Charlotte radio legend Hattie Leeper — known to generations of listeners as “Chatty Hatty” — has died. Leeper broke barriers as North Carolina’s first Black female radio announcer and later dedicated her life to education. She died peacefully Tuesday at 98.
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"Well, hello, world! This is your girl Chatty Hatty."
Leeper was just a teenager when she introduced herself on the radio.
It was 1948. Leeper was working as an assistant at Charlotte rhythm and blues station WGIV when an announcer failed to show up — and Leeper was asked to fill in.
"I struggled," she said in a 2006 UNC Charlotte oral history. "The truth is, I totally struggled."
Leeper remembered how terrified she was of speaking into the microphone. She switched it on and off again and again before she mustered the courage to give the time.
"I thought I was terrible, but they played it back, and I didn’t sound that bad. I said, 'Hmm. That’s me? I sounded like that?' I said, 'Oh, OK.'"
By the week’s end, the station offered her a regular time slot, and she soon realized she’d found her calling.
"I’m sitting down, talking on a microphone, having fun, getting paid for this? This is going to be my life’s proposed work."
Over the next two decades, Leeper worked at WGIV and two other Charlotte stations — WRPL and Big WAYS. She promoted and interviewed some of the biggest R&B stars of the day, including James Brown, who would bring his band to her house for home-cooked pre-concert meals.
She also worked with Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle and Smokey Robinson.
In 1961, when Ike and Tina Turner performed at what’s now the Grady Cole Center, Leeper was backstage. She recalled confronting Ike Turner after she saw him strike Tina during intermission.
"And I hadn’t been used to seeing women being beat up by an abusive husband. And I had heard he was a fool, but I approached him and told him, 'This is my town. This is my show. You are not going to land no hits in this building.'”
Leeper didn’t just interview celebrities on her show. She also interviewed everyday people about community events, festivals and food drives. Listeners called in to report lost pets. In one memorable broadcast, a woman called in searching for her husband.
"And she said, 'Miss Chatty Hatty — my husband got paid Friday, and he hasn’t been back home, and here it is Monday morning.' I talked to her on the phone and told her she would have to call the police department for lost husbands. We don’t do those on the air."
In 1973, Leeper hung up her headphones and dedicated herself to teaching. She taught broadcasting at Johnson C. Smith University and Gaston College. In 1998, she founded her own school, Chatty’s School of Communications. Libby Gates was one of her students.
"She was like an angel, really," Gates said. "She was always upbeat. She was always smiling, and she was always giving you those little hints about smiling, getting your voice up there, getting your inflection up there."
After graduating, Gates stayed in touch with Leeper, and the two became close friends. She says Leeper's success as a Black woman in broadcasting left a lasting impression.
“I think it was just her presence and her way of putting people at ease, and ...” She laughed. “She was just something else.”
Leeper received numerous honors over the years. In 1998, she was inducted into the Black Radio Hall of Fame. In 2023, she was invited to the White House to participate in a Library of Congress project on the history of Black women in radio.
Last year, she was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
Her granddaughter, Hatiyah Dunlap, says that recognition meant a great deal to her.
"To have been in the industry for so many decades, and know that people still honor you and appreciate you," Dunlap said, "that was an honor to her."
Dunlap says her grandmother’s legacy is twofold. She brought a new kind of voice to North Carolina broadcasting and opened opportunities for other Black women — and she did it with a kindness and generosity that touched generations of listeners, students, friends and family.
