Lois Wright, the longest-serving member of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters‘ Board of Directors, has died.
Wright, who was 74, was battling cancer. Her passing came on May 15 in Fairfax, Va.
Wright “was one of the pillars of NABOB,” the organization shared on Wednesday (5/31). She joined Inner City Broadcasting Corporation in 1980 as General Counsel, and joined the NABOB Board of Directors as Counsel to the Board that same year. Wright was later promoted to Executive Vice President of ICBC.
In her career at ICBC, Wright was instrumental in the company’s growth to become the largest Black-owned radio company in the late 1980s. She also helped lead ICBC’s acquisition, construction and operation of a cable television franchise in the City of New York borough of Queens.
At NABOB, Wright in 1985 helped launch the association’s Communications Awards Dinner, which honored some of the greatest Black legends in music, film, news, politics, and entertainment.
A graduate of Rutgers School of Law, Wright was hired by the City of Newark, N.J., as an attorney in the corporation counsel’s office. In 1977, she became a FCC lawyer and served there for three years in the Broadcast Bureau, as well as the Office of Plans and Policy.
NABOB President and CEO Jim Winston said, “I have very fond memories of working with Lois over our many years together. Lois was on the NABOB Board when I was hired as Executive Director in 1982. She helped me learn about the NABOB membership and the overall broadcast industry. My friendship with Lois goes back to our days as young attorneys at the FCC. She and I had a very close friendship in NABOB, and my career at NABOB would not have been the same without her. Lois was smart, very well read, outspoken, a great lawyer, and an astute business executive. She was also a kind person and great friend. I will miss her very much.”
Visitation will be held on Thursday, June 8, from 11am until a Noon service at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, 2516 Squirrel Hill Road, Herndon, Va., 20171. Interment will be on June 9 at Salem Baptist Church, Montross, Va.
Arrangements by Lyles Funeral Service, Eric S. Lyles, Director, 1-800-388-1913.
To plant Memorial Trees in memory of Lois Elaine Wright, please click here.
