For 12 years, Angela Yee was known as one of the faces of iHeartMedia’s The Breakfast Club. However, in August 2022, the radio veteran announced her departure from the popular radio show, CNN reported. 

After years in the making, Yee said farewell to launch her radio show, Way Up with Angela Yee.

“This is really exciting,” she shared on The Breakfast Club at the time of her announcement, per CNN. “This is something that I’ve been waiting to do for years now, way before the pandemic. I had actually sat down with our big boss … and I was telling her, like, ‘Look, I really wanna have my own show.’ You know, I have my podcast ‘Lip Service’ and I was thinking I would be able to get something like a weekend situation.”

Prior to running her own show, Yee faced the battle of negotiating for her worth.

During AfroTech’s Black Tech Green Money podcast with host Will Lucas, Yee recalled receiving a lowball offer from a big-name company.

“There was a time where I got offered a job at Hot 97 and I didn’t take it,” Yee told Lucas. “I really didn’t take it for practical reasons. It was less than what I was already making. My name wouldn’t have been on the title for the show. So, in my head, it was a step backward but I feel like everyone else was like, ‘You’re crazy. How could you not take that? An opportunity like that never comes. There are people who have been doing radio their whole lives and would die for something like that.’”

Despite outsiders’ perspectives on her turning down the deal, Yee chose to stand firm in her decision.

“Now, that I look back, it was the right decision,” Yee affirmed. “At the time, I was second-guessing myself. And now that I look back, I realized that what they offered me, it’s so much harder to climb out when they start you so low. And it shows how they already feel and think about you.”

“Then, when I left Sirius [XM] to go to iHeart [Media], that was something that everybody was like, ‘Oh my God, FM radio is dying. Why would you do that? You’ll barely get to talk,'” she continued. “And I was just ready to start something new. They were the underdog station. If The Breakfast Club hadn’t done well, that station was going to flip to another format. So, a lot was riding on that but I feel like that’s when you really are the best. When you can go with a company that is the underdog and come out on top.”

Yee’s persistence in sticking to her guns and taking on new challenges has led her to Way Up with Angela Yee.

Launched on Feb. 6, the midday show focuses on hot topics in hip-hop and R&B, the culture, and brings on special celebrity guests.

 

For the full episode of Black Tech Green Money, tune in here or listen below.