Kenneth Steven Devoe – 50th Reunion Essay

Kenneth Steven Devoe

26 West Helen Street

Hamden, CT 6514

kendevoe@comcast.net

203-314-9732

Spouse(s): Cindy (1981)

Child(ren): Lucas (1987)

Grandchild(ren): Finley (2012); Ellison (2017)

Education: Yale, BA in American Studies, 1969

Career: Freelance copywriter since 1984 with my own business, The Media Tree. Before that, copywriter at Sound Concepts (1978-84). Before that, Radio personality, program director and production director at radio stations in New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport CT

Avocations: High school basketball referee in New Haven County since 1999

College: Saybrook

Just about everything good that’s happened in my life just happened. I take no credit for any of it. Most resulted from my days at Yale—in particular, at WYBC. When I came to Yale I had no clue what I wanted to do after Yale. But during my freshman year, I discovered something I’d never heard before: college radio. I heard students doing play-by-play of a Yale football game and I wanted in. I joined WYBC and became the radio equivalent of a gym rat. I broadcast Yale basketball games. I did every show I possibly could on the AM and FM. I spent hours teaching myself how to write and produce radio commercials. I sought a part-time job as a rock jock on one of the New Haven stations. After making countless demo tapes and knocking on doors, finally during my junior year, I got hired by WNHC to do weekends and vacation fill-ins. The day after graduation, I went to work full time as a DJ on their sister FM station. What followed was a 20-year career on the air and as a program director and production director in New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport, Connecticut. I met my bride to be, Cindy, at one of those stations—1220 CDQ—in the late ’70s, where I did my best work. We got married in 1981 and are still happily so today, blessed with a son, Lucas, and two adorable granddaughters, Finley and Ellison. While working in radio I freelanced as a copywriter, creating radio commercials for a local company that specialized in that field. I eventually went to work for them full time. Five years later, I launched my own freelance writing business in 1984 and have been a self-employed copywriter ever since. I’ve been privileged to write for clients such as GE, IBM, United Technologies and, yes, even Yale, as well as for public service efforts such as providing free health care to the homeless. But the work of which I’m most proud is a video documentary commissioned by the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven in 1998 to commemorate the 50thh anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel and the role many people from the New Haven area played in that history. If you’d like to see it —I promise you’ll be greatly moved by it—e-mail me at kendevoe@comcast.net and I’ll send you links to that video and to any work of mine you’d like to see or hear, including some of my radio shows. I’ve been blessed to do what I love for a living and equally blessed with a wonderful family. None of this would have happened were it not for WYBC. Even my closest friends from Yale—with the exception of my Saybrook roommate Chris Brewster—were fellow WYBC broadcasters. So thanks, classmates, Yale and WYBC, for everything!