Wonderful. Okay. So, again, our founder of Radio One is in the building, Miss Kathy Hughes, and I would like to introduce you to her legacy. My name is Karen Clark, and I work for Foxy 107 104.
Mirror, you're next since you're on stage. I'm Mir I am. Yes, my name is Miriam, and I stole Will I Am's name in order to make mine for radio. And I'm on Foxy the Light and K975.
Y'all hear me all the time. I know you sick of me.
I am Royalty. Big T, not the little one. Listen, I know. I know. I'm not big, okay? But it's okay. It's still big T. I am K975 midday. If you have ever checked me out, thank you so much.
Good afternoon. I'm Zena Merritt. I am a senior county executive for Radio One. As a matter of fact, I'm the longest standing sales rep in the Raleigh office.
Hello everyone. My name is Denanisha Wilson and I am a promotions assistant for Radio One.
Hi everyone, I'm Luca Parker. I'm also a promotions assistant and a kind of a jack of all trades for the radio station. Thanks.
Good afternoon. I'm Maria Euing. I thought I was retired and then someone asked me to come back and work part-time and I'm executive assistant to the vice president general manager and helping with special events. Thanks.
Hello, my name is Tracy Mosley. I kind of do a little bit of everything, but I specialize in helping with events and promotions at the radio station.
Hi, my name is Zan Gman and I am the continuity director.
Good afternoon everyone. I'm Callie Douglas returning back to Radio One and programming. I've been there, it's been over two decades.
They're making me announce myself. I didn't want to. But my name is Glennice. I am the online editor for all the stations at Radio One Raleigh and I do the editorial work and some of the social media work.
And I am Melissa Wade in the water. I do the middays on the light 103.9 and I program the light as well as Foxy 107 104 now and we have one more member to introduce.
My name is Kathy Hughes. I am the founder and chairperson of Radio One. And these are my girls. Get up please and welcome them. Come on. They work hard.
God bless you all for being here. Now, I know that some of you needed to adjust the spandex and I need to do a little stretching, so that's why I got you up for real. Thank you for being here. You would not be here if it were not for these ladies. I never touch a microphone until I first thank God from whom all blessings flow. Raise your hands to the creator. Thank you, dear God. We love you. We thank you and we praise your holy name.
All right. Make yourselves comfortable. All right. Thank you for coming out on this rainy day. The triangle is my favorite area. I can't say that in any market except the triangle cuz we're in 19 markets now. We're up to 75 radio stations. We've got two cable networks, 32 digital platforms, and God has blessed us to be the company where 82% of all African Americans touch one of our five companies every week. Every week.
So, if you really want to know what's going on, please spread the word. We need your support. First, we had to survive digital. Now, here comes AI. They just will not allow black women in business to be left alone. But we up for the challenge. I was born proud to be a sister. I have lived almost four score. Those of you who know that means it'll be next year. 80 years I've been alive.
80 years. And every single solitary moment of those 80 years, I have loved the blessing of being placed on this planet to be of service to my people. I am unapologetically in the black people business. You all are the priority of my company. I was the first African-American woman to chair a publicly held corporation. And although I get credit for that is because of my business partner and my son Alfred Liggins, who now thinks he's my daddy. He's so confused. So confused. Lord, please keep him in your prayers because I keep telling him that maybe one day I will need a daddy. But right now, I'm proud to be a black mama.
Okay? And you know, we don't cut no slack no matter what age we are. Any of you done had some elderly grandmas who was worse in her 80s than she was in her 40s. Would slap you upside the head with a skillet if you said something smart or wrong to her in her kitchen. So, I plan to remain active as long as God sees fit to remain me have me remain active because the tragedy is we never get credit for what we do.
Everybody was all excited. Four astronauts went to the moon. All right. The first time three decades ago, three sisters made that possible. You know, we didn't even know that they existed until Hollywood made a movie about them. So, I love to tell my John Glenn story, which is maybe he fell out with one of the sisters. You know, sometimes we get an attitude, might have said something smart to him. So, he's like, I ain't telling nobody nothing about what she doing. Second sister come along, she comes along and sides with the first sister. Yeah, Johnny. Third sister comes along and is a mathematical genius. It is impossible for that white boy to go to the moon and not know that three black women put him there.
Okay? And we got to wait for Hollywood to tell us. We have got to do a better job of telling our children, our grandchildren, our future generations who we are, what we stand for. We all have legacies and every last one of us is the CEO of ourselves and our future and the future of our families. We could not have a better example of what is possible when you put your matriarchal responsibilities first.
When you realize that God has blessed you with a baby. I was 17 when I had my baby. And I'll be honest with you, I did not think it was a blessing. I couldn't go to the prom. I graduated in an oversized gown. I took him to college classes with me in a baby carriage. Now he's the president and CEO of my company.
And not because I chose him to be, because my board realized that as I aged, he knew a lot more about how to run a business than I did and had a lot more energy. We have to realize that the God-given blessing of parenthood, motherhood, is really your best legacy. It really does not matter what your title is, how much education, how much money. It's all about what you instill in other human beings. That is your legacy. Today we have the number one classic example of how high you can take your children. What you can accomplish and still keep them grounded and out of trouble.
So easy to make mistakes when your face is everywhere. When everyone's pulling at you. But I have to honestly say, having been blessed to observe both Solange and Beyonce from a front row seat, those girls are as sweet and loving to their mama today with their success as they were when they were children. That's testimony to the greatness of Tina Knowles.
I'm a grown woman. Got you so excited. The incomparable Tina Knowles.
I told them I was aging while I was waiting on you up here. They weren't expecting me to come up here the way I did.
I didn't expect this big of a crowd, but Lord.
Uh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Who you with?
Hello. Hi. Like we ain't seen each other. We back back there taking photos and talking.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming to Durham, North Carolina.
The triangle. You know, it's called the triangle cuz there's three. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. So, your mic working? Okay. Check your mic.
Yeah. You can hear me, right?
All right. Oh, what a beautiful audience. Goodness. So, they're going to be kind of surprised because number one, let me just start off by saying I have not read the book. And the reason I haven't is because I always select my favorite book for my summer vacation reading.
Okay. Okay. So, I know that you've done, have you kept count how many interviews on this book you've done?
Oh my god. I can't even tell you.
Okay. All right. So, you and I just going to have a chat.
Okay. Okay. I love talking about the book.
Okay. But we going to sell some books too now, okay? Cuz I don't want to hear from her agents cuz Tina has employed her family members for years and years and years. I don't want to be out with the family, okay? So, we'll sell some books, but I want to start off by saying to you something that's going to surprise you, which is thank you for taking me to church in Houston and introducing me to Pastor Rudy.
Yes. Okay. Pastor Rudy has saved my life since that morning you took me to his church.
An incredible human being.
Yes. An incredible human being. And I'll tell you when we're not on the mic that he holds me, he credits me with saving his life one day.
I remember that story. Okay. Yeah. So, Pastor Rudy is an individual where Tina raised her girls, okay, and her husband up in the church and her grandson. So the first day at church, your grandbaby, your number one, how old is he now?
Yeah. He was throwing the hymnals over the balcony and hitting people, right? Trying to get me so.
Yeah, absolutely. Spirituality has been the essence of your life. Can we start with God and let's talk about the importance because obviously the same way God directed you to do the things that you've done in your life, God also directed you to write this book Matriarch and pick the title. What a P. You are the matriarch. The ultimate. Can we get a round of applause on that? The ultimate matriarch.
The ultimate. And I can't wait to read it. So, I know that I'm probably the only interview you've ever done where the host of the interview said, 'I ain't read the book.' Wait, wait, can I get a free copy?
I brought you one in the newspaper.
You knew what I was going to say. Yes. But I, yeah, the book was, you know, I didn't plan on writing a book. I said I would never write a memoir because people had asked me before and I was always like, 'Y'all don't want to know about me. Y'all want to know all my kids' business.' That's true. And y'all going to get me in trouble, so I'm not going to do that. But then when I got a divorce after 33 years of marriage, I was just feeling, I was 59 years old, which is really funny now because I look back on that time and I just felt so old and I felt so tired and weary and I was like, you know, if something happened to me today, my grandkids wouldn't know anything about their grandparents or, you know, what resilient stock they came from. And so I just started recording in my phone about my childhood and before I knew it I had, you know, my all my years, no no no no just my years in Galveston and so I say, you know, I lost that phone for a while and I was able to go back and find it when they approached me about doing this book. I was 70 years old and I'm like where, oh thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right.
When she said she was looking on us and said, 'You ain't got no mirrors in your house.'
No, no, no. I was, it was a bad time for me, you know, going through a divorce after 33 years. And just I don't know. It was just, it was just a bad time.
Plus, he was the love of your life.
Yeah, he was the love of my life. I had been with him since I was...
Can you hold on one minute? Can you all see her over there or can I get this podium move? You all can't see. Okay, let's get this podium set down so that our family members over here can see. Sorry about that.
So anyway, I had written a lot of it and then I went back and got that and it just took me down this journey and I started researching my ancestry.com and my grandmother's, my great-grandmother's and my mom had always told me that my great-grandmother was enslaved and her mother was enslaved and that they managed to, she managed to free her kids. And that's pretty much all she told me was that you're from these strong women, Tinie. And my name was Celestine. I couldn't stand that name. I still don't like it till today.
Wait, when I went to your doctor in New York, neurologist, right? And he was telling me, I understand you and Christine are friends. I'm like, I'm sorry, doctor. I don't know who Christine...
I don't know who that is because I hated that name. And anyway, she was like, the name is beautiful. And she used to say it really pretty. She would say Celestine cuz she was, you know, had this heavy Creole accent. But when people said it, they said Celestine and it wasn't cute. But anyway, she would tell me these stories and so I knew I was from resilient women, but I didn't know how resilient they were. So this book took me down this path of just studying. And the guy who helped me, you know, with all the dates and the facts, he found out all kind of great things about my ancestors and all that's in the book.
All of that's in the book.
And how my parents moved from Louisiana, how they came from Louisiana to Texas. And I mean it's better than a movie. It's a lot of what do they say? Sex, drugs, and rock and roll in this book. So anyway, yeah, so I wrote the book and it was a great, it was the best thing I could have done for myself because it was therapy.
So you've become a celebrity in your own right, but it occurred later in your fourth quarter.
How do you feel about that, Tina? That you can't walk into a room without being greeted with a standing ovation that people, you don't have a personal life because celebrities don't. And you've always been a homebody. She can cook her behind off. She's a beautician by trade. Okay. She can hook up some hair. That Beyonce blowing in the wind is just coincidental to the fact. Okay. That's a Tina invention. Okay. But does that bother you that now that because both your daughters have enjoyed it for a long time, but it's relatively new to you.
It's relatively new and by design, you know, I always worked with the girls and I was always around and I did a few interviews, but you know, my hair wasn't combed. I didn't have no makeup on. I look crazy all the time. And I really...
You're too pretty to ever look crazy.
Well, thank you. But those pictures don't say the same. But I intentionally stayed out of the limelight and I was a behind-the-scenes person. And what I realized at 70 is that a lot of times I was doing so many things and contributing so much and I didn't care about the credit for it. But I turned 70 and you know can I say this that when you turn 70 you don't give a about a bunch of stuff. And one of it is what people are going to say, how they going to judge you. You know, how I used to be so so concerned about never embarrassing my kids cuz you know, mamas embarrass their kids. And I still embarrass my kids all the time. Y'all know that. But I don't care. And I mean, I wouldn't say I don't care. I do care, but it doesn't bother me as much. I'm not walking a tight rope and being so careful about my life. I'm free. I feel free.
So, what about the fact that you can't get in your car and go to the grocery store?
I drive everywhere. I go to the mall. I go to the grocery store. I do everything that, you know, that I did before. I go to church by myself. I drive myself because I just made a conscious decision that I refuse to let my life be so affected that I'm scared of people. So, I still meet people. I talk to people. I love meeting people. I love talking. I love taking pictures. I like it all. So, it doesn't bother me.
I got to talk about the shoes for a minute.
Okay. When Matthew and I received those honorary doctorates at Fisk University. Okay, two stories I'm going tell you about Fisk. It was when you and your daughters were manufacturing shoes.
Those were the most comfortable shoes that I had ever in my life worn. And I don't know, I'm sure you don't remember this little detail, but I was rushing to catch the plane and I left the pair that I had with me in the room. I hadn't been at the airport 10 minutes and I called back and said, 'Oh my god, my shoes are in the room.' They were gone. Those shoes. Why did you come out of the shoe business? Because I remember in an interview with Beyonce that she said to me that she can't remember a day where her feet weren't hurting until you and her developed these shoes. Talk about those shoes.
That was the emphasis on it is how not how beautiful they are, but how comfortable they are because she had to dance in shoes. And so we started designing shoes with other, you know, designers and saying, 'No, you got to put a platform on them. You got to...'
If I remember correctly, doctors, we had foot doctors to consult. They were really comfortable shoes.
They were the best shoes I ever owned. But why not? Why can't I buy them now? Now that I really need them. I'm on a cane. Okay.
Well, you know, you're still doing good, girl. They still...
Well, let me tell you why. Cuz I got two knee replacements and I got, I say I'm 72 but I got two 35 year old knees. I love those shoes. So if you ever decide that you want to do something else, please go back cuz I'm sure, raise your hand if you all got some need for some comfortable shoes. Okay. All right.
Cancer. You don't know this. I had cancer.
I didn't know you had cancer. That's how long it's been.
Four years. She was at my 75th birthday party which was in Vegas. She and then husband Richard came over. And Charlie was busy flirting with her. Charlie's my grandson. Okay. Who's 17 now, subtract four, okay? And he was always talking about, 'Yeah, when I grow up, I'mma marry Tina.' I was like, Charlie, would you please conduct yourself like your grandmama gave you some home training, but let's talk a little bit about this cancer because I have to honestly say that when that doctor sat me down and told me that I had cancer, I went into a zone.
I know. I know. But yeah, same here. I mean, luckily it was stage one and but just when you hear that word cancer, it's just unbelievable because I'm like, I'll wait until I get to be 70 years old to hear cancer and it just sounds like a death sentence. No matter if they're telling you, I didn't even hear it's early stages, we could take care of it. I couldn't hear none of that past cancer. I was just like sitting there like in a daze and you know but God is good and it was early stages.
And I didn't even know that there was a stage zero until I told my sister and she's a nurse and she said no Tina you don't have the first stage you know it's a stage zero and what I want to just say really quickly is that during COVID I somehow missed they canceled my mammogram because I've been really good about doing my mammograms and they canceled it and then the year passed and then the next year came and I thought I went that year and you know I just got away from it.
So it was breast cancer, huh? You had breast cancer?
I had breast cancer and in my left breast and so what happened was I had stage one and I could have had stage zero. So, I just want to every time I get to speak, I tell people, please, please go for your mammograms. Please go for your pelvic exams. Women, just take care of yourself cuz we put ourselves last.
I had recto colon cancer.
And the same thing happened to me. I have sent everybody to get colonoscopies because when you wake up from that drug, that's how Michael ended up. He took too much of it. But you wake up refreshed and it feels so good. I see. Okay. Exactly. But I didn't go then I forgot about it.
