Hugh Foley is a professor, broadcaster, musician, and cultural historian whose work sits at the crossroads of education, media, and American roots music. Based in Oklahoma, Foley has spent decades documenting, teaching, and performing the stories of place—particularly those rooted in Oklahoma, the Southern Plains, and the broader American experience.

 

Dr. Foley serves as Professor and Department Head of Communications and Fine Arts at Rogers State University, where he currently teaches courses in cinema appreciation and history, speech, and contemporary American Indian issues. Foley has taught more than 3,000 hours on live television through KRSC-TV, RSU’s television station, which has only enhanced his notoriety in northeast Oklahoma. He is also an adjunct professor at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where he teaches Contemporary Native American Issues. As an educator, he is known for blending scholarship with practical media experience, encouraging students to think critically, communicate clearly, and understand how culture is shaped and preserved through storytelling.

 

In broadcasting since 1977 with stops in Europe, Atlanta, New York, Berkeley, and Japan, Foley is the Program Director and Sports Director of KUSH Radio in Cushing, Oklahoma. He curates and programs an Americana music format monitored by the Americana Music Association and hosts live performances and in-studio interviews with regional and national artists. He also serves as a high school football play-by-play announcer, often combining live radio calls with on-field video production—an approach that reflects his interest in evolving standards for local sports media. His deep, resonant voice has led to work in voiceover, narration, audiobooks, documentaries, and radio production. Additionally, he created the progressive music college format at KRSC-FM, the college radio station of Rogers State University. He has also produced a long-standing Native American radio show, Native Air, for both KRSC and KUSH. The program has been on the air weekly for both stations since 1998.

 

Foley is a founding board member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame and the author of the Oklahoma Music Guide, reflecting his long-standing commitment to preserving and promoting the state’s musical heritage. His research and public presentations frequently explore Oklahoma music history, Native American history, American popular music, and the cultural legacy of figures such as Woody Guthrie. In 2025, he was granted membership in the Recording Academy, making him a Grammy voter.

 

As a musician, Foley is an active singer-songwriter and guitarist, performing solo and with the Oklahoma-based folk-rock band Slapout, which he co-founded with Derek McCubbin in 2003. Slapout has released multiple albums and EPs, and Foley continues to perform regularly across Oklahoma and the broader region. His solo performances blend original songs, historic Oklahoma music, and carefully chosen covers, often drawing on themes of place, memory, and working-class life. In 2025, he released his first solo album, Vision Drafts. By late 2025, a single from the album, “She’s My Stop Sign,” landed in the Top 20 of the European American Country Music chart (EACM).

 

Across classrooms, radio and television studios, stages, and community spaces, Hugh Foley’s work is guided by a belief that culture matters most when it is shared—clearly, honestly, and with a sense of history. Whether teaching students, programming a radio station, or stepping onstage with an acoustic guitar, his aim is the same: to share meaningful stories that resonate with varying generations and backgrounds.