Yes. 0:34:36.000 --> 0:34:37.560 Shout out Tony Brown. 0:34:37.960 --> 0:34:40.000 At the age of twelve, when I went to the 0:34:40.040 --> 0:34:45.560 Democratic National committing Kansas City, gave me two tickets to 0:34:45.600 --> 0:34:49.520 the Victory Tour because the Jackson's opened the Victory Tour 0:34:49.640 --> 0:34:53.360 in Kansas City. Wow, just randomly gave me two And 0:34:53.600 --> 0:34:56.520 those are hard tickets to get. I love Tony Brown 0:34:56.719 --> 0:34:58.479 just for that. I forgot about Tony Brown. 0:35:00.880 --> 0:35:05.320 That's empired me because the University of Nebraska did not 0:35:05.560 --> 0:35:10.520 have a Black studies department because it's very conservative okay 0:35:10.520 --> 0:35:13.759 in Nebraska. But we had a Black Studies committee and 0:35:13.800 --> 0:35:16.759 I was the chairperson of the Black Studies Committee, and 0:35:16.800 --> 0:35:20.040 we would bring Tony Brown to Omaha to speak all 0:35:20.080 --> 0:35:23.319 of the time. So when doctor James Cheek offered him 0:35:23.360 --> 0:35:26.080 the position of the first dean and asked him to 0:35:26.080 --> 0:35:30.000 create the School of Communications. Tony said, would you like 0:35:30.080 --> 0:35:32.319 to come and be part of our faculty? And at 0:35:32.320 --> 0:35:36.279 that time, again I was elated. Quincy Jones was on 0:35:36.320 --> 0:35:40.239 the faculty stand Latham was on the faculty. Velvet Van 0:35:40.400 --> 0:35:43.480 People's was on the faculty. Oh, yes, we had a 0:35:43.600 --> 0:35:44.440 faculty then. 0:35:44.719 --> 0:35:46.680 Okay, oh I'm Christmas parties. 0:35:46.840 --> 0:35:52.080 Oh okay, I mean. It was unbelievable. And my first 0:35:52.160 --> 0:35:57.400 assignment was a communications conference. And at that communications conference, 0:35:57.520 --> 0:36:02.680 nobody could attend the Communications Conference conference from Corporate America 0:36:02.719 --> 0:36:06.800 and the entertainment industry unless you had guaranteed in writing 0:36:06.880 --> 0:36:10.440 to Tony Brown and myself that you would hire at 0:36:10.520 --> 0:36:14.920 least two students. We have students from all the HBCUs 0:36:15.000 --> 0:36:19.239 come and that very first year, that very first conference, 0:36:19.520 --> 0:36:23.640 one hundred and seventy two students of color got jobs 0:36:23.680 --> 0:36:27.040 in the industry because of Tony Brown. Tony Brown said, 0:36:27.360 --> 0:36:28.960 we don't need for you all to come to window 0:36:29.040 --> 0:36:30.640 dress if you're going to come and meet with these 0:36:30.640 --> 0:36:33.640 students from around the country. So that was our first 0:36:33.719 --> 0:36:36.680 kickoff to the School of Communications at Howard. 0:36:36.719 --> 0:36:39.920 Which the school which is now named the Kathy Hughes 0:36:39.960 --> 0:36:44.000 school Latin. 0:36:44.600 --> 0:36:47.360 Do you have a listing of like just some of 0:36:47.360 --> 0:36:52.319 the who's who of personalities that have sort of just 0:36:52.360 --> 0:36:53.680 come through your. 0:36:54.200 --> 0:36:59.880 It's amazing to me. It's amazing to me as you age, 0:37:00.200 --> 0:37:04.160 because you know your life and I still work, so 0:37:04.239 --> 0:37:07.640 it keeps, you know, it keeps, you know, going on. 0:37:07.800 --> 0:37:10.960 But no, it's not a who's who's list. And it's 0:37:11.000 --> 0:37:14.520 so amazing to me when the people come up to 0:37:14.560 --> 0:37:18.120 me and tell me stories about you know, you gave 0:37:18.160 --> 0:37:21.719 me my first opportunity, or you played my record. Okay, 0:37:22.320 --> 0:37:25.360 you did this, Okay, are you open this door? You 0:37:25.360 --> 0:37:28.800 you know you booked me. The first time I booked 0:37:28.800 --> 0:37:32.440 Earth Winning Fire, I had a total of twenty people 0:37:32.480 --> 0:37:35.080 in the Crampton Auditorium and I went and stood on 0:37:35.120 --> 0:37:37.800 the corner of Georgia Avenue at the entrance to Howard 0:37:37.880 --> 0:37:42.480 and bade people to come in. And Jessica Clees was 0:37:42.480 --> 0:37:47.319 the lead singer, not Philip Bailey. Okay, I remember. 0:37:48.400 --> 0:37:48.839 All right. 0:37:49.239 --> 0:37:52.920 And when I see Verdean Verde, he was there, you know. 0:37:53.080 --> 0:37:55.720 He said to me, says to me all the time, 0:37:55.880 --> 0:37:58.360 this is the lady who got us started, because she 0:37:58.480 --> 0:38:01.080 went out there on the corner and bagged people to 0:38:01.160 --> 0:38:03.520 come in. And when I tell people that the lead 0:38:03.640 --> 0:38:07.239 singer for earth Winding Fire was Jessica Cleves, they're like, 0:38:07.520 --> 0:38:14.360 what okay, No, okay, you know this okay? And like 0:38:14.400 --> 0:38:19.120 I said, I had twenty people, but Jim Brown, Okay. 0:38:19.480 --> 0:38:23.480 Jim Brown was involved with Jessica Cleves and he had 0:38:23.480 --> 0:38:26.720 put money, he had given more recite money to start 0:38:26.760 --> 0:38:30.239 this group called earth Winding Fire. All right, and my 0:38:30.440 --> 0:38:34.520 uncle were very good friends in Los Angeles, and so 0:38:34.640 --> 0:38:37.080 my uncle had hooked him up with me, and so 0:38:37.160 --> 0:38:40.440 he had brought me this group called earth Winding Fire. Okay, 0:38:41.320 --> 0:38:44.040 So I went on the We went on the radio 0:38:44.120 --> 0:38:46.799 and told people to come. Nobody had heard him. Nobody came, 0:38:47.200 --> 0:38:49.279 and so I think before the evening was over, I 0:38:49.360 --> 0:38:52.120 might have gotten forty people in there to hear the 0:38:52.160 --> 0:38:56.680 mat Crampton Auditorium. Car Vitorium is a fifteen seat hundred 0:38:56.760 --> 0:38:57.640 seat venue. 0:38:58.080 --> 0:39:06.360 Right, everyone gets this start. So were was there an 0:39:06.400 --> 0:39:08.160 act that was a hard sell? 0:39:08.960 --> 0:39:09.160 You know? 0:39:09.239 --> 0:39:11.800 Did you get an awkward prince back in like nineteen 0:39:11.880 --> 0:39:13.560 seventy eight when he wasn't ready yet? 0:39:13.600 --> 0:39:16.120 Like listen, I can't tell you how many battles I 0:39:16.160 --> 0:39:19.200 fought for Prince because I discovered Prince when he was 0:39:19.239 --> 0:39:21.640 like thirteen or fourteen years old, and people thought he 0:39:21.760 --> 0:39:24.440 was outscene was the word that they used to describe, 0:39:24.480 --> 0:39:26.800 you know, And I was like, this boy's a musical genius. 0:39:26.800 --> 0:39:30.480 This kid is unbelievable. He pays every instrument there is. 0:39:30.520 --> 0:39:32.319 What are you talking about outseeing? 0:39:32.600 --> 0:39:32.759 Oh? 0:39:32.840 --> 0:39:37.480 His lyrics. Remember, music and fashion have gone through periods 0:39:37.480 --> 0:39:42.239 where there was serious censorship and okay, and certain things 0:39:42.280 --> 0:39:45.920 weren't allowed, and you know, lyrics had to become a 0:39:45.960 --> 0:39:52.239 camouflage like plus the Magic Dragon was about weed. Okay, okay, 0:39:53.040 --> 0:39:55.520 you know you had to camouflage, you had to have 0:39:55.600 --> 0:39:59.480 you know, the double meaning. But so many but I 0:39:59.520 --> 0:40:03.480 guess that probably the John Stephens story is the biggest 0:40:03.560 --> 0:40:10.400 in terms because his accomplishments and still he's he's still young, okay, Okay. 0:40:10.520 --> 0:40:13.799 Nobody knows where he will end up because he's been 0:40:13.920 --> 0:40:17.640 like a rocket ship with so many various groups over 0:40:17.680 --> 0:40:20.239 the years. But one of the things that I've been 0:40:20.239 --> 0:40:25.839 proud is of, quite frankly, was the assistance that we 0:40:26.000 --> 0:40:29.120 did provide for the do wop groups and for the 0:40:29.160 --> 0:40:31.799 oldies but goodies as they call them, because so many 0:40:31.800 --> 0:40:36.960 of these individuals were starving, okay, all right, I mean 0:40:37.120 --> 0:40:39.880 they loved the art, they loved the music, but they 0:40:39.920 --> 0:40:43.080 couldn't work any longer, and disco just killed so many 0:40:43.080 --> 0:40:46.840 of them off. And it was not until we during 0:40:46.840 --> 0:40:50.480 that same era, came up with this concept of you know, 0:40:50.680 --> 0:40:55.279 basically oldies, but we you know, put more sophisticated titles 0:40:55.320 --> 0:40:56.960 to it, dealt contemporary. 0:40:57.200 --> 0:41:01.520 Okay, so you help us sure in like the nostalgia 0:41:01.920 --> 0:41:02.840 era or. 0:41:02.840 --> 0:41:06.080 The urban ac category. I mean I think she's saying 0:41:06.200 --> 0:41:09.600 that they created the urban acn category. 0:41:09.040 --> 0:41:14.839 No question, okay, and it was to really provide platforms 0:41:15.360 --> 0:41:18.560 we have this had this event for years until it 0:41:18.640 --> 0:41:22.400 became too big, quite frankly for us to handle. I 0:41:22.440 --> 0:41:25.040 admired the fact that Philadelphia still is able to do. 0:41:25.080 --> 0:41:28.160 There's called the Stone Soul Picnic. And the Stone Soul 0:41:28.239 --> 0:41:31.719 Picnic was only these old groups that you know, the 0:41:31.719 --> 0:41:39.279 Ohio players, okay, all these groups that had been dormant. Okay. 0:41:39.560 --> 0:41:44.080 Nobody was buying them, nobody was sampling them, okay, nobody 0:41:44.200 --> 0:41:48.200 was recognizing them for their their brilliance, and uh, we 0:41:48.280 --> 0:41:51.600 started resurrecting them, okay. And I kind of stumbled into 0:41:51.640 --> 0:41:54.719 it after I had created the Quiet Storm because the 0:41:54.800 --> 0:42:01.600 Quiet Storm was love music. Love was bad ballots, and 0:42:02.320 --> 0:42:06.880 I had to really reach back, all right to eras 0:42:06.960 --> 0:42:09.560 where lyrics told stories. 0:42:09.800 --> 0:42:12.000 You gotta tell that story. You need to tell the 0:42:12.080 --> 0:42:13.400 Quiet Storm story. 0:42:13.760 --> 0:42:14.640 Where's the name from? 0:42:14.840 --> 0:42:17.680 Explain to us who Melvin Lindsay was and how you 0:42:17.719 --> 0:42:21.520 guys invented. You guys basically helped triple the population. 0:42:23.440 --> 0:42:25.560 Let me tell you that. The reason, the main reason 0:42:25.560 --> 0:42:28.920 I want to write my book is because when W. H. U. R. 0:42:29.080 --> 0:42:34.239 Celebrated his anniversary, there were several inaccurate accountings of the 0:42:34.320 --> 0:42:38.520 Quiet Storm. Number One, Melvin Lindsay was not the originator. 0:42:38.600 --> 0:42:43.680 Melvin Lindsay was my third whoa not my first? He 0:42:43.800 --> 0:42:48.080 was my third, okay? Whoa all right? Schools was a 0:42:48.200 --> 0:42:52.719 kid named Don Roberts who broke my heart because he 0:42:52.840 --> 0:42:56.839 was the most talented of my first three. But he 0:42:57.520 --> 0:42:59.839 was good looking, and he said to me, I got 0:42:59.840 --> 0:43:04.080 a for television missus Lincoln's okay, because I wasn't even 0:43:04.120 --> 0:43:06.440 married to do even he said, I don't want to 0:43:06.440 --> 0:43:09.359 be in at a radio studio where no one could 0:43:09.400 --> 0:43:11.840 see me. Sure not went on to be a big 0:43:11.880 --> 0:43:16.600 time anchor in Baltimore. Maryland, Okay, Don Robert my first. 0:43:16.880 --> 0:43:20.720 My second was a young man named Jack Schuler. Jack 0:43:20.800 --> 0:43:25.719 Schuler was Melvin Lindsey's best friend. Melvin Lindsey was my 0:43:25.920 --> 0:43:28.520 intern that I paid out of my pocket. He picked 0:43:28.520 --> 0:43:31.680 my son up from school. He came because Howard said 0:43:32.160 --> 0:43:34.160 that they didn't have a budget for interns and I 0:43:35.080 --> 0:43:39.600 needed some of the students to actually be in a 0:43:39.640 --> 0:43:44.319 position to earn some money. So Jack Schuler was vomiting 0:43:44.520 --> 0:43:47.759 literally after each show or doing the show. He was 0:43:47.800 --> 0:43:50.480 so nervous, he was trembling. He said, please don't make 0:43:50.520 --> 0:43:54.440 me do this. No more, Miss liggoans. Please please Melvin 0:43:54.480 --> 0:43:57.359 to do it, Melvin to do it. So Melvin told 0:43:57.360 --> 0:43:59.600 me he would do the Quiet Storm if I didn't 0:43:59.600 --> 0:44:03.279 make him up. Open the microphone, so if there were 0:44:03.320 --> 0:44:07.359 any early tapes that looking for it, yeah, he would 0:44:07.360 --> 0:44:11.279 say good evening and welcome to the Quiet Storm. The 0:44:11.320 --> 0:44:14.200 next time you would hear Melvin Lindsay's voice, he would say, 0:44:14.200 --> 0:44:18.720 thank you for listening to the Quiet Storm. I'm Melvin Lindsay. 0:44:18.840 --> 0:44:24.080 There was nothing in between from Melvine except the music. 0:44:24.600 --> 0:44:28.080 Great taste in music. It was my private music collection 0:44:29.000 --> 0:44:32.080 and I started it out on Saturday night and then 0:44:32.200 --> 0:44:38.000 on Sunday, and then I decided that it was the 0:44:38.120 --> 0:44:42.560 conception of the Quiet Storm was for a senior to 0:44:42.640 --> 0:44:46.680 be chosen by the faculty, two seniors, in fact, one 0:44:46.719 --> 0:44:51.080 for each semester, to give them a commercial experience on 0:44:51.120 --> 0:44:55.360 their resume. Okay. It was never for one person to 0:44:55.440 --> 0:44:58.880 host the show. It was never supported. It was supposed 0:44:58.880 --> 0:45:02.719 to be a rotation opportunity. The closest I came to 0:45:02.840 --> 0:45:06.839 it was Milton Allen, who was married to Pat Prescott 0:45:06.880 --> 0:45:14.160 in La Sheila Eldritch and Franklin. Those were my three, Okay, 0:45:14.200 --> 0:45:19.520 students that I was able to rotate. Okay, nobody else rotated. Okay. 0:45:19.600 --> 0:45:23.439 People came and got stuck, including Melbourne. Well, Melvin did 0:45:23.520 --> 0:45:30.719 so good that kys Kiss told him that they would 0:45:30.760 --> 0:45:32.920 give him an opportunity if he would come and be 0:45:33.000 --> 0:45:36.760 on the air at Kiss. So Melvin walks into my office. 0:45:36.800 --> 0:45:38.759 Now this is like I told you, he said, Jim Tern, 0:45:39.360 --> 0:45:44.560 I have literally supported him. Okay. His parents would say 0:45:44.560 --> 0:45:46.720 to him, well, you need to ask miss Liggans first 0:45:46.800 --> 0:45:48.640 before you do so. And so I had picked his 0:45:48.719 --> 0:45:50.759 classes for him, the whole nine yards. He tells me 0:45:50.800 --> 0:45:53.399 on a Friday that he's got an offer, and he's 0:45:53.400 --> 0:45:56.240 going to work at Kiss and I'm thinking he's somebody 0:45:56.280 --> 0:45:58.680 after graduation and all this, And I said, when he 0:45:58.719 --> 0:46:01.960 said Monday, I was so irate. I told him to 0:46:01.960 --> 0:46:06.480 get out of my office. Hey, yes, So Dewey Hughes, 0:46:07.480 --> 0:46:12.120 who at that time had fourteen Emmys for his productions 0:46:12.160 --> 0:46:17.240 at the rcity NBC fourteen mm's okay, he created youth News, 0:46:17.320 --> 0:46:22.920 he created music videos as quiet as Kep. Anyway, Dewey 0:46:22.960 --> 0:46:25.480 comes to my office and he tells me that it's 0:46:25.480 --> 0:46:29.040 a setup, that NBC just wanted Melvin off the air, 0:46:29.480 --> 0:46:32.080 and that they had him in the mill room and 0:46:32.160 --> 0:46:36.600 would I please bring him back? And I said bring 0:46:36.680 --> 0:46:38.920 him back, and he said, let me take you to 0:46:39.000 --> 0:46:42.480 dinner and talk to you about this. Well ultimately doing, 0:46:42.520 --> 0:46:46.520 and I got married, and Melvin came back. Okay, And 0:46:46.760 --> 0:46:52.040 years later okay there and years later I never well forget. 0:46:52.040 --> 0:46:54.680 We were at this big affair and Melvin was being 0:46:54.760 --> 0:46:58.400 honored and I was in the audience with Dewey and 0:46:58.440 --> 0:47:01.440 Melvin didn't acknowledge the thing that was even in the audience, 0:47:01.840 --> 0:47:06.320 and Dewey had torn his achilles, attended to play a 0:47:06.400 --> 0:47:09.840 basketball he was on crutches. He went up to the 0:47:09.920 --> 0:47:14.359 head table ones he grabbed Melvin Lindsay around the neck 0:47:14.760 --> 0:47:24.920 and he said, I'm married because of you, Okay, and 0:47:24.920 --> 0:47:27.600 then we went back to the microphone. Well, I'm so sorry. 0:47:27.600 --> 0:47:30.439 I didn't know she was here. He grabbed him right 0:47:30.440 --> 0:47:33.400 in front of the whole room. It was hilarious because 0:47:33.440 --> 0:47:35.719 that's how Juey and I ended up getting married. The 0:47:35.760 --> 0:47:37.480 reason my name is Kathy Hughes. 0:47:37.840 --> 0:47:41.920 How did you get Melvin out of his shyness? Because 0:47:42.200 --> 0:47:45.640 I didn't know Melvin Lindsay as a radio personality. I 0:47:45.680 --> 0:47:50.399 knew him as when we first got cable. I knew 0:47:50.440 --> 0:47:54.000 Melvin Lindsay as a news personality. So he was like 0:47:54.080 --> 0:47:56.239 Brian gumbel Is and I'm like, wait a minute, you 0:47:56.360 --> 0:47:57.960 were a quiet storm. 0:47:57.760 --> 0:48:00.759 Guy in so sexy and I was still young to 0:48:00.760 --> 0:48:01.680 even know it. 0:48:01.760 --> 0:48:05.240 So oh yes, I was like, so how did you? 0:48:05.320 --> 0:48:07.000 And did the song come upo the show? 0:48:07.400 --> 0:48:09.840 I cannot take full credit for getting him out of 0:48:09.880 --> 0:48:16.640 his shell. Number one Meloyn was introduced to the gay 0:48:16.719 --> 0:48:20.759 lifestyle by I also had the distinction of hiring the 0:48:20.800 --> 0:48:27.680 first openly gay air personality, Robin Holden Washington d C. 0:48:28.440 --> 0:48:31.360 Robin Colden. I had to talk in code back in 0:48:31.360 --> 0:48:33.520 those days. She said, the children will be meeting this 0:48:33.640 --> 0:48:36.280 Friday night and so and so she was talking code 0:48:36.680 --> 0:48:40.480 and Howard University was but my rear end, Okay, are 0:48:40.520 --> 0:48:41.720 you out of your mind? 0:48:41.840 --> 0:48:42.440 Conservative? 0:48:42.920 --> 0:48:48.279 Okay, executive, conservative, homophobic, all of that, okay, and UH 0:48:48.520 --> 0:48:52.400 at the same time, I'm getting all these rave reviews 0:48:52.440 --> 0:48:57.800 from the UH because d C, as quiet as it's kept, okay, 0:48:57.960 --> 0:49:02.600 is a big gay and lesbian city, all right, okay, 0:49:02.640 --> 0:49:08.760 all right, okay for many many decades and so okay. 0:49:08.800 --> 0:49:12.719 So Robin was and Robin was an incredible air personality, 0:49:12.880 --> 0:49:17.480 incredible air personality, all right. And she helped Melvin come 0:49:17.520 --> 0:49:19.560 out of his shell because I think that she made 0:49:19.640 --> 0:49:24.000 him comfortable with his sexuality. She made him feel that 0:49:24.080 --> 0:49:28.560 it was okay because Melvin was very closeted at that time, 0:49:28.600 --> 0:49:33.399 which contributed to his Okay, he was engaged. I bought 0:49:33.400 --> 0:49:37.000 the engagement ring for a young lady, and she left 0:49:37.080 --> 0:49:43.319 him because she recognized that he wasn't comfortable with her. 0:49:43.800 --> 0:49:46.800 But during those times when Melvin was quiet and withdrawn 0:49:46.840 --> 0:49:51.200 and went to open the microphone, his show was almost 0:49:51.239 --> 0:49:54.760 like a black musac. And so it grew in popularity. 0:49:55.160 --> 0:49:59.480 We didn't have any commercials because it was a student shift, okay, 0:49:59.719 --> 0:50:03.680 so they popular. We became number one in a matter 0:50:03.800 --> 0:50:07.960 of like eighteen months. We went from no listeners to 0:50:08.080 --> 0:50:11.359 being number one in the market because Melvin wouldn't open 0:50:11.400 --> 0:50:13.360 the mic and I had no commercials, So it was 0:50:13.560 --> 0:50:20.920 NonStop love music. Wow Okay, okay, okay music the theme 0:50:21.000 --> 0:50:24.560 of Philly International. There's a message in our music, okay. 0:50:24.680 --> 0:50:27.160 We believed in that, and the message was one of 0:50:27.239 --> 0:50:31.839 love and affection and attention. And so Melvin blossomed and 0:50:31.920 --> 0:50:38.239 went on to become an incredible personality, incredible, He grew 0:50:38.280 --> 0:50:42.120 into himself, he got comfortable with himself. Deanna Williams was 0:50:42.200 --> 0:50:45.400 very much a part of his growth and development, okay, 0:50:45.440 --> 0:50:49.120 because he realized that he could be loved regardless of, okay, 0:50:49.480 --> 0:50:54.040 his sexuality, his sexual preference had no bearing on his talent. 0:50:54.520 --> 0:51:01.520 And he really really really blossomed and became this incredible, 0:51:01.760 --> 0:51:08.760 incredible television and radio personality and died too soon, too early, 0:51:09.360 --> 0:51:12.640 and so age took him away way too soon. 0:51:13.320 --> 0:51:15.479 He was he was our first, right like I felt 0:51:15.480 --> 0:51:18.319 like he was our first major was. 0:51:20.120 --> 0:51:23.000 It just it just hurts me to my heart to 0:51:23.120 --> 0:51:26.279 think what he could have been, what he could have 0:51:26.400 --> 0:51:31.279 done had he not been discriminated against, had he not 0:51:31.480 --> 0:51:37.040 been unable to be who he really was, because talent 0:51:37.320 --> 0:51:41.080 personality galore. And once it started coming out, it was 0:51:41.120 --> 0:51:43.399 only out for a short period of time, and then 0:51:43.640 --> 0:51:44.320 he was gone. 0:51:45.400 --> 0:51:46.719 He still needs to be in the Radio Hall of 0:51:46.760 --> 0:51:47.400 Fame somewhere. 0:51:48.280 --> 0:51:53.759 Absolutely absolutely deserved it. He became my most popular, but 0:51:53.800 --> 0:51:55.920 the most popular of all the hosts of the kliss 0:51:55.960 --> 0:52:00.440 Starm was Von Harper in New York. Von Harper, let's. 0:52:00.280 --> 0:52:03.759 Talk about the franchising, the franchising of the Quiet Storm. Then, yeah, 0:52:03.880 --> 0:52:05.080 I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. 0:52:06.880 --> 0:52:09.200 Howard wouldn't let me franchise it. They wouldn't let me 0:52:09.280 --> 0:52:12.279 license it. And at one time it was on there 0:52:12.280 --> 0:52:15.560 were stations that actually called themselves the Quiet Storm station. 0:52:16.600 --> 0:52:19.640 Howard could have supported not just the School of Communications, 0:52:20.680 --> 0:52:25.280 they could have supported the entire school off just licensing. 0:52:26.640 --> 0:52:28.319 Yes, that sounds like what the tek. 0:52:29.360 --> 0:52:32.719 The reason I left Howard University was I realized that 0:52:32.760 --> 0:52:37.240 they had taken a billion dollar baby that God had 0:52:37.760 --> 0:52:43.319 given me, you know, uh, the motherhood of Okay that 0:52:43.360 --> 0:52:46.319 I had birthed a billion dollar baby for Howard University, 0:52:46.680 --> 0:52:49.000 and they had thrown the baby the bath water and 0:52:49.120 --> 0:52:53.440 me out of window. And so I resigned because I 0:52:53.560 --> 0:52:57.480 resigned telling Doctor Cheek that I did not want to 0:52:57.520 --> 0:53:01.200 miss the next billion dollar baby they I might impregnate 0:53:01.239 --> 0:53:04.759 me with. I would not allow anyone else to be 0:53:04.800 --> 0:53:08.200 in charge of my destiny. And that's what Radio One became. 0:53:08.320 --> 0:53:12.439 They became that. Okay, that that baby that God once 0:53:12.480 --> 0:53:16.680 again blessed me with. Because before Howard they persecuted me. 0:53:16.800 --> 0:53:19.560 They punished me for the quiet Storm. 0:53:20.200 --> 0:53:22.520 Really why terribly. 0:53:23.120 --> 0:53:28.279 I was very very very provocative in my ye my 0:53:28.440 --> 0:53:31.440 days at Howard University. I stood up for the students. 0:53:32.000 --> 0:53:39.080 I you know, opened doors and it wasn't Howard's fault, HBCUs. 0:53:39.120 --> 0:53:44.280 Only you know, recently realized that education is a business. 0:53:44.360 --> 0:53:48.560 You have to make money at it, okay. And all 0:53:48.640 --> 0:53:52.520 this to be announced, books, not being in classrooms, not 0:53:52.640 --> 0:53:55.600 being a signed, having to stand in line for hours 0:53:55.640 --> 0:53:59.600 to register, Okay, all of that, that's that's part of 0:53:59.640 --> 0:54:00.239 the expert. 0:54:03.880 --> 0:54:04.120 Okay. 0:54:05.200 --> 0:54:07.680 Howard was very good to me. Howard sent me to 0:54:07.800 --> 0:54:12.520 Harvard University for six weeks to learn broadcast management because 0:54:12.560 --> 0:54:13.960 when they told me they wanted to put me in 0:54:14.040 --> 0:54:19.160 the job as general manager first as sales manager. I said, 0:54:19.200 --> 0:54:22.280 I don't know how to do it, and they said, well, 0:54:22.480 --> 0:54:25.279 you know, you know some of the basics. And they 0:54:25.719 --> 0:54:31.720 paid my tuition to the business school at that time 0:54:31.800 --> 0:54:34.520 they had a six week course called Broadcast Management. 0:54:34.680 --> 0:54:35.000 Wow. 0:54:35.600 --> 0:54:39.080 And then they paid my way for a two week 0:54:39.120 --> 0:54:43.080 course at the University of Chicago called Psychographic Programming. That's 0:54:43.080 --> 0:54:46.080 when I came back and created the Quiet Storm. So 0:54:46.239 --> 0:54:50.440 both times, so you know, they say that, you know, 0:54:50.760 --> 0:54:55.800 I was their best student that never matriculated at Howard University, 0:54:55.840 --> 0:54:59.279 but Howard invested in me quite seriously. I would not be, 0:55:00.320 --> 0:55:03.399 you know, professionally who I am or what I do 0:55:03.920 --> 0:55:07.359 now were it not for university. And so it was 0:55:07.440 --> 0:55:10.080 easy for me. When I found out that the School 0:55:10.080 --> 0:55:14.040 of Communications was on you know, in a danger of 0:55:14.560 --> 0:55:18.759 not losing its accreditation and perhaps having to close that, 0:55:19.040 --> 0:55:21.439 I was like, oh, no, that cannot happen. I can't 0:55:21.480 --> 0:55:26.600 allow that to happen because they produced me. Okay, even 0:55:26.600 --> 0:55:30.880 though I was never a student. Okay, Howard University produced 0:55:30.920 --> 0:55:34.080 who I am professionally. You know. I think that that 0:55:34.320 --> 0:55:36.640 over the years that some of the things that I 0:55:36.680 --> 0:55:39.640 wanted for the students and for the university have come 0:55:39.680 --> 0:55:42.360 to fruition, and for that I'm eternally grateful. 0:55:47.280 --> 0:55:51.280 I always wanted to know, Like, Okay, in my mind, 0:55:51.960 --> 0:55:58.080 to just establish one radio station seems like a task, 0:55:59.480 --> 0:56:04.880 But I mean, you had or have over fifty of 0:56:04.920 --> 0:56:09.280 these radio stations. So I guess my two part question 0:56:09.440 --> 0:56:15.280 is One, how taxing is it to have eyes? Because 0:56:15.360 --> 0:56:20.480 I mean, you seem like a personable figure in terms 0:56:20.520 --> 0:56:25.400 of you probably know what works. You know your Atlanta staff, like, 0:56:25.440 --> 0:56:28.040 you probably know your Dallas staff the probably the way 0:56:28.040 --> 0:56:30.799 that you know your Chicago people versus your Philly Like 0:56:30.840 --> 0:56:33.080 I'm certain that you have to have some sort of 0:56:34.000 --> 0:56:38.040 personal relationships with all of these conglomerates. 0:56:38.840 --> 0:56:44.440 One, why do you care? Two? How taxing is it 0:56:45.200 --> 0:56:47.960 to run an empire? 0:56:50.000 --> 0:56:51.880 It's a long way you get the empire. 0:56:52.000 --> 0:56:56.360 Okay, you're saying that it's a long way from an empire. 0:56:59.200 --> 0:57:00.920 I'm gonna let you do this mom Fries talk. But 0:57:00.920 --> 0:57:04.359 I'm just saying that, Okay, whoever is like above you, like, 0:57:05.200 --> 0:57:07.000 what do you what are you comparing yourself to? 0:57:07.120 --> 0:57:07.239 Is? 0:57:07.600 --> 0:57:10.239 For me, it's not It's not quantity more than it's 0:57:10.239 --> 0:57:11.000 the quality. 0:57:11.600 --> 0:57:14.359 We do it differently. We do it differently. But let 0:57:14.360 --> 0:57:16.440 me say to you, Yeah, behind my back, they call 0:57:16.520 --> 0:57:19.400 me dig Mama because I have some interesting rules, like 0:57:19.560 --> 0:57:21.080 you can attest. 0:57:20.720 --> 0:57:25.120 To tell us stories, drop in. 0:57:25.200 --> 0:57:27.360 That's what I'll say. She knows, she knows that every 0:57:27.400 --> 0:57:30.080 station when they get word that miss h might be 0:57:30.120 --> 0:57:32.040 coming to town, there's a clean. 0:57:31.920 --> 0:57:34.959 Up mama coming home. 0:57:38.000 --> 0:57:40.200 There are just certain rules that I live by. One 0:57:40.400 --> 0:57:45.880 is that many many years ago, I had an opportunity 0:57:46.200 --> 0:57:50.120 to work for Inner City Broadcasting. I put their station 0:57:50.320 --> 0:57:55.400 on the air UH in Detroit. It was LBS. Okay, 0:57:55.640 --> 0:57:59.840 it was you know, BLS reconfigured, and there was an 0:58:00.920 --> 0:58:06.120 with an individual who called a member of the staff 0:58:06.120 --> 0:58:09.280 a dumb bitch to her face, and I heard it 0:58:09.320 --> 0:58:15.200 and I quit. There are just certain things that I 0:58:15.320 --> 0:58:19.440 just will not tolerate. One of them is any of 0:58:19.480 --> 0:58:23.880 my employees being cursed at, because to me, it defeats 0:58:23.960 --> 0:58:27.720 the ability to get the best out of them. When 0:58:27.800 --> 0:58:34.640 somebody is cursed at, particularly by a superior, they're sitting down, Okay, 0:58:34.680 --> 0:58:37.120 you're not going to get whatever caused you to curse 0:58:37.160 --> 0:58:40.160 them out, you know, curse at them or call them 0:58:40.200 --> 0:58:43.240 out of their name, you've defeated the purpose. And so 0:58:43.680 --> 0:58:46.800 as much as I cursed at home, I don't allow 0:58:46.840 --> 0:58:50.760 it in my facilities. Okay, there's certain other things I 0:58:50.800 --> 0:58:53.960 didn't don't allow. Speaking of b LS, one day I 0:58:54.080 --> 0:58:57.040 was going to surprise Wendy Williams, who started with me. 0:58:57.280 --> 0:59:00.439 Wendy Williams is one individuals had her very first job 0:59:00.520 --> 0:59:04.840 with me, and she was interviewing a snoop and I 0:59:04.840 --> 0:59:07.600 could smell the weed on the first floor before I 0:59:07.640 --> 0:59:10.560 got on the elevator going up. Okay, I knew snoop 0:59:10.640 --> 0:59:13.400 was on the air. Okay, and it's funny, he said. 0:59:13.400 --> 0:59:16.040 Wendy Williams said, oh, I just got word that Miss 0:59:16.120 --> 0:59:19.360 Hughes is coming out in the building. And this snoop said, oh, 0:59:19.600 --> 0:59:21.560 I got to put this joint out because she don't 0:59:21.560 --> 0:59:26.400 allow no smoking up her facilities. Okay, all right, And 0:59:26.600 --> 0:59:29.040 so when he said, well, this is not her facility, 0:59:29.240 --> 0:59:32.320 this is Inner City, he said, is miss Hughes is here? 0:59:32.360 --> 0:59:36.400 I got to put it out, Okay, because the FCC 0:59:37.280 --> 0:59:40.480 those few black owners. I was not going to allow 0:59:40.520 --> 0:59:43.360 my staff to shoot themselves and deprive themselves of an 0:59:43.360 --> 0:59:46.520 opportunity by getting me and them in trouble with the FCC, 0:59:46.720 --> 0:59:50.400 so certain things I just prohibited. It kind of gave 0:59:50.480 --> 0:59:54.880 me the reputation of being big mama. And okay, I 0:59:54.920 --> 0:59:57.520 believe in hugging. I believe that if I know you 0:59:57.600 --> 1:00:01.800 on medication, I'm an HR nightmare. Okay, my HR apartment. Okay, 1:00:01.800 --> 1:00:04.480 I'm an HR nightmare. Because if I know that you're 1:00:04.520 --> 1:00:08.440 on meds and back to peculiar you're up in the station, 1:00:08.640 --> 1:00:10.840 I'm will pull you aside and ask you did you 1:00:11.080 --> 1:00:13.600 forget to take your meds that morning? Because I don't 1:00:13.600 --> 1:00:15.280 want you to blow your career. I don't want you 1:00:15.360 --> 1:00:18.400 abusing the people who may work for you. I don't 1:00:18.400 --> 1:00:25.280 want to say three okay, all right, to know that 1:00:25.360 --> 1:00:29.640 you okay, it's important for me to know that. Okay, 1:00:29.680 --> 1:00:33.440 I don't like. I don't like how long you've been depressed. Now, okay, 1:00:33.520 --> 1:00:35.840 I won't think that you need to talk to somebody. 1:00:36.240 --> 1:00:39.680 So I'm gonna recommend a good counselor, and then I'm 1:00:39.680 --> 1:00:41.880 gonna check and see did you follow up and call 1:00:41.960 --> 1:00:44.920 this person where I gave you a gift certificate. I 1:00:44.960 --> 1:00:48.040 was forever giving out gift certificates to go talk to somebody. 1:00:48.360 --> 1:00:51.320 Okay, it's literally like working for your auntie. 1:00:51.640 --> 1:00:55.440 Okay, So for you, of course, I would think that 1:00:55.720 --> 1:01:01.200 having good numbers is good news as far as like 1:01:01.240 --> 1:01:05.880 the ratings and whatnot. I can also imagine for you 1:01:06.360 --> 1:01:12.120 it is. It could be concerning when you hire personalities 1:01:12.160 --> 1:01:15.040 that sort of grow in stature. 1:01:14.680 --> 1:01:15.840 So how do you. 1:01:17.720 --> 1:01:22.920 Immediately not prepare, but how do you handle when you 1:01:23.440 --> 1:01:26.200 have a media personality that works for one of your 1:01:26.200 --> 1:01:29.680 stations that seems to be growing and growing. 1:01:30.440 --> 1:01:32.800 And you might like if they decide to go rogue? 1:01:33.120 --> 1:01:36.960 I mean I never knew, like how like, was Wendy 1:01:37.080 --> 1:01:40.960 just allowed to do whatever she wanted to do carte blanche? 1:01:41.240 --> 1:01:43.640 Or was it always like she just operated and was like, 1:01:43.680 --> 1:01:47.600 let me suffer the consequences later if I if I start, 1:01:47.760 --> 1:01:50.600 you know, burning bridges of the artists that I talk about, 1:01:50.640 --> 1:01:54.840 but she still gets the numbers, Like, how do you handle, like, 1:01:54.960 --> 1:01:59.120 is it a nightmare when your artists, when your personalities 1:01:59.240 --> 1:02:04.680 get bigger than you planned on them for being at 1:02:04.800 --> 1:02:06.880 least effective for the radio station? 1:02:06.960 --> 1:02:08.520 I hope, I asked that question would. 1:02:08.720 --> 1:02:13.640 Be as big as they can possibly be. But most important, well, 1:02:13.800 --> 1:02:14.520 wasn't that bad. 1:02:14.400 --> 1:02:15.080 Business for you? 1:02:15.120 --> 1:02:19.920 Because when it comes to renegotiating the contract, or you know, 1:02:20.440 --> 1:02:24.280 someone tries to poach them and take them away. Hey, Oprah, Whenfrey, 1:02:24.360 --> 1:02:26.040 we heard you doing weather on this thing? How would 1:02:26.040 --> 1:02:26.920 you like your own show? 1:02:27.040 --> 1:02:27.120 Like? 1:02:27.560 --> 1:02:29.840 How do you handle that situation? 1:02:32.240 --> 1:02:37.200 Listen? One of my very favorite personalities of all time 1:02:37.360 --> 1:02:41.800 a brother named Jerry Bledsoe. Jerry Bledsoe worked for me 1:02:42.200 --> 1:02:46.280 both at Radio one and at w h u R, 1:02:46.880 --> 1:02:49.600 but when he got an opportunity to double his salary, 1:02:50.080 --> 1:02:53.439 I helped negotiate that contract for him. You can't get 1:02:53.440 --> 1:02:57.680 too big in my book, the bigger to me, rising 1:02:58.840 --> 1:03:02.800 water lifts all both. Okay, I want you to get big. 1:03:03.400 --> 1:03:08.080 I also want you to maintain respect. Okay. Respect is 1:03:08.200 --> 1:03:14.640 very important to me. And the Wendy's biopic was so inaccurate. 1:03:15.080 --> 1:03:20.000 She accused Dianna Williams of firing her. Deanna wasn't even there, okay, 1:03:20.080 --> 1:03:23.800 so Dianna could not have done what Wendy said. I've 1:03:23.800 --> 1:03:26.240 never smoked in any of my facilities. And I used 1:03:26.240 --> 1:03:30.560 to smoke cigarettes packa day, girl, you know, but I've 1:03:30.600 --> 1:03:34.760 never smoked in any of my facilities because most facilities, 1:03:34.800 --> 1:03:38.960 because you know, it's radio, it's it's you know, confined 1:03:39.040 --> 1:03:42.480 and they stink after they smoke. Okay, the smoke gets 1:03:42.520 --> 1:03:46.960 in there. So I never spoke. Yeah, And so you know, 1:03:47.680 --> 1:03:52.320 the true Wendy's story was that I knew that Wendy 1:03:52.840 --> 1:03:56.479 had a problem because one evening I had to pay 1:03:56.920 --> 1:04:00.720 she was being held hostage by her dealer and I 1:04:00.760 --> 1:04:03.040 had to pay to get her release to come to work. 1:04:03.680 --> 1:04:07.680 And I was very concerned, well being she was young. 1:04:07.720 --> 1:04:10.320 That was her first big market, you know, radio job, 1:04:11.080 --> 1:04:14.320 and she passed out on the air. The reason Wyndy 1:04:14.400 --> 1:04:16.880 and I party company is she literally passed out on 1:04:16.920 --> 1:04:20.120 the air, and the record back in those days, we 1:04:20.120 --> 1:04:23.400 were paying you know, LPs. It was skipping and I 1:04:23.440 --> 1:04:26.280 only lived like three four minutes from the station, and 1:04:26.320 --> 1:04:29.080 I ran in there and she was literally passed out, 1:04:29.120 --> 1:04:33.120 and we got her you know, medical care, the rescue 1:04:33.120 --> 1:04:37.880 squad came and everything, and we then you know, helped 1:04:37.880 --> 1:04:41.720 her move on to a different position and you know, 1:04:41.800 --> 1:04:44.520 a different market. She came back to work for me 1:04:44.800 --> 1:04:50.200 many years later. Then, even after her biopic, she requested 1:04:50.680 --> 1:04:53.320 that we'd be a second window on her television show. 1:04:53.400 --> 1:04:57.800 So we're running her television show on CLEOTV. My second 1:04:57.840 --> 1:05:04.600 network was Yeah, exactly. So Wendy's issue was not her 1:05:04.640 --> 1:05:07.560 getting too big. Wendy's issue was the demon that she 1:05:07.680 --> 1:05:11.480 couldn't overcome, couldn't fight, that she couldn't win, win against. 1:05:12.280 --> 1:05:16.520 And so many of us have, you know, talent, but 1:05:16.680 --> 1:05:23.560 we also have a self destructive entity to our personality. Okay, 1:05:24.080 --> 1:05:28.120 And that's okay, that's what Wendy had, you know. I mean, 1:05:28.280 --> 1:05:31.760 Tom Joyner at one time was the biggest their personality. 1:05:31.760 --> 1:05:34.600 The only person bigger than him was Howard Stern, and 1:05:34.640 --> 1:05:36.880 that was because Howard Stern was on white stations and 1:05:36.880 --> 1:05:40.200 there were a lot more white stations. Tom Joyner was 1:05:40.280 --> 1:05:44.440 on one hundred and twenty seven radio stations, of which 1:05:44.760 --> 1:05:49.600 he was number one in eighty plus of votes. Oh okay, okay, 1:05:49.800 --> 1:05:53.000 never an issue. Never once wanted care him not to 1:05:53.040 --> 1:05:57.320 continue to grow. Ricky Smiley now is I'm delighting and 1:05:57.360 --> 1:06:02.680 how he's growing. Donnie Simpson came back, okay, to radio 1:06:02.920 --> 1:06:06.440 to work for us, so it's not an issue of them. 1:06:06.520 --> 1:06:10.600 And yeah, contract negotiations always are tough. But when you 1:06:10.840 --> 1:06:14.080 run your company the way we run ours, which is 1:06:14.240 --> 1:06:17.880 very family oriented, even with HR and all of the rest, 1:06:18.800 --> 1:06:21.920 then we don't have the same type of contract negotiations 1:06:21.920 --> 1:06:26.520 that you would have perhaps at an iHeart or someplace else. Okay, 1:06:27.000 --> 1:06:30.840 because we're quite transparent with our people. This is how 1:06:30.880 --> 1:06:34.680 much money we make off your show, this is what 1:06:34.760 --> 1:06:37.880 your ratings look like, and this is how much we 1:06:37.880 --> 1:06:43.480 can afford to pay you. Okay. I probably have againness 1:06:43.520 --> 1:06:46.480 world book record of people who have worked for me, 1:06:47.080 --> 1:06:49.520 who have gotten fired, who have quit, who have come 1:06:49.560 --> 1:06:53.680 back more times. Okay, one of them on this call, right, 1:06:53.760 --> 1:07:02.919 you raised, all right, come back many many, many times, 1:07:03.320 --> 1:07:03.800 and some. 1:07:03.920 --> 1:07:09.600 Of them you know, many times. 1:07:10.840 --> 1:07:13.800 But but I just happen to think that we all 1:07:13.840 --> 1:07:18.800 grow and we changed with life an age and experiences, 1:07:19.040 --> 1:07:21.919 and I think just because we might have messed up 1:07:22.440 --> 1:07:25.200 at one time, you know, I was hopeful that Wendy 1:07:25.200 --> 1:07:27.560 would be able to make a comeback, but I, you know, 1:07:27.720 --> 1:07:30.640 have been kind of doubtful now that that will happen 1:07:30.760 --> 1:07:34.440 because I think that her health is not being as 1:07:34.520 --> 1:07:38.240 responsible as she would need it to be for, you know, 1:07:38.360 --> 1:07:41.760 have a comeback. And Sherry is doing so good on 1:07:41.800 --> 1:07:46.160 that show, you know, and he comes, you know, off 1:07:46.200 --> 1:07:48.840 our network. She was on with Tom Joiner for all 1:07:48.880 --> 1:07:49.520 these years. 1:07:55.280 --> 1:07:57.800 Underwell was a black Republican on Tom Jordan's show. First 1:07:57.800 --> 1:07:58.720 she was just did a feature. 1:07:59.640 --> 1:08:02.040 Okay, wow, whoa. 1:08:01.640 --> 1:08:04.000 And so the only one that I really had an 1:08:04.040 --> 1:08:07.000 issue with. And now he's back. He's on my Atlanta station, 1:08:07.200 --> 1:08:13.400 Steve Harvey and talking about Okay, Steve and I party. 1:08:13.600 --> 1:08:15.400 It was the best thing that ever happened to Steve, 1:08:15.920 --> 1:08:19.720 and asked him to become the great LA. People know 1:08:19.760 --> 1:08:22.920 who Steve Harvey is because of my company. He did 1:08:23.000 --> 1:08:26.599 my morning show at the Beat in Los Angeles. Okay, 1:08:26.680 --> 1:08:31.720 that was his first major gig, and Steve wanted to 1:08:31.760 --> 1:08:36.280 do things his way and that didn't work for me. 1:08:36.720 --> 1:08:40.519 So I sent a shock waves through the company the 1:08:40.600 --> 1:08:44.679 morning and I used to tell Steve quite honestly, I said, listen, 1:08:45.160 --> 1:08:48.240 I did Morning Drive for eleven years. 1:08:48.520 --> 1:08:49.760 I'm waiting to talk about it. 1:08:50.680 --> 1:08:54.640 Okay, please do not tip me to replace you with myself, 1:08:54.920 --> 1:08:59.639 because I want to be on the radio in La. Okay, Steve. 1:09:00.000 --> 1:09:02.640 I think I was serious until that morning when he 1:09:02.720 --> 1:09:06.519 and I party company and I said in his chair, okay, 1:09:06.840 --> 1:09:15.040 and yeah, what were the things he wanted to do 1:09:15.160 --> 1:09:16.439 that I guess didn't jail with you. 1:09:16.439 --> 1:09:18.240 You say you want to do it his way? What 1:09:18.360 --> 1:09:20.599 ideas that he'd had that just didn't work for what 1:09:20.720 --> 1:09:22.640 you want to do, or things that just may not 1:09:22.680 --> 1:09:23.799 work for radio period. 1:09:23.920 --> 1:09:29.200 You know, Steve is very talented, but very dogmatic in 1:09:29.280 --> 1:09:33.000 his approach to how he wants to do things and 1:09:33.080 --> 1:09:35.840 get things done. You know, I don't want to go 1:09:35.880 --> 1:09:40.320 into specific Yeah, but but how. 1:09:40.200 --> 1:09:41.679 Did y'all come back together? Then? 1:09:42.400 --> 1:09:45.880 With all of that time, we came back together almost 1:09:45.960 --> 1:09:48.160 immediately because it was the best thing that ever could 1:09:48.160 --> 1:09:50.200 have happened to him, And I told him that. Let 1:09:50.200 --> 1:09:52.719 me just say to you, you know, I've been married, 1:09:52.760 --> 1:09:55.880 and I've been in some serious long term relationships, and 1:09:55.960 --> 1:09:58.800 I'm friends with all of my exes because to me, 1:09:59.760 --> 1:10:02.400 just because a person is your ex whether it's professionally 1:10:02.520 --> 1:10:06.720 or personally, you shouldn't be bad mouthing that makes you 1:10:06.720 --> 1:10:09.160 look like you ain't got good sense, makes you look 1:10:09.240 --> 1:10:10.280 like you don't have good. 1:10:11.960 --> 1:10:18.240 Yes, let's talk about it, miss Hughes. 1:10:19.160 --> 1:10:23.439 Okay, I'm the same way professionally, all right, just because 1:10:23.479 --> 1:10:25.639 it didn't work out, I'm not going to bad mouth 1:10:25.680 --> 1:10:27.240 for you. I'm not going to stop you from getting 1:10:27.320 --> 1:10:31.639 other opportunities. I'm not going to stand in your way, Okay, 1:10:31.760 --> 1:10:33.479 because it makes me look like I didn't know what 1:10:33.560 --> 1:10:36.960 I was doing when I hired you. Okay, all right, 1:10:37.080 --> 1:10:39.439 same thing with exes. I give this lecture to young 1:10:39.479 --> 1:10:42.080 women all the time. It is crazy for you to 1:10:42.120 --> 1:10:46.280 be bad mouthing your baby daddy. Okay, you got prankti 1:10:46.320 --> 1:10:52.080 by him, You shut enough of him, okay to have 1:10:52.200 --> 1:10:55.800 a baby with him, and now he is low live dog. 1:10:56.080 --> 1:11:05.200 People basically don't change, So okay, then that's why he 1:11:05.439 --> 1:11:08.960 was when you decide you will let him get you pregnant. 1:11:09.520 --> 1:11:13.360 So that doesn't reflect very favorably on you. I feel 1:11:13.360 --> 1:11:14.520 the same way personally. 1:11:15.120 --> 1:11:19.479 Hey, wait, hold on, this year is philosophically speaking. If 1:11:19.520 --> 1:11:21.559 people don't change, how do you give them second and 1:11:21.600 --> 1:11:23.080 third chances? How does that work? 1:11:23.840 --> 1:11:28.240 Their basic personalities don't change. People do change. You learn, you. 1:11:28.240 --> 1:11:30.559 Learn, Your understanding of them changes. 1:11:30.800 --> 1:11:34.519 Yeah, you're understanding of them changes, and they do change 1:11:35.000 --> 1:11:39.680 in terms of how they operate. Okay, all right. We 1:11:39.760 --> 1:11:42.240 haven't had any of the issues with Steve being on 1:11:42.280 --> 1:11:46.800 our stage at stations in a syndicated capacity that we 1:11:46.960 --> 1:11:50.880 had was working for me directly, and I mean right 1:11:50.960 --> 1:11:54.960 after Steve came. La La Lala was my midday air 1:11:55.040 --> 1:11:57.320 personality at the feat while. 1:11:57.120 --> 1:12:00.000 I was a midday mommy too with Chris. 1:12:00.040 --> 1:12:02.200 I'm a loving poon daddy. Remember in Atlanta, that's where 1:12:02.240 --> 1:12:02.759 she started. 1:12:03.520 --> 1:12:08.800 I knew Lala when she was an MTV personality. 1:12:08.800 --> 1:12:12.400 Wait, we're the one who got her that job. The 1:12:12.439 --> 1:12:16.040 woman who was the program director at MTV was Mary 1:12:16.120 --> 1:12:20.680 Catherine Mary Mary Catherine Sneed, who was in charge of 1:12:20.720 --> 1:12:24.679 programming for all my radio stations. As she said, listen, 1:12:25.200 --> 1:12:28.479 there's a great opportunity. I think Lala would be perfect 1:12:28.520 --> 1:12:31.920 for Okay, And we negotiated that contract for La La. 1:12:32.320 --> 1:12:34.559 And again it kind of hurts my feelings because Lala 1:12:34.680 --> 1:12:37.000 talked about I started off in radio. I was like, 1:12:37.080 --> 1:12:40.320 could you call her company's name? It would help us. 1:12:40.360 --> 1:12:42.200 We're a small black company. 1:12:41.880 --> 1:12:42.080 You know. 1:12:42.160 --> 1:12:45.439 Any Okay, that's what I'm so grateful to you having 1:12:45.520 --> 1:12:51.280 me on this. Please. You've had all okay, the kings 1:12:51.360 --> 1:12:55.600 and queens of celebrity, don't okay, And for you to 1:12:55.680 --> 1:12:57.880 allow me to come on as such an honor. I'm 1:12:57.920 --> 1:12:59.679 so grateful to all of you, all. 1:13:00.520 --> 1:13:02.679 Fabric of America. What are you saying? You're a part 1:13:02.680 --> 1:13:07.880 of the fabric? You are all our lives, Hey, y'all, 1:13:08.000 --> 1:13:11.240 It's like eah, and that's where we will end Part 1:13:11.280 --> 1:13:14.840 one of the Questlove Supreme interview with Kathy Hughes, the 1:13:14.880 --> 1:13:18.320 first black woman to head a media company publicly traded 1:13:18.600 --> 1:13:21.839 on the US Stock Exchange. You may know those companies 1:13:21.880 --> 1:13:24.760 as TV one and Radio one, which come together as 1:13:24.960 --> 1:13:27.920 Urban One. Missus Hughes has been in my life since 1:13:27.960 --> 1:13:30.240 the beginning, so I am truly honored to have her 1:13:30.320 --> 1:13:35.000 on her first ever podcast interview with Team Supreme. Yes, 1:13:35.640 --> 1:13:38.479 stay tuned for Part two, where Kathy speaks about her 1:13:38.520 --> 1:13:42.160 commitment to portray black excellence on television, stories on some 1:13:42.240 --> 1:13:45.400 of her famed hosts, and the role of radio in 1:13:45.439 --> 1:13:48.760 the Black community today. As a QLs tradition, we will 1:13:48.760 --> 1:13:51.600 continue to celebrate Women's History Month with some of the 1:13:51.680 --> 1:13:56.599 strongest female voices and that's definitely Kathy Hughes. Don't forget 1:13:56.640 --> 1:13:58.679 to check out Part two coming soon. 1:14:11.720 --> 1:14:14.559 Must Love Supreme is the production of iHeart Radio. 1:14:18.479 --> 1:14:22.960 For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 1:14:23.360 --> 1:14:25.000 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.