Cathy Hughes

Omaha, Nebraska

Entrepreneur

The projects of Omaha, where Radio One founder and chair Cathy Hughes grew up, didn’t offer “a lot of positive reinforcement.” The Boys Club was an exception, providing safe supervision and encouragement from staff. In 1979, Cathy and then-husband Dewey Hughes created Radio One. Now the nation’s largest African-American owned and operated radio chain, Radio One launched a new cable channel, TV One, in 2004. Under Cathy’s leadership – and in honor of Denzel Washington – TV One and its cable affiliates recently installed entertainment centers, complete with programming libraries and computer systems, in Clubs in Los Angeles, Mount Vernon, N.Y., and Omaha.