Urban One, Inc. (formerly Radio One) is an American
media conglomerate
A media conglomerate, media company, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, video games, amusement parks, or ...
based in
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...
. Founded in 1980 by
Cathy Hughes, the company primarily operates media properties targeting
African Americans
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...
.
It is the largest African-American-owned broadcasting company in the United States, currently operating over 50 radio stations. The company also operates digital arm Interactive One,
cable networks TV One[Felicia R. Lee]
"A Network for Blacks With Sense of Mission"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', December 11, 2007. &
Cleo TV, and is a majority-owner of syndicator Reach Media.
As of 2014, it was the ninth-highest-earning
African-American-owned business in the United States.
History
Early years
Radio One was founded in 1980 by
Cathy Hughes, a then-recently divorced single mother, with the purchase of the
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
radio station
WOL-AM for $995,000.
[Steven Overly]
"With purchase of radio station WOL in 1980, Cathy Hughes launched a media empire"
''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', August 11, 2014.[Clea Simon]
"Mining an Untapped Market, Radio One Becomes a Force"
''The New York Times'', December 25, 2000. She changed the station's programming format from all-music to one that examined politics and culture from an African American perspective.
Hughes purchased her second station,
WMMJ
WMMJ (102.3 FM), known on air as "Majic 102.3 & 92.7," is an urban oldies-leaning urban adult contemporary radio station owned by Urban One in the Washington, D.C. market. It is co-owned with WKYS, WOL, WPRS-FM and WYCB and has studios ...
in Washington, seven years later, which began to turn a profit once she converted it into a rhythm and blues station.
This established Radio One's early strategy of purchasing small, underperforming radio stations in urban markets and refocusing them to serve the demographics of their communities.
After joining the company in 1985 and managing its day-to-day operations since 1993, Hughes's son, Alfred C. Liggins III, took over as CEO in 1997, with Hughes becoming the board's chairperson.
[Jessie Carney Smith, ed., ''Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events'', Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press, 2003, pp. 63-64.][Robyn D. Clarke]
"High-Frequency Profits"
'' Black Enterprise'', June 2000. In 1995, Radio One purchased
WKYS-FM in Washington, D.C., for $34 million, and also entered the Atlanta market by purchasing WHAT-FM for $4.5 million.
In 1997, the company entered the Philadelphia market with its purchase of
WPHI-FM
WPHI-FM (103.9 MHz) is a commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, and serving the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc., simulcasting an all-news radio radio format, format wi ...
for $20 million. The company added numerous stations in the late 1990s, including stations in Atlanta, St. Louis, Boston, Cleveland, Richmond, San Francisco, Detroit and Boston.
In 1996, Radio One moved its corporate offices from Washington, D.C., to
Lanham, Maryland
Lanham is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, it has a population of 11,282. The New Carrollton station (the terminus of the Washington Metro's O ...
.
["Radio One, Inc. History"](_blank)
Funding Universe. Accessed October 26, 2014. The company is now based in
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...
.
Under the guidance of recently appointed CEO Liggins, Radio One went public on May 6, 1999, while continuing to be controlled by the family.
[Clea Simon]
"WILD to air new African-American talk-radio network"
''Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'', October 29, 2005.["Radio One's Number One"](_blank)
''Wharton Alumni Magazine'', Spring 2007. The company's
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
was for 6.5 million shares at $24 per share.
This made Hughes the first African American woman to chair a public company.
As of 2010, Hughes and Liggins control 90% of Radio One's voting stock.
[Joe Flint]
"Latest protester of Comcast – NBC deal plays race card and has ex-FCC chairman on board"
''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', April 27, 2010.
In 2000, Radio One purchased 12 stations for approximately $1.3 billion from
Clear Channel, bringing Radio One into Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston and Miami, along with stations in Cleveland and Greenville, South Carolina. Soon after, Radio One added two more Dallas stations.
In total, the company added 21 radio stations in 2000.
Further expansion
In 2001, Radio One expanded into 22 markets, with 18 million listeners, making it the nation's largest urban-market radio broadcasting company.
In February, Radio One purchased rival company Blue Chip Broadcasting for approximately $135 million ($45 million cash with the remainder in stock). The purchase included 15 radio stations owned and operated by Cincinnati-based Blue Chip in Ohio, Minnesota and Kentucky. Earlier that month, Radio One had also purchased another Dallas radio station for $52.5 million. In June 2001, Radio One purchased Georgia radio station
WPEZ-FM from US Broadcasting for $55 million.
In January 2004, Radio One launched the
TV One cable network in a joint venture with
Comcast
Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...
.
In February, Radio One purchased country station
WSNJ
WSNJ (1240 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Bridgeton, New Jersey. It is owned by SNJ Today, LLC, and it airs a full service radio, full-service adult contemporary radio format, ...
in Bridgeton, New Jersey, for $35 million; it had been on the air since 1937 and family-owned by the Ed and Katherine Bold family for over 50 years. The company would also purchase
KRTS-FM in Houston for approximately $72.5 million in cash, giving it three stations in the Houston market.
In November 2004, Radio One acquired a 53% stake in Reach Media, a Texas-based media company owned by radio host
Tom Joyner, for $56.1 million in cash and stock.

From 2006 through the beginning of 2008, Radio One sold nearly $150 million in assets, primarily underperforming radio stations.
Radio One would reach a peak of owning over 70 stations in 22 markets by 2007, becoming the largest African-American-owned-and-operated broadcast company in the US.
In January of that year, Radio One purchased ''
GIANT
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''wiktionary:gigas, gigas'', cognate wiktionary:giga-, giga-) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''gia ...
'' magazine for $275,000.
[Anita Huslin]
"Radio One's Losses Grow, Stock Declines"
''The Washington Post'', February 22, 2008.
However, that same year, Radio One would sell ten stations to
Main Line Broadcasting for approximately $76 million in cash. The stations sold were in Radio One's markets with the smallest African American populations. The sale decreased the number of Radio One's stations from 71 to 61.
In 2008, Radio One launched its
Interactive One subsidiary.
The company also acquired social networking firm Community Connect, the parent company of
BlackPlanet,
AsianAvenue and
MiGente, for $38 million. BlackPlanet at the time had 20 million members and was the nation's fourth-most visited social networking site.
[Dan Frommer]
"BlackPlanet Parent Community Connect Sells To Radio One For $38 Million"
''Business Insider'', April 11, 2008.
In December 2009, the company suspended publication of the print version of the bi-monthly magazine, relaunching it online as GIANTLife.com. The website is a part of the Interactive One network.
In 2011, Radio One changed stations in Houston, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, from African American to general interest formats, due to low ratings. In May 2018, they purchased
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
sports station "The Team 980"
WTEM
WTEM (980 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial Sports radio, sports radio station licensed to serve Washington, D.C. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services the Washington metropolitan area as the flagship station of the Washington Wizards ...
from
Washington Commanders
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) East division ...
owner
Dan Snyder's Red Zebra Broadcasting.
Rebranding as Urban One
On May 8, 2017, Radio One was renamed Urban One. Radio One would be retained as the company's secondary name, and as a name for its radio division.
On January 19, 2019, Urban One launched
Cleo TV, a cable channel aimed at
millennial and
Generation X
Generation X (often shortened to Gen X) is the Demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the ...
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
women.
In April 2023, it was announced that Urban One would acquire the Houston radio cluster of
Cox Media Group
CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company p ...
.
This, at the time of the sale, would have resulted in Urban One being over FCC ownership limits, forcing the divestitures of 2 stations in the combined cluster; the stations to be sold were later determined by the two companies to be
KROI
KROI (92.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is a radio station serving the Greater Houston market. It is licensed to Seabrook, Texas and owned by the Spanish Broadcasting System. The station's studios are located in Greenway Plaza and the transmitter i ...
and Cox's
KTHT
KLVH (97.1 FM broadcasting, FM "K-Love") is a Non-commercial educational station, non-commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Cleveland, Texas, and serving the northern section of Greater Houston. The station airs the programming ...
, which would be placed into the temporary Sugarland Station Trust divestiture trust, overseen by Scott Knoblauch. It was reported that
Urban was already in the process of negotiations for KROI with a "minority-owned" broadcaster marking their entry into the market; on April 20, it was announced said broadcaster was
Spanish Broadcasting System, who would ultimately buy the station for $7.5 million.
Assets
Stations
As of May 2023, Urban One's Radio One division operates 58 radio stations in 13 markets.
TV One Networks
TV One Networks is the unit that oversees Urban One's
cable networks.
On January 19, 2004,
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
's birthday, Urban One launched
TV One in a joint venture with
Comcast
Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...
. The network primarily produces and airs African American entertainment, lifestyle, and scripted programming.
A sister network aimed at young
millennial and
Generation X
Generation X (often shortened to Gen X) is the Demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the ...
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
women,
Cleo TV, would launch in January 2019.
Interactive One
Interactive One (also known as iOne), launched in 2008, is Urban One's online portfolio of digital brands complementing other media companies. The unit operates numerous digital brands, including NewsOne (a news website which curates stories from other media sources for an African-American audience), The Urban Daily, and Hello Beautiful.
[Nicholas Carlson]
"Former AOL Entertainment Boss Mike Rich Goes To Interactive One"
''Business Insider
''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...
'', July 9, 2010. By 2011, Interactive was the largest network of owned and operated sites aimed at an African-American audience, and by 2014, had reached over 18 million unique monthly users on its platform through over 80 national and local brands.
In 2011, Interactive One entered into an editorial and sales partnership with
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...
, aligning NewsOne with NBC's
The Grio.
In 2013, Interactive One had a partnership with Global Grind, a website founded by
Russell Simmons
Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. He has p ...
and focused on pop culture and music content for African American and Hispanic audiences. Global Grind was subsequently acquired by Interactive One on December 17, 2014. In 2015, Interactive One launched HB Studios, a video production studio focused on creating scripted and unscripted programming about women and the diversity of their experiences. The programming will be featured on the iOne Women Channel, HelloBeautiful.com,
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
and
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
.
Reach Media
Reach Media is a Texas-based media company owned by radio host
Tom Joyner.
In November 2004, Radio One acquired a 53% stake in Reach for $56.1 million in cash and stock.
["Radio One to boost Joyner"](_blank)
''Los Angeles Times'', November 23, 2004.[Andrea K. Walker]
"Radio One to acquire Joyner company"
''Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news.
Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publish ...
'', November 23, 2004. The deal also gave Radio One ownership rights to Joyner's syndicated ''
Tom Joyner Morning Show
The ''Tom Joyner Morning Show'' was an American nationally syndicated radio program, hosted by veteran broadcaster Tom Joyner. The program, which aired on Urban contemporary- and Urban adult contemporary-formatted stations across the United Stat ...
'', which was at the time airing on 115 stations to 8 million listeners; and news websit
BlackAmericaWeb.com which had at the time approximately 800,000 members, giving Radio One its first strong Internet presence.
In 2005, Radio One and Reach Media launched a new African-American-centered talk radio network, with programming hosted by the Reverend
Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights and social justice activist, Baptists, Baptist minister, radio talk show host, and TV personality, who is also the founder of the National Action Network civil rig ...
, to be broadcast on up to 10 of Radio One's stations, as well as stations owned by other companies.
In December 2012, under a new deal, Radio One increased its ownership stake in Reach Media to 80%. That same month, Radio One announced that the following year, it would merge its "Syndication One" urban programming lineup with Reach Media.
"Alfred Liggins and David Kantor On The Radio One Reach Media Merger"
The Urban Daily, March 20, 2013.
See also
* Inner City Broadcasting Corporation
* Cathy Hughes
* Tom Joyner
* List of U.S. states by African-American population
* List of U.S. metropolitan areas with large African-American populations
*
* List of African American neighborhoods
* List of African-American newspapers and media outlets
References
External links
Radio One official website
TV One official website
Reach Media official website
Interactive One official website
{{Radio One
1999 initial public offerings
American companies established in 1980
1980 establishments in Maryland
Companies based in Silver Spring, Maryland
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Mass media companies established in 1980
Radio broadcasting companies of the United States
Black-owned companies of the United States