Age: 35 Hometown: Rochester Current residence: Rochester and Washington, D.C. Occupation: Co-owner, WDKX; actor, writer and producer Andria Langston freely admits that she does not know how to relax. Perhaps it’s because she is the only child of the only child of Andrew and Gl oria Langston, who came to Rochester 52 years ago with next to nothing and proceeded to build a radio dynasty. Whatever the reason, it explains why she is pursuing full-bore two separate and ambitious careers. And that, in turn, explains why she wakes up very early in the morning. Early, as in 4 a.m. She goes first to the gym, where she hits her 10,000 step count before the sun is up, and then to work at WDKX-FM, the radio station she co-owns along with her father Andre. At the radio station, Langston oversees national sales as well as the digital team. She manages the smartphone app that she helped introduce during the COVID-19 pandemic and, lately, finds ways to integrate artificial intelligence into the jobs of the station’s 26 employees. When she steps out of the office, it is often to field a call from her manager or to audition via Zoom for a film or television role. Acting is her other career. When she lands a part, as has been happening regularly in recent years, she travels with her laptop and fulfills her radio station duties on breaks from the set. One of her recent roles was the lead in “Peripheral,” which won the award for best narrative feature film at the American Black Film Festival in 2024. Langston recently finished filming a television series yet to be announced. She is currently writing an original show based on a three-generation radio family like her own. On a vacation this summer, she finished writing the first draft of a novel. “I don’t think anyone in this family can sit still,” she said. Langston cannot remember whether her father decided to start her early in the family business or whether she pestered him until he gave in. In any case, she began operating the soundboard at WDKX at age 5. She moved on to advertising, sales and billing before she was technically old enough to work. “She was a little different from an average kid,” said Atu, a longtime DJ at the station. “She’d always be asking: ‘What’s that do?’” That early experience and her last name might have merited a favored role when she turned 15 and finally began a formal internship. Instead, her father handed her a mop and bucket. It was a tangible reminder of her grandfather’s saying: “No job too big, no job too small, Andrew A. does them all.” Andrew and Gloria Langston first brought WDKX to the air in 1974, making it one of the first independent Black-owned radio stations in the country. Twenty-two years later their son, Andre Marcel Langston, assumed day-to-day control. For the last decade, WDKX has been at or near the top of the Rochester radio market according to Nielson figures, a distinction usually held by stations belonging to national conglomerates. The Langstons and their staff attribute their success to their close ties with the community. Those now include connections with students at Andrew Langston Middle School on Fernwood Park; in 2017 Langston also co-founded the Andrew Langston Center of Educational Excellence, a 501(c)3 that provides a mentorship and educational scholarship program to youth in the city school district. “We have a small family, but also there’s this shared family with so many other people,” Langston said. “This station has raised generations of people.” Her grandfather ran a funeral home and sold insurance, among other side jobs, in the radio station’s early years. His granddaughter sees herself in the same tradition, following multiple career paths simultaneously. Langston said she foresees no conflict between an acting career and her anticipated succession to leadership of the radio station. “People don’t ask Jay-Z that when he runs all his businesses simultaneously,” she said. “A lot of men do that and people don’t question whether they can handle it. … I’ll always be able to juggle a lot of things.” Langston has a master’s degree in communications management and business and as such, takes a more systematic approach to the job than her father, Andre.  “He says, ‘I’ll figure it out when I get there,’” Atu said. “She says, ‘Let’s talk through every step along the way.’” In terms of vision for the station and its place in the city, though, Langston considers herself as the caretaker of a legacy and community trust. She called it “a huge weight and a huge blessing” — and if leading the radio station while also following her creative pursuits requires setting her alarm clock a few hours earlier, she sees the lost sleep as a worthwhile sacrifice. “It’s about something bigger than just me; I’ve always understood that,” she said. “Whatever I can do to help this community and especially the next generation, that’s what I’m going to do.” wdkx.com —JUSTIN MURPHY The post Rochester Ten | Andria B. Langston appeared first on CITY Magazine. Arts. Music. Culture.. ...read more read less