March/April 2005

Hear Lewis Say

Public radio talk show host Cathy Lewis has put down roots in Hampton Roads

by Michael Jon Khandelwal

After dropping off a box of doughnuts at her daughter’s school, Cathy Lewis sits at a microphone in a soundproof studio. Her daily noontime radio show, HearSay with Cathy Lewis, on WHRV-FM boasts over 35,000 daily listeners. A welcoming woman who likes to laugh, she isn’t afraid to climb (in heels) onto the roof to show visitors WHRO’s vast array of satellite dishes.

After a stint as a reporter for WAVY-TV and a short time at WNIS-AM, Lewis found her home on public radio in 1996. When she packed her belongings into a U-Haul and headed across the mountains of Virginia in 1981, she was nervous because she didn’t know a soul in Hampton Roads. But the area quickly embraced her. In June 2004 HearSay won the Virginia Association of Broadcasters award for Best Radio Public Affairs.

Lewis, 48, was born in Huntington, West Virginia, and attended college at Marshall University. Married, with a 14-year-old daughter, she is the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Williams School. In addition to radio, she hosts It’s Your Call every Wednesday on WHRO-TV at 6:30 p.m., and has interviewed locals ranging from Rudy Bosch of Survivor to Dr. Howard Jones from EVMS.

For the rest of this story, you can order the March/Arpil 2005 issue of Hampton Roads Magazine.