Washington DC’s Black radio landscape blended music, talk, and institutional voices.
Media mogul Cathy Hughes got her feet wet at WHUR and learned the radio business while she was a student at Howard U. After working as sales manager there, she and then-husband, Dewey Hughes bought WOL, which evolved into a talk centered forum that addressed Black Washington directly through call in shows, political debate, and community engagement. Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968, popular DJ Petey Greene made statements on air that were credited with helping quell the riots in D.C. Ms. Hughes bought additional stations, forming the company Radio One, now Urban One, which encompasses stations across the US, the television network TV One, Cleo TV and Reach Media.
WOOK, though not Black owned, became one of the city’s most important Black oriented stations, giving R&B artists and Black announcers a regular presence on the dial before license instability revealed the fragility of Black formats under white ownership.
WKYS became the city’s dominant Black music FM under corporate ownership, shaping youth culture and breaking national records. Donnie Simpson’s Morning Show was a ratings hit in the city for 15 years, before he retired. He came out of retirement 5 years later to handle afternoon drive at WMMJ.
WHUR, licensed to Howard University, represented Black institutional ownership by blending jazz, R&B, and public affairs programming designed to reflect the university’s intellectual and cultural life. DJ Melvin Lindsey is credited with creating “The Quiet Storm” late-night music format that has been replicated at stations around the country.
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