When he was born, instead of a pacifier his parents put a radio in his room — he’s never been the same since. When he was 12 years old, he walked into a real Radio studio for the first time and was asked to introduce “KICKS,” by Paul Revere and the Raiders. That’s all it took. HOOKED!
As a high school senior, his dream became real, when Sanders joined the air staff of “The Rock of Columbus, 1580 WCLS,” in Columbus, Georgia. And from there, it was on to FM Top-40 Powerhouse, “107Q … WCGQ, Columbus.” … College and “Q-105, Athens” … on to “Atlanta’s Z93” … “790 WQXI, Atlanta” … and points up and down the dial.
Sanders has always been completely enchanted and forever in love with Radio. The studios … the fun … the music … the creativity … and especially the people — those magical, talented, bigger-than-life personalities that make Radio truly “Sparkle!”
The idea occurred to him that he might actually earn a living with all of this. In 1982, Sanders and a partner applied to own his first Radio station. He and his wife, Karen, moved to Texas to launch K-Lite 106 FM. It was 4 years of Texas-sized bliss. But, while you can take the boy out of Georgia, you just can’t take “Georgia” out of the boy – and back to Bulldog Country The Hickeys came.
Over the past 35 years, with a brief 5-year stint as SE Regional Manager of The Arbitron Ratings Company (now known as The Nielsen Company), Sanders has owned and managed over 20 Radio stations, across the Sunbelt, in Georgia and Florida – and now across the world streaming on the Internet.
In 2020, Sanders reached out to a group of life-long friends (who just happened to be extraordinarily talented Radio Air Personalities, all from Georgia, who have gone on to star on some of America’s great Radio stations, as well Sirius|XM Satellite Radio) and proposed the idea of launching a new Streaming Radio station, based in The Classic City – Athens Georgia – playing the music we’ve grown up with. And “Continuous Georgia Classics … The New TGC Radio” was Born – and HERE WE ARE! Sanders is on the air weekdays, 5 PM – 9 PM (EDT) | 2 PM – 6 PM (PDT). So, Tap the App and Join the FUN!
Sanders Hickey is a past President of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, a member of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, Inductee in The Georgia Radio Hall of Fame, a Founding Member and Inductee in The Friends of Georgia Radio Hall of Legends. He and partners currently own Radio stations in Brunswick/Sea Island, Georgia and Southeast Texas.