By Shay Lelonek / News Director

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Granite City Radio Theatre (GCRT) has announced its new producer and host for its show.

The previous host, Jay Terry, retired from the show following the 13th season in the spring of 2025. Now, Lee Adams, who has been involved with GCRT since the beginning of the show, is taking over.

“It’s big shoes to fill,” Adams said. “He’s a very funny man and … it’s going to be a little tough to step into that role.”

GCRT is a long-running radio show that airs live on KVSC and is performed in front of a live audience at the Pioneer Place on Fifth in downtown St. Cloud. The show features music performances, comedy sketches, old-time radio drama, and a trivia contest.

In previous years, GCRT would put on four shows a year. However, this year, there will only be three shows. Shows will be in October, March, and May, Adams said.

Adams has been involved with Granite City Radio Theatre since the beginning of the show as a member of Shades Brigade, a group that performs radio drama episodes on GCRT. Shades Brigade includes 30-minute episodes during the two-hour-long GCRT program.

“It’s more than doing a show. It’s also tons of people that I have gotten to know,” Adams told KVSC during a phone call on Friday, Aug. 29.

Adams grew up in Boston, New York. He got into acting when he started at Boston Youth Theater, a professional theater company that worked with young people. He auditioned for a show, and that’s where his theater career started.

“I got cast, and I immediately fell in love with theater. I mean, it’s where all my energy went,” Adams said. “I might be incarcerated or dead if it wasn’t for theater.”

From there, Adams dropped out of high school. He worked construction during the day and did theater at night. Through the 1980s, he worked in a lot of media companies, did professional stand-up, and even wrote for other stand-ups and did an improv group.

In 1989, Adams opened a theater company in Minnesota called Mystery Cafe after his wife and her parents convinced him to.

Mystery Cafe is a murder mystery, comedy, and dinner theater company.

“I like [Minnesota]. People are kind, and for the most part, accepting. And you can be who you want to be here more than most places,” Adams said. “I think people are just cooler here.”

When Terry announced that he was stepping down from the role, several people who were involved in GCRT approached Adams about taking over. He then went through two interviews before KVSC’s Station Manager, Dan Seeger, offered him the job.

“I’ve been part of [GCRT] for a long time, so I think it makes the transition for everyone else a bit easier,” Adams said.

The 14th season, hosted by Adams, begins this fall, with the first episode on Wednesday, Oct. 29.