This past September, one of my favorite TV shows from the 1990s, Murphy Brown, returned to the small screen. The show was about a journalist who rarely (if ever) took no for an answer and had risen through the ranks of network TV to host her own show, FYI. It ruffled many feathers with its politically-charged weekly episodes.
Our cover story is about an amazing woman named Cathy Hughes, who started working in the news industry at the Omaha Star, then advanced to radio. Like Murphy Brown, Hughes often had to stick to her guns and stand up for her principles, but in doing so, has created the East Coast media conglomerate Urban One.
Media is a subject that is dear to my heart, and I know several former journalists who work in public relations, as this is often a natural progression for media professionals (although Murphy Brown would have shunned this idea). My friend Wendy Townley wrote about former WOWT anchor Tracy Madden (now Tracy Madden-McMahon), who recently became the CEO of Nebraska Methodist Hospital Foundation.
Several episodes of Murphy Brown ended with her belting out hits of Motown, most famously Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” Murphy Brown, I am sure, mourned with millions of others this past August, when the Queen of Soul died. Two businesswomen from Nebraska drove to Detroit in August to attend the funeral in their pink Cadillacs.
This is our annual Women in Business edition, and the aforementioned stories are just a few of the articles that identify and explain how women are making waves in many businesses. I enjoyed working on them, and I hope you enjoy reading them.
This letter was printed in the December 2018/January 2019 edition of B2B Magazine.
