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Making waves in broadcastingby Joy Duckett CainI don't think that bad things happen; I think you're faced with challenges. I was 16 when I got pregnant; my son was born when I was 17. My mother and everyone else saw it as terrible--the end of my life. Mom wanted me to have an abortion and continue my education, but I wanted to have the baby. Now everybody, especially Morn, says thank God that I didn't have the abortion. My son, Alfred Liggins III, was the greatest blessing I ever received because he made me think beyond myself. I never dreamed a dream of my personal success; I dreamed of my son's not becoming a statistic. And now he works with me as the CEO and president of Radio One. I had a variety of jobs before I arrived at Howard University, where I became the general sales manager and then general manager of its radio station, WHUR. At my next job, at Washington, D.C.'s WYCB, the first 24-hour gospel station, I got the opportunity to build a radio station from the ground up--and then the owners ran out of money. They wanted me to get them a loan. I replied that if I did shop a loan for them I wanted a piece of the company. They told me that if I thought I was so smart, I should go and buy my own radio station. It was as if a light went off in my head. That's when I went into business for myself. I've had some financially dark days. In 1983, about three years into owning my first radio station, in D.C., I lost everything. For about 18 months I ended up sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor of the radio station and washing up in the public bathroom every morning. But I survived, with the help of two African-American brothers at Syncom Management Co., my lead investor. It took me seven years to dig out of debt, and then I made all my investors rich when I went public in 1999. Our stock opened at $24 and went to $92 the first year. Now I have more than 2,000 employees; about 1,600 of them are Black. Your attitude will determine your altitude, but there seems to be this attitude among young people that they don't want to be "taken advantage of." Well, they are also not getting discovered because they're not standing out in the crowd. Some say, "I've got my M.B.A.--why should I be sorting mail?" Why? Because the mail needs to be sorted! I used to cover my switchboard and invariably someone would ask me, "Why are you answering your own phone?" I'd say, "Because it rang." Racism and sexism exist. When I got my first million-dollar loan, the bank bills would come addressed to "Mr. Catherine Hughes." I say this all the time: Get past the slights. You're an African-American female--deal with it. Don't view it as, "Woe is me--they stopped me because I'm a woman." That may be true, but that's their problem, Your challenge is figuring out how to get past their attempt to stop you. AS TOLD TO JOY DUCKETT CAIN VITA Name: Catherine Liggins Hughes Job: Chairperson and founder of Radio One's 71 stations and the cable channel TV One Age: 58 Hometown: Omaha Home base: Washington, D.C. Family: Single; one grown son Education: Attended two colleges but never graduated; six honorary doctorates Mentors: "1 was general manager of WHUR, the radio station that the late media mogul Katharine Graham gave Howard University. Because I was a woman, she took a special interest in me. And though I'm seven years older than Oprah Winfrey, I look up to her. She lifts the bar on herself--that's what I want to do with my life." Organizer: "BlackBerry and my mind. God has blessed me with an incredible memory." |
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