WCGC (1270 AM) is a radio station licensed to Belmont, North Carolina, and serving the Charlotte/Gastonia area. The station is owned by Carolina Catholic Radio Network and broadcasts a Catholic radio format. By day, WCGC is powered at 10,000 watts non-directional. But at night, to protect other stations on 1270 AM, it greatly reduces power to 500 watts and uses a directional antenna. History WCGC was started by Robert Richard Hilker, signing on the air on December 11, 1954. The 5,000-watt radio station was put on the air with a transmitter Hilker built from a Heathkit model. He applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a radio station construction permit. Hilker owned WCGC and with that built Suburban Radio Group which owned and operated 11 AM and FM radio stations and also put on two television stations; WJZY in Charlotte and another in Morehead City. At the time of Hilker's death, the radio station was still using the transmitter he built as a backup for the now computerized WCGC. Born in Winston-Salem, he served in the U.S. Navy and established Cablevision Companies in Gaston County and the Lake Norman area as well at Charlotte television station WJZY-TV. He was past Chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Board, served on the boards of numerous national broadcasting associations and civic organizations and was inducted into the N.C. Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Ebb Gantt had played football for Belmont High School and Belmont Abbey College. He later became the radio voice for both teams as well as Davidson College. (The high school later consolidated with Cramerton High to form South Point High School.) Gantt served as a WCGC sportscaster, beginning in the late 1950s. Gantt later became the station's general manager and retired in 1980. Screenwriter and filmmaker Richard O'Sullivan worked as an on-air personality at WCGC in the late eighties. Jack LaFaivre, who went on to jobs at WXII and WSJS in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, worked at WCGC after graduating from Belmont Abbey. Many other local broadcasters spent time at WCGC including Joe McLaney, who went on to WBT as Production Director, and Bob Brandon, formerly of WSOC-FM and Clear Channel Charlotte. In 1986, with the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball, having been dropped by WSOC 930 AM, WCGC picked up the Baltimore Orioles. WJZY, a TV station which shared a building with WCGC in its early days, also