Multi-media & Radio Pioneer
—Hub, Home, Heart: Greater H Street NE Heritage Trail —
(side 1)
Cathy Hughes and WOL-AM have made an indelible mark on this Washington D.C. community. In 1982, Hughes purchased a building at the corner of 4th and H Streets and found it littered with almost 200 hypodermic needles and crack pipes. The home of her first radio station had been used, for years, as a drug den. The surrounding community was still struggling to recover from the riots that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. Residents and merchants knew something significant was taking place when station vans, with the WOL logo, pulled into the neighborhood. It was clear that Cathy Hughes was committed to the revitalization of the H Street corridor and adjoining neighborhoods because WOL-AM became the very first, major business to relocate to the area.
With a group of volunteers, Hughes worked tirelessly, transforming the building into a functioning radio station and resource center for the community. Three large picture windows were cut into the one story, brick, rectangular building, allowing residents to observe media at work, at all times. The station became known as "RADIOVISION," and crowds routinely came out to meet and greet politicians, celebrities and entertainers who visited the station. Cathy Hughes partnered with local businesses, sponsored community initiatives and festivals and created programs, which helped many of the residents to get back on their feet. WOL, an acronym for "We Offerr Love," allowed Hughes to combine her love for radio and the black community. WOL-AM positioned her to create positive change, pride and progress in the northeast H Street corridor.
Armed with her slogan "information is power," Hughes kept her listeners informed and tackled tough issues facing the community on the "Cathy Hughes Morning Show." She employed many local residents, several of whom lived close enough to walk to work, and taught them the business of radio. WOL was also singularly responsible for taking "Go Go" music, D.C.'s own popular, homegrown, musical genre, and elevating it to a national level.
With humble beginnings here in northeast Washington D.C., Cathy Hughes went from H Street to Wall Street after WOL-AM became the birthplace of Radio One, Inc. By 2016, Radio One was a multimedia conglomerate with more than 56 radio stations across the country comprised of talk/news, gospel, R&B, and hip-hop formats. It has diversified and branched out into television and digital media and is the parent corporation of the subsidiaries TV One, Reach Media, Interactive One, and One Solution. Hughes' media corporation is now the largest African-American owned business of its kind in the country; yet Hughes still credits her neighbors at 4th and H Street NE helping her to lay her foundation.
(side 2)
Trains and streetcars created the Near Northeast neighborhood around H Street. The B&O Railroad's arrival in 1835 made this a center of energetic, working-class life. Workmen living north of the Capitol staffed the Government Printing Office, ran the trains, stocked the warehouses, and built Union Station. When a streetcar arrived linking H Street to downtown, new construction quickly followed.
H Street bustled with shops and offices run by Jewish, Italian, Lebanese, Greek Irish, and African American families. During the segregation era, which lasted into the 1950s, African Americans came to H Street for its department stores and sit-down restaurants. Most businesses welcomed all customers.
Then came the civil disturbances in the wake of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, ]r.'s assassination in 1968. Decades of commercial decline followed. Just off H Street, though, the strong residential community endured. The 2005 opening of the Atlas Performing Arts Center signaled a revival, building evocatively on H Street's past.
Hub Home, Heart is a bridge to carry you from that past to the present.
Hub, Home, Heart: Greater H Street NE Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, DC Walking Trail. The self-guided, 3.2-mile tour of 19 signs offers about two hours of gentle exercise. Free keepsake guidebooks in English or Spanish are available at businesses and institutions along the way. For more on DC neighborhoods, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org.
This Heritage Trail is produced by Linda Donavan Harper, Mara Cherkasky, Maggie Downing, Sarah Fairbrother, Helen Gineris, Elizabeth Goldberg, Pamela Jafari, Leslie Kershaw, Cortney Kreer, lane Freundel Levey, Jessica Marlett, Kyle Rahn, Leon Seemann, and Pat Wheeler, of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with District Department of Transportation, Events DC, U.S. Department of Transportation, H Street Main Street, and Greater H Street NE Heritage Trail Working Group. Special thanks to Heritage Trail Historian Sarah Shenfield; Working Group Co-chairs Joseph A. Englert, Marqui A. Lyons, and Anwar Saleem; and Working Group members Mary Bakota, Rick Burns, Brett Busang, Judge Kaye K. Christian, Roslyn S. Christian, Gloria S. Corbitt, Eddie H. Curry, Jen DeMayo, William Dunn, Gwendolyn Faulkner, Elise Fisher, Patsy Fletcher, Thomas Gallo, Lisa Green, Frank Hankins, Edith and Art Hessel, Evelyn Kogok Hier, Thomas Hier, Scott Kenison, Barbara M. Murphy, Demitri Nader, Doug Pulak, Drew Ronneberg, Robb Santamaria, Ramona Service, Patrick Stewart, Monisha Sujan, Chris Swanson, Katie Turner, Paul Turner, Bill Ulle, Kathryn Warnes, Melvin Warther, Helen Wooden Wood, and Patricia Wrightson.
Thanks also to Zelma Coleman, Lauria Collins, Diane Easterling, Derk Gray, Mark Greek, Faye Haskins, Sue Hersman, Agnes Hill, Lucinda P. Janke, Carole Kolker, Brian Kraft, Richard Layman, Michael Olson, Mark Opsasnick, Eddy Palanzo, Glenn Pearson, Kathryn Schneider Smith, and Wendy Turman.
Cathy Hughes Heritage Sign designed by Rodney Sutton for the DDOT.
© 2016, All Rights Reserved.
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