Gary’s radio career started with getting paid $500 per semester at Wartburg College at KWAR FM..With cheap equipment and big dreams, he would try to imitate what he heard on fast paced rock stations. He had confidence, enthusiasm, and most importantly, a voice that sounded better in his head than it probably did in real life.
At that time he had an interest to be a TV sports reporter. But after an internship at KCRG TV9, he doubled down on the radio dream. It was more fun. TV was writing and carrying around heavy cameras. Radio was theater of the mind with personality. As it turned out. Future Fox sports anchor Curt Menafee was the next intern after Gary at the Cedar Rapids TV station. Talk about talent! GARY was still wondering if HE had any.
Gary was heard up and down the dial on three college radio stations, which in radio terms is like touring three garages before getting your first real stage. His journey started at KWAR FM at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. This station had a mighty 20-mile broadcast radius, meaning if you stood in the wrong cornfield, you might lose the signal. But to Gary, it was Hollywood. It was real radio, run entirely by students, and it felt magical.
At KWAR, Gary met Dave Danielson, his partner in crime and comedy. Together, they created a show which featured humor, trivia, free pizza giveaways, and an impressive amount of confidence for two guys who just winged it. They learned everything the hard way: running boards, spinning records, cutting tape with razor blades, and editing audio like surgeons with wax pencils. Mistakes were frequent. Learning was constant. And somehow, it worked.
They even called football and basketball games. Nobody trained them. Nobody critiqued them. They just talked. The same talking that used to get Gary in trouble in class suddenly became a talent. It was his first clue that maybe this “talking too much” thing could be a career.
After three semesters, Gary decided Wartburg was too expensive and that he had grown all he could there. He headed to Fort Dodge and Iowa Central Community College, where he worked at KICB FM. This station felt professional. Bigger signal. Better sound. Real momentum. Somehow, he landed a morning show three days a week from 8 to 9 AM. It was perfect. He did radio, then went to class, feeling like a celebrity before breakfast, as more students started commenting on his show positively.
At KICB, he learned the fine art of cueing albums, timing records perfectly, and appreciating how every station has its own “sound.” He even won “Most Likely to Succeed in Radio,” which was either a prophecy or a warning. Probably both.
Next stop: University of Northern Iowa and KCRS AM. It wasn’t FM, it wasn’t glamorous, but it was a training ground. One day, an upperclassman asked Gary a simple question that changed everything:
“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you working at a real radio station?”
That was the first time someone outside his own head told him he was good. So Gary did what ambitious young broadcasters did in the 80s: he mailed tapes. Dozens of them. Along with resumes. And homemade letterhead that borrowed a logo from KIIS FM in Los Angeles. Creative? Yes. Honest? Not exactly. But it got attention.
Soon, he got a call from Q103 in Cedar Rapids, home of the legendary Gary Dixon. And just like that, Gary found himself reading the news alongside a radio icon. It was called “Dueling Garys,” and for one glorious week, he lived the dream. He was 21 years old and on the biggest station in town.
He went on to host weekend shows, including the “Q103 Favorite 30 Countdown,” where timing had to be perfect. Gary loved the technical challenge of fitting artist soundbites, intros, and commentary into tiny windows of time. He lived for it. Then, just as suddenly as it began, it ended. He was replaced. Welcome to radio.
Next came KFMW, Rock 108 in Waterloo. Here, Gary thrived. Weekends became “Willy and Wally Weekends,” filled with live DJs, chaos, energy, and above-minimum-wage pay that made him feel valued. He developed a faster, bolder on-air style and learned work ethic. Long hours. Little supervision. Total freedom.
After graduating college, Gary faced reality. Full-time radio jobs were hard to get. Rejection letters piled up. Doubt crept in. So he tried sales. Not because he loved it, but because it was available.
He learned lessons, failed forward, and figured out that no experience was wasted. He also learned that some managers inspire you, and some inspire you to never be like them.
Then life took him briefly out of radio and into directories, advertising, Milwaukee, and adulthood. But radio, like a catchy song, never fully left his head.
In 1989, Gary got another shot at KKRQ in Iowa City. Overnight shift. Midnight to 6 AM. Living the vampire lifestyle. He worked weddings and dances on weekends and made more in one night DJing than in weeks on air. He learned to read crowds, run sound systems, and work a room. Another skill set added. He ended up doing around 500 dances in 25 years!
Then came his break. The afternoon host quit. Gary was promoted. He became Music Director. He stared at glowing DOS screens programming playlists. He built puzzles of sound every day. He became Public Relations Director. And then something incredible happened: KKRQ went #1 in the ratings. And Gary’s show was #1 in his time slot.
From nobody-hired-me to top-of-the-market. Not bad.
The station felt like a frat house with microphones. Teasing, pranks, inside jokes, and constant laughter. Gary even mispronounced “Bobby Hebb” as “Bobby Heeb,” accidentally using a word he later learned was a slur. Decades later, he still hears about it. Some mistakes never die. They just become legend.
After a few years, burnout set in. Repetition. Same songs. Same format. Same everything. He left radio again, chasing money, challenge, and adulthood.
Then in 1998, radio called again. WMT Mix 96.5 in Cedar Rapids. A Saturday show turned into something bigger. Much bigger. When the morning host left, Gary was asked to take over.
His response?
“Absolutely not.”
Then his friends talked sense into him.
Enter Gretchen. Gary and Gretchen in the Morning. Two people who had never done mornings before. Management was nervous. Sales was skeptical. The city was watching.
And then… they worked.
They built chemistry. They respected each other. They interviewed movie stars & comedians. They balanced humor and intelligence. The ratings came in. They matched the previous show. They proved themselves. Soon, they were on billboards across Cedar Rapids, sitting in a giant coffee cup, smiling at a city that once fired Gary for dropping a steak on the floor at his first job.
From dropping steaks…
To being the morning voice of a city.
That, Gary decided, was the universe showing its sense of humor.
Gary's final radio stint was in Phoenix AZ as his successful real estate business brought him and his wife Melynda there. He can say he worked in a top 10 market at a station that probably didn't have as many people listening as his last Iowa gig, but doing mornings was fun yet awkward being he produced the show from his back bedroom at home. He lasted just 4 months, then lastly an internet station called "Hot Rockin" that was an app. Gary did afternoon's and got to be coached by the legendary JJ Jeffries from Phoenix's KSLX.
Gary’s career taught him one thing:
To succeed, you must fail often.
To grow, you must risk embarrassment.
And to truly live, you must talk too much… just in the right place, at the right time, into the right microphone.
And if you’re lucky, one day, they’ll put you in a coffee cup.
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