This page was last updated on Wednesday, September 02, 2009.

WGCY IS 25-YEARS-OLD THIS MONTH!

Can you believe it?  Seems like only yesterday Gary McCullough and the Noble Brothers got together to bring Gibson City and Ford County their first radio station.

What is complied on this page are newspaper clippings, advertisements, articles, pictures of former and current staff members and all sorts of "stuff" in between.

Just run your mouse over each picture for a short description of each thumbnail, and double-click the left button on your mouse to get a larger viewable image.

Check this page often for updates throughout the next few weeks.

The process of building a radio station "from scratch" is a long one.  You can't just say, "I want a station," build it, flip a switch and turn it on - it takes lawyers, consultants, bankers, partners, money, equipment, a building - and one guy with a big idea that has driven the WGCY engine even before those call letters were even thought of.

Gary is a 1972 graduate of Gibson City High School and in 1974 from Lake Land Community College south of Mattoon, IL, majoring in broadcasting (naturally).  Read some of the articles below to get an idea of how he got from idea to actuality.

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After a lot of paperwork, sweat, worry - and did I mention paperwork? - the construction of a small studio and a couple of offices was completed in the old Noble Brothers building just north of the current WGCY studios on south Sangamon Avenue in Gibson City.

Before "flipping the switch," you had to have promotion.  Here are some articles and print ads from right before the station went on the air on November 28th, 1983.

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Finally, at 6 A-M on Monday, November 28th, 1983, power was on at the transmitter and tower located a few miles southeast of Sibley, the switch was flipped at the studios at 523 South Sangamon Avenue in Gibson City and Ford County had their first operating radio station!

Remember when F-M radios were tuned with the higher frequencies on the right end?  The first slogan for WGCY was "The right side of your dial."  That wasn't just a saying - that was reality.  (Digital receivers with frequencies displayed numerically have negated this clever marketing, unfortunately.)

Here are some congratulatory letters from Gary's former employers and some other articles of interest.

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Back in the early days, WGCY had a home furnishing show, would go to the Paxton Community Sale, and just about anywhere they could maintain a regional presence.  WGCY was always the home of excellent high school sports, starting with the 1983-84 Gibson City Greyhounds basketball season through today with the current Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Falcons' athletic teams.

Enjoy these pictures of early staff members and other assorted items.

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Some more pictures from the 1980s.  WGCY broadcasted their first Illinois High School Association state tournament game when the Ford Central girls' basketball team made it to the Assembly Hall at the University of Illinois in March, 1987.

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From the above WGCY Staff Photo taken by Jankun Studio in Forrest, IL

L-R:  Debra McCullough (traffic/bookkeeping), Gary McCullough (General Manager/announcer), Laverne White (weekend announcer), Jill Doran (announcer), Doug Marsh (sales), Jeff Vandegraft (announcer), Lori Epps (sales), Lee Ann Roth (news).  Mr. B was home eating supper!

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Fairbury native Warren Moulton was (and still is) quite a character.  He worked at WGCY in two separate stints from the mid-1980s until leaving to pursue a singing career in Chicago in 1991.

Warren had a talent for drawing male caricatures.  Here's some of his "doodles" from back then.

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In the late 1980s, Fred McCullough bought out John and Bill Noble's shares in the radio station, turning WGCY into a family affair with the formation of F & G Broadcasting, Inc.  The station moved out of the Noble Bear building next door into the vacant Grant and Ross Credit Union building in March, 1990.  (Mr. B was the first person to broadcast from the new studio late on a Sunday afternoon.)

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Over the years, WGCY has hosted many civic groups on tours of our facility.  The station has a commitment to public service to Gibson City and surrounding communities.

More pictures and clippings from the early 1990s.

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On Sunday, November 28th, WGCY celebrated their 10th Anniversary (to the day) by hosting an open house.

Our thanks to Gail Hutchcraft (Troy's mom) for these pictures.

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WGCY participated in the 1984 Farm Progress show near Fisher and the 1994 show on Illinois Route 9 east of Bloomington.

WGCY initially partnered with WJEZ for a Sangamon Valley-Corn Belt Conference All-Star boys and girls basketball game held at Illinois Wesleyan University's Shirk Center in Bloomington.  The game has evolved into the Heart of Illinois Conference All-Star game held at GCMS high school with WGCY being the sole broadcaster.

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WGCY had a lot of people come and go over the years... Justin Bond, Jeff Vandegraft, Dan Jones, John Stryker, Dori Marshall, Scott Gulliford, Jill Doran, Warren Moulton, Rev. Steve Ware, Dean Tambling, Paul Volker, Mike McCall, Rollie Reynolds, Lee Ann Roth, Dr. James Stewart, Bill Cornell, Gail Swanstrom, Kevin Scott, Jamie Stevens, Steve Rich, Rick Greenlee... the list goes on.  However, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention three gentlemen who defined entertainment on WGCY for many a year.

Laverne White was a radio force in east-central Illinois for decades.  He worked as one of the first announcers at WLRW in the early 1960s and WTWC, both in Champaign, at WDAN in Danville, and WRTL in Rantoul before coming to WGCY in mid-1985.  Laverne would host on Friday and Saturday nights from 6 to Midnight with his "World Of Beautiful Music" program almost until his death on April 14th, 1993.

Laverne truly was an "original," and if you knew him personally, a great friend to have.  People would remark how if you talked to him in person, his radio and speaking voice were the same.  His voice was often compared to long-time WGN overnight host Franklyn MacCormack.

Troy Hutchcraft was a Gibson City native and a 1982 graduate of Gibson City High School.  He attended Parkland College in their broadcasting program and worked at WRTL with Laverne White until that station went through an ownership and format change.  Troy started at WGCY in mid-1990 and worked here until he died on May 5th, 2003.

Troy hosted on Sunday mornings off and on during his WGCY career and was the first host of WGCY's long-running format, "Soft Nights."

If there was something you wanted Troy to do, he did it (usually) without complaint.  Always dependable, loyal, in good humor and - as he admitted - a pest from time to time, Troy's goal in life was to help people and at this he succeeded always.

Bob Benefiel came to WGCY after retiring in mid-1985 after 29 years working in the Gibson City school system.  His "Mr. B's Bandstand" ran from the fall of 1986 until spring, 2007.  He was Gary's "understudy" whenever The Boss wanted to take a day off.

Exacting, precise, prepared, and accurate are all ways to describe Mr. B., with a little mischief thrown in.  He died on July 29th, 2007.

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WGCY has been fortunate enough to have some nice things said about it over the years.

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With the advent of digital cameras, being computer driven and our webpage, WGCY has been able to add pictures to our sound recordings.  Here's a sample of some sports pictures from the past few seasons.

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From radio's "Golden Age" in the 1920s until the early 1980s, broadcast technology stayed pretty much the same - play records, tapes, and other analog-type recordings.  About the only big change was inside the machines as vacuum tubes were replaced with solid-state transistors.

Since 1983, a major shift has occurred - WGCY moved away from old tape-driven sound into digital formats originating from a computer.  While we still have records here, compact discs are what we use over 95-percent of the time.  Even our hourly news arrives differently - it used to be on a physical hard-wire feed while today's CBS Radio News arrives via satellite.

Some more pictures and clippings from the 2000 decade.

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