Happy B’Day Cathy Hughes! 10 Fun Facts About Our Boss Lady

April 23, 2025

Black Women Film Network Summit — Paras Griffin

A lot can happen in a life that spans over seven decades, so it would only make sense to put forth every effort that assures each and every one of those days will matter for something. For Cathy Hughes, the consummate chairwoman here at Radio One and Urban One, it’s been her only way of living for the better part of 77 years.

On her milestone birthday today (April 22), we give a huge salute to our founder for being an exemplary model of what it means to be an influential Black businesswoman, supportive mother, pretty stylish septuagenarian and overall visionary leader.

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With no signs of slowing down anytime soon — she’s already looking into the online gaming industry! — Hughes is showing the world that no creed, color, race, gender or financial barrier will ever slow her down in pursuit of achieving everything possible for the UONE family. Her work has influenced even the highest of academia, with Howard University renaming its four-department communications program as the Cathy Hughes School of Communications back in 2016. As the HBCU put it on their website, “The mission of the Cathy Hughes School of Communications is to prepare graduates to exercise global leadership within and across diverse communities, locally, nationally and globally through communication research, professional practice, innovation, job creation, social justice and service via cutting-edge knowledge, skills and technology.” Cathy’s overall mission for media is carried on especially by the school’s professors, who are all described as “Pulitzer Prize winners, Emmy winners, Fulbright recipients, ASHA Fellows, prominent researchers, renowned authors, award-winning journalists and other media and communications professionals.”

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To learn more about the birthday girl and get a better idea of some accomplishments that led to her success, we put together a few facts that give just a surface level telling of the greatness that is Cathy Hughes. Whether it’s being the first, or just the most determined to win, our boss lady definitely knows a thing or two about making an impact on the culture.

Keep scrolling to check out a special birthday shoutout to the incomparable Cathy Hughes featuring a handful of facts that tell more about our head honcho:

She’s One Of The Richest Black Woman In America — At One Point Only Second To Oprah!

Let’s just say a net worth estimated between $450 million and $500 million is nothing to sneeze at, especially for a Black woman.

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She’s The First African-American Woman To Head A Publicly Traded Corporation

Since going public in 1999, Radio One has consistently maintained its status as the largest African-American-owned broadcasting company in the United States.

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She Helped Create The R&B Subgenre “Quiet Storm”

You heard it right! Back in 1976 when she was the station manager for WHUR, Hughes helped then-Howard University students Melvin Lindsey and Jack Shuler launch the late-night music programming format, The Quiet Storm, after a successful soft launch. The rest is history.

Her Mom Was An Iconic Jazz Player

In her prime, the late Helen Jones Woods played trombone in one of America’s top female jazz bands during the 1940s.

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Her Dad Was The First African-American To Earn An Accounting Degree From Creighton University

The historic accounting degree earned by William Alfred Woods influenced his daughter Cathy to enroll in Business Administration classes when she came of age. While she didn’t graduate, it led her to a sales manager position at WHUR where her broadcast story officially began.