Groton’s McCracken garners a prestigious Gracie Award

To many members of the Groton community, Kat (Walters) McCracken may be known as a member of the Groton American Legion Carrington-Fuller Post 800 Auxiliary, or the wife of Gary McCracken, who is the commander of Post 800’s Sons of the American Legion, or perhaps the mother of Groton Jr./Sr. High School eighth-grader Tristan McCracken. But to many others, Kat is widely known as the on-air personality of The Working Stiff Show and program director for the Cayuga Radio Group’s I-100 radio station.

Kat’s work with I-100 recently earned her one of the industry’s prestigious Gracie Awards. Named for the television and radio hall of famer, Gracie Allen (of the Burns and Allen Show), this award, which is sponsored by the Alliance for Women in Media, recognizes exemplary programming created by women in the media and entertainment industry.

Nominated by the president and general manager of Cayuga Radio Group (CRG), Chet Osadchey, Kat had no idea that she had been nominated, let alone that the award was coming her way, until a few weeks ago.

“On Wednesday, March 27, all the CRG employees received an email about an impromptu staff meeting that was to happen the next day,” Kat said. “The email said there would be pizza afterwards, so we at least knew it wasn’t bad news, but we had no idea why it was happening. When we all gathered, the announcement was made, and they gave me beautiful flowers. It was very touching, and I am still in awe.”

Kat explained that there are several levels of Gracie Awards (the Gracies) that include national awardees as well as local awardees in various categories. Kat’s award is in small market radio — local. For those interested, a full list of 2024 winners, which is the 49th year for the Gracies, may be found at https://allwomeninmedia.org/gracies/award-winners.

Now with 21 years of radio experience under her belt, Kat did not have even a remote thought about such a career as she navigated her way through her youth.

Born in Port Richey, Florida, Kat moved with her parents, Thomas and Evelyn Walters, to Wading River, Long Island when she was one year old. Along with her siblings, Tommy, Michael and Linda, Kat attended Riverhead High School.

In high school, Kat played volleyball and sang in chorus, which she excelled at. Thus, her initial idea after her graduation in 1998 was to pursue music at the Crane School at SUNY Potsdam.

“Once I got to Potsdam, I changed my mind,” Kat said. “I didn’t know what career path to choose. I took a lot of music courses and other courses, including French, and explored many options. I even went to Tunisia and Morocco as part of my French course. In my last year of college, I started working at an NPR [National Public Radio] affiliate, NCPR [North Country Public Radio], in Canton because a friend who worked there suggested I apply. I was doing board operations and announcing and truly enjoyed it.”

In 2004, Kat graduated with her bachelor’s degree in speech communication and rhetoric, and she remained at NCPR working full-time for the next three years. At that juncture, a commercial radio opportunity presented itself to Kat, and she began working at that part-time while still at NCPR.

“It wasn’t much later that I was offered a full-time position there in Massena, which I took,” Kat said. “I was assisting in running three different radio stations for the next year, and I gained a ton of experience, but I was missing my family and wanted to move closer to Long Island, so I started looking for other jobs.”

As it turned out, Kat was offered two jobs very quickly — one in Utica, New York, and the other at I-100, which was then in Cortland. Kat’s sister had attended Cortland State, so Cortland seemed familiar to Kat. On that basis, that was the job she accepted.

“At that point, I thought I would just gain more experience and move on to a larger market,” Kat said, “but then I met Gary.”  

Gary and his dad, Gary Sr., have owned their business, Main Street Auto Repair in Cortland, since 2005, and it was in 2006 that Gary was introduced to Kat by a friend.

“Gary would cat-sit for my cats, Darcy and Kittles, so I would take him out for lunch or dinner to thank him,” Kat said. “One day, Gary invited me to dinner at Fabio’s in Cortland, so I knew that was big! We officially started dating in July 2007 and never looked back!”

During that time, I-100 had been purchased by Saga Communications and relocated to its current home on Hanshaw Road in Ithaca. With Gary working in Cortland and Kat in Ithaca, they thought Groton was a great middle ground, and they purchased their home in February 2008, where they still live today.

“We thought Groton was perfect then, and we still do,” Kat said. “I love it here! We were married right in the gazebo by the town hall May 15, 2009, and had our reception right at the Legion. We did have a larger church wedding and reception that August, so we kind of got married twice!”

Also in 2009, Kat explained that some downsizing at the radio station occurred. She had been co-hosting the morning show with Mark Vanness, but then became the solo host in the mornings, with syndicated programming for the remainder of the day.

Since 2016, the morning show became the syndicated “Bob and Tom Show,” and Kat became I-100’s program director/brand manager and created her popular “Working Stiff Show,”for which she is live on the air from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, Monday through Saturday. She said her favorite thing is the “5 O’clock Free for All” that she does “because the listeners pick the songs on Facebook based on a theme and it’s so much fun!”

In addition, Kat took on the program director/brand manager duties for the Ithaca station 96.7 The Vine around 2017 and is also the imaging voice (sometimes called the big voice) for easy FM formats in over a dozen markets for Saga Communications. In the midst of all that, Kat also taught Broadcast Operations and Audio Production I at Tompkins Cortland Community College from 2009-2021.

Kat is very proud of her accomplishments, but one of her proudest moments was July 13, 2010, when her son, Tristan, was born — on the anniversary of Gary’s and her first date in 2007! Tristan is quite involved in things in Groton himself as a three-sport athlete in soccer, baseball and basketball; playing trumpet in band; and acting in school plays — most recently in the production of “Hello, Dolly!”

Both Kat and Tristan are very involved in helping Gary with events for the Sons of the American Legion. Kat plays guitar and writes music, and Gary also plays guitar. They started a band in 2023 with their friends, Tracy Thompson and Chris Hall, which they named “The High Road,” and they enjoy playing gigs at Groton Olde Home Days, Summerhill Brewery, Homer Hops and Arts Off Main in Cortland.

“I love Groton, and I love my life and job,” Kat said. “It will be 18 years this August that I will be with I-100. It is such an honor to be receiving recognition from the Alliance for Women in Media with a Gracie Award. It is a true testament of hard work, dedication and love of my craft.”

Groton on the Inside appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Submit story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com or text or call Linda at 607-227-4922. 

In brief:

Lasagna in McLean

The McLean Community Church, 50 Church St., will serve a lasagna dinner from 4 to 6 p.m., Saturday, April 13. The $15 per person meal will include meat lasagna, garlic toast, tossed salad, chocolate and vanilla pudding parfait and beverage. Please enter through the parking lot. Take-out meals will also be available.

Spaghetti supper

The Groton City United Church of Christ, 47 Groton City Rd., will hold one of its famous spaghetti suppers on Saturday, April 20 from 4 p.m. until gone. The supper includes great spaghetti, tossed salad, bread, beverage and dessert. Cost is a freewill offering and will benefit the fuel fund. The church is handicapped-accessible, and all are welcome. 

Library news

The annual meeting of the Friends of the Groton Public Library (GPL) will be held on Tuesday, April 23 at 6 p.m. This meeting is open to the public.

The annual meeting of the GPL Board of Trustees will be held on Tuesday, April 23, and is open to the public. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. The polls open at 7:30 p.m. for trustee elections and budget vote, with polls closing at 8 p.m.

The GPL Book Club with author visit and reading will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 18. The current book is “On the Homefront” by Barb Warner Deane. The library has a few copies available to check out. Come and hear this historical program on American women with Barb!

For more information call 607-898-5055 or email director@grotonpubliclibrary.org.