Early years

Radio One in 1980 by Cathy Hughes, a then-recently divorced single mother, with the purchase of the Washington, D.C. radio station WOL-AM for $995,000.^[8][9][10] She changed the station's programming format from all-music to one that examined politics and culture from an African American perspective.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[9]

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.^[9][11][12] 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.^[13] In 1997, the company entered the Philadelphia market with its purchase of WPHI-FM 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.^[14][13][15]

In 1996, Radio One moved its corporate offices from Washington, D.C., to Lanham, Maryland.^[13] The company is now based in Silver Spring, Maryland.^[8][16] Under the guidance of recently appointed CEO Liggins, Radio One went public on May 6, 1999, while continuing to be controlled by the family.^[14][17] The company's initial public offering was for 6.5 million shares at $24 per share.^[12] This made Hughes the first African American woman to chair a public company.^[8][11] As of 2010, Hughes and Liggins control 90% of Radio One's voting stock.^[18]

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.^[9][13][19] In total, the company added 21 radio stations in 2000.^[13]

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.^[17] 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.^[20] In June 2001, Radio One purchased Georgia radio station WPEZ-FM from US Broadcasting for $55 million.^[21]

In January 2004, Radio One launched the TV One cable network in a joint venture with Comcast.^[8]

In February, Radio One purchased country station WSNJ 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.^[22] The company would also purchase KRTS-FM in Houston for approximately $72.5 million in cash, giving it three stations in the Houston market.^[23]

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.^[24]

From 2006 through the beginning of 2008, Radio One sold nearly $150 million in assets, primarily underperforming radio stations.^[25]

Radio One would reach a peak of owning over 70 stations in 22 markets by 2007,^[26] becoming the largest African-American-owned-and-operated broadcast company in the US.^[11][27] In January of that year, Radio One purchased GIANT magazine for $275,000.^[28][25]

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.^[29]

In 2008, Radio One launched its Interactive One subsidiary.^[30] 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.^[31]

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.^[32]

In 2011, Radio One changed stations in Houston, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, from African American to general interest formats, due to low ratings.^[33] In May 2018, they purchased Washington, D.C. sports station "The Team 980" WTEM from Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder's Red Zebra Broadcasting.^[34]

Rebranding as Urban One

On May 8, 2017, Radio One was renamed Urban One.^[35] 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 African American women.^[36][37]

In April 2023, it was announced that Urban One would acquire the Houston radio cluster of Cox Media Group. ^[38] 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 and Cox's KTHT, 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.^[38][39]

Stations

As of May 2023, Urban One's Radio One division operates 58 radio stations in 13 markets.^[40]

TV One Networks

TV One Networks is the unit that oversees Urban One's cable networks.

On January 19, 2004, Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, Urban One launched TV One in a joint venture with Comcast. The network primarily produces and airs African American entertainment, lifestyle, and scripted programming.

A sister network aimed at young millennial and Generation X African American 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.^[41]), The Urban Daily, and Hello Beautiful.^[30][42] By 2011, Interactive was the largest network of owned and operated sites aimed at an African-American audience,^[43] and by 2014, had reached over 18 million unique monthly users on its platform through over 80 national and local brands.^[44]

In 2011, Interactive One entered into an editorial and sales partnership with NBC News, aligning NewsOne with NBC's The Grio.^[45]

As of 2013, Interactive One has a partnership with Global Grind, a website founded by Russell Simmons and focused on pop culture and music content for African American and Hispanic audiences.^[46] 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 and Facebook.^[47][48]

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.^[24][49] The deal also gave Radio One ownership rights to Joyner's syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show, which was at the time airing on 115 stations to 8 million listeners; and news website BlackAmericaWeb.com, which had at the time approximately 800,000 members, giving Radio One its first strong Internet presence.^[49]

In 2005, Radio One and Reach Media launched a new African-American-centered talk radio network, with programming hosted by the Reverend Al Sharpton, to be broadcast on up to 10 of Radio One's stations, as well as stations owned by other companies.^[14]

In December 2012, under a new deal, Radio One increased its ownership stake in Reach Media to 80%.^[50] That same month, Radio One announced that the following year, it would merge its "Syndication One" urban programming lineup with Reach Media.^[51][52]