04/02/2023
DID YOU KNOW... Charlotte’s own Hattie "Chatty Hatty" Leeper, the first Black female DJ in the city, started as a young radio intern in 1951.
After graduating high school, she officially became a DJ with WGIV, the number-one radio station at the time. She had an exceptional carreer where she not only produced for some of the biggest names in music, such as Aretha Franklin and Patti Labelle but also operated her own record label, AwarE, helping to excel the careers of many local acts and most notably, Hattie was inducted to the Black Radio Hall of Fame.
In an interview with WCCB Charlotte, Chatty Hatty expressed, "you got to be sincere about this business of being a trailblazer. You got to be humble, you got to be thankful. You got to help somebody."
Just by pursuing her passion, Chatty Hatty has helped create a new lane for women of color in media, beyond Charlotte and into the national pathway.