Carole Carper was honored on Friday, October 3, 2025, receiving the Mike Bernardo Female Executive Award from the Living Legends Foundation Gala. A trailblazer in every sense, Carper has spent over five decades shaping the landscape of Black broadcasting and music media.
Carper’s roots run deep in Black excellence. Her family owned the Carper Casket Company, a community business that thrived for more than 70 years. Her father, George Carper, and uncle, Johnny Briggs, were Tuskegee Airmen, setting a powerful example of discipline, leadership, and purpose that would serve as a guiding light for her career.
The St. Louis, Missouri, native’s broadcasting career started in the early 1970s at Fisk University, joining WRFN (Radio Free Nashville), now WFSK. She later worked at WESL in East St. Louis under “Gentleman Jim” Gates before making history in 1975 as the first Black woman news director at KADI-AM/FM, earning top honors at the 1976 Missouri RTNDA Awards.
Her path led to major markets, including Chicago’s WVON and Los Angeles’ KGFJ (KKTT—The Kat), where she became a trusted community voice with the “Music Machine” bus and later the first Black woman News Director for L.A.’s KUTE. Carole’s sharp insight and compelling storytelling caught national attention, and under the mentorship of Jerry Boulding, she became a columnist for Black Radio Exclusive, authoring the influential column “The West Coast Scene.”
Other highlights of Carper’s career include being the first minority to serve as Region 2 Director for the Radio Television Digital News Association and documenting Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in the 1980s.
Carper later served as Vice President of The Urban Network, co-founding its legendary Power Jam Conferences, which celebrated and elevated Black excellence in music and media.
In 2023, she was honored by the Library of Congress and the White House for her lifetime contributions. The Mike Bernardo Female Executive Award from the Living Legends Foundationfurther cements her legacy as a visionary leader, journalist, and advocate for representation in media.
