Melody Spann Cooper is Chair & CEO of Midway Broadcasting Corporation, a Chicago-based media boutique whose assets include audio and digital. It’s flagship property, WVON is nationally recognized as one of the nation’s oldest and most respected radio stations and is known for its social impact. Midway subsidiaries also include a Spanish-language station, WRLL, and an OTT Digital Streaming platform, VONtv, (pronounced Vaughn).

Spann Cooper serves on numerous professional and civic boards including as a past chair of the Illinois Broadcaster’s Association; as a board member of NABOB, (The National Association of Black-owned Broadcasters); as Co-Chair of Inclusion for the Obama Foundation, and as a Commissioner of the Illinois Liquor Control Commission. She also serves as a trustee at the Museum of Science & Industry and at her alma mater, Loyola University Chicago.

2019, Spann Cooper released a semi-biographical book, The Girlfriend’s Guide to Closing the Deal. In it, this second-generation broadcast owner advises women on how to tap into their innate power, passion and purpose to get deals done.