Andrew Byrd discovered his passion for radio through marketing and promotions. It’s a love for connecting with listeners that still drives him today. His radio journey led from Producer and Studio Engineer to Music Director, Program Director, and Public Affairs Director. He even spent time as an airborne traffic reporter during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, combining his two loves: broadcasting and flying.

He was part of Atlanta’s Y106 & Y104 FM simulcast – a unique experience in broadcasting. “You’d press a single big, red ‘ON’ button and multiple cart machines would start instantaneously,” he recalls. “You would think you were launching a rocket as all the cart machines audibly engaged simultaneously! It felt like we had control of the world for those few seconds.”

At Whistle 100 in Greenville, SC, Andrew co-hosted Cryin’, Lovin’, Laughin’, or Leavin’—a show primed for syndication that played only 6-7 songs per hour. “The rest belonged to the real stars: the listeners!” he explains. “They’d call in declaring their emotion, then tell their story. Some calls went on and on. It was captivating! I couldn’t believe a country station could be so wildly successful playing minimal music in the mid-1990s when country was on fire!”

Andrew’s radio journey includes stints at Fox 97, AM 750 WSB, KIX 96, Magic 102.1, and South 106. For more than 35 years, he’s maintained a recording studio for voice-over work spanning radio, television, commercials, and corporate videos. Today, as an accomplished entrepreneur and public speaker, he credits his broadcasting foundation for his success across multiple ventures.

Jerry Gerson remembers a moment in 1968 with gratitude: “Everything changed when I switched my major at UGA to Journalism. I started my on-air career at WDOL AM/FM, then the late, great Charles Giddens hired me at 960 WRFC, where I discovered my voice behind the microphone.”

Graduating from UGA and marrying Nancy in 1971, he says as a young college graduate “money remained a mystery.” WRFC created a sales position where Jerry sold, wrote and voiced his clients’ commercials—the complete package, and a perfect transition into management. That led to launching WAGQ-FM, Q-105 in Athens as Station Manager, which opened doors to incredible stations: Rock 105 WFYV-FM Jacksonville, 98 KZEW Dallas, KMYZ-FM Z-104.5 Tulsa, WGRX-FM Baltimore, and KISS-FM San Antonio.

When cable television exploded in San Antonio during the early 90s, Jerry joined KBL-TV as sales manager, then moved to the Dallas Metro as GM. There he learned great content travels through any medium—whether radio waves or cable lines.

He left broadcasting to create The Gerson Group, partnering with a great friend to build a successful trade show marketing consultancy, working for more than 25 years with Fortune 500 companies worldwide.

Radio never stopped calling, and when Sanders Hickey invited Jerry to join TGC Radio, “it felt like a dream come true. I love being back on the air with this experienced team of great talent.” Nancy and Jerry have two successful adult children and four wonderful grandchildren. “I am a lucky man—and grateful you’re listening.”

Sanders’ parents skipped the pacifier and put a radio in his room instead—he’s never been the same since. At 12, he walked into his first real radio studio and introduced “Kicks” by Paul Revere and the Raiders. That’s all it took. HOOKED!

Dream became reality when Sanders, just a high school senior, joined The Rock of Columbus, 1580 WCLS, and climbed the dial to FM powerhouse 107Q WCGQ. In college, he joined Q-105 Athens, and then hit even bigger-time with Atlanta’s Z93 and 790 WQXI. Each stop deepened his love affair with radio—the studios, the music, the creativity, and especially those magical, larger-than-life personalities that make radio truly sparkle.

In 1982, Sanders and a business partner applied to own their first station. He and wife Karen moved to Texas to launch K-Lite 106 FM for four years of Texas-sized bliss. You can take the boy out of Georgia, but you can’t take Georgia out of the boy—it wasn’t long before back to Bulldog Country the Hickeys came.

Over 35 years (with a brief stint as SE Regional Manager at Arbitron Ratings), Sanders owned and managed more than 20 radio stations across Georgia and Florida. And then he had his most extraordinary idea yet!

In 2020, Sanders reached out to lifelong friends—talented air personalities from Georgia who’d starred on America’s great stations and Sirius XM—with his idea to launch a streaming station playing the music they’d grown up with. Almost a decade in, TGC Radio is now flourishing, streaming on tgcradio.com, on the free TGC Radio app, and now on 95.9 FM all across Athens and Northeast Georgia, with some of the great names in Georgia broadcasting over many years gathered together to have fun and bring great Continuous Georgia Classics to you!

Bobby Rich grew up listening to radio in South Florida, and at 12 years old, he knew his calling. When someone asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he answered without hesitation: “A Deejay!” After high school, he headed straight to Brown Institute of Broadcasting in South Florida to make that dream real.

His lucky break came at Q105 in Tampa Bay, where he watched magic happen as the station grew into a legendary powerhouse. Bobby became part of that legend, spending 13 years there as Air Personality and Music Director from 1977 to 1990, helping shape the sound that defined Tampa Bay radio.

The music called him to Mix 100.7 Tampa Bay for another 13-year run from 1990 to 2003, where he continued crafting the perfect soundtrack for listeners’ lives. His expertise in reading audiences and programming music earned him recognition as Bobby Poe Music Director of the Year in 1987.

Bobby next took his talents to Kool 105.5 in West Palm Beach from 2003 to 2007, serving as Air Personality, Music Director, and Assistant Program Director. But Tampa Bay kept calling him home, and he returned to Q105 from 2007 to 2020, completing a radio journey that spanned over four decades.

With a broadcasting career spanning almost 30 years, Ed Strang Steel, known on air as Ed Steel, has built a career around his passion for music, entertaining audiences and connecting with listeners on both sides of the Atlantic.

Ed’s radio journey began in 1997 at Scotland’s Radio Borders, where he developed his broadcasting skills and established his love for personality-driven local radio. Over seven years, Ed became part of the broadcasting landscape in the Scottish Borders, gaining valuable experience and building the foundations of a career that next would take him across the Atlantic.

In 2004, Ed began a three-year stint with Moby in the Morning, entering the fast-paced world of American morning radio, where entertainment, humour, music and larger-than-life personalities were all part of the appeal.

Staying on the American side of the pond, in 2007 Ed joined Golden Isles Broadcasting, where he spent the next 12 years. It was a significant chapter of his career and allowed Ed further broadcasting experience and a deepened understanding of American radio, its audiences and distinctive presenting styles.

Having worked in both British and American radio, Ed brings a unique combination of broadcasting influences to his programmes. His presenting style mixes the warmth and familiarity of traditional British local radio with the energy, creativity and entertainment of American broadcasting.

Today, in addition to his role as TGC Radio’s host from 9 p.m. to midnight each weeknight, Ed is the driving force behind Selkirk and the Valleys Radio, an online community radio station dedicated to serving Selkirk and the surrounding Ettrick and Yarrow Valleys in the Scottish Borders.

Away from radio, Ed enjoys following the Dawgs, Braves, Falcons and his soccer team St. Johnstone.

With a career that has carried him from Scotland to America and back, Ed remains passionate about the magic of radio and its ability to bring people together. He’s learned great radio isn’t simply about playing the right songs. It’s about personality, companionship, laughter and making every listener feel like they’re part of something special. From Radio Borders to American radio and back home to the Scottish Borders, Ed Steel continues doing what he loves most: entertaining listeners and sharing great music.

Before podcasts, streaming, satellite radio, and telling Alexa what to play, there was a much simpler way to discover music: turn on the radio and find somebody who knew what they were doing.

John Reid has spent a good chunk of his life being that guy.

His radio journey began in Vidalia, Georgia, at WVOP / 98Q, where he got his first taste of life behind the microphone. From there, the radio dial led him to Athens, Georgia, where John continued working in radio while earning his graduate degree from 1977 through 1979.

Apparently, graduate school wasn’t quite enough to keep him busy.

During those Athens years, John worked at WRFC and WAGQ, Q105, gaining valuable experience in the wonderfully unpredictable world of radio, where the playlist might be carefully planned, but everything else could change in about three seconds.

Then came Atlanta.

From 1984 through 1994, John was part of one of the country’s great radio markets, working at Power 99, where listeners knew him as “John Rocking Reid.” And if you had a radio in Atlanta during those years, there was a pretty good chance you heard that name coming out of it.

John later joined Star 94, this time simply as John Reid. Ten years in Atlanta meant plenty of music, personalities, promotions, phones ringing, listeners calling, and probably more stories than should ever be told in public.

Eventually, John took his radio talents north to Washington, D.C., joining WRQX / Q107 and adding another major-market station to an already impressive collection of call letters.

Along the way, John has watched radio change from turntables, carts, reel-to-reel tape and vinyl, to CDs, computers, automation, satellite feeds, streaming and whatever technology is coming next.

But the basic magic never changed.

Put on a great song.
Turn on the microphone.
Say something memorable.
And hope somebody’s listening.

John has been fortunate enough to do that in Vidalia, Athens, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., and he’s collected a pretty remarkable soundtrack along the way.

From WVOP / 98Q, to WRFC and WAGQ/Q105, to “John Rocking Reid” on Power 99, to Star 94, to WRQX/Q107 in Washington, and now 95.9 TGC Radio, John’s career has covered decades of music and some of the most memorable eras in radio.

He didn’t just listen to the soundtrack of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.

He helped put it on the air.

And somewhere, there’s probably still a listener who remembers exactly where they were when they heard John Reid say: “You’re listening to…”

A Columbus, Ga. native, Bob Taylor graduated from UGA in 1983 with a degree in journalism from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. He started his love for radio working at WJJC in Commerce, home of “Whisperin’ Bill Anderson” and his hit, “City Lights.”

Bob moved to WAGQ (Q-105) in Athens, as did others now with TGC Radio, where he anchored news and sports. Further stops were at WPNX in Columbus, as producer/director at the Columbus CBS affiliate WRBL-TV, and the South Carolina Radio Network. That led to a fascinating time as a spokesman and speechwriter for the late U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond – get Bob to tell you some tales!

In 1997, Bob and his family – wife Nancy and son Seth – returned to Athens when Bob accepted a position in UGA’s Office of Public Affairs working directly for Tom Jackson. After a 30-year career at UGA, much of it as the university’s manager of Open Records compliance, Bob retires at the end of 2026 and looks forward to devoting time to TGC Radio and being back in his first love – radio.

Cole Harrison is president of Commercial Audio Systems, Inc., the Atlanta-based pro audio and video systems integrator he has led for nearly 40 years. Since 1986, Cole and his team have designed and installed sound systems everywhere from houses of worship and restaurants to nightclubs, hospitals, and courtrooms across the Southeast — “getting it right the first time.” He also heads Wizard Electronics, the company’s digital and analog pro-audio repair shop, and Captive Sound.

Every Sunday evening from 6:00 PM to midnight, Cole closes out the TGC Radio weekend with six hours of Continuous Georgia Classics.