History of WGFA

WGFA-FM 94.1 is a 50,000 watt Adult Contemporary formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Watseka, Illinois, serving 19 counties in East Central Illinois and Northwest Indiana. WGFA-FM is owned and operated by Iroquois County Broadcasting Company.

WGFA-AM 1360 is 1,000 watt News/Talk formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Watseka, Illinois, serving Watseka and Eastern Iroquois County, Illinois and Western Benton Southern Newton counties in Indiana. WGFA is owned and operated by Iroquois County Broadcasting Company.

WGFA AM/FM are Commercial Radio stations serving the Illiana region of 19 counties including and surrounding Iroquois County.

WGFA Radio seeks to serve the region we live in by providing comprehensive news, weather and sports coverage, significant Agri business coverage, music and other entertaining features. We provide these services 24/7 for every day of the year. As an important and resident media resource, we take the prosperity of this region we serve very seriously.

WGFA Radio, Illiana’s Choice 94.1FM and Talk 1360 AM, won 3 awards — including two top statewide honors — at the Illinois Broadcasters Association annual awards banquet held in June in Peoria.

The station captured honors for its creative commercial production as well as a first place award for Best Website, (www.WGFARadio.com), and another first-place award as the Best Local Broadcast Team (for the WGFA Breakfast Club).

The WGFA Breakfast Club can be heard weekday mornings from 6-10 and includes Justin Kaiser, Carl Gerdovich, Jenny Dombrowski, and Colleen Callahan, WGFA’s National Farm Broadcaster.

“This award is the culmination of many years of service to East Central Illinois and Northwest Indiana by WGFA’s experienced and committed on-air team,” said Maggie Martin, WGFA President and General Manager. “As individuals and as a team, they have consistently reached for the highest standards of radio broadcasting. The recognition accorded by the Illinois Broadcasters Association means so much to each one of us. I am so proud of this team and their well-deserved awards.”

WGFA stands for “World’s Greatest Farming Area”. FM 94.1 uses “Illiana’s Choice since 1961”. Our AM 1360 slogan is “Talk 1360”.

We invite everybody to join in the fun on our web site, www.wgfaradio.com . Here you can check out the regional Bulletin Board before scheduling your event – up to a year in advance. We also have a very active Trading Post and will shortly launch an on line paid Premium Trading Post where you can post everything from yard sales to many items that don’t qualify for the free Trading Post. We are having so much fun with the many members of The Breakfast Club, who regularly use the site and our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Former WGFA Broadcast Legends

Bob Bivins

Ron Hunt

Bill Bahler

Dick Martin

Don Ruth

Jay Bishop

Tell Us Your WGFA Radio Stories

We want to hear your best radio stories for the video series that we’re developing as a component of the WGFA Radio Heard Here campaign.  We’ve heard some really great stories about how WGFA has been a part of your life, but we still want to hear from you!

If you or someone you know has an interesting WGFA Radio story to tell we encourage you to submit it.  If you do, and we put it on our web-site, we’ll get you a WGFA Radio T-Shirt.

We’re looking for stories that would translate well to video.   Stories that are fun, interesting, exciting or touching. The stories may include on-air or behind-the-scenes personalities.

Upload the audio and video to one of the many sharing sites, or drop it off at the WGFA studios.  We’ll make selections from these submissions.  If you don’t have an audio or video camera, we’ll send a video crew out to shoot it for you.  You can post your audio or video at sites such as YouTube, Google Video, Viddler,  and Veoh.

To submit your nomination, upload the audio/video, then send an e-mail off of the form at our contact page with a link to that video.  In the e-mail please include the following:

  • Your name and contact information (e-mail/phone).
  • A few sentences outlining why you have sent this story or video.
  • If your video suggestion involves a charity drive or special event, please include the date.

Thanks in advance for helping us find the great WGFA radio stories that need to be told. And help us spread the word by sharing this with others and by encouraging others to tell radio’s great stories.