Peter Petersen, long-time host of Toledo’s German-American Hour radio show, has elected to retire after a 33-year career.

During that time, Petersen has served as the “Voice of the German-American Festival,” and he was familiar on radio commercials asking everyone to “Bring a Guest and come to the Fest!”  His last program aired Aug. 28.

New hosts of the program will be Jack Renz and Tim Pecsenye, both of whom are active in the Toledo German-American community and beyond.

Renz, a school principal, dances with the Holzhacker Buam Schuhplattler Bavarian dancers and can be seen on the Glockenspiel at the annual German-American Festival. He also serves as chairman of the festival marketing committee and a member of the GBU and Toledo Schwaben Verein.

Pecsenye serves as the chairman of the German-American Festival, president of the Teutonia Männerchor, Toledo’s oldest continuing performance arts organization, and a member of the GBU. He has served as national president of the Nord-Amerikanischer Sängerbund (North American Singers’ Association) and its Central-Ohio Singers’ District. Both are organizations made up of German choruses. Both Renz and Pecsenye are Trustees of the G.A.F. Society.

Petersen approached the two future hosts because he saw in them a passion for the German community and the need to carry on a long tradition carried on by the late Heinz Kretschmer, who took over the program from 1950’s Detroit-based based announcer who began the program a decade earlier, he said.

The German-American Hour includes all genres of German, Swiss and Austrian music from previous times to today’s hits. Announcements of events in the German and Swiss community are aired.

The show can be heard each Sunday between 9 and 10 a.m. on WCWA-AM 1230. It is also streamed over the Internet at www.1230foxsports.com.

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