WGNC 1450 AM - 101.1 FM is a radio station in Gastonia, NC where my first radio experience happened. I was in high school and one if my friends had a brother who had an on air gig at this little AM radio station on a hill.
Back in the day (I never use that phrase) if you didn't graduate from a broadcasting school, heck I still hadn't graduated from high school, the only way you could be on the radio was to get a license. I got sponsored by the chief engineer and after a few months of hard study and some hands-on I got my "3rd class radio-telephone operators license with broadcast endorsement" it was a mouth full. It was actually required for announcers who had to record meter readings or who operated low power radio broadcast stations From 1963 to 1978 an additional simple technical written test added "Broadcast Endorsement" to the "Third Phone" that allowed announcers to be the sole operators at some limited power stations. A 1st class was what the actual engineers needed. The FCC issued 1st and 2nd class licenses in 1927 then in 1953 a 3rd class was added. Hey, it was kinda a big deal, especially for a 15 year old but fast forward to today and all you need to do to get on the air is show up.
Anyway, after I got my 3rd phone I got my first shot of being on the radio with a Saturday afternoon 4 hour show spinning rock n' roll, Wooohooo! The first "big" on-air phrase that I was known for, was my opening greeting, ready? .... "Welcome to your Saturday on wonderful whacky WIG-NACK in the mill village of the south, Gastonia, North Carolina". :-) Well it sounded better when I said it, and I did get a call from the station owner "Mr. McAwain" once that needed me to explain that phrase LOL I also got a call from the owner, and by call I mean "come to Jesus talking to" about my poor judgement of playing a song that he thought was a Vietnam protest. Well the song was "War" and he was correct. Those kind of exchanges were a harbinger of many, many more over the decades to come at the different radio gigs I had, But I digress.
Back to WIG-NACK, it was founded by Mr. McSwain and his son in 1939 and is a 1,000 watt AM transmitter and 220 watt FM. The station has had many formats over the years, country, pop, rock, etc. but us currently a news-sport-talk station. They carry syndicated programs with Glenn Beck and Dave Ramsey and a lot of high school sports and even some MLB & NFL with local hosts in different day parts. If you were so inclined you could listen live on TuneIn or stream at their website: https://www.wgncradio.com/
I must admit I tune into all the old stations, where I worked, from time to time, the ones that are still on the air of course, just out of neustalgia and because I can.
Bottom line: I decided to write this WGNCreview after recognizing Marconi yesterday and even though National Radio Day isn't until August 20th every day is a good day for some good ol' radio. read more