A radio company formed when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing the rights of private sector employees to organize into trade unions; and Nazi Germany’s rise in power accelerated has decided to sell its properties in the Green Mountain State.
The year was 1935, and that’s when WDEV-AM 550 in Waterbury, Vt., was acquired by the Squier Family’s Radio Vermont.
Lloyd Squier owned the station until his death in 1979. His son, NASCAR broadcaster Ken Squier, inherited WDEV-AM. Under the younger Squier, Radio Vermont expanded in 1991 with the acquisition of WDEV-FM 96.1 (then WDOT) in Warren, Vt. This serves as a simulcast partner for WDEV-AM. That year also saw the arrival of WLVB-FM 93.9 in Morrisville, Vt.
At the end of 2012, Radio Vermont added WEXP-FM 101.5 in Brandon, Vt., and simulcast partner WCVT-FM 101.7 in Stowe, Vt., which it has owned since the late 1990s.
Most recently, Radio Vermont added three translators: W243AT at 96.5 MHz in Barre; W273AM at 102.5 MHz in Montpelier; and W252CU at 98.3 MHz in Montpelier.
Now, all of the stations are on the trading block, and Richard A. Foreman Associates (RAFAMEDIA) has been contracted as Radio Vermont’s exclusive broker as the search for a buyer begins.
“We are so very proud to serve Ken Squier and his family in the sale of the stations,” Foreman said. “We look forward to bringing the stations to the next ownership phase of this historic broadcasting company.”
Foreman did not give a reason for the Squier family’s decision to exit broadcast radio ownership. He also did not offer an estimated value of the stations.
Word of the sale first surfaced on June 23, with a Rutland Herald report noting that Squier hoped to find a local buyer “who would maintain the integrity and quality of the stations after the sale.” Squier noted that the process “could take some time to complete.”
“What am I going to do for music to go to the dump by?” quipped Sen. Patrick Leahy in an interview with the newspaper.
That’s because WDEV-AM & FM airs a weekly program in the 9am hour Saturdays called “Music To Go To The Dump By.” It’s hosted by Squier himself, and is described as a show offering “his unique take on everything happening from around the state of Vermont.”
Squier is joined each week by “Farmer Dave,” a Waterbury farmer who is vocal about his political opinions, which are quite unique, and semi-retired Vermont Association of Broacasters Hall of Famer Jack Donovan.
