Nestled away in Cornelia, Ga., about an hour drive northeast of bustling Atlanta, WCON(AM/FM) has been a standout example of family-owned broadcasting for 73 years.
Owned and operated by Habersham Broadcasting, WCON reaches metro Atlanta as well as into parts of North and South Carolina and Tennessee. The station’s crew consists of 15 mostly part-time employees, half of whom are related by blood or marriage.
Taking to the airwaves in 1953 and today branded as “107.7 The Breeze” along with its FM translator, WCON(AM) has a soft AC format broadcasting 1,000 watts from its tower site one county over, 15 minutes from WCON’s recently revamped studios.
WCON-FM, “99.3 My Country,” went on the air in 1965. Broadcasting 100 kW, it’s one of the region’s largest radio signals, reaching approximately 5 million people.
Hyper-programmed for Habersham and Banks County, My Country plays classic ’80s and ’90s country tunes with a healthy dose of local sports mixed in, including broadcasts of Atlanta Braves games.
Family ties
The AM station was founded in 1953. John Foster joined the staff while he was in high school, and eight years later, Foster and his wife Bobbie bought the station, effectively changing John’s title from DJ to owner. (He also has served as a state senator.)
WCON(FM) went on the air in 1965 as a Class A station and was upgraded to a C2 with 50 kW of power in 1989. In 2015, WCON increased its power to 100 kW with a Nautel GV40 transmitter, covering all of northeast Georgia and portions of the Carolinas and Tennessee. In 2019, the station flipped from a blend of country and southern gospel music to classic country, rebranding to My Country 99.3.
John and Bobbie Foster were inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2015, credited with growing WCON(FM) from a small Class A to a powerhouse. The husband-and-wife team were married for 63 years before she passed away in 2021.
Today, John and Bobbie’s legacy continues, with sons David and Clayton Foster taking over the family business. David mostly sells; Clayton handles the day-to-day operations; and, at 91 years of age in April, John continues to run a tight ship, coming into work every day to record the message for WCON’s call-in weather service.
It would also be amiss not to mention honorary family member Rev. Billy Burrell, who began hosting WCON’s “Sunshine Melodies” morning show in 1959. After a whopping 63 years at the station, Burrell retired in 2022 at age 92.
Clayton, whose technical title is VP of operations for Habersham Broadcasting, said: “Billy Burrell was an integral part of the station for so many years. He had a morning devotion, hosted the birthday party, opened the barn door and kept his audience informed on so many levels. His impact on the community is still felt even though he’s been off the air for three-plus years.”
Clayton has two grown kids with his wife of 25 years, Kim, who plays an active role in the family business. Kim started at WCON in 2016 when the station switched over to a new automation system. “I had no clue what I was getting into,” she said of the time. Today, Kim still manages traffic in addition to Habersham’s accounting needs.
Studio upgrades
WCON has made major improvements to its four studios, gutting them over the course of three years during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We did it because everything was falling apart,” said Clayton. “It had been so long since there were any upgrades that it was really in need of it.”
During renovation, Habersham built new custom cabinetry and digitized its operations, transitioning to AoIP. The company also converted a storage closet into a fifth studio and created a rack room out of the station’s old record library.
Clayton did the design work, and Habersham methodically made these upgrades over several years, paying for everything in cash. He said one of his biggest accomplishments is that WCON never had to go off the air during these upgrades.
“You wouldn’t know what we were doing, because you couldn’t tell. Everything was seamless,” he said.
Being a radio history buff, Clayton took a lot of the station’s old equipment and made a small museum out of it.
“It’s got some old record players, our original transmitter, original board bikes, on-air signs, speakers and clocks,” said Clayton. “It’s pretty cool.”
The equipment in the upgraded studios and control room include Wheatstone IP-16 boards, Telos VX Prime+ VoIP phone systems, Shure SM7B microphones and Yamaha HS8 speakers.
Local impact
Some might say WCON’s staff spends more time out of the studio than in it.
The station prides itself on its community outreach; it can be seen at Fourth of July parades, local 5K or 10K races, county fairs, Chamber of Commerce events and, of course, hometown football games.
You’d be hard-pressed to find another group that’s called as many high school football games as the team at WCON has. Since 1970, WCON’s 99.3 has been the voice of Habersham Central Raiders football. Leading WCON’s football coverage is David Foster, who has called exactly 400 games over the course of 39 years. Brother Clayton is just a few games behind him, with 390 games in 38 years.
“David does the play-by-play and produces the show, I do the engineering, and my wife and I take care of the stats during the game,” said Clayton. “We are usually the first to get to the game and the last to leave. It has been my job for many years to turn off the stadium lights.”
A local broadcaster through and through, Clayton’s favorite country artist is Little Big Town, whose vocalist Kimberly Schlapman was born and raised in Cornelia, where WCON is based. For that reason, he makes sure Little Big Town gets plenty of airtime.
“We’ve got really good disc jockeys — or digital jockeys as we like to call them. It’s all local and we get out a lot,” said Clayton. “Out in the community people know us. If you’re not doing that, then you should be.”
WCON isn’t just a visible presence in its community, it also is made accessible online via podcasting (My Country 99.3), a YouTube channel and streaming.
Clayton said: “I think that radio is here to stay. I really do. But if you don’t change, you won’t make it. So we’re doing all we can to keep up.”
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