Business
Profile: Alfred Liggins CEO and President of Radio One Inc.
Radio One President and CEO Alfred Liggins III. PHOTO/Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Alfred Liggins III is the CEO and President of Radio One Inc., a company founded by his mother Catherine L. Hughes in 1980.
Mr. Liggins has been CEO of Radio One Inc. since 1997 and President since 1989.
Under his stewardship, the company has experienced tremendous growth – the company now boasts of over 70 stations, billions in assets, over 2000 employees, and millions of listeners in the United States.
The company also owns a 51 percent stake in TV One, and Interactive One – parent company of NewsOne; a cable and satellite TV network begun in early 2004 in partnership with Comcast and a handful of investors (including DirecTV, which added the network to its lineup and became a minority shareholder in January 2005). It also acquired BlackPlanet, the African American social networking site as part of Community Connect in 2008 and at present it is in the process of extending its ownership stake of Reach Media with a goal to launching a new Urban network in the coming year.
Liggins is an alumni of the Wharton School at the University of University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his MBA despite not having a bachelor’s degree. The fact that he had brokered several multi-million dollar radio acquisitions assured him entry into the prestigious school.
Liggins is a holder of many awards including:
National Black MBA Association, Outstanding Communicator of the Year, 2003; Ernst & Young, Arts and Entertainment, Top U.S. Entrepreneur (with his mother Cathy Hughes), 2003; Broadcasters’ Foundation, Golden Mike Award (with Cathy Hughes), 2002.
