Are We On The Air | By, Tunisha Brown
There is a particular kind of power in a voice that greets you every morning. Not the loud kind.
The familiar kind.
For decades, DeDe McGuire has been that voice: steady, warm, unflinching; welcoming millions into their day before they’ve had their first sip of coffee or gathered their thoughts. She is not simply heard. She is trusted.
So it feels only right that IMPACT Magazine begins a new year, and a new chapter of Unmuted, with a woman whose career has been built on visibility, presence, and the rare ability to hold space at scale.
DeDe McGuire’s journey through radio is storied, historic, and deeply human. Beginning her career in the 1980s and moving through markets like Killeen, San Antonio, Dallas, and Chicago, including the legendary WVON 1690 AM; DeDe honed not just her voice, but her connection. When she joined The Doug Banks Show as co-host in 2007, she stepped onto a national stage that would ultimately prepare her to lead her own.
After Doug Banks’ passing, DeDe didn’t just carry the torch, she transformed it.
In 2016, DeDe In The Morning launched on KKDA FM in Dallas, later becoming nationally syndicated and now heard on nearly 100 stations through Compass Media Networks. Alongside cast members JJ Williamson, J-Kruz, and Tre-G, DeDe navigates culture, current events, laughter, grief, and celebration, often within the same hour. She has interviewed U.S. Presidents, cultural icons, and high-profile entertainers, yet remains unmistakably grounded in the everyday lives of her listeners.
Her accolades: Radio Hall of Fame inductee (2025), IBBA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Gracie Award winner, and one of Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women, are deserved. But they tell only part of the story.
Because Unmuted was never about success alone. It was created for the moments behind the microphone.
During our conversation, as we discussed Unmuted and IMPACT’s partnership with Terrace Metrics, DeDe spoke candidly, not as a broadcaster, but as a woman who understands the unseen weight of consistency.
“There were several times,” she shared, “when I realized I needed to check in with myself. Not because something was wrong, but because something inside was asking to be heard.”
That distinction is the heartbeat of Unmuted.
Black women are often conditioned to endure, to perform, to push through without pause. DeDe named what so many feel but rarely articulate: recognition and action are not the same. You can know you need rest, reflection, or clarity, and still delay honoring it.
“I’ve noticed that if we don’t know we need it, we won’t take the time,” she said. “And even when we do know, we get busy.”
For DeDe, self-awareness is not indulgent, it’s necessary. Her role requires emotional presence, clarity of thought, and spiritual alignment. “I can’t give to millions of people if I’m not taking care of myself,” she explained. “I need a clear mind. I need mental space. I honor that.”
That honor shows up in the choices she’s made: prioritizing partnership, cultivating emotionally intelligent friendships, investing in therapy and self-reflection, and learning, sometimes the hard way, what she needs to feel whole.
Her reflections on partnership were especially telling. Emotional safety, she said, is not optional when your public life is expansive. “It’s not just physical support, it’s what someone brings mentally. That calming presence.”
And when it comes to boundaries and discernment, DeDe doesn’t romanticize growth. Awareness, she shared, doesn’t mean perfection. It means trusting your intuition, recognizing patterns, and choosing clarity over self-betrayal.
“You already know,” she said simply. “Instead of questioning it, you learn to say, ‘Okay.’”
That quiet confidence, the kind rooted in knowing yourself, is what Unmuted exists to cultivate.
This issue also introduces Unmuted: Healed. Whole. Her. IMPACT’s newest community and editorial initiative centering the emotional, mental, and spiritual wellness of Black women across every stage of life. It is not about diagnosis or judgment. It is about reflection. Language. Awareness.
As part of this work, IMPACT has partnered with Terrace Metrics, a behavioral health organization founded by psychologists and educators whose research-based tools support emotional clarity and self-awareness. Within Unmuted, their framework is not presented as a product, but as a mirror, supporting women as they name what they carry and how they move through stress, hope, balance, and emotional load.
DeDe’s story embodies that mission.
She has shown up consistently in male-dominated spaces. She has carried leadership and visibility without losing her humanity. She has remained authentic while protecting her inner life. And she has done so while mentoring others, giving back through the DeDe McGuire Foundation, and investing in future generations of women and HBCU students.
Perhaps the most powerful moment of our conversation came when she addressed Black women directly:
“We don’t have to ask without permission,” she said. “We just have to think. Be clear about what we want. Once you know that, you’re already halfway there.”
That clarity, earned, intentional, deeply personal, is what being Unmuted looks like.
Not louder. Not harder. But more honest.
As we begin this year, this moment of deeper exploration of awareness, we do so with a woman who has mastered the art of being heard, while never losing sight of the importance of listening to herself. And that, perhaps, is the truest legacy of DeDe McGuire.
Not just a voice on the air.
But a woman who knows when to pause, reflect, and speak, on her own terms.
To learn more about Unmuted, visit https://terracemetrics.org/unmuted-2/.
