Hattie Massey Leeper, the pioneering Charlotte radio personality known to generations as “Chatty Hatty” and recognized as North Carolina’s first Black female radio announcer, died Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at her home in Fort Mill, S.C. She was 98.
Born Sept. 4, 1928, in Edgemoor, S.C., Leeper moved to Charlotte as a child and began her broadcasting career at age 14 while still a student at Second Ward High School. She worked as an assistant at WGIV-AM, the city’s rhythm-and-blues and gospel station that catered to Black audiences. When a regular announcer failed to show one day, Leeper stepped in on the air. Station owner Francis M. Fitzgerald was impressed, and the opportunity launched an 18-year career that made her a local fixture.
After graduating high school around 1951, she became a full-time disc jockey at WGIV and later worked at other Charlotte stations including WRPL and WAYS. As one of the few Black women on the air in the segregated South of the 1950s and 1960s, she played records, hosted shows, read long-form commercials, and became a trusted voice connecting the community through music. She also booked, promoted, and interviewed major R&B and gospel artists of the era, including James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Tina Turner, Patti LaBelle, and Smokey Robinson. James Brown and his band sometimes visited her home for pre-concert meals.
Beyond the microphone, Leeper wrote and produced music, wrote liner notes for artists such as Franklin and LaBelle, opened her own record store, and launched a record label called AwarE to support local acts. She developed industry connections, including a friendship with Motown founder Berry Gordy.
In the early 1970s she shifted from full-time radio to education. She taught broadcasting and communications at Johnson C. Smith University and Gaston College, where she served as chairman of the broadcasting/communications department. She retired from academia in 1998 and later founded Chatty’s School of Communications. Her teaching career spanned roughly 25 years and helped train a new generation of broadcasters.
Leeper’s contributions were widely recognized. She was inducted into the National Black Radio Hall of Fame in 1989, the Charlotte Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In 2025 she was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. In 2023 she participated in a Library of Congress oral-history project documenting Black women in radio.
Born Sept. 4, 1928, in Edgemoor, S.C., Leeper moved to Charlotte as a child and began her broadcasting career at age 14 while still a student at Second Ward High School. She worked as an assistant at WGIV-AM, the city’s rhythm-and-blues and gospel station that catered to Black audiences. When a regular announcer failed to show one day, Leeper stepped in on the air. Station owner Francis M. Fitzgerald was impressed, and the opportunity launched an 18-year career that made her a local fixture.
After graduating high school around 1951, she became a full-time disc jockey at WGIV and later worked at other Charlotte stations including WRPL and WAYS. As one of the few Black women on the air in the segregated South of the 1950s and 1960s, she played records, hosted shows, read long-form commercials, and became a trusted voice connecting the community through music. She also booked, promoted, and interviewed major R&B and gospel artists of the era, including James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Tina Turner, Patti LaBelle, and Smokey Robinson. James Brown and his band sometimes visited her home for pre-concert meals.
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| Hattie Leeper |
In the early 1970s she shifted from full-time radio to education. She taught broadcasting and communications at Johnson C. Smith University and Gaston College, where she served as chairman of the broadcasting/communications department. She retired from academia in 1998 and later founded Chatty’s School of Communications. Her teaching career spanned roughly 25 years and helped train a new generation of broadcasters.
Leeper’s contributions were widely recognized. She was inducted into the National Black Radio Hall of Fame in 1989, the Charlotte Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In 2025 she was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. In 2023 she participated in a Library of Congress oral-history project documenting Black women in radio.