Desperately Seeking Dave

Remember the children’s book “Where’s Waldo”? The last couple of weeks I’ve felt like I’ve been listening to a version of that on the radio, but instead of Waldo, I’ve been desperately seeking Dave.

For me, November means the Food Basket Brigade. The Basket Brigade got its start on KBTN radio years ago. KBTN became the sounding board for the need that many of us either didn't fully know about or didn't particularly want to acknowledge Dave Winegardner was at his best, perfectly in his element, when presenting the need and spurring us on as a community to ‘step up’ and feed the hungry.

Later, Dave Horvath embraced this cause and many others around Neosho as his own. Each newscast leading up to the Food Basket Brigade distribution day he would detail the families and individuals who had made monetary or food donations the previous day

We won't have that this year. We've lost the voice that KBTN news gave to Neosho.

What happened? How did we let this happen? Could anything have been done to stop it?
I had hoped it was just a vacation for Dave, then another week went by and no news…no Dave.

Months ago, KBTN radio was “temporarily” moved to Joplin when problems were found with its long-time building location. Dave’s new office was situated in what once was a storage closet. His equipment changed from two recording studios to two six-foot tables, a computer and a simple table-top phone.
Dave’s hours on the job expanded greatly with the move. The ease of covering various Neosho stories and the ability to flex his work day all changed with the Joplin move. Dave insisted on driving back and forth to and from Joplin, covering the Neosho stories that we all take for granted; logging work hours that would put a man half his age running for the nearest recliner and a chance to kick back.
Each one of us has causes and groups that we support here in Neosho. There‘s not one group in Neosho that has not benefit from Dave’s watchful eye and careful attention to detail. His single-handed effort to keep local Neosho news here at home has earned the respect and admiration of listeners all over the area.
That’s all changed.
I’m afraid we’ve lost our collective voice, and it seems that it may have been slipping away little by little. Just think, we no longer even have local radio election coverage. Without the daily news anchor, I’m not sure if there are any lunch menus for kids or senior citizen menus being broadcast.

Funny that the lunch menus matter to me, I never ate lunch at the senior center, but I did tell time by the routine announcements within each broadcast. When the menus were announced, I had better be pretty close to the office or it meant I was running late.

Having a local radio station that provided local news every morning, noon and evening was unique and made Neosho special. I doubt that I’m alone in missing this beloved part of the daily Neosho routine.