Meet Ashlee Young | iHeartRadio Executive & National On-Air Personality

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashlee Young and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashlee, how do you think about risk?
I like many women, had to trust God, move away from everyone I knew to a small Texas country town, and go for my dream. There were many times, I had to go for broke and make decisions most other people wouldn’t find logical, but I knew the opportunity was on the other side of adversity.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Basically, I started in radio and with iHeartMedia while still in college, I was an intern in 2014. Then soon hired, I worked as an entry level part time promotions team member and worked my way up to board operator, on -air talent, etc. Then after a year in the building, skyrocketed to becoming a Program Director, which usually takes people years/decades to do, in Bryan, TX. From there, I started to branch out and travel all around Texas to meet other DJ’s, radio jocks, industry professionals and cover festivals – which is where I got my start. People started to see me post interviews online, and then I started to travel to other cities, sometimes 2-3 hours away, just to learn programming and philosophy with other brand managers. In 2018, I got the offer to come to Houston to be the Music Director and on-air talent at KQBT-FM (93.7 THE BEAT) and never looked back. Since being here, I got promoted a few more times, and now I’m the NATIONAL Music Director of HIp HOp & R&B for iHeartMedia and still carry my national on-air duties for 50 stations.

It was certainly not easy, the challenges in the beginning were money of course and just the will to keep “pushing” when you weren’t seeing any progress, or the progress wasn’t happening fast enough. But that was just a challenge to teach me how to be patient and trust in God’s timing, and the people he may place (or remove) from your life. It also taught me how to pivot. If you keep doing the same thing expecting different results, you’re insane. So knowing how to regroup and restrategize about how to make your work stand out was a huge advantage for me.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m going to take them for sure to Third Ward, definitely downtown to a game, EADO for the art and food, show them the glitz and glam in Montrose and probably to the outskirts to a trail/lake/area. When my family comes they always want the well known food spots like Trill Burgers, but I make sure to take them for a drive downtown and on 45 at night to see Uptown and Downtown. The glitz/glam and different cultures like Bellaire for amazing asian cuisine and my favorite taco spot, Dona Lena’s in Spring Branch.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I owe a lot of my career to all of my mentors and former bosses. Starting with T. May at the Promotions Department in Jacksonville, Florida – who hired me when I was an intern. DJ Q45, DJ DR DOOM, T-ROY and G-WIZ in Jacksonville that all helped show me the ropes in radio and promotions and developing my own on air personality. To Doc Wynter and Thea Mitchem who I met early on when I decided to travel to mentor with them one on one, as well as Tutu Durant, Michael Saunders, Tony Coles, Marc Sherman, DJ A-OH, DJ Amen, Uptown Angela Charles in NOLA, Big Sue in Memphis. So many people have had a hand in guiding me and being supportive outlets that helped build my career, brick by brick.

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