“Chattie” Hattie Leeper recalls the time when a convict came to WGIV 1600 AM and surrendered to police, when the station helped get wheelchairs for patients in need and before there was an Amber Alert, the channel served as a liaison for missing people and pets.

“We as DJs were on the air to help people,” Leeper said. “It was something that had to be done at the time. We DJs have helped the community.”

For approximately 30 years Leeper graced the airways with her voice beginning in the 1950s. She was the station’s first black woman on-air and one of its most famous personalities, along with “Genial Gene” Potts and “Rockin’ Ray” Gooding.
Out of all of the original full-time DJ’s she is the only one still living.

“It was the only urban radio station of the time,” Leeper said. “All of the Afro Americans kept tuned in to that station.”
Leeper recalls a time when corporations did not control radio, WGIV had no production room, there was no high tech, and nothing was live even when the station went on location.

“Everything is now controlled by management,” Leeper said. “Back in my day we did our own thing. It’s just a new day.”
WGIV’s frequency is now 1370 AM and has an urban gospel and talk format. On May 31 at 5 p.m., the station celebrates over 50 years of WGIV with an “Old Fashion Gospel Program,” at St. Luke Baptist Church, 1600 Norris Ave.
“It’s real gratifying and humbling,” Leeper says. “I haven’t really closed the door in the field, I always keep my toe in the door. I never have really been out of radio.”

In 1947, WGIV was the first station to cater to blacks and it was popular throughout the 1970s until competition arose from WPEG (97.9 FM). In the 1990s the owners of WPEG purchased WGIV, eventually changing its programming to solid gold music.

In 1997, the station that now covers Charlotte, Gastonia, Rock Hill and some metropolitan areas in South Carolina, went gospel.
Today the 16,000 kilowatts station has local talk shows lead by community members with heavy gospel music as its main objective along with sports, inspiration and news. Frank Neely now owns the station, which is now called the Rejoy Network.

“I love talk radio, I love bringing information to the community,” owner Frank Neely said. “When you bring information to the community it helps bring people together; white, black and Hispanic. It gives them more opportunity to hear us from a black perspective.”

Talk shows include “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” with James McGill, Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member George Dunlap with “Closing Gaps,” and “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” hosted by former mayoral candidate Craig Madans. Some syndicated programs include “Keeping it Real” with Al Sharpton and Bobby Jones.

“Talk is what we do,” Neely said. “We offer a lot of information.”

On-air personality Donna Jenkins Dawson of “Real Talk Politics,” said she’s honored to be a part of WGIV, what it represents, and what it does for the community.

“What I cherish the most is meeting Chattie Hattie,” Dawson said. “She’s great. I’m happy to be a part of something that has relevance and it’s not just the music.”

Dawson said meeting Leeper was like “kindred spirits,” and the infamous DJ refers to her as her own daughter. She also loves the fact that Leeper met Marvin Gaye.

“I really feel blessed to be a part of WGIV and what it stands for,” Dawson adds.

Leeper says she never expected to be a DJ; her parents wanted her to be a teacher, preacher or nurse.

“I just really loved it,” Leeper said. “If the station had never been sold I probably would still be on the air. It wasn’t’ a job, it was a hobby.”

Leeper will be featured in an upcoming documentary called “Master of Ceremony,” about the history of black radio. For thet part she keeps up with today’s DJ’s and even likes some R&B and rap beats, but not the explicit lyrics.

“You’ve got to respect what the youth of today say,” she added. “We’re in a new era.”

Featured guests for the “Old Fashion Gospel Program,” include Tears of Joy, Singing Angels, Voices of Morning Star, Herman Ellis and the Queen City Aires, Carl Blair and Family Circle, D’termination, Phylis Wilson and 1-Faith, and the St. Luke Gospel Choir.
Donations are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. For more information, call (980) 297-7256.

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