WDEV adds PM Drive news block

[billohno@gmail.com]

In a time when local radio is local by a new definition - the automation 
and server are actually in the same building as the sales office - WDEV 
is going in a different direction.  They're adding a news block  from 
4-5:30 that mirrors their AM drive "Morning News Service" starting 
today.  Their Facebook post says, "This afternoon at 3:33, join genial 
Jack for the Afternoon News Service. News, sports, entertainment and 
more ... beginning at 3:55pm on WDEV AM 550 and FM 96.1, 96.5 & 101.9."

I find most of my radio listening is either WDEV for news and Sox, 
Norwich College hockey, and I listen to their classical sister WCVT at 
101.7 to wind down the day and for audio to match those trips over the 
gaps.

I still maintain that if you've never checked out (owner/operator) Ken 
Squire's Saturday morning legendary (9-ish to 10-ish) "Music To Go To 
the Dumb By" you may regret it someday - Squire's not getting any 
younger (although I pray he goes on for years) and I doubt the program 
could work without him.

I've posted about that show here before. I discovered something new 
about the show lately and it taking me 11 years to catch this is a 
humbling experience - There's a live-read for Vermont Life Magazine 
during "The Dump Show" as it's termed by most, even the air staff.  
Squire is always searching for the copy on live mic, especially for the 
"special toll-free number" that gets WDEV listeners a deep discount. As 
he's working it out with the producer he invariably puts off the phone 
number until the producer "can find it." It finally hit me that it must 
be an intentional technique that draws upon the reality that most people 
don't write down tel numbers when listening, esp. in cars.  It becomes 
two separate spots in the hour where later on the number is 'found' and 
read a number of times. He doesn't do that each week which is why it 
works, methinks.

So, whether an intentional method or the genuine fumbling of the host (I 
doubt that), it works. For radio geeks like us, we don't fall for stuff 
too easily. Clearly, Squire's a master. And his dry humor is 
two-hands-on-the-wheel funny. Especially with a load of trash on the way 
to the dump on a Saturday morning in Vermont.

Bill O'Neill