Radio One (Company)

Radio One, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: ROIAK
Industry	Media
Founded	1980
Founder	Cathy Hughes
Headquarters	1010 Wayne Avenue Floor 14 Silver Spring, MD 20910
Area served	United States
Key people	Cathy Hughes (Chairperson) Alfred C. Liggins III (President & CEO)
Revenue	US$ 441.4 million (2014)
Operating income	US$ 77.2 million (2014)
Net income	US$ -42.7 million (2014)
Total assets	US$ 1.4 billion (2014)
Total equity	US$ 18.9 million (2014)
Number of employees	1,011 (2015)
Divisions	Reach Media TV One Interactive One NewsOne
Website	radio-one.com

Radio One, Inc. is an American media company with holdings in radio, cable television and digital media. Radio One owns and operates 55 radio stations in 16 US markets. It is the largest African American-owned broadcasting company in the US, and the largest radio broadcaster targeting African American and urban listeners. The company's station offerings are primarily hip-hop, rap, R&B, talk radio and news.

As of 2014, Radio One was the ninth-highest earning African-American business in the United States.

Radio One owns Reach Media, the largest radio network targeting African American and urban listeners; a majority stake in TV One, a cable television network targeting African American women; and Interactive One, a digital publisher with brands and websites targeting urban users.

Radio One was founded in 1980 by Cathy Hughes, a then-recently divorced single mother, with the purchase of the Washington, DC radio station WOL-AM for $995,000. 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 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' son, Alfred C. Liggins III, took over as CEO in 1997, with Hughes becoming the board's chairperson. Under the guidance of recently appointed CEO Liggins, Radio One went public on May 6, 1999, while continuing to be controlled by the family. The company's initial public offering 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.