Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: What Up Everybody?
Speaker 3: It's Like Eah?
Speaker 4: Welcome back to Part two of the Quest Love Supreme
Speaker 4: interview with Kathy Hughes and part one, Miss Hughes spoke
Speaker 4: about growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, her moving to radio,
Speaker 4: and creating the Quiet Storm, which may be responsible for
Speaker 4: a large part of the population today. If you still
Speaker 4: need to listen or watch, please do Here's part two,
Speaker 4: which is a special episode for me because I get
Speaker 4: to tell Miss Hughes what she means in my life
Speaker 4: and career as she tells more stories from her incredible journey.
Speaker 4: Join us as we celebrate this Women's History Month and
Speaker 4: honor great women year round on QLs.
Speaker 5: I know that you have your shows that are are syndicated,
Speaker 5: I e. Steve Steve, We'll do something from LA but
Speaker 5: it goes to like whatever, one hundred markets.
Speaker 2: Whatever, Ricky's in Alabama.
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 5: So what I want to know is how are you able?
Speaker 5: Are you the micromanaged type in terms of like, Okay, now,
Speaker 5: I'm certain that there's the technology that exists where you
Speaker 5: can instantly listen to your Houston station and quickly switch
Speaker 5: to your Chicago station. If you want to, how were
Speaker 5: you able to do that back in the day before
Speaker 5: this technology, before the internet just colonized everything and made
Speaker 5: it accessible.
Speaker 6: How are you able to check your twelve.
Speaker 5: Stations back in nineteen eighty nine nineteen ninety by going
Speaker 5: to the.
Speaker 2: But also remember I started on the East coast, So
Speaker 2: first it was DC, then it was Baltimore, Okay, then
Speaker 2: it was Philadelphia. We expanded in a pattern. Okay, it
Speaker 2: wasn't then too. We bought the Clear Channel stations, the
Speaker 2: iHeart stations that we actually went to the west coast
Speaker 2: that we actually picked up stations, stations in like Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: So we're back now basically just concentrated on the East
Speaker 2: coast because that it's easier for us to get to
Speaker 2: our stations into our people. So back then you just
Speaker 2: had to travel and even though the technology wasn't your computer,
Speaker 2: and then there were phone numbers that you could dial
Speaker 2: in and listen to.
Speaker 7: It's just about to say she was hotline and out
Speaker 7: of nowhere too exactly.
Speaker 5: Oh, so you would be like, all right, let me
Speaker 5: see what why he's doing right now, and you would
Speaker 5: call a hotline to hear exactly what's happening in Philly totally.
Speaker 5: And so was she the type to like give you
Speaker 5: notes like you didn't reach.
Speaker 3: The well, amir. You remember, we had a warm line
Speaker 3: and a hot line, right. The warm line was the number.
Speaker 7: That all the labels, the artists and people had. The
Speaker 7: hot line was a number that only management had.
Speaker 6: So when you saw that ring, you knew down.
Speaker 7: It's not the break clod break cloth close out, the
Speaker 7: break clod down, the break clod out, the break really
Speaker 7: the warm line.
Speaker 3: I never heard that line, no doubt. All.
Speaker 2: We have a warm line and we have a hotline. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's absolutely And so we did it by telephone back
Speaker 2: then you could actually listen on the stations. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: we we heard them. Okay, we heard them, but uh,
Speaker 2: the reality is back to your original question about them
Speaker 2: growing big and becoming the way radio has consolidated. They
Speaker 2: ain't a whole bunch of opportunities, even for the big names. Okay,
Speaker 2: so there's not much. There's not a whole bunch of
Speaker 2: opportunity to lose them to another Now they we may
Speaker 2: lose them to another industry, another discipline, another career, but
Speaker 2: there's not much danger in you know, I mean Donnie
Speaker 2: Simpson was retired when we convinced him to come back. Okay,
Speaker 2: if he leaves me, he's going back to retirement. He's
Speaker 2: not going to work.
Speaker 3: At the estates want to play with the grand babies.
Speaker 2: The same way. I mean, DL Hughley and Ricky Smiley
Speaker 2: both have it perfect because with technology, they still do
Speaker 2: their stand up Okay, they still pack houses and so
Speaker 2: you know where are they going to go because certain
Speaker 2: other corporations do have prohibition okay and limitations on what
Speaker 2: you can do. I want my people to be as
Speaker 2: successful as possible because with their success, like I said,
Speaker 2: a rising tide lifts all boats. That means they can
Speaker 2: employ people.
Speaker 3: I need you to tell these fine fellas.
Speaker 7: The story of how you did become a personality and
Speaker 7: decided to do a morning show was a fellow named
Speaker 7: Dick Gregory in DC.
Speaker 6: Oh.
Speaker 2: So, when I had the opportunity to buy my first
Speaker 2: radio station, we did what it's called a format search,
Speaker 2: which tells you where there's a whole hole in the market.
Speaker 2: And the hole in the market was information for African Americans,
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh, that's perfect. But no one
Speaker 2: told me was that news talk is the most expensive
Speaker 2: of all radio formats, really yeah, and air personality can
Speaker 2: run their board, can answer their own phone, they can
Speaker 2: do news talk is the most expensive because you have
Speaker 2: to have you have to have an ensemble. You have
Speaker 2: to have a team to do a show in news talk. Okay.
Speaker 2: It's not possible for one air personality okay, or two
Speaker 2: people to do it. And so I was not able
Speaker 2: to service my debt. Again, I knew how to run radio,
Speaker 2: I knew how to create radio. I did not know
Speaker 2: the business of radio. And here it is nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 2: The prime went into the mid twenties. I was paying
Speaker 2: two and a half points over prime. My first quarter
Speaker 2: of being in business, my interest rate was twenty seven
Speaker 2: point five percent. Okay, it was impossible for me to
Speaker 2: service my debt and support a news talk format. So
Speaker 2: after about a year of me being my father was
Speaker 2: a cpaight and my father taught me that one of
Speaker 2: the things that causes a lot of people to fail
Speaker 2: in business is that they destroy their credibility with people
Speaker 2: that they owe money to. And he taught me never
Speaker 2: to hide from a phone call from someone that I
Speaker 2: owe money to, and never not pay them something. And
Speaker 2: so each month during this time when the interest rates
Speaker 2: are in the mid to upper twenties, and I can't
Speaker 2: serve it's my debt and run my station. If I
Speaker 2: owed you one thousand dollars, you might get a check
Speaker 2: for three hundred, but you got something every month from me. Okay.
Speaker 2: So I maintained my credibility with my lenders to get
Speaker 2: me through this period. But at a certain point, my
Speaker 2: lenders came to me and they said to me, you
Speaker 2: can't afford a news talk format. You don't have the resources,
Speaker 2: you don't have the experience to do this. You have
Speaker 2: to go back to music. Well, I had already done
Speaker 2: this research, and so I knew the number one I
Speaker 2: was an AM station. How was I going to compete
Speaker 2: against the monster I had created? A whu r? Okay?
Speaker 2: I had created I was an expert on FM. I
Speaker 2: had cut my teeth on FM in the DC market.
Speaker 2: So they want me to play music up against I
Speaker 2: have no separation of sound, okay, because to this day
Speaker 2: there's very little, if any AM stereo anywhere in radio. Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, there's no separation. I'm like, how am I
Speaker 2: gonna do this? Onna be mono and they stereo? No,
Speaker 2: this is gonna work. And so they said to me,
Speaker 2: if you want to keep one shift, it has to
Speaker 2: be morning Drive. And the only way you to keep
Speaker 2: it is for you to do the show yourself, because
Speaker 2: you're the only person you can afford. And it was
Speaker 2: just like a light bulb going off. It was like,
Speaker 2: that's a great idea, okay, and so I condensed my
Speaker 2: then husband, Dewey Hughes, that we would go on the air.
Speaker 2: And Dewey lasted about three months because by now he's
Speaker 2: got fourteen Emmy's, he's in television, he's working for NBC. Okay,
Speaker 2: he's not interested in doing radio, and so he says
Speaker 2: he's gonna move to California and suggest that I come
Speaker 2: with him, okay, And I said, no, I can't leave
Speaker 2: my radio station. People are dependent on me. Said I'm
Speaker 2: going to do the show by myself, and he said
Speaker 2: I wouldn't advise that, and then out of nowhere, like
Speaker 2: an angel, Dick Gregory descended on me. And one of
Speaker 2: the jokes on the air was that he was my
Speaker 2: permanent kiss, because Dick, some days when I was too tired,
Speaker 2: or was sick or couldn't do the show, or I
Speaker 2: had to do a promotion or speak somewhere. Dick would
Speaker 2: do the show in my absence, but we used to
Speaker 2: always joke on the Arabi. It's called the Kathy Hughes
Speaker 2: Morning Show with permanent guests Dick Gregory, but for many
Speaker 2: years Dick Gregory was there every morning. Dick Gregory would
Speaker 2: not accept a penny of compensation and said to me
Speaker 2: that in his life and his career, that two people
Speaker 2: had resurrected him from where he was and elevated him
Speaker 2: to where God intended for him to be. One was
Speaker 2: Hugh Hefner, who put him in the playboy circuit and
Speaker 2: really started him as a big personality. And me when
Speaker 2: I allowed him to do my morning show with me,
Speaker 2: because number one, if people start booking him again, his
Speaker 2: popularity started our eyes once again. He was being invited
Speaker 2: to college campuses to speak. You know, he was never
Speaker 2: on Oprah Show because Oprah thought he was too radical.
Speaker 2: People considered him a conspiracy theorist. Okay, and yet everything
Speaker 2: we ever talked about turned out, maybe years later to
Speaker 2: be the truth. Okay, it might have been a conspiracy
Speaker 2: because but it was still a real conspiracy. Okay, it
Speaker 2: was actually taking place, and I cannot tell you how blessed.
Speaker 2: He said that I made a difference in his career.
Speaker 2: He made a difference in my life and my career
Speaker 2: because the topics that we covered, the information that we
Speaker 2: disseminated during Morning Drive. I never will forget the morning
Speaker 2: that Lee Atwater called in and he said, so, miss
Speaker 2: use and mister Gregory, this is Lee at Water. I
Speaker 2: am the President's blah blah blah. And we said, we
Speaker 2: know who you are. We at Martin, Okay. And he says,
Speaker 2: I don't know if you are aware, but everybody at
Speaker 2: the White House has to listen to the Kathy Hughes
Speaker 2: at Dick Gregy show in the morning because all the
Speaker 2: staff here keeps all the radios tuned. And I said,
Speaker 2: so are you telling me that the president this is
Speaker 2: morning show. We don't have any choice. We all listened
Speaker 2: to it, and he became a regular listener and caller
Speaker 2: to the show. But I know that was because of
Speaker 2: Dick Gregory. Then one day I'm on the national board
Speaker 2: of the Urban League and I tell Dick to come
Speaker 2: go with me that President Bush was the speaker, and
Speaker 2: so we're going down the receiving line. Afterwards, President and
Speaker 2: the President talks about how Dick was his graduation speaker
Speaker 2: at Yale University, and then he started quoting him, and
Speaker 2: the President's handlers are trying to put President Bush. President
Speaker 2: trying to move him, and he said, whoa, I'm talking
Speaker 2: to mister Gregory. And so Dick said, well, let me
Speaker 2: introduce you to Oh, I know who miss Hughes is.
Speaker 2: I have to listen to her show in the morning.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you talk about me real bad, and you helping her?
Speaker 2: Whoa right, okay, and you helping her. But mister Gregory,
Speaker 2: you changed my life with that graduation speech. It brought
Speaker 2: so much credibility and brilliance to that show that to
Speaker 2: this date, to this date, people fill out their diary
Speaker 2: saying that they listened to Kathy Hughes in the morning
Speaker 2: with Dick's and permanent guest Dick Gregory and Dick's men
Speaker 2: dead quite a few years now, and I've been off
Speaker 2: the air quite a few years, But that was the
Speaker 2: impact that we had in the nation's staff.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, if that said he couldn't have got any black,
Speaker 7: it was like we didn't think I can any black
Speaker 7: up and here come was y'all.
Speaker 8: Here it is, Yeah, I want to know. I want
Speaker 8: to ask you Ms Cathy. You were a young mom
Speaker 8: and like so you were talked about. You know you
Speaker 8: have people that will watch a kid. How did you
Speaker 8: balance motherhood like in the middle of all.
Speaker 2: This, I didn't have to balance it. It was my
Speaker 2: top priority. Okay, it was my top priority. I never
Speaker 2: my son laughs and says that he had to be
Speaker 2: fourteen before he didn't. He learned that everybody didn't work
Speaker 2: or grow up in a radio station. Melvin Lindsay picked
Speaker 2: him up from school. I love to cook, Okay, I
Speaker 2: cook like somebody's grandmama. Okay, I cook, and so I
Speaker 2: would cook on the weekends for the whole week freeze
Speaker 2: that bring the food to the radio station. I do
Speaker 2: my homework with his homework with him, and then I
Speaker 2: had a sleeping bag if I had to stay late. Okay,
Speaker 2: he was my date. Howard used to complain because I
Speaker 2: had a little tux seedo for him. Okay, we get
Speaker 2: dressed at the radio station, we go to affairs. Because
Speaker 2: I didn't know anybody, I couldn't leave him, but I
Speaker 2: didn't want to leave him with anyone other than Melvin. Okay,
Speaker 2: who helped me. And he grew up in the radio station.
Speaker 2: I mean Robin Holden used to put him out all
Speaker 2: the time. She teases him now about that. She said,
Speaker 2: you know how many times I put you out by
Speaker 2: station because he would be down there helping her out.
Speaker 2: And she said, now I need any help? Okay, But no,
Speaker 2: never was I confused my first priority. I never thought
Speaker 2: that I would have a career. I thought that what
Speaker 2: God intended for me to be was a radio personality
Speaker 2: syndicated I don't really have to work four hours a day,
Speaker 2: and then the rest of the time I would take
Speaker 2: care of the five sons that God was gonna bless
Speaker 2: me with and a husband, and that my most important
Speaker 2: decision would be what I was going to cook for
Speaker 2: them that evening. It's seventeen. The Good Lord blessed me
Speaker 2: with the one child that I would have, and uh,
Speaker 2: you know I'm single now, but you know God has
Speaker 2: blessed me with two husbands, and one of whom is deceased,
Speaker 2: my son's father. And then Dewey Hughes, who you know
Speaker 2: you may remember the movie Talk to Me?
Speaker 6: Yeah A P. D.
Speaker 2: Green? Did you have any like?
Speaker 6: What was like with him?
Speaker 2: I knew P. D. Green before I ever met Dewey.
Speaker 2: Like I told you, The way I met Dewey was
Speaker 2: he was bringing Melvin Lindsey back to work for me
Speaker 2: at w u R. I knew p D. Because pet
Speaker 2: was dating my roommate and has spending a lot of
Speaker 2: nights up in our family house. And everyone's you know,
Speaker 2: why weren't you in the movie? The reason I was
Speaker 2: not in the movie was because I was not in Washington,
Speaker 2: d C. By the time I got to Washington, d C.
Speaker 3: P D.
Speaker 2: Green was bigger than life. Okay, we had all these mmies.
Speaker 2: He was working in television and I didn't know him.
Speaker 2: I knew who he was, Okay, because they do only
Speaker 2: because and Ca d C. Lemmons, who you know, just
Speaker 2: did the Whitney a movie, the Whitney Houston movie, Casey Lemons.
Speaker 2: The way they do movies is they test them. Okay,
Speaker 2: and the test ninety percent of everyone they showed the
Speaker 2: movie to said, well where is Kathy? Okay? All right,
Speaker 2: why is she in the movie? I was in the
Speaker 2: movie because I didn't even know Dewey existed nor Pete.
Speaker 2: I was living in Omaha during the.
Speaker 3: End is a lie. That's the name's Hollywood. That's cute.
Speaker 2: Okay, So they added that in the line at the end,
Speaker 2: how's Cathy showed doing? And he says, it's doing great.
Speaker 2: That's the ending line. But you know, I'm so honored
Speaker 2: because Don Cheeto says to this day that the P. D.
Speaker 2: Green roll was his favorite all time role.
Speaker 6: I was going to ask you, how do you think?
Speaker 8: Like you know, she would tell how him playing Dewey
Speaker 8: was that accurate to the person?
Speaker 2: Uni do we Tael and Dewey your friends? To this
Speaker 2: day he was so Okay, Dewey's idol was Johnny Carson, Okay,
Speaker 2: being from Omaha. Part of his you know, conversation with
Speaker 2: me on our first dates had to do with Johnny Carson, Okay,
Speaker 2: because Omaha is about as big as you all studio, Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, okay, And so everybody in Omaha, and like
Speaker 2: I told you, it's only black folks and white folks.
Speaker 2: And I think our population when I was growing up
Speaker 2: was right around two hundred thousand people, okay, of which
Speaker 2: about twenty thousand were black, Okay, And so everybody knew everybody.
Speaker 2: So you know, Dewey's infatuation with Johnny Carson, Dewey Dewey
Speaker 2: is still the same way to this day.
Speaker 5: How do you know when someone who wasn't a communications
Speaker 5: major is ready for prime time, ready for the big time,
Speaker 5: like you know, oftentimes, like a lot of people on
Speaker 5: hip hop, you know, Mooney Love sort of transitions from
Speaker 5: hip hop to radio, Chubb Rock transitions from hip hop
Speaker 5: to radio. Like right now, like a lot of the
Speaker 5: people I grew up listening to as hip hop MC's
Speaker 5: and DJ's and whatnot are now transitioning to like even
Speaker 5: I'll be sure having this show and whatnot.
Speaker 6: So how do you how do you know?
Speaker 2: Look at l J. We just honored him Monday night,
Speaker 2: okay with the Icon Award, and it got left on
Speaker 2: the editing floor. But the LL cool J story was
Speaker 2: LL cool J was a member of Congressman Flake's church.
Speaker 2: Floyd Flake Flake resigned as a congressman to go serve
Speaker 2: his congregation. You as like, I'm not helping folks being
Speaker 2: in Congress. So he went home and he called me
Speaker 2: one day and he said that a member of his
Speaker 2: congregation named Todd Okay, I was asking him about pursuing acting.
Speaker 2: And this is when LL was at the height of
Speaker 2: his hip hop career. Okay, but he was getting offers
Speaker 2: because you know how they use the rappers for cameos
Speaker 2: and you know, and some of them, like most deaths.
Speaker 2: I thought was one of the best actors. Okay, the
Speaker 2: movie he did where he played the doctor, which was
Speaker 2: a true story. Okay, the Urgent, Okay, all right, I
Speaker 2: thought that that was brilliant. I thought he was going
Speaker 2: to be, you know, as big as Denzel. Uh So, Anyway,
Speaker 2: they asked my opinion, and I told him that from
Speaker 2: what I had seen of his acting, he was great
Speaker 2: in that. You know, I would encourage him to pursue that.
Speaker 2: One of my blessings is my best friend for many
Speaker 2: decades is Dianna Williams, and Deannalliams has an eye and
Speaker 2: an ear for talent like none other, and I depend
Speaker 2: quite heavily on her. Okay, I may have a feeling
Speaker 2: about somebody, but I'll ask d to take a look
Speaker 2: at them, or listen to them, or you know, check
Speaker 2: them out and see what her opinion is. I relied
Speaker 2: very heavily and half for many many decades. Deanna and
Speaker 2: I have been besties for probably half a century, to
Speaker 2: be honest about it, okay, And the reality is depend
Speaker 2: quite heavily on you know, Deanna's input, because she has
Speaker 2: the best eye and air. Okay, I'm better with music
Speaker 2: because I have been tone death most of my life
Speaker 2: and from a childhood accident. And so it used to
Speaker 2: be when the music reps would come to the station,
Speaker 2: they'd always play the new music for me because the
Speaker 2: joke was if I could hear a hit, if it
Speaker 2: moved me, okay, seriously, that was the case where Geene
Speaker 2: Riggins was general manager. She said, I want you to
Speaker 2: hear this song. He's from your hometown. I said, Nellie
Speaker 2: is not from my hometown. And it was the right
Speaker 2: country grammar, country grammar that she was playing for me.
Speaker 2: Quincy Jones has said to me that getting a hit
Speaker 2: wasn't really as complicated as a lot of people figured.
Speaker 2: You have to hit a chord that's familiar to the listener.
Speaker 2: And so when I heard Nellie's country grammar, I was like,
Speaker 2: everybody knows nursery Rise. And so I said to Geane,
Speaker 2: I said I hear this, and she said, okay, we're
Speaker 2: gonna sign you know. Okay did But in terms of
Speaker 2: on air talent, the two I have been blessed with
Speaker 2: the two greatest Air personalities that have lived during my lifetime,
Speaker 2: Tom Joiner and Deanna Williams. I don't think that they have.
Speaker 2: There's no one comparable to their level of talent. There
Speaker 2: is no one comparable to what both of them have
Speaker 2: done in different ways, but to help individuals in the
Speaker 2: communications industry and so to have close friendships with both
Speaker 2: Tom Joiner and Vianna makes me look a lot smarter
Speaker 2: than I really am.
Speaker 5: I get it, we didn't even get to TV one
Speaker 5: and unsung. But there's one thing I do want to know.
Speaker 5: How good are you with the archival part of your
Speaker 5: business as far as maintain old radio shows from yesteryear
Speaker 5: and whatnot? Because I think oftentimes when we're building and
Speaker 5: I say it's an empire, whether you say it's small fries,
Speaker 5: I say it's an empire.
Speaker 6: When you're building an empire literally empire, Nah, we think
Speaker 6: I'm big. You're building an empire. You know.
Speaker 5: Oftentimes we don't think we're making history day to day,
Speaker 5: but then like thirty years go by, and like if
Speaker 5: I want to hear, you know, what was radio like
Speaker 5: in nineteen seventy eight blah blah blah blah blah or whatever,
Speaker 5: Like how good are you with archiving like historical moments
Speaker 5: that have happened at any of your radio stations.
Speaker 2: So I now have a full time archivist that's trying
Speaker 2: to get individuals, my listeners who have recorded things. To
Speaker 2: be very honest with you, I have the money to
Speaker 2: store things. I wasn't going to pay for our storage
Speaker 2: bind when I moved, we threw it away. We threw
Speaker 2: the stuff away, okay, because I was living it. Okay,
Speaker 2: I was living it. I was trying to survive. I
Speaker 2: wasn't interested in history, okay. I was just trying to
Speaker 2: build a company, keep people. You know, I'm blessed to
Speaker 2: say that never once have I had a check bounce
Speaker 2: in the forty three years I've been in business, Not
Speaker 2: once have I had a check bounce. Not once have
Speaker 2: I had an employee who did not get paid. Okay,
Speaker 2: And for a black company to be able to say
Speaker 2: that after forty three years, it's quite an accomplishment, as
Speaker 2: hard as it is and still is to get advertising.
Speaker 2: But no, I didn't maintain those records. So my artivist
Speaker 2: is thrilled every week when she comes across somebody who
Speaker 2: might have a piece of my history. Okay, And trying
Speaker 2: to reassemble it and pull it in and prized. You know,
Speaker 2: just the other day, somebody went in their garage and
Speaker 2: they sent me a video of me going to a
Speaker 2: Naybob function with Quincy Jones. Okay. He and I went
Speaker 2: to the nabob function that evening and uh, this person
Speaker 2: uh had a copy of somebody interviewing us, okay, and
Speaker 2: we were talking about James Brown was being honored that evening,
Speaker 2: and Quincy Jones and I were standing there and we're
Speaker 2: talking about it, and then uh, they whoever it was
Speaker 2: that was interviewing and said, well, we hope that you
Speaker 2: all have a great time this evening on your date.
Speaker 2: And I said, well, this isn't really a date, and
Speaker 2: Quincy Jones said it is a date. Okay.
Speaker 6: I was like, oh wait a date.
Speaker 3: Wait, Quincy Jones a black woman. What happened? Right?
Speaker 2: It was the story exactly story okay. So so we're
Speaker 2: kind of piecing it together quest level. Because No, I
Speaker 2: didn't maintain it. I threw the shit away quite frankly,
Speaker 2: excuse my lately, because I put in afford story okay,
Speaker 2: and I didn't have any place, you know, if I
Speaker 2: adn't extra space. I was trying to put an employee
Speaker 2: in it.
Speaker 3: You just weren't thinking that you were making history.
Speaker 2: I still don't think. I still don't think that I'm
Speaker 2: making history. I'm very honored, Okay, I am very honored.
Speaker 2: Uh when.
Speaker 7: It's a crazy part, you are literally still the only
Speaker 7: black woman with the most.
Speaker 3: Radio and te like, there's nobody that's crazy.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is quite frankly, I think that
Speaker 2: what happens so often is that if we believe our
Speaker 2: good press, then we get upset with our bad press. Okay,
Speaker 2: and so I'm kind of no press. Okay. I have
Speaker 2: read very few articles about myself. This Arkavist is like, oh,
Speaker 2: look at this, and I was like, where was that?
Speaker 2: And she was like, well, this was in so and
Speaker 2: so magazine or newspaper. And I was like, I never
Speaker 2: saw that. She said, well, you should have seen it. Okay,
Speaker 2: it was front page or it was what when I
Speaker 2: became the general manager of whu R it was front
Speaker 2: page business section of the Washington It was years afterwards
Speaker 2: that I actually saw it. Because I tried not to
Speaker 2: concentrate on me as much as I tried to concentrate
Speaker 2: on the mission.
Speaker 5: Wait, guys, this is a historic moment. So we've been
Speaker 5: doing this. We've been doing this for like what six
Speaker 5: years now. Yeah, the running joke is with these guys
Speaker 5: always ambushing me with love and accolades or flowers or whatever.
Speaker 6: Before flowers, right.
Speaker 5: I've been I was previously notorious for not ever wanted
Speaker 5: the same thing as you. Never recoppressed, never read the comments.
Speaker 6: Never.
Speaker 5: But you know, I also had to learn in the
Speaker 5: last year that, you know, especially with black people, but
Speaker 5: people in general just don't celebrate themselves. And you know,
Speaker 5: it's but I understand that because we were programmed to
Speaker 5: keep going. Yeah, we were programmed to just like stay small,
Speaker 5: stay out of trouble, don't cost too much trouble, don't
Speaker 5: bring you know, attention to yourself. And also, like you know,
Speaker 5: if we celebrate ourselves, then we'll get big headed and whatnot.
Speaker 6: And I would personally like us to think about at.
Speaker 5: Least more more refocusing that part of our history and accept. Wow,
Speaker 5: I'm actually forcing someone to accept flowers on quest love Supreme.
Speaker 2: And you canna concentrate more on yourself.
Speaker 5: I'm being forced to because everywhere I go, I got
Speaker 5: people forcing me to celebrate myself.
Speaker 6: So yeah, I given, I've.
Speaker 3: He said you too, right.
Speaker 9: I think everyone on this zoom could could do well
Speaker 9: from acceptings some flowers everybody, everybody on this everybody on
Speaker 9: this zoom is a very humble person who's very successful,
Speaker 9: very good what they do.
Speaker 6: And then one with fifty.
Speaker 5: Six radio stations and their own television network, I think
Speaker 5: definitely needs.
Speaker 2: To you know, we're up to sixty eight.
Speaker 6: Oh oh yeah, letter straight.
Speaker 8: I want to ask you, mis Cathy, so what to
Speaker 8: you in the in the era now of like podcasts
Speaker 8: and you know, everything being kind of on demand with
Speaker 8: you know, streaming and everything, What to you is the
Speaker 8: purpose of radio in twenty twenty three?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think the purpose has changed, particularly when
Speaker 2: you talk about radio this gear specifically to the black community.
Speaker 2: We are very research oriented and we consistently in our
Speaker 2: research the listeners say second only to the black t
Speaker 2: in terms of credibility. I think you know, I just
Speaker 2: concluded a campaign that brought me so much joy over
Speaker 2: the last two weeks about Stevie Wonder's happy birthday. Yes,
Speaker 2: I triggered press, international, national press. I triggered so many
Speaker 2: individuals realizing that you don't go to a black function
Speaker 2: and don't hear the Stevie Wonder version and most people
Speaker 2: have no idea that they're not singing the lyrics. That
Speaker 2: the lyrics to that song is one of the most
Speaker 2: beautiful points that Steve has ever written. Okay because okay,
Speaker 2: just the fabulous tribute to Doctor King. But more importantly,
Speaker 2: it was a protest song because the US comments would
Speaker 2: not make the holiday exactly and the movement was dwindling
Speaker 2: and really on life support, and that song really resurrected
Speaker 2: and it was very special to me because that's the
Speaker 2: same year that we went into business that he released
Speaker 2: Hotter than July. Okay, Hotter than July was the LP
Speaker 2: that the song was on. The birthday song was on,
Speaker 2: and it even triggered Stevie. Stevie did a Instagram alive
Speaker 2: talking about how you know, things haven't changed in forty years.
Speaker 2: I was so proud of that. I still want my
Speaker 2: company to be mission driven. I still want there to
Speaker 2: be a message in our music. I still want there
Speaker 2: to be content in our narrative that really makes people
Speaker 2: stop to think, and so, you know, to be able
Speaker 2: to continue doing this, I think it's what keeps the
Speaker 2: relevance the importance of black on radio alive and so
Speaker 2: even with technology, the reality is, one time I had
Speaker 2: to compete against iHeart, I had to compete against AMFM,
Speaker 2: I had to Now I actually compete against my actual listeners.
Speaker 2: My listeners do their own playlists. My listeners think that
Speaker 2: they're great DJs, my listeners. So not only am I
Speaker 2: competing against corporations, I'm competing against the people that I'm
Speaker 2: trying to serve. But as long as they keep coming back,
Speaker 2: I realize that they are without saying it, recognizing that
Speaker 2: we do the value. They recognize the value and that value.
Speaker 2: You know, we're very emotional. One of the things that
Speaker 2: kills a lot of old black folks is they go
Speaker 2: to the same doctor for forty years. The doctor don't
Speaker 2: even see that they got cancer, okay, because he's so
Speaker 2: used to hearing them complain. And sister Sarah didn't been
Speaker 2: coming here forty years, okay. We don't. We not real
Speaker 2: quick to change certain things. We don't change preachers, we
Speaker 2: don't change doctors. We don't change.
Speaker 6: Barbara.
Speaker 3: But it is.
Speaker 7: It seems like black radio is getting smaller and smaller,
Speaker 7: and the youth are not going to have the relationship
Speaker 7: that like maybe we had as far because people don't
Speaker 7: realize and.
Speaker 3: That black radio is different.
Speaker 7: And two and you can please speak to this and
Speaker 7: don't realize that black radio is different in the sense
Speaker 7: of this relationship with community rock, jazz, country radio. None
Speaker 7: of these kind of genre stations have to have a
Speaker 7: direct connection to the community, go to schools, do being
Speaker 7: and it's so it's sad in a way, right.
Speaker 2: And the relationship has changed its Urban One honors that aired,
Speaker 2: you know, on Martin Luther King's birthday last night. Okay,
Speaker 2: it did a fifty year tribute to hip hop and
Speaker 2: the relationship. When they came out there with the young
Speaker 2: man with the radio on his shoulder, it just kind
Speaker 2: to warm my heart to realize and remember the days
Speaker 2: where people would carry boom boxes on their shoulders. Okay,
Speaker 2: be on Roller States, all right, I mean with the
Speaker 2: bed with the boom box. Okay, that radio was like, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, almost like a chalice is to a Catholic preach.
Speaker 3: Okay, waiting to hit record. That's right.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely, it's changed and certainly with technology. But technology also,
Speaker 2: even though it's brought on a different level of competition,
Speaker 2: also has made it easier for us in so many ways,
Speaker 2: because of voice tracking, because of being able not to
Speaker 2: have to be at a certain like our gathering right now.
Speaker 2: We're all over the country, we're all in different okay,
Speaker 2: and yet we're having this podcast the same as ten
Speaker 2: years ago. We would have all had to have been
Speaker 2: assembled in your studio, okay, looking at each other, you know.
Speaker 2: So it's helped with the delivery of the product. But
Speaker 2: I really am not pessimistic about the future. I think
Speaker 2: it will change. I think that certain things are already changing.
Speaker 2: I'm very dismayed over the fact that when I started
Speaker 2: out there were almost four hundred black owned radio stations.
Speaker 2: Now they're about one hundred and thirty two black owned
Speaker 2: radio stations, and sixty eight of them belong to me.
Speaker 5: Based on what you would have to get up at
Speaker 5: four in the morning, five in the morning to do
Speaker 5: in the bathroom. As is that human being that's looking
Speaker 5: in the mirror with the brush? Is she satisfied with
Speaker 5: the path that the universe has given her?
Speaker 6: And is there anything else left to explore or conquer?
Speaker 2: I want to come back and talk about TV okay,
Speaker 2: because okay, I want to do a second podcast. I
Speaker 2: like the podcast because I've had very strong opinions about
Speaker 2: television and how it's really changing our perception of who
Speaker 2: we are the way. Actually, I really want to come
Speaker 2: back and talk about that.
Speaker 7: Okay, give me a preview real quick, because now you
Speaker 7: gave us a little bit, you got to give us more.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was like, what, don't I know?
Speaker 2: It's the reality is foreign countries see us through the
Speaker 2: eyes of movies and television shows and our betrayal. One
Speaker 2: of the reasons that I am still the only network
Speaker 2: in this country that will air the Cosby shows because
Speaker 2: that ensemble that is not forgiving what Bill did. What
Speaker 2: he did was despicable, but that show more accurately portrayed
Speaker 2: black life in America that any show has ever and
Speaker 2: that ensemble should not be punished because of the wrongdoing
Speaker 2: of one human being. I don't want the Chinese who
Speaker 2: only see Housewives of Atlanta to think that that's what
Speaker 2: black women are about, fighting with each other, screaming and
Speaker 2: hollering the way media right now, the media is dogging Biden.
Speaker 2: The reason Hillary Clinton never got elected president of the
Speaker 2: United States would mose to somebody who couldn't even construct
Speaker 2: a sentence, was because of the media dogging her like
Speaker 2: and my opinion, she was more qualified to be the
Speaker 2: president than her husband was qualified to be the president.
Speaker 2: Nobody had done what Hillary had done. But the media
Speaker 2: now no longer is covering the news. It creates the news,
Speaker 2: and it decides, particularly as it relates to people of color,
Speaker 2: what's important and what we should be thinking and what
Speaker 2: we should be doing. Okay, but anyway, that's a whole
Speaker 2: other podcast. I hope that you will invite me back
Speaker 2: to because I think, okay, you might take that one, Okay,
Speaker 2: because if we don't get it under control, all right,
Speaker 2: I do not know what's going to happen to the
Speaker 2: future of us, all.
Speaker 3: Right, y'all, we wouldn't know black girls be missing, Thank you, thank.
Speaker 2: You exactly all right, and so very important. But to
Speaker 2: your question, no, I have no regret regrets. There is
Speaker 2: absolutely nothing. But I would do differently other than have
Speaker 2: more than one child. Okay, I really, really really wished
Speaker 2: that I had I had him so young. It was
Speaker 2: so you know, traumatizing and so scary for me quite frankly,
Speaker 2: But I should have adopted. I should have made it
Speaker 2: possible for more than just Alfred to benefit from the
Speaker 2: blessings of this media conglomerate that God has blessed me
Speaker 2: to be able to build. I have adopted individuals like
Speaker 2: like I have. You know other individuals that I have
Speaker 2: you know been a big aunt to our godmother or
Speaker 2: a grandmother. But I wish that I had biological Okay, heirs.
Speaker 3: Do you mind me interrupting real quick?
Speaker 7: I just want to say this because we've been through
Speaker 7: a lot in these forty years something years as you
Speaker 7: know me.
Speaker 3: But be clear, the only reason I wanted to be.
Speaker 7: In radio is because my godmother had a best friend,
Speaker 7: Nam Kathy, who who owned radio stations. Be clear, The
Speaker 7: first radio job I ever got was at twelve year
Speaker 7: so when I volunteer at wo L WMMJ, your first
Speaker 7: radio station. And be clear that when I went to
Speaker 7: Clark Atlanta University, you were the one that made the
Speaker 7: call to doctor Gloria James and said she's an internship
Speaker 7: with w Clkay, so thank you. And to be clear
Speaker 7: that I had the best all female morning radio show
Speaker 7: on radio one.
Speaker 3: Shout out to Shamara.
Speaker 6: You just closed the show.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 6: I was like, that's like some Mike drop version. There's
Speaker 6: nothing else, Like I said, be clear.
Speaker 2: I know about Sugar and Bill not saying anything.
Speaker 6: We don't say much.
Speaker 9: We try to we know what to talk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know you said you were single.
Speaker 6: That was my only question, so.
Speaker 9: Questions.
Speaker 8: I wanted to know IFIs is it anybody that you
Speaker 8: want on Unsung that you haven't been able to get
Speaker 8: you Unsung wishless?
Speaker 6: Does Stephanie finally give in?
Speaker 9: Yet?
Speaker 2: No? I know the fifty mentioned I loved them right,
Speaker 2: and their position with me has been we're not Unsung,
Speaker 2: And I was like, that's not the purpose okay of
Speaker 2: the show. Okay, And I said, well, would you at
Speaker 2: least do Uncensored? But yeah, I do have right, uh?
Speaker 2: And they topped my list every year we pitch them.
Speaker 2: We have pitched them every year.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 2: I mean, they they actually were trend centers. And I
Speaker 2: think that that story needs to really be told. And
Speaker 2: because I was such always and still am such big fans.
Speaker 2: And then I mean, look how long the marriage has endured. Okay,
Speaker 2: it's hard, Okay, all right, Okay, that's very rare. Okay,
Speaker 2: And I mean remember when Smokey and Right exactly that
Speaker 2: didn't work. Okay, it's hard to do what they have accomplished.
Speaker 2: The fifth dimensions are.
Speaker 5: And so you have to create a format a show
Speaker 5: called trendsetters.
Speaker 6: Or at least the title will cater to the ego
Speaker 6: of the.
Speaker 5: Artist, because I've heard artists say, well, I'm not unsung,
Speaker 5: so I'm not doing it because I think in their
Speaker 5: mind they think like unsung means failure, but no, it
Speaker 5: just means that, it means.
Speaker 2: You didn't get your just recognition. Should do more.
Speaker 6: You should be called flowers.
Speaker 2: Yeah more. I thank you all for this opportunity. I
Speaker 2: like doing a podcast you want.
Speaker 5: Thank you knew it what you want to It's gonna
Speaker 5: be the Cathy Used podcast next week for.
Speaker 6: Exactly you gots.
Speaker 5: Sorry, sorry to break the news to you this way,
Speaker 5: but yeah, Kathy's taking over.
Speaker 6: So I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: When you when you retire, quest Love, can I.
Speaker 6: Fill in absolutely, It's yours. You can buy us out.
Speaker 5: Right now, Okay, Okay, I pick us up. Sorry, iHeart, Yes,
Speaker 5: I've sold.
Speaker 6: I just made a deal. Yeah, family, Faith, it's.
Speaker 2: I know that you don't like the flowers. You don't
Speaker 2: like the accolades, but.
Speaker 6: I'll take the flowers.
Speaker 2: Okay. The things that you have done in your career
Speaker 2: have been exemplary. Okay, I thank you for who you are,
Speaker 2: not just professionally but personally. Like I said to me,
Speaker 2: it's not about you know, establishing yourself as a celebrity
Speaker 2: or you know, any of the rest. It's really about
Speaker 2: who you are as a human being. Because in the
Speaker 2: end of analysis, that's all we came. Herenicked, we're gonna
Speaker 2: leave out here, neked and the only thing we have
Speaker 2: is that which you have done to help other individuals,
Speaker 2: and your record stands for itself. So thank you. I'm
Speaker 2: truly honored and truly honored to be you guys, particularly
Speaker 2: the one that's interested in me being.
Speaker 6: Single and you mentioned naked, So.
Speaker 5: All right, Sugar, Steve, Bill Frante, and Layah.
Speaker 6: This is another episode West Love Supreme. Thank you very much.
Speaker 6: The great cat views were sign it off. Thank you.
Speaker 1: West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.