75 CENTS
OMAHA STAR
THE
Celebrating 80 Years
Celebrate Women’s History Month.
1938 2018
Dedicated to the Service of the People that NO Good Cause Shall Lack a Champion and that Evil Shall Not Go Unopposed
Nebraska’s Only Black Owned Newspaper Vol. 81 - No. 5 Omaha, Nebraska
Friday, March 8, 2019
75 cents
Alfred Liggins is the Other Half of Urban One’s Success Story By Leo Adam Biga
the right track and figuring out how to fix the stuff that’s not working and figuring out what the next thing is.”
The oft-told entrepreneurial success narrative of Urban One founder and chair Cathy Hughes tends to leave out a crucial part of the story: He doesn’t mind her getting most of the pub. “Look, my mother has an amazing story from her son and company CEO Alfred Liggins III is an equal partner in the journey of this black where she came, and she’s always been more of a forefront person. A lot of people tend to think multimedia and entertainment enterprise. By now, the tale of this single mother’s rise this woman built this company and she made her from Omaha dreamer to Washington, D.C., son the CEO, but they don’t realize how long icon is the stuff of legend. But what gets I’ve been at the company and that it was really lost in translation is that her son also came a joint effort. They tend to think it’s a traditional family business. out of Omaha. He was only 7 “But my mother is very good when he moved with his mom at giving me credit. She did it to D.C., but he was here long when we were in Omaha.” enough to form fond memories of Last May, Omaha feted school (Sacred Heart, Mammoth Hughes at events celebrating Park), recreation (Kellom Pool, her life, including naming a Fontenelle Park) and spending street in her honor. Liggins was time with extended family (his content letting his mom have the maternal grandparents Helen spotlight. Jones Woods and William Alfred “I never spend a bunch of time Woods). doing press or correcting people For years, he came back because that’s just not who I annually to visit family. He twice am. I love our partnership. I’m lived with his biological father grateful and happy that people Alfred Liggins II. are inspired by her story, our Contrary to popular belief, he Alfred Liggins III story, and it’s a great story and a great journey. I didn’t enter or inherit the family business after it was already rolling. He was there from its don’t feel a need to build my own story separate fledgling start and helped make it a success. He’s and apart from hers. “But if I get called for an interview and we since taken it to unimagined heights. start talking about it, I’m happy to lay out what my role was and what our relationship is.” But even he is in awe of his mom. Before coming on full time at age 20 in 1985, “Yeah, I marvel at her gumption and her fearlessness,” he said. “You have to remember, Liggins worked at the station as a sportscaster she’s only 17 years older than I am. The business and weekend talk-show host while a high school was founded in 1980. I joined full time in 1985 teenager. “I guess it was cool I worked at a radio station, when we had the one radio station, so I’ve had a front-row seat on the business journey from but I didn’t really want to do it. I was kind of required to do it. I didn’t really want to be in almost the beginning. “She was very open in making me her business the radio business at first. I wanted to be in the record business.” partner very early. It’s really a joint journey.” He went to L.A. to live with his stepfather, Along the way, there’s been little time to Dewey Hughes, looking to break into the music admire what they’ve done together. “It wasn’t like we were sitting back watching, biz. “I ended up unemployed and my mother going, ‘Oh, look at what we did.’ You’re too busy trying to keep doing what you’re doing on suggested I come back to D.C., work at the
Omaha Section-NCNW to Host Harambee Brunch
The Omaha Section - National Council of Negro Women Inc. is having its annual Harambee Brunch on March 30 at 10 a.m. at Metropolitan Community College-South, ITC Building, Room 120, 2909 Edward Babe Gomez Ave. This year’s speaker is Ashlei Spivey, Program Officer – Peter Kiewit Foundation. The theme is “Ujimaa – Together we stand, Together we can!” Recommended attire is African or the color purple. Ashlei Spivey, keynote speaker For tickets, contact Perlie Whitley at 402-320-0375, pwhitley29295@q. com or visit Eventbrite.com Harambee Brunch 2019 Ticket. The public is invited to support this event. Proceeds from the annual Harambee Brunch provide funding for book awards to aid college students and support the Omaha Section – NCNW in its mission to lead, develop, and advocate for women of African descent as they support their families and communities. NCNW is a 501(c) (3) organization with an outreach to nearly four million women.
March 16 – Clair Cares. See In the Village for details.
station, go to college at night and get my act together and figure out what to do next, so I did that.” What was then known as Radio One consisted of a single station. Within a decade, the mother and son built the company into a nationwide network. “I always had a talent for sales. I went into the sales department and started to be successful pretty early on,” Liggins said. He kept doubling his earnings from year to year until, by his early 20s, he was pulling down $150,000. “I was young making a lot of money. That was the time I realized this would be a great career path if we could grow the business beyond where we were.” Between his earnings and social life, he dropped out of night school. It was only some years later he applied to the Wharton School of Business executive management master’s program. Despite not being a college graduate, he got in on the strength of managing a $25 million a year company and recommendations from the likes of the Rev. Jesse Jackson. “The idea that I had doubled-back and ended up getting in an Ivy League business school was exciting to me. It kind of felt like I was beating the system in some way. My diploma says the same thing everyone else’s diploma says. In the end, I feel like I got my ticket punched, my certification, my bona fides.” While he took care of business behind the scenes, Cathy Hughes made her presence known on air. “My mother was doing the morning show and I was a stabilizing force in the sales department. She did some things on the air, like lead the Washington Post boycott, which really started to brand her as the voice of the black community. I was able to sell that to mainstream advertisers. We started to make money. It wasn’t a ton, but we went from losing four, five hundred thousand dollars to making a couple hundred thousand dollars.”
Hughes & Liggins
“We owned one AM radio station, and FM radio at that time was really exploding. It was where all the audience was, AM was dying. We set out and put together a plan to expand into FM radio. I identified an FM we could afford. Investors worked with my mother and me to figure out how to finance it. It was like a $7.5 million purchase. I think they needed like 10 different minority-focused, venture-capital entities to put up the funding. And we got our first FM. “That first year the bank required us to keep it in an adult contemporary format that wasn’t black-targeted because they wanted to have the cash flow. But we didn’t do that very well and we fell out of the ratings book. We were like, ‘OK, can we change the format to something we know?’ So we changed to an urban adult contemporary and it took off like a rocket.” For the first time, the company recorded
Reaching a more substantial audience came next.
See Liggins continued on page 3
Annual Men of Honor Awards Dinner to be held April 12
MDBMSC Accepting Scholarship Applications
The 100 Black Men of Omaha (100) and Honorary Chair Timothy J. Burke, President & CEO Omaha Public Power District, have announced that their 14th Annual Men of Honor Awards Dinner & Fundraiser, themed “Blueprint for the Future,” will be held April 12 at Hilton Omaha, 1001 Cass St. A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m. followed by the program and dinner at 6:30. The Men of Honor Awards Dinner has provided an ideal platform for inspirational and highly respected Haynes leaders to deliver timely messages, while raising needed dollars for mentoring programs that uplift and support Omaha “Youth with Promise” and to recognize individuals who, through their service, demonstrate an exceptional commitment to the mission of the 100. This year’s keynote speaker is the 100 Black Men of America Inter-Faith Committee Chairman and Senior Pastor FriendshipWest Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III. Honorees include John Davis Sr., Immediate Past President of the 100 Black Men of Omaha and General Manager Nebraska Operations, Z Trip, Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, and the late Christopher Wiley, Counselor Omaha Public School District.
The Mildred D. Brown Memorial Study Center Board of Directors has announced their 2019 scholarship applications are available to students interested in or pursuing advanced studies in the fields of communications and/or journalism. Visit their website at mdbmsc.org/ scholarships for more detailed information. All applications and supporting materials are due by April 1. No exceptions. If you have questions, contact the Mildred D. Brown Memorial Study Center at 402-346-4041 Ext. 6 OR mdbmsc1938@gmail.com.
Don’t be tardy! Spring Ahead! Daylight Saving Time begins March 10 at 2:00 a.m.
March 23 – Morning Star Shares. See In the Village for details.