Covey, Cloutier Plan to Reunite

by Paul Ertelt
Published in the Post Star

They're all grown up, but Dave Covey and Pete Cloutier still like to rock 'n' roll.

After an 11-year hiatus, the local radio pioneers will be together again when oldies station WCKM hits the airwaves later this month

Cloutier and Covey, both 48, are reviving a partnership that began in a makeshift radio station in Covey's basement and lasted for nearly 18 years on legitimate radio.

"I'm not sure the world is ready for this," Covey joked about the comeback. "We are. We're ready for this."

WCKM, with offices and studios in downtown Glens Falls, will broadcast on 98.5 FM from a tower atop Prospect Mountain in Lake George. It will also simulcast over 900 AM out of Saratoga Springs, which is now a country station.

The station, with a target audience between the ages of 25 and 54, will fill a market gap created when one area oldies station went off the air and another changed formats, Covey said.

The new station, with the motto "Your One and Oldies" station, will play what Covey calls "foundation stuff- the roots of rock 'n' roll."

That means the hits of the '50's, '60's and early '70's. "Everything from the Crew Cuts to the Beach Boys to the Beatles to the Rolling Stones," he said.

The old songs will be interspersed with compatible new music, country and adult contemporary tunes, Covey said.

The station is owned by Covery and his partner William "Bud" Walker of Highland (Ulster County). But the key partnership will be Covey and Cloutier, who will host a morning show from 6 to 9 Monday through Friday.

Their first partnership began in 1964, when Covey set up his "pirate" station to broadcast the sounds of the British Invasion. The Federal Communications Commission shut down the station, but the next year Covey and Cloutier garnered a Saturday-night slot on WWSC. The show lasted for 18 years.

Covey worked his way up to station manager at WWSC, a job he left last June. Cloutier was promotions director at KB-100 until last month.

Though they have not broadcast together since the spring of 1983, Covey and Cloutier have had ties through other projects, like the video store they owned together in Hudson Falls. But they both dreamed of being on the air again as a team.

"This is something that we've always talked about," Cloutier said.

Some things do change, however. The high-tech broadcasting studio at 128 Glen St., with its bank of CD players, is a far cry from the cumbersome turntables and 45s of older days.

Covey and Cloutier have changed, too. Covey said the show will be a little more polished than their earlier efforts and include more "useful information," combining music with news times, local sports and short interviews.

But what hasn't changed, Covey insists, is the sense of fun that the two bring to their job.

Max hunter and Ken McGrail will be the station's other on-air personalities. Jim Scott will be news director.

"He's a radio veteran," Covey said of Scott. "He's been in broadcasting for 35 years, most of those years in the market."

Covey said the station will begin broadcasting next week or the following week.