Virginia State University is about to have a media icon on campus. Media pioneer Cathy Hughes is coming to the university in partnership with the Black Information Network and When We All Vote. Hughes will be speaking on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, in honor of National Voter Registration Day.

With a career spanning more than 40 years, Hughes has made major contributions to the journalism and media industry. Her career began in 1969 at KOWH, a Black radio station in Omaha, Nebraska. Soon after, she moved to Washington, D.C., after receiving a job at the Howard University School of Communication as a lecturer and assistant to the Dean of Communications.

In the early 1970s Hughes became the general sales manager at WHUR-FM, a radio station in Washington, D.C., and in just two years she became the general manager of the station. Under Hughes’s leadership the station made major changes in a positive direction. She helped the station generate more than $3.5 million in annual revenue while in that position. She eventually left WHUR in 1978 to work for WYCB Radio, where she was the vice president and station general manager.

In 1979, Hughes and her then husband, Dewey Hughes, founded Radio One after purchasing WOL, a small radio station in Washington, D.C. Although Hughes wanted a talk format for the station, she was pressured by the bank to lean more heavily into music. Creating a happy medium, the station aired a talk show in the morning followed by music programming for the rest of the day. She eventually became sole owner of the station following her divorce from Dewey. Her talk show led to the station’s major success.

Today, Radio One is the largest Black-owned radio station in the country, with 65 stations in every major market. Due to Radio One’s major success, Hughes launched TV One in 2004, a cable television network geared towards the Black community. An icon in her own right, Hughes holds the title of being the first Black woman to own a media company publicly traded on the U.S. Stock Exchange.

During the event, Hughes, along with Miles Ahead Entertainment President & CEO Sheila Eldridge, will discuss the importance of mentorship and civic participation. Eldridge is also the founder of the HBCU First LOOK Film Festival. As a part of National Voter Registration Day, students will have the opportunity to register to vote.

This event is free and open to the public.