Ken Squire, 88, Died November 15, 2023

Ken Squire, who recently passed away, was well known in our area. He was the owner of WDEV Radio in Waterbury, and founder of Thunder Road Speedbowl race track in Barre, among other notable accomplishments. His familiar voice brought news and sports to a host of listeners, 550 on your dial, and on national broadcasting systems. He especially loved sportscasting, but he also had a great sense of humor. One of his regular shows was, "Music to Go to the Dump By" with his "co-host," his dog, Buster. 

A long-time friend, former Joe's Pond summer resident and one of the founders of the Joe's Pond Ice-Out Contest, the late Don Walker, used to call the station with regular ice reports when Ken was on the air, and the banter between the two men over weather conditions and how thick (or thin) the ice on Joe's Pond was, kept people entertained and updated on our Ice-Out Contest every year. Ken referred to Don as "the Joe's Pond Iceologist," or "Mr. Ice Out" and their conversations were always amusing, with lots of good-natured kidding between the two of them. Those of us old enough to remember those conversations miss them. They were silly, but effective, and lots of Ice-Out tickets were sold as a result of their banter.

It is sad that both Don and Ken are now gone. But as expected, life goes on. WDEV still has a special place in the daily life of many people with reliable new voices bringing familiar shows each day; and Don's eldest daughter, Shelly, is part of the committee that keeps the Joe's Pond Ice-Out Contest running smoothly each year.

I hope you will take the time to read the article about Ken published by VTDigger

Today has been an undeniably raw November sort of day. We started out with a misty rain this morning and some fog, but none of that lasted. The sun never really made it through the clouds, and temperatures remained in the low 30s. Tonight, at 6 p.m., I'm seeing 25.3F on my weather station. There's still a little wind, but it isn't very strong -- just annoying cold. I expect we'll have snow overnight - and certainly in the next couple of days. I heard on WCAX this noon that the forecast is for 2-3 inches possible "in the higher elevations."

We have only a few days left until Thanksgiving, and then the rush begins in earnest to prepare for the next big holiday combo, Christmas and New Year's. I am not quite ready to accept that Thanksgiving is already here. I don't want to even think about Christmas yet. I was really surprised about a week ago when I turned on my car radio and they were playing Christmas music! I stayed on that station thinking it was probably going to be just one or two Christmas tunes, but that was it! Just Christmas music. Old favorites jazzed up and played in the most ridiculous and unappealing ways I've ever heard, and I didn't recognize any of the vocalists that shrilled and ground out unintelligible lyrics at me. When some rapper did "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" I could at least recognize the tune, but the background noise was over the top and I turned to another station. I know - I'm an old fogey. But darn it, in a world filled with so much chaos, I want it to be soothing and traditional, and there are great new artists who can achieve that. Give the music a little modernizing if you must, but I want to be able to recognize the tune and please don't scream lyrics at me; then I really don't mind hearing Christmas music way before Thanksgiving. Here's one of my favorite Christmas fun tunes: White Christmas.