HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — WHTC’s morning and midday host, Gary Stevens, whose off-air name is Gary Ratski, marks 20 years on the air at WHTC next week. He’s been hosting the morning news show for five years, and the station’s legacy show, Talk of the Town, since 2019.
On Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, Holland City Council honored the morning and midday radio host with a resolution declaring his actually anniversary date, Oct. 15, 2021, “Gary Ratski Day” in Holland. See our photo gallery: whtc.com/pictures
The resolution was supposed to be a surprise, but Ratski is a curious cat. He looked at city council’s agenda to see just why he was being summoned to a council meeting. City council agendas and packets are public record and the resolution was, well, right there. He brought his wife, Holly, and mother-in-law, Pat Duimstra, along — they’d been invited by station officials, but said afterward attending as a family was much easier.
What he didn’t expect is seeing a few coworkers in the council audience: Patty Vandenberg, who hosts “What’s New Around Holland” during Talk of the Town on weekdays, and celebrates her 42nd year at the station this month; their boss, WHTC and 927 The Van’s Market Manager Kevin Oswald, has been with the station for 35 of his 37 years in radio.
Longevity is a bit of a hallmark at WHTC, a station which started broadcasting in 1948. It’s also a big deal in radio, where some people change jobs about every three years or so. During his time so far at WHTC, Stevens’ work has garnered such honors as the Michigan Association of Broadcasters’ 2011 Best in Category for Broadcast Excellence award, which honors exceptional content, presentation, and production in radio programming for his May 5, 2010, tribute to Ernie Harwell won. It’s one of four such MAB awards earned during his WHTC career. So far.
He spent a lot of time at Tiger Stadium while growing up in Detroit and as a professional sports broadcaster. During a stint in 1975 as junior usher at the famous ballpark at Michigan and Trumbull in Detroit, he made friends with Ernie Harwell, the legendary “Voice of the Tigers.”
The two stayed in touch for the rest of Harwell’s life, even after Stevens’s on-air career took him from Detroit to Saginaw, Lansing, and then to Holland.
He’s just the fourth host in Talk of the Town’s 62-year history, following Ed Ver Schure, and has the second-longest tenure as host, continuing the premise set by founding host Bill Gargano in 1959, and brought forth by long-time host Juke Van Oss, to create lively broadcast with a feeling with listeners that he and callers are chatting over the fence, as neighbors do.
Comments