aired the Orioles. Rev. Charles Beasley had a Sunday morning show on WCGC until general manager Jim Mintzer found out he was grand dragon of the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Protestors from four states showed up at city hall and the radio station, without incident, though law enforcement officers stood by just in case anything happened. WCGC had been on the air 35 years in June 1989 when Suburban Radio Group, owner of 11 radio stations, sold its flagship station in Belmont to Mintzer. The radio group remained in the building with WCGC, and no major format changes were planned. WCGC played country music except on Sundays, when the station aired religious programming. WCGC also broadcast all games of the minor league baseball Gastonia Rangers. Some of the games were to be tape-delayed if they conflicted with South Point High School football, but WCGC agreed to carry the baseball games live if the team made the playoffs. WGNC in Gastonia took over the broadcasts in 1990 In 1993, WCGC carried Cleveland Indians games. In January 1994, WCGC had already made the switch to talk radio, with shows such as G. Gordon Liddy, Larry King and Pat Buchanan, when Chris Vaughn began a 30-minute talk show with a conservative focus, which expanded to 90 minutes in June. Another local host was John Sullivan, who moved to WNMX (AM) in 1996. In August 1995, newspaper parenting columnist John Rosemond began a talk show on WSIC in Statesville, which WCGC also aired. In 1996, WCGC carried West Mecklenburg High School Friday night football games on Saturday mornings. In 1997, WCGC became the Charlotte-area affiliate for the National Hockey League Carolina Hurricanes in their first season playing in North Carolina. In July 1998, Mintzer sold WCGC to the owners of WHVN. However, WCGC continued to make news for an incident on the "Wakin' Up with Java John" morning show. John Wall, a Gastonia city employee, sued talk show host John Hunsucker and Mintzer for derogatory comments made by an anonymous caller known as "Slim Jim" during a five-month period while Mintzer owned the station. Mintzer said WCGC broadcast disclaimers telling listeners that callers' opinions were not those of the station. A jury awarded $10,500 to Wall, leading Penn State journalism professor Robert Richards, also director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment, to regard this case as yet another potential