More than 40 years ago, Lynne Hayes-Freeland was fired from KDKA Radio.
The young, aspiring Duquesne University graduate had landed a job at KDKA Radio in the mid-1970s, answering the phones for the talk shows.
Back in college, she was on-air at WDUQ as a news anchor, then had her own Sunday Night Jazz show.
But KDKA Radio was the place to be back then—a ratings monster, a massive audience, the pulse or “voice” of Pittsburgh.
So was KDKA-TV. And station management back then must have seen enormous promise and potential in the St. Paul’s Cathedral (now Oakland Catholic High School) graduate. Thus, two weeks after Hayes-Freeland left KDKA Radio, she was hired down the hall at KDKA-TV.
And the rest, they say, is history.
Talk Magazine honored Hayes-Freeland as the Person of the Year at its annual Minority Achiever’s Awards, held Sept. 14 at the Marriott Hotel, Downtown.
Since 1976, Hayes-Freeland has been one of the premier reporters at KDKA-TV, and for the last 35 years, the host of the Lynne Hayes-Freeland community affairs talk show.
In an exclusive interview with the New Pittsburgh Courier, Hayes-Freeland said her profession isn’t easy. As a young reporter, she recalled being referred to as a “little girl” during a press conference when she wanted to ask a question. “Forty-two years ago, you really had to prove yourself, every day,” Hayes-Freeland said.
Her interview with former South African president and revolutionary Nelson Mandela in a Pittsburgh hotel room was “by far one of the most amazing moments of my life,” Hayes-Freeland told the Courier. The interview aired on the Lynne Hayes-Freeland Show in 1991, just after Mandela was released from prison after 27 years.
Another standout moment? “Ebony magazine, they always do the most influential Blacks in America. There was one year that every one of those people had been on the Lynne Hayes-Freeland Show, so I felt a sense of satisfaction from that,” Hayes-Freeland said.
The Lynne Hayes-Freeland Show, which airs Sunday mornings on KDKA, was originally called “Vibrations.” Hayes-Freeland started on the show as a producer when Bev Smith was the host. Then Dorothy Tucker took over as host. When Tucker left for Chicago, Hayes-Freeland decided to be the show’s producer and host.
Hayes-Freeland’s success as host helped make her a household name in Pittsburgh. Hayes-Freeland told the Courier that a station executive came to her and said, “Everyone knows it as Lynne’s Show, so why don’t you just call it the Lynne Hayes-Freeland Show?”
Countless interviews, countless stories, a major time commitment; Hayes-Freeland said that in this line of work, “you give up a lot personally…you give up a lot professionally, so you really have to want to do this, you really have to have a passion for it, and in my case, you have to love your community.”
Talk Magazine leaders Luther and Roxanne Sewell presented Hayes-Freeland with the award during the evening event. “When you get an award like this, it re-energizes you,” she said. “It makes you realize there’s still a lot of work that has to be done, and now you’re ready to do it again. You can’t be tired yet.”
Hayes-Freeland said she was “so encouraged about our future” as she watched the other honorees—Rueben Brock, Teri L. Gilmore, Rikell S. Ford, Donald C. Walker, Summer Lee and Albertha Graham—receive their awards. That feeling was “something I haven’t felt in a long time, because the stories we do on the news on a regular basis are not necessarily encouraging,” Hayes-Freeland said.
After 42 years on the KDKA-TV airwaves, what’s next for Hayes-Freeland? She told the Courier she “always thought I could have been the next Oprah Winfrey. I don’t know that I ever gave up that dream.” Hayes-Freeland believes the Lynne Hayes-Freeland Show could garner an even larger audience nationally, because issues that affect the Black community in Pittsburgh “are happening in Chicago, New York, D.C. So it’s a conversation that’s bigger than just Pittsburgh. If there were an opportunity to expand to that, that would be amazing.”
Hayes-Freeland also told the Courier exclusively that she might dive back into some talk radio. After all, radio is where she got her start. During her time at KDKA, she’s done work for WAMO radio and American Urban Radio Networks.
And, “now your voice as an African American woman is even louder, even more significant,” she said, “so if there’s something I want to pursue next, that’s probably it.”
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