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Catherine Hughes

Founder, Chairperson of the Board & Secretary, URBAN ONE INC

Search every verified Catherine Hughes interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Cathy Hughes, founder and chairperson of Urban One, received the key to the city of Washington, D.C. from Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2026. In interviews following the honor, Hughes said she was the only woman among six recipients and described the award as belonging to Urban One's employees rather than to herself personally. She credited her staff of approximately 1,200 people with doing the "heavy lifting" and said the key should bear their names as well as hers. Hughes also discussed her company's recent acquisition of K 104 in Dallas, Texas, and noted that Urban One would celebrate 46 years in business in October 2026. In media appearances, Hughes discussed her career trajectory, including early struggles such as sleeping on the floor of her radio station, and offered views on Black ownership in media. She stated that Black-owned media is necessary for telling Black stories and criticized the notion of relying on white-owned outlets to do so. She also commented on succession in Black-owned businesses, saying that Johnson Publishing founder John H. Johnson remained in charge too long before handing over to his daughter. Hughes described her work as a "calling" and "mission," and said her faith has guided her decision to maintain gospel radio stations within Urban One's portfolio.

Recent appearances

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“I think John H. Johnson stayed in charge too long. I think that had he turned over to Linda Johnson Rice, a brilliant sister, well-connected, well-educated, well-traveled, but he stayed in charge all the way to the end of his life. He stayed in charge too long before he turned it over to her. And I think by the time he turned it over to her, that was too far down a road of no return.”

“I think that it's critical particularly in the communications industry because he who controls the microphone and the camera controls the story. And I mean that's evidenced by what you see on television, what you hear on the radio, what you see in the movies. When you have black ownership, you have entirely different productions in the genre of movies like Selma, like Birth of a Nation, like Fruitvale Station. When y”

“We have got to get out of that mentality that was, you know, embedded in us for 400 years that okay, we don't like each other, that we shouldn't support each other. That is all fallacy. Every other culture in the world support their own first. That doesn't mean that they don't appreciate and like other cultures. It means they have a preference for their own. And it is high time for us to really really really embrace ”

“It says that when you do right by your community, you are able to sustain. You're able to not just survive during difficult times and now are some of the most difficult times that media has ever experienced particularly black-owned media but God blesses you not just to survive but to thrive to continue to grow as you well know we just purchased K 104 in Dallas Texas within the last 90 days.”

“We've got to come out up with some ideas for alternative revenue streams. Okay? We've got to learn to work for ourselves. You know I'm a big advocate of being your own boss. Okay? So where Sometimes when God closes a door, he opens a window. You just got to climb through it. Okay?”

“I call this thing a war a GOP war on black America and I keep saying they want to defund black America. This thing is real and it reaches when you have government and corporations uh together at the same time. Listen, it's very difficult for black media, for nonprofits and others to survive in this era with the level of attacks on our people.”

The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →