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Date Submitted: 06/20/2012 03:16 PM
Cathy Hughes 1
Cathy Hughes: Black Female Business Executive
Clarence Alford
Organizational Leadership 310
Mercer University
Professor Johnson
July 3, 2010
Cathy Hughes 2
Cathy Hughes: Black Female Business Executive
Cathy Hughes was born Catherine Elizabeth Hughes on April 22, 1947 in Omaha,
Nebraska. Cathy Hughes father was an accountant and her mother was a musician. Cathy
Hughes has three younger siblings. Cathy Hughes became pregnant at 16 and married her sons
father before the baby was born. Cathy Hughes has been married and divorced twice resulting
in one child a son from her first marriage. Cathy Hughes was the first African American to attend
an area Catholic girls school in Omaha. Cathy Hughes also attended Creighton University and
University of Nebraska at Omaha but did not graduate.
In 1969 according Infoplease.com Cathy Hughes starting working at KOWH a black
radio station in Omaha where she became well known enough for Howard University to offer her
a job as a lecturer. In 1973 Cathy Hughes became sales director at WHUR- FM and in two short
years under her leadership sales revenues jumped from $300, 000 to 3 million dollars. In 1979
Cathy Hughes and her then husband Dewey purchased a small Washington radio station WOL
creating Radio One. Cathy Hughes marriage ended and she bought out her husband shares to
gain controlling interest. In January 2004 Cathy Hughes used her company to start a new cable
channel called TV One aimed at black audiences. This venture made Cathy Hughes the first
African American woman to head a firm publicly traded on a stock exchange in the United States
(Hudson, K 2007).
Cathy Hughes is currently owner and Chief Executive Office of Radio One Incorporated
which makes her the boss of the largest African American owned broadcasting company in the
United States. According to Answers.com Radio One earned more than 50 million dollars in
1997 which ranked it has the twenty...