Cathy Hughes Part 2

In the second part of her first-ever podcast interview, media mogul Cathy Hughes discusses her leadership style. Ms. Hughes also opens up about the power and importance of radio in 2023, working with Dick Gregory, and why her TV One channel aims to combat the stereotypes and misinformation about Black folks on television.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. What Up Everybody?
It's Like Ear Welcome back to Part two of the
Questlove Supreme interview with Kathy Hughes and part one. Miss
Hughes spoke about growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, her move
into radio, and creating the Quiet Storm, which may be

(00:21):
responsible for a large part of the population today. If
you still need to listen or watch m please do.
Here's part two, which is a special episode for me
because I get to tell Miss Hughes what she means
to my life and career as she tells more stories
from her incredible journey. Join us as we celebrate this

(00:42):
Women's History Month and honor great women year round on QLs.
I know that you have your shows that are are syndicated,
I e. Steve Steve, We'll do something from LA, but
it goes to like whatever, one hundred markets, whatever, Ricky

(01:04):
in Alabama. Okay, So what I want to know is
how are you able? Are you the micromanaged type in
terms of like, Okay, now, I'm certain that there's the
technology that exists where you can instantly listen to your
Houston station and quickly switched to your Chicago station if

(01:28):
you want to How are you able to do that
back in the day before this technology, before the internet
just colonized everything and made it accessible. How are you
able to check your twelve stations back in nineteen eighty
nine nineteen ninety by going to them? But also remember
I started on the East coast, So first it was DC,

(01:51):
then it was Baltimore, Okay, then it was Philadelphia. We
expanded in a pattern. Okay it wasn't then too. We
bought the Clear Channel stations, the iHeart stations that we
actually went to the West coast, that we actually picked
up Statius stations and like Saint Louis. So we're back

(02:12):
now basically just concentrated on the East coast because that
it's easier for us to get to our stations and
to our people. So back then you just had to
travel and even though the technology wasn't your computer, and
then there were phone numbers that you could dial in
and listen to us just about to say she was
hotline and out of nowhere too exactly. Oh, so you

(02:35):
would be like, all right, let me see what light
he's doing right now, and you would call a hot
line to hear exactly what's happening in Philly totally. And
so was she the type to like give you notes
like you didn't reach the well, I mere you remember,
we had a warm line and a hot line, right.
The warm line was the number that all the labels,
the artists and people had. The hot line was a
number that only management had. So so when you saw

(02:57):
that ring, you knew down well it's not the break clak,
close out the break. Clothe out the break, close out
the break. Really yeah, warm line, that line all to
this have a warm bline and we have a hotline.
Yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh and so we did it

(03:18):
by telephone back then you could actually listen on the stations. Yeah,
so we heard them. Okay, we heard them. But um uh,
the reality is back to your original question about them
growing big and becoming the way radio has consolidated. They
ain't a whole bunch of opportunities, even for the big names. Okay,

(03:44):
so there's not much. There's not a whole bunch of
opportunity to lose them to another Now they we may
lose them to another industry, another discipline, another career, but
there's not much danger in you know. I mean, um,
Donnie Simpson was retired when we convinced him to come back. Okay,

(04:05):
if he leaves me, he's going back to retirement. He's
not going to work at the state. Want to play
with the grand babies the same way. I mean. D L.
Hughley and Ricky Smiley both have it perfect because with technology,
they still do their stand up Okay, they still pack
houses and so you know where they gonna go. Because

(04:29):
certain other corporations do have prohibition okay, and limitations on
what you can do. I want my people to be
as successful as possible because with their success, like I said,
a rising tide lifts all boats. That means they can
employ people. I need you to tell these fine fellows

(04:51):
the story of how you then become a personality and
decided to do a morning show was a fellow named
Dick Gregory and DC. Oh. So, when I had the
opportunity to buy my first radio station, we did what
it's called a format search, which tells you where there's
a whole whole in the market. And the whole in

(05:14):
the market was information for African Americans, and I was like, oh,
that's perfect. But no one told me was that news
talk is the most expensive of all radio formats. Yeah,
and air personality can run their board, can answer their
own phone, they could do news talk is the most

(05:35):
expensive because you have to have that. You have to
have an ensemble. You have to have a team to
do a show in news talk. Okay. It's not possible
for one air personality okay, or two people to do it.
And so I was not able to service my debt. Again,

(05:55):
I knew how to run radio, I knew how to
create radio. I did not know that this business of radio.
And here it is nineteen eighty one. The prime went
into the mid twenties. I was paying two and a
half points over prime. My first quarter of being in business,
my interest rate was twenty seven point five percent. Okay,

(06:19):
it was impossible for me to service my depth and
support a news talk format. So after about a year
of me being my father was a CP eight. And
my father taught me that one of the things that
causes a lot of people to fail in business is

(06:39):
that they destroy their credibility with people that they owe
money to. And he taught me never to hide from
a phone call from someone that I owe money to,
and never not pay them something. And so each month
during this time, when the interest rates are in the
mid to upper twenties, and I can't serve my dead

(07:00):
and run my station. If I owed you a thousand dollars,
you might get a check for three hundred, but you
got something every month from me. Okay. So I maintained
my credibility with my lenders to get me through this period.
But at a certain point, my lenders came to me
and they said to me, you can't afford a news

(07:21):
talk format. You don't have the resources, you don't have
the experience to do this. You have to go back
to music. Well, I had already done this research, and
so I knew the number one I was an AM station.
How was I going to compete against the monster I
had created? A whu r? Okay, I had created I

(07:41):
was an expert on FM. I had, you know, cut
my teeth on FM in the DC market. So they
want me to play music up against I have no
separation of sound, okay, because to this day there's very little,
if any AM stereo anywhere in radio. Okay, all right,
there is no separation. I'm like, how am I gonna do?

(08:02):
This is gonna be mono and they stereo? No, this
isn't gonna work, and so they said to me, if
you want to keep one shift, it has to be
morning Drive. And the only way you to keep it
is for you to do the show yourself, because you're
the only person you can afford. And it was just
like a lightbulb going off. It was like, that's a

(08:27):
great idea, okay, and so I condense my then husband,
Dewey Hughes that we would go on the air. And
Dewey lasted about three months because by now he's got
fourteen emmys, he's in television, he's working for MBC. Okay,
he's not interested in doing radio, and so he says

(08:49):
he's gonna move to California and suggested I come with him, okay,
And I said, no, I can't leave my radio station.
People are depended on me. Said I'm going to do
the show by myself, and he said I wouldn't advise that,
and then out of nowhere, like an angel, Dick Gregory
descended on me. And one of the jokes on the

(09:13):
air was that he was my permanent kiss, because Dick,
some days when I was too tired, or was sick,
or couldn't do the show, or I had to do
a promotion or speak somewhere did would do the show
in my absence, but we used to always joke on
the air about it's called the Kathy Hughes Morning Show
with permanent guests Diet Gregory, but for many years Dick

(09:37):
Gregory was there every morning. Dick Gregory would not accept
a penny of compensation and said to me that in
his life and his career that two people had resurrected
him from where he was and elevated him to where
God intended for him to be. One was Hugh Heffner,

(09:58):
who put him in the playboy circuit and really started
him as a big personality. And me when I allowed
him to do my morning show with me, because number one,
if people start booking him again, his popularity started her
eyes once again. He was being invited to college campuses

(10:19):
to speak. You know, he was never on Oprah Show
because oper thought he was too radical. People considered him
a conspiracy theorist. Okay, and yet everything we ever talked
about turned out, maybe years later to be the truth. Okay,
it might have been a conspiracy because but it was

(10:39):
still a real conspiracy. It was actually taking place, And
I cannot tell you how blessed. He said that I
made a difference in his career. He made a difference
in my life and my career because the topics that
we covered, the information that we disseminated during Morning Drive.
I never will forget the morning that Lee at Water

(11:01):
called in and he said, so, I'm miss us and
mister Gregory, this is Lee at Water. I am the
President's blah blah blah. And we said, we know who
you are. We at Warter okay, And he says, I
don't know if you are aware, but everybody at the
White House has to listen to the Kathy Hughes Dick
Gray We show in the morning because all the staff

(11:24):
here keeps all the radios tuned. And I said, so
are you telling me that the president this is stupid
morning show. We don't have any choice. We all listened
to it, and he became a regular listener and caller
to the show. But I know that was because of
Dick Gregory. Then one day I'm on the national board
of the Urban League and I tell Dick to come

(11:45):
go with me. That President Bush was the speaker, and
so we're going down the receiving line. Afterwards, the President
and the President talks about how Dick was his graduation
speaker at Yale University and then start quoting him, and
the president's handlers are trying to President Bush Prisidon busy

(12:08):
trying to move him, and he said, whoa, I'm talking
to mister Gregory, And so Dick said, well, let me
introduce you to Cat. Oh. I know who this Hughes is.
I have to listen to her show in the morning.
Sometimes you're talking about me real bad and you helping her, right, okay,
and you helped her, But mister Gregory, you changed my

(12:30):
life with that graduation speech. It brought so much credibility
and brilliance to that show that to this day, to
this day, people fill out their diary saying that they
listened to Cathy Hughes in the morning with Dickson permanent
guest that Gregory and Dixman did quite a few years now,
and I've been off the air quite a few years,

(12:51):
but that was the impact that we had in the
nation's cap Oh yeah, if that said he couldn't have
got any blacker and was like, we didn't think of
gave any black up and hit come was y'all here
it is? Yeah, I want to know. I want to
ask you, miss Cathy. You were a young mom and
like so you talked about you know, you have people
that were watching kids. How did you balance motherhood? Like

(13:12):
in the middle of all this, I didn't have to
balance it. It was my top priority. Okay, my top priority.
I never my son laughed and says that he had
to be fourteen before he didn't. He learned that everybody
didn't work or grew up in a radio station. Melvin
Lindsay picked him up from school. I love to cook, Okay,

(13:33):
I cook like somebody's grandmama. Okay, I cook, and so
I would cook on the weekends for the whole week,
bring the food to the radio station. I do my
homework with his homework with him, and then I had
a sleeping bag if I had to stay late. Okay,
he was my date. Howard used to complain because I

(13:54):
had a little tuxedo for him. Okay, we get dressed
at the radio station. We go to affairs. Because I
didn't know anybody, I couldn't leave him, but I didn't
want to leave him with anyone other than Melvin, okay,
who helped me. And he grew up in the radio station.
I mean Robin Holden used to put him out all
the time. She teases him now about that. She said,

(14:14):
you know how many times I put you out by
station because he would be down there helping her out.
And she said, no I needing me help? Okay, But no,
never was I confused my first priority. I never thought
that I would have a career. I thought that what
God intended for me to be was a radio personality

(14:35):
syndicated I don't really have to work four hours a day,
and then the rest of the time I would take
care of the five sons. The God was gonna bless
me with him and a husband, and that my most
important decision would be what I was going to cook
for them that evening. It's said, it's seventeen. The Good

(14:56):
Lord blessed me with the one child that I would have,
and uh, you know I'm single now. Um, but you
know God has blessed me with two husbands, and one
of whom is deceased, my son's father. And then Dewey Hughes,
who you know you may remember the movie Talk to Me. Yeah,

(15:16):
I told you about Pete Green. Did you have any
like what was like with him? To jab? I knew
Pete Green before I ever met Dewey. Like I told you,
the way I met Dewey was he was bringing Melvin
Lindsay back to work for me at whu R. I
knew Pete because Pete was dating my roommate and a
spending a lot of nights up in our town house

(15:36):
and everyone, you know, why weren't you in the movie.
The reason I was not in the movie was because
I was not in Washington, d C. By the time
I got to Washington, d C. Pete Green was bigger
than life. Okay, we had all these emis. He was
working in television, and I didn't know him. I knew
who he was, okay, because they don't mention you only

(15:59):
because and see Lemons, who you know, just did Um
Whitney in a movie, the Whitney Houston movie Casey Lemons.
The way they do movies is they test them, okay,
and the test ninety percent of everyone they showed the
movie too, said well where is Kathy? Okay? All right, right,

(16:21):
and she in the movie. I was in the movie
because I didn't even know Dewey existed nor Pete. I
was living in Olmoha during as the end is a lie.
That's the name's Hollywood. That's cute, Okay, So they added
it in the line at the end house Cathy showed
doing and he says, is doing great. That's the end
of the line. But you know, I'm so honored because

(16:43):
Don Cheeto says to this day that the Pde Green
role was his favorite all time role. I was going
to ask you, how do you think, like you know,
she would tell how him playing Dewey was that accurate
to the person united do we tell and doing your friends?
To this day he was so Okay, Dewey's idol was

(17:03):
Johnny Carson, Okay, being from Omaha. Part of his you know,
conversation with me on our first dates had to do
with Johnny Carson, okay, because Omaha is about as big
as you all studio, Okay, all right, okay, And so
everybody in Omaha, and like I told you, it's only

(17:24):
black folks and white folks. And I think our population
when I was growing up was right around two hundred
thousand people, okay, of which about twenty thousand we're black, Okay,
And so everybody knew everybody. So you know, Dewey's infatuation
with Johnny Carson. Dewey Dewey is still the same way

(17:46):
to this day. How do you know when someone who
wasn't a communications major is ready for prime time, ready
for the big time, like you know, oftentimes, like a

(18:07):
lot of people in hip hop, you know, money love
sort of transitions from hip hop to radio. Chubb Rock
transitions from hip hop to radio. Like right now, like
a lot of the people I grew up listening to
as hip hop mcs and DJs and whatnot are now
transitioning to like even I'll be sure having this show

(18:27):
and whatnot. So how do you how do you know?
Look at LLL Coolj. We just honored him Monday night, okay,
with the Icon Award and he got left on the
editing floor. But the LLL Coolja story was LLL Coolja
was a member of Congressman Flake's church, Floyd Flake Flake

(18:49):
resigned as a congressman to go serve his congregation. You
its like I'm not I'm not helping folks being in Congress.
So he went home and he called me one day
and he said that a member of his congregation named
Todd Okay, right, I was asking him about pursuing acting.

(19:11):
And this is when l L was at the height
of his hip hop career. Okay, but he was getting
offers because you know how they used the rappers and
for cameos and you know, and one of them, like
most death, I thought was one of the best actors. Okay,
the movie he did where he played the doctor, which
was a true story, Okay, urgent, Okay, all right, I

(19:35):
thought that that was brilliant. I thought he was gonna be,
you know, as big as Denzel. So anyway, they asked
my opinion, and I told him that from what I
had seen of his acting, he was great, and that
you know, I would encourage him to pursue that. One
of my blessings is my best friend for many decades

(19:57):
is Deanna Williams. And Deanna will has an eye and
an ear for talent like none other, and I depend
quite heavily on her. Okay, I may have a feeling
about somebody, but I'll ask d to take a look
at them, or listen to them, or you know, check
them out and see what her opinion is. I rely

(20:20):
very heavily and have for many, many decades. Deanna and
I have been besties for probably half a century, to
be honest about it. Okay, And the reality is a
pen quite heavily on you know, Deanna's input, because she
has the best eye and ear. Okay, I'm better with

(20:44):
music because I have been tone death most of my
life and from a childhood accident. And so it used
to be when the music reps would come to the station,
they'd always played the new music for me, because the

(21:04):
joke was if I could hear a hit, it was
if it moved me. Okay, seriously, that was the case
when Gene Riggins was general manager. You were so she said,
I want you to hear this song. He's from your hometown.
I said, Nellie is not from my hometown. And it

(21:27):
was the right country grammar. It was country grammar that
she was playing for me. Quincy Jones had said to
me that getting a hit wasn't really as complicated as
a lot of people figured. You have to hit accord
that's familiar to the listener. And so when I heard
Nellie's country grammar, I was like, everybody knows nursery rise,

(21:52):
I said. I said to Gee, I said I hear this,
and she said, okay, we're gonna sign him. Okay, and did.
But in terms of on air talent, the two I
have been blessed with the two greatest air personalities they
have lived during my lifetime, Tom Joiner and Deanna Williams.

(22:15):
I don't think that they have There's no one comparable
to their level of talent. There is no one comparable
to what both of them have done in different ways,
but to help individuals in the communications industry and so
to have close friendships with both Tom Joyner and Bianna

(22:38):
makes me look a lot smarter than I really am.
I get it, we didn't even get to TV one
and unsung. But there's one thing I do want to know.
How good are you with the archival part of your
business as far as maintaining old radio shows from yesteryear

(23:02):
and whatnot, Because I think oftentimes when we're building and
I'll say it's an empire. Whether you say it's small fries,
I say it's an empire. When you're building an nah,
we think I'm big. You're building an empire. You know.
Oftentimes we don't think we're making history day to day,

(23:23):
but then like thirty years go by and like if
I want to hear you know, what was radio like
in nineteen seventy eight, blah blah blah blah, blah or whatever,
like how good are you with archiving? Like historical moments
that have happened at any of your radio stations. So

(23:46):
I now have a full time archivist. Ah, that's trying
to get individuals, my listeners who have recorded things. To
be very honest with you. I didn't have the money
to store things. I wasn't going to pay for our storage.
Ben when I moved, we threw it away. We threw

(24:07):
the stuff away, okay, because I was living it. Okay,
I was living it. I was trying to survive. I
wasn't interested in history, Okay, I was just trying to
build a company, keep people. You know, I'm blessed to
say that never once have I had a check bounce

(24:27):
in the forty three years I've been in business, Not
once have I had a check bounce. Not once have
I had an employee who did not get paid. Okay,
and for a black company to be able to say
that after forty three years, it's quite an accomplishment, as
hard as it is and still is to get advertising.
But no, I didn't maintain those records. So my archivist

(24:50):
is thrilled every week when she comes across somebody who
might have a piece of my history. Okay. It's trying
to reassemble it and pull it in and I'm prized. Um.
You know, just the other day, Uh, somebody went in
their garage and they sent me a video of me

(25:11):
going to a nigh Bob function with Quincy Jones. Okay.
He and I went to the nag Bob function that evening,
and uh, this person had a copy of somebody interviewing us, okay,
and we were talking about James Brown was being honored
that evening, and Quincy Jones and I were standing there

(25:31):
and we're talking about it. And then uh, the whoever
it was that was interviewing and said, well, we hope
that you all have a great uh time this evening
on your date. And I said, well, this isn't really
a date, and Quincy Jones that it is a date. Okay.
I was like, oh wait wait, Quincy Jones a black woman?
What happen? Right? It was a story exactly story okay.

(26:00):
So um, so we're kind of piecing it together quest level.
Because No, I didn't maintain it. I threw the ship
away quite frankly. Excuse my lately, okay, because I put
an a fourth story Okay, and I didn't have any place,
and you know, if I had an extra space, I
was trying to put an employee in it. You just
weren't thinking that you were making history. I still don't think.

(26:22):
I still don't think that I'm making history. I'm very honored, Okay,
I am very honored. When still only that's a crazy part.
You are literally still the only black woman with the
most radio and teeth, Like, there's nobody that's crazy. And
you know the other thing is quite frankly, um, I

(26:46):
think that what happens so often is that if we
believe our good press, then we get upset with our
bad press. Okay, and so I'm kind of no press. Okay.
I have read very few articles about myself. This ARCAVI
is like, oh look at this, and I was like,

(27:06):
where was that? And she was like, well, this was
in so and so magazine or newspaper. And I was like,
I never saw that. She said, well, you should have
seen it. Okay, it was front page or it was
what when I became the general manager of whu R
it was front page business section of the Washington pot
It was years afterwards that I actually saw it because

(27:28):
I tried not to concentrate on me as much as
I tried to concentrate on the mission. Wait, guys, this
is a historic moment. So we've been doing this. We've
been doing this for like what six years now. Yeah.
The running joke is with these guys always ambushing me

(27:49):
with love and accolades or flowers or whatever. Before flowers, right,
I've been I was previously notorious for not everyone the
same thing as you never read compressed, never read the comments.
Never But you know, I also had to learn in
the last year that, you know, especially with black people,

(28:13):
but people in general just don't celebrate themselves. And you know,
it's but I understand that because we were programmed to
keep yeah we were we were programmed to just like
stay small, stay out of trouble, don't cost too much trouble,
don't bring you know, attention to yourself. And also, like

(28:34):
you know, if we celebrate ourselves, then we'll get bigheaded
and whatnot. And I would personally like us to think
about at least more more refocusing that part of our
history and accept Wow, I'm actually forcing someone to accept
flowers on quest left Supreme, you concentrate more on yourself.

(28:58):
I'm being forced to because everywhere I go I got
people forcing me to celebrate myself. So yeah, I given
I've he said you too, right. I think everyone on
this Zoom could could do well from accepting some flowers. Everybody,
everybody on this everybody on the Zoom is a very
humble person who's very successful, very good at what they do.
And then one with fifty six radio stations and their

(29:20):
own television network, I think definitely needs to you know,
we're up to sixty eight. Oh oh yeah, straight. I
wanted to ask you, miss Kathy, So what to you
in the in the era now of like podcasts and
you know, everything being kind of on demand with you know,
streaming and everything. What to you is the purpose of

(29:41):
radio in twenty twenty three? Well, I don't think the
purpose has changed, particularly when you talk about radio this
geared specifically to the black community. UM, we are very
research oriented and we consistently in our research the listeners
say second only to the black tre in terms of credibility.

(30:02):
I think, you know, I just I just concluded a
campaign that brought me so much joy over the last
two weeks about Stevie Wonders Happy Birthday. Yes, I triggered
press international national press. I triggered so many individuals realizing

(30:22):
that you don't go to a black function and don't
hear the Stevie Wonder version, and most people have no
idea that they're not singing the lyrics. That the lyrics
to that song is one of the most beautiful points
that Steve has ever written. Okay because okay, just the
fabulous tribute to Doctor King. But more importantly, it was

(30:44):
a protest song because the US comment will not make
the holiday exactly, and the movement was dwindling in and
really on life support, and that song really resurrected. And
it was very special to me because that's the same
year that we went into business that he released Hotter

(31:06):
than July. Okay, Hotter than July was the LP that
the song was on. The birthday song was on, and
it even triggered Stevie. Stevie did a Instagram I'm alive
talking about how you know things haven't changed in forty years.
I was so proud of that. I still want my

(31:29):
company to be mission driven. I still want there to
be a message in our music. I still want there
to be content in our narrative that really makes people
stop to think and so, you know, to be able
to continue doing this, I think it's what keeps the relevance,

(31:54):
the importance of black own radio alive. And so even
with technology, the reality is, one time I had to
compete against my heart, I had to compete against AMFM,
I had to Now I actually compete against my actual listeners.
My listeners do their own playlists. My listeners think that

(32:16):
they're great DJs, my listeners. So not only am I
competing against corporations, I'm competing against the people that I'm
trying to serve. Yeah, but as long as they keep
coming back, I realize that they are without saying it,
recognizing that we do the value. They recognize the value

(32:38):
and that value. You know, we're very emotional. One of
the things that kills a lot of old black folks
is they go to the same doctor for forty years.
The doctor don't even see that they got cancer, okay,
because he's so used to hearing them complain. And sister Sarah,
theyd been coming here forty years, okay, We don't. We
are not real quick to change certain things. We don't

(33:01):
change creatures, we don't change doctors, change change our pieces.
But it is it seems like black radio is getting
smaller and smaller and the youth are not going to
have the relationship that like maybe we had as far

(33:21):
because people don't realize and that black radio is different.
And two and you could peace speak to this. I
don't realize that black radio is different in the sense
of this relationship with community rock, jazz, country radio. None
of these kind of genre stations have to have a
direct connection to the community, go to schools, do being
and it's so it's sad in a way. Yeah, and

(33:41):
the relationship has changed that Urban One honors said air
you know Martin Luther Keen's birthday last night. Okay, it
did a fifty year tribute to hip hop and the relationship.
When they came out there with the young man with
the radio on his shoulder, it just how to warm
my heart to realize and remember the days where people

(34:05):
would carry boom boxes on their shoulders. Okay, be on
Roller States, all right, I mean with the bed with
the boom box. Okay, that radio was like, uh, you know,
almost like a chalice is to Catholic priest stuff. Okay,
that's record, that's right, absolutely, absolutely it's changed and certainly

(34:30):
with technology um. But technology also, even though it's brought
on a different level of competition, also has made it
easier for us in so many ways because of voice tracking,
because of being able not to have to be at
a certain like are gathering right now, we're all over

(34:52):
the country, we're all in different okay, and yet we're
having this podcast the same as ten years ago. We
would have all had to have been assembled in your studio, okay,
looking at each other, you know. So it's helped with

(35:13):
the delivery of the product. But I really am not
pessimistic about the future. I think it will change. I
think that that certain things are already changing. I'm very
dismayed over the fact that when I started out there
were almost four hundred black owned radio stations. Now they're

(35:36):
about a hundred and thirty two black owned radio stations,
and sixty eight of them belong to me. Based on
what you would have to get up at four in
the morning, five in the morning to do in the bathroom.

(35:58):
As is that human being that's looking in the mirror
with a brush. Is she satisfied with the path that
the universe has given her? And is there anything else
left to to explore or conquer? I want to come
back and talk about TV okay, because Okay, I want

(36:20):
to do a second podcast. I like the podcast because
I've dot very strong opinions about television and how it's
really changing our perception of who we are people. Wait, actually,
I really want to come back and talk about that. Okay,
it's a preview real quick, because now you gave us

(36:43):
a little bit, you gotta give us more. Yeah, I
was like, what do I know? It's the reality is
foreign countries see us through the eyes of movies and
television shows, and our portrayal. One of the reasons that
I am still the only network in this country that
will air the Cosby showed because that ensembled that is

(37:08):
not forgiving what Bill did. What he did was despicable,
but that show more accurately portrayed black life in America
than any show has ever and that ensemble should not
be punished because of the wrongdoing of one human being.
I don't want the Chinese who only see Housewives of

(37:32):
Atlanta to think that that's what black women are about,
fighting with each other, screaming and hollering the way media
right now, the media is dogging Biden. The reason Hillary
Clinton never got elected president of the United States, would
lose to somebody who couldn't even construct a sentence, was

(37:55):
because of the media dogging her like and my opinion,
she was more qualified to be the president than her
husband was qualified to be the president. Nobody had done
what Hillary had done. But the media now no longer
is covering the news. It creates the news, and it decides,
particularly as it relates to people of color, what's important

(38:18):
and what we should be thinking and what we should
be doing. Okay, but anyway, that's a whole other podcast.
I hope that you will invite me back to because
I think, okay, you might sell that. Okay, because if
we don't get it under control, all right, I do
not know what's going to happen to the future of us,

(38:40):
all right, y'all, we wouldn't know black girls be missing,
thank you, thank you exactly all right and so very important.
But to your question, no, I have no regrets. Regrets.
There is absolutely nothing. But I would do differently other
than have more than one child. Okay, I really really

(39:02):
really wished that I had I had him so young,
and it was so you know, traumatizing and so scary
for me, quite frankly, but I should have adopted. I
should have made it possible for more than just Alfred
to benefit for the blessings of this media conglomerate that

(39:22):
God has blessed me to be able to build. I
have adopted individuals like like I have. You know other
individuals that that I have, you know, been a big
act to or godmother or a grandmother. But I wish
that I had biological Okay, heirs, do you mind me

(39:42):
interrupting real quick? I just want to say this because
we've been through a lot in these forty years something
years that you know me. But be clear, the only
reason I wanted to be in radio is because my
godmother had a best friend named Kathy who who owned
radio stations. Be clear, the first radio job I ever
got was at twelve year so when I volunteered at
w l W m MJ, your first radio station. And

(40:04):
be clear that when I went to Clark Atlanta University,
you were the one that made the call to doctor
Gloria James and said she's an internship at wcl Okay,
so thank you, and it'd be clear that I had
the best off female morning radio show on Radio one.
Shout out to Shamara, you just close the show. I know.

(40:25):
I was like, that's like some micropion. There's nothing I
was like to know about Sugar and Bill not saying anything.
We don't say much. We try to we know what
to talk. Yeah, I know you said you were single.
That was my only question, So I have any more questions.
I wanted to know if this guy is anybody that

(40:46):
you want on Unsung that you haven't you been able
to get you wish? Did Stephanie finally given yet? No?
I know if the fifty mentioned I love them right,
and their position with me has been we're not Unsung,
And I was like, that's not the purpose okay of
the show. Okay, And I said, well, would you at

(41:09):
least do uncensored? But yeah, I do have right? Uh?
And they tapped my list every year we pitched them.
We have pitched them every year. Okay, Wow there, I
mean they they actually were trend centers. And I think
that that story needs to be really be told. And

(41:30):
because I was such always as still am such big fans.
And then I mean, look how long the marriage has endured.
Okay it's hard, Okay, all right, Okay, that's very rare okay,
and I mean remember when Smokey and married right exactly?
That didn't work. Okay, it's hard to do what they

(41:52):
have accomplished. The fifth dimensions are and so you have
to create a format a show called trend setters, or
at least the title will cater to the ego of
the artist, because I've heard artists say, well, I'm not unsung,
so I'm not doing it because I think in their
mind they think like unsung means failure, but no, it

(42:13):
just means that. It means that you didn't get your
just recognition. It showed you more. We should be called flowers. Yeah, yeah,
it should have been more. I thank you all for
this opportunity. I like doing a podcast. Thank you, what
do you want to It's gonna be the Cathy Used

(42:34):
podcast next week for exactly you guys. Sorry, sorry to
break news to you this way, but yeah, Cathy's taking over.
So I appreciate it. When you when you retire quest love,
can I feel in absolutely it's yours. You can buy
us out right now, okay, okay, I pick us up. Sorry,

(42:54):
I heart, Yes, I've sold. I just made a deal. Yeah,
family or good faith, it's christ love and closing, I
know that you don't like the flowers, you don't like
the accolades, but I'll think the flowers. Okay. The things
that you have done in your career have been exemplary. Okay,
I thank you for who you are, not just professionally,

(43:18):
but but personally. Like I said to me, it's not
about you know, establishing yourself as a celebrity or you know,
any of the rest. It's really about who you are
as a human being. Because in the end of analysis,
that's all. We came here naked, We're gonna leave out
here naked, and the only thing we have is that

(43:39):
which we have done to help other individuals in your
record stands for itself. So thank you. I'm truly honored
and truly honored to me two guys, particularly the one
that's interested in me being single and you mentioned naked,
So all right, sugar Steve, Bill Franta, And this is
another episode Much Love Supreme. Thank you very much the

(44:03):
great Caviews. We're gonna sign it off. Thank you. Much
Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. Well more
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