(Akiit.com) Radio One owner Cathy Hughes is trying hard to keep her company above water in the midst of this recession, having already cut folks’ pay by as much as 10 percent and reduced office hours at the company’s Maryland headquarters, reports Redding News.
“We are closing every other Friday,” Hughes told XM 169’s Joe Madison during a radio interview last week. “We’ve all taken three, five, seven or 10 percent pay cuts depending on what category your annual compensation was. We’ve voluntarily turned in vacation time, we furloughed and now we’re closing corporate – we’re closing Lanham – every other Friday to stay afloat.”
Hughes made her remarks while speaking out against Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, who is behind a bill requiring all radio stations to pay performance royalties to artists for playing their music, which Satellite radio currently does.
Radio observers say that the performance royalties may put a third of black-owned stations out of business.