Celebrating its Third Anniversary, WGUY.LIVE Plays “Good Gospel Music – The Way It was Meant to be Heard.”

By Robert M. Marovich

One day about forty-five years ago, James Guy happened to be listening to the radio when he heard the calling.

Not a calling to preach, but a blessed calling, nevertheless.

“I was listening to southern gospel on WAAK at the time,” Guy, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, said. “This white man came on the radio saying if you would like to become a DJ at a gospel station, get in touch with him and he would teach you everything you need to know.”

Guy initially dismissed the announcer’s invitation as too good to be true, but the more the radio man persisted over the air, the more closely Guy listened. Finally Guy picked up the phone and called the station. “I went down to the radio station and I realized it was real. The man took me under his wing, and that’s how I started—in southern gospel.”

Today Guy, better known as G-MAN, owns his own Internet radio station, Charlotte’s WGUY.LIVE, which celebrated its three-year anniversary in June of this year.

Owning his own station was a dream some thirty years in the making, Guy said during a video interview, and when it finally came to pass, he knew it was divinely inspired. “Those call letters, WGUY, my last name, the Lord held this for me—all those years, nobody got it.”

While at WAAK, G-MAN learned the techniques of the radio trade. He even learned how to cue records while reading the Bible and giving Scripture over the air at the same time. His nickname G-MAN came from a listener who responded to a contest Guy initiated to find a suitable radio moniker. Guy treated the winner to dinner.

After a decade at WAAK, G-MAN was invited to join WGIV in Charlotte. There he was able to focus on Black gospel music, especially the gospel quartets he had grown up listening to. His “Early Morning Gospel” broadcast brought quartets and other gospel selections to the Charlotte airwaves every Sunday. He built listenership for “Early Morning Gospel” by attending area churches and informing their congregants about it. He advertised their church programs on his show. He also sold advertising for WGIV. “I put in the leg work,” he said.

Soon, G-MAN started to emcee gospel programs throughout the Charlotte area. As to which gospel artists he emceed over the decades, G-MAN smiled. “It’s better to ask me who I haven’t been with. I’ve never been on the stage with the Blind Boys.”

Despite his success on WGIV, G-MAN longed to have a radio station of his own. His vision for was to own a station that, he said, would “go back to the way things used to be, including ministries, quartet music.” After more than 25 years with WGIV, and with the station management’s blessing, G-MAN launched the Internet radio station WGUY.LIVE in 2023. He spent every cent of his $5,000 income tax refund on the license, the office, and the equipment. WGUY.LIVE broadcasts over the Internet 24/7, with listeners from as far away as Indonesia.

G-MAN’s “Early Morning Gospel” program still airs Sundays from 6 – 8 a.m., but now over WGUY.LIVE. He can still be found emceeing gospel programs throughout the area. When artists are in town for a program, G-MAN interviews them on his station. The tagline for “Early Morning Gospel”—the good gospel music, the way it was meant to be heard.”—could easily describe all the station’s programming.

“I wanted to go back to what people remembered,” G-MAN explained. “There’s so much music out there. A lot of people like to play the new stuff, but I think they lost focus on the songs that brought us to where we are today. That’s why I want to play the old quartets. The songs that got us over rough times. Like ‘I’m Still Holding On’ [Luther Barnes & the Red Budd Gospel Choir], when it comes on Sunday morning, the people respond: ‘God, I haven’t heard that in a long time. That song pulled me through a lot.’ Don’t get me wrong—I play new artists, too, but I play other stuff, also.” At its inaugural awards ceremony in 2022, the Quartet Music Awards honored G-MAN’s longevity on the air by naming him Announcer of the Year.

Despite his global reach, G-MAN hasn’t lost touch with the local listening community. “There are gentlemen who work on cars under the shade tree on Sunday morning,” he said. “They don’t go to church but their mothers did. When I stop at the store, one of them will hand me fifty dollars, say ‘My mama told me to give this to you. When she come on the radio, tell her we did the right thing!’ So I give her a shout out!”

Next year, after retiring from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, G-MAN intends to pursue gospel music full-time. He has plenty of plans for WGUY.LIVE, including one that hearkens back to his radio roots some forty-five years ago. “I want to get back into southern gospel. I think 60% of the people are not too familiar with southern gospel.”

He’s also inviting ministers to preach on WGUY.LIVE after 12 midnight. “There’s somebody who lost all their money gambling,” he explained. “There’s somebody trying to make it home. There’s somebody in distress. That word at two in the morning could save somebody.”

To tune in, visit https://WGUY.live/