S1532 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 28, 2006 The bill addresses protections for cer- Eric Michaels, Radio Vermont’s gen- lived in WDEV’s broadcast area (which ex- tain so-called isolated streams and eral manager and vice-president, every tends south to Route 4 and north nearly to wetlands in the wake of the Supreme month during his daily morning show. the Canadian border) to listen to the station for even a few hours without hearing the Court’s 2001 decision in Solid Waste The connection that WDEV and the voice of someone the listener knows. It Agency of Northern Cook County v. voices it carries have to the commu- might be Dan DiLena reading his menu from Army Corps of Engineers and will help nity is as distinctive and unique as the Red Kettle in Northfield or Ben Koenig to ward off any future legal challenges Vermont is to our country. of the Country Bookshop in Plainfield sing- to the scope of the act. Vermont Life recently published a ing about his store in a hokey Caribbean ac- Our Nation’s streams, ponds, isolated well-crafted piece, ‘‘Community Radio cent. It might be Ed from Morrisville, wetlands, and other bodies of water are Speaks,’’ featuring the history and phoning in to ‘‘The Trading Post’’ at 6:30 too important to not take action to highlights of WDEV’s 75 years on the a.m. to sell an old-fashioned grinding wheel and a prickly pear cactus. It might be a protect them. We owe future genera- air. birthday wish going out to someone the lis- tions nothing less than healthy waters. I join my fellow Vermonters in con- tener works with. Or a caller to any one of f gratulating Ken, Eric, and all the peo- the talk shows: ‘‘The Mark Johnson Show,’’ ple who, in 75 successful years, have WDEV: SOUNDS LIKE HOME Morrow’s ‘‘True North’’ or progressive activ- made WDEV a station with a true ist Anthony Pollina’s ‘‘Equal Time.’’ If you Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, 2006 touch for its Vermont audience. listen to WDEV long enough you will get a marks the 75th anniversary of a true I ask unanimous consent the article sense of what your neighbors are doing and Vermont treasure. Locally owned and be printed in the RECORD. thinking. Which is a pretty good way to not operated, WDEV of Waterbury, VT, There being no objection, the mate- only define community but to keep it alive and well. first came to the airwaves on July 16, rial was ordered to be printed in the At the heart of this rich local stew is the 1931. Its continuing and expanded pres- RECORD, as follows: station owner and president, Kenley Dean ence in Central Vermont and the [From Vermont Life, Spring 2006] Squier, who, at 70, has made a national name Champlain Valley ever since then is a for himself (and was part of two Emmy- COMMUNITY RADIO SPEAKS rare and stellar example these days of award winning broadcast teams) as a tele- (By Marialisa Calta) the invaluable resources that inde- vision broadcaster covering stock-car racing ‘‘Rural radio is important to people,’’ in- and other sports for CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN, pendent, community-based media can tones Eric Michaels in his mellifluous radio- offer. Fox, Turner Broadcasting and the Speed announcer’s voice. He is taking a break from Channel, among others. Squier is a walking WDEV station owner and President his duties as on-the-road producer of WDEV’s conundrum, a serious fan of jazz and clas- Ken Squier took the reins of WDEV ‘‘Music to Go to the Dump By,’’ broad- sical music with a deep background in the from his parents, Guila and Lloyd, who casting, on this particular Saturday in Sep- auto racing world of NASCAR. He is a man first operated the station at the same tember, from the Tunbridge World’s Fair. equally at home interviewing, say, Governor time my own parents were operating a ‘‘We feel that if we are out in the commu- Jim Douglas about fuel shortages or health small Waterbury newspaper nearby, nity, working hard, people will know us and care or hosting ‘‘Music to Go to the Dump and his parents and mine were friends. respect us. We take our work very seri- By,’’ and reading advertising copy (includ- ously.’’ A cow in a nearby 4–H exhibit moos If things had gone differently Ken and ing, full disclosure, an ad for this magazine, loudly, and Michaels, fiddling with his equip- a sponsor). He employs an enormous—by cor- I might have had a media conglom- ment, sends a song over the airwaves, a porately held radio standards—staff of more erate in the making. Growing up in the country-western tune called ‘‘I Don’t Look than 30 yet he is famously cheap; Bryan station’s studios, Ken’s life was steeped Good Naked Anymore.’’ Pfeiffer, who cohosts ‘‘For the Birds,’’ (a in the culture and the craft of commu- There, in a nutshell, is the contradiction— show about birding), loves to joke about the nity radio. He understood WDEV’s role and the strength—of WDEV, which cele- single light bulb that Squier allows, the bulb in community life, and when he as- brates 75 years of broadcasting from Stowe that all the broadcasters purportedly have to Street in Waterbury this July. Smart local sumed operation of the station, his ap- share, unscrewing it from one broadcast commentary is mixed with ridiculous tunes. booth and taking it to another. proach to community-based program- Conservative local pundit Laurie Morrow’s It is not unusual for Squier, in a single ming became the foundation of the sta- show, ‘‘True North,’’ broadcasting an hour or broadcast, to support the death penalty, tion’s lineup. Today the residents of two before nationally known liberal icon criticize the Bush administration and ful- Waterbury and its surrounding commu- Amy Goodman’s ‘‘Democracy Now.’’ Patsy minate about the rise of corporate monopo- nities turn the dial to WDEV to find Kline, the Texas Tuba Band, stock car racing lies. His station may broadcast conservative everything from a trading post to buy from Barre’s Thunder Road and Harwood Ann Coulter and independent Congressman and sell their goods and treasures, to Union High School boy’s basketball share Bernie Sanders in the same morning. ‘‘It’s as airspace with Miles Davis, Red Sox baseball, such off-beat program offerings as if Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken shared a state legislative reports and Mozart. brain,’’ wrote McKibben. ‘‘Music to Go to the Dump By.’’ WDEV It’s the place on the dial (550 AM, 96.1 FM ‘‘His watchword is ‘relevant,’’’ says Mark is the place to go for everything from and 96.5 FM) where a Vermonter can tune in Johnson, who has been hosting a two-hour local news to high school sports to for the Dow Jones average of the milk prices. weekday call-in show on the station since school closings. It has become a vital Where the Associated Press delivers news 1998. ‘‘It’s all about what’s meaningful to the source of news, information and enter- from the world, and Bethany Dunbar, an edi- community.’’ tainment to its devoted audience. tor at The Barton Chronicle, delivers the And you can describe ‘‘meaningful’’ in dif- WDEV is an authentic piece of the news from the Northeast Kingdom. ferent ways. The All Men’s Moscow Marching A listener whose normal fare comes from Transistor Radio Band, for example, depends Vermont that we cherish. ‘‘dedicated’’ channels—all-sports, all-talk, on WDEV to provide music for its parade up Under Ken’s guidance and initiative, all-country-music, all-jazz—and who acci- the main street of the village of Moscow WDEV has broadened its scope, becom- dentally tuned in to WDEV might find the every July 4th. Farmers depend on weather- ing the anchor for the Radio Vermont station bewildering, if not downright schizo- man Roger Hill’s forecasts for haying. Kids Group, which now operates stations de- phrenic. But, as Middlebury College pro- tune in on snowy mornings to hear about voted to classical and country music, fessor and author Bill McKibben points out, school closings. Representative Sanders re- as well as news, sports and community the hodgepodge of views, opinion, musical calls that once, when he was on the air, a events. It has taken to the web, where styles, reports (sports, business, agriculture, station newscaster interrupted him to in- politics, news) pretty much reflects the form listeners about an accident on Main WDEV now streams two of its most hodgepodge of views, opinion, musical tastes Street in Waterbury. popular morning news programs, ‘‘The and interests that make up the average Squier was born to radio; for Christmas Morning News Service’’ and ‘‘The Mark Vermont community. 1935, his parents Guila and Lloyd Squier Johnson Show.’’ McKibben, who included WDEV in a story (then the program director) sent out a holi- Ken has shepherded WDEV through about the virtues of a life lived on a small day card depicting the infant Ken in front of the years with his acute sensitivity to scale that he wrote for Harper’s Magazine a set of building blocks spelling out the call the local perspective. I have always en- two years ago, said that when you listen to letters WDEV. The station itself was only joyed stopping in to the station for a the station ‘‘you hear . . . things that other four years old, having been started in 1931 by people are interested in. Which is pretty the visionary Harry Whitehill, owner and op- quick chat, or greeting Ken and the much the definition of community.’’ erator of the Waterbury Record and the station’s longtime personalities at You also hear—and this may be WDEV’s Stowe Journal. Whitehill was a man of many local events, from parades to political genius—the actual voices of the community. trades; he sold stationary, pens and ink, rallies. I look forward to chatting with It is nearly impossible for anyone who has party gods and wrapping paper from his

VerDate Aug 31 2005 02:44 Mar 01, 2006 Jkt 049060 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G28FE6.035 S28FEPT1 jcorcoran on PROD1PC62 with SENATE February 28, 2006 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1533 newspaper headquarters at 9 Stowe Street in games, Norwich University hockey, local tus of a program, and the gauge of the Waterbury. He was also Vermont’s Collector motor sports events, Red Sox games and Mayor on any issue that any member of Customs, an active post during Prohibi- Mountaineers baseball—WDEV has pioneered of the DC Appropriations Sub- tion and a job that brought him frequently ‘‘sporting events’’ that have become commu- committee could ask for. to St. Albans. In 1929, Whitehill heard nity institutions: the Winter Croquet Tour- Vermont’s first commercial radio station, nament, Opening Day at the ABCD Deer Gregory McCarthy exemplifies the WDQM, there, and, reasoning that ‘‘more Camp, Opening Day at Perch Camp (an ice- public service that fuels a government people can hear than can read,’’ he returned fishing extravaganza), the State Agency of which serves the people. It is this type to his newspaper to proclaim: ‘‘We need a Transportation Snow Plow Championships of public service that benefits students radio station.’’ ‘‘Radio was big city . . . and the Joe’s Pond Ice Out competition, to in the District of Columbia especially. worldly stuff,’’ writes Squier, who chronicled name a few. Through Gregory’s hard work, he navi- the birth of the station in an unpublished There is no doubt in this era of corporately gated the strong and varying positions history of WDEV. On July 16, 1931, the dulcet owned radio stations that a locally owned of Members of Congress and local offi- tones of Miss Kate Lyons of Waterbury Cen- station like WDEV and its Radio Vermont ter singing ‘‘The Rose in the Garden’’ were affiliates (WLVB–FM in Morrisville, a coun- cials in order to create the first feder- sent over the airwaves, marking the sta- try station, and WCVT–FM, a classical music ally sponsored, private school voucher tion’s official launch. The antenna was a station in Stowe) are anomalies. program. While I have been a tough copper wire strung from the newspaper office An analogy can be made, in fact, between critic of the program, I have always to a nearby funeral parlor. the physical landscape and the aural land- said that Gregory and the city rep- It was a glorious venture, an opportunity, scape of Vermont. Think of corporate-owned resented the District’s constituents as U.S. Senator Warren R. Austin put it, ‘‘to stations—what Mark Johnson calls ‘‘elec- well by seeking more school options, sell a cow or an idea, quickly to a great num- tronic jukeboxes’’—as sprawl. Public radio is and through their tireless discussion ber of people.’’ The engineer for that first analogous to state parks and land in con- broadcast was 28-year-old Lloyd Squier, the servation trusts. WDEV is analogous to the and debate came a program that sup- son of the Whitehills’’ housekeeper. The working landscape. Like tractors and ma- ports traditional public schools and young Squier (now known as ‘‘The Old nure pits, it’s not always pretty. But it’s public charter schools, as well as pri- Squier’’ and frequently heard on the station real. And it’s distinctive. vate school scholarships. Gregory’s ef- via old recordings) soon moved up to pro- ‘‘It’s a station that understands the com- forts to improve education for District gram director responsible for an entire hour munity and understands what the real issues residents have not been limited to ele- of airtime a day. Fred Somers & Sons Hard- are,’’ says Congressman Sanders. He has held ware (still on Main Street in Montpelier) was mentary and secondary alternatives. hearings on the recent trends in communica- Similarly, he has worked to authorize an early sponsor. tion law that enable large media conglom- Within a year, the station was broad- erates to own large numbers of stations. and fund college grants for more than casting local sports, legislative hearings and ‘‘Local ownership of media is increasingly 8,000 DC residents so that those who other events of note. By 1936, the WDEV of- important and increasingly rare,’’ he said in wish to pursue a degree of higher edu- fices were a ‘‘mini-media Mecca’’ according a telephone interview. ‘‘When it goes, some- cation may see their dreams become a to Ken Squier, complete with Western Union, thing valuable is lost.’’ New England Telephone and Telegraph Co., reality. Loyal listeners would say that ‘‘some- the radio station and the newspapers all Gregory McCarthy shepherded these thing’’ is a piece of Vermont. under the same roof. ‘‘Because of radio, peo- and numerous other programs through ple can live among the most beautiful hills f a frequently arduous District of Colum- on earth, our own Vermont hills, and yet in HONORING GREGORY McCARTHY’S bia appropriations process. The resi- an instant feel the pulse of world affairs by SERVICE TO THE DISTRICT dents of the District have benefited simply turning a switch,’’ said then-Lieuten- greatly from his years of public serv- ant Governor George Aiken in dedicating a Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, when ice. When the year 2006 draws to an new tower and transmitter that year. I began serving on the Senate Appro- Nowadays, what makes WDEV stand out is end, a new mayor will be elected and a priations Subcommittee on the Dis- new staff of dedicated public servants not that it brings us world news, but that— trict of Columbia in January of 2001, unlike the huge networks of radio stations will work to improve this great city. my knowledge of the city’s relation- fed formatted shows from a remote central As this new crew weaves their way location—it brings us the local happenings. ship with Congress was limited to through charted and uncharted terri- The staff, on any given day, might be broad- someone who had lived here for only a tories, they will build on the positive casting from a State House hearing, the few years. I quickly learned, however, relationships that Mayor Williams, opening of the Farm Show or a county fair, not only the workings of the com- Gregory McCarthy, and other members a race at Thunder Road (which Ken Squier mittee, but also the unique relation- co-owns), a high school hockey game, a rib- of the Mayor’s staff have worked so ship between the District of Columbia hard to create. As Mr. McCarthy leaves bon-cutting at a local lumber store or from and the Congress. One of the first peo- a phone booth in downtown Montpelier, as the District of Columbia government ple who helped me learn of this rela- Michaels did during the flood of 1992. (Mi- for his next challenge, I offer him my chael’s phoned-in report—replete with opera- tionship and how to best serve the Dis- congratulations and best wishes. From tor’s request for additional coins—aired on trict was the energetic, dedicated chief my own experience in working with the morning of the flood when the rising wa- advocate for DC Mayor Anthony Wil- him, I know that Gregory will succeed ters prevented him from getting through the liams, Mr. Gregory McCarthy. in whatever he pursues next. city). Events like the flood, in fact, under- Behind all of the big ideas, the hours score the station’s importance; Squier en- of debate and the finely cut deals, f listed every employee—from the news staff there is the staff. The staff must work ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS to the sales reps—as reporters that day. The payoff came when then-Governor Howard the long hours to merge the big ideas and the little details into policy and Dean, asked at a press conference how he NEW YORK YMCAS was keeping abreast of flood news, answered legislation that achieves the goals set that he had been listening to WDEV. forth by their boss. Gregory McCarthy ∑ Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I Another of the station’s strengths is the was an exemplary staffer who did all of would like to take this opportunity to number of unforgettable radio personalities this and more. Gregory has worked recognize the excellent work New York who have taken on larger-than-life charac- tirelessly on behalf of the Nation’s YMCAs are doing to build healthier teristics in listeners’ minds: Buster the Won- Capital to create policy that benefited communities. They are taking impor- der Dog (Squier’s own border collie); the sta- tion’s country band, the Radio Rangers; the city, met the needs of the elected tant steps to address health problems, Farmer Dave; the Old Squier; Ma Ferguson; officials of the District of Columbia, such as obesity, smoking, and physical Glen Plaid; Seymour Clearly and Spike the and satisfied the oversight function of inactivity, by participating in the Pio- Cat. Past and current broadcasters—the late the Congress. While working in the neering Healthier Communities ‘‘Cousin Harold’’ Grout (who hosted ‘‘The Mayor’s Office, he helped build the Project, Gulick Project, YMCA Trading Post’’ for at least 30 years), the late credibility of the city, from the Halls Healthy Kids Day, and Steps to a Rusty Parker (who suffered a fatal heart at- of Congress, to the many visitors to HealthierUS partnership. These tack in 1982 while broadcasting the morning the capital city, to the bond rating projects are part of the initiative, news) and many more—seem like old friends to regular listeners. agencies. And all the while, Gregory YMCA Activate America, whose goal is In addition to sports of local interest—70 served as the best source for a history to promote healthy living among mil- local high school basketball and hockey lesson on the District, the current sta- lions of Americans.

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