His voice resounded throughout the ages in Trail.
For over four decades Dave Glover brought a sensitivity and class to everything he reported on — whether it was interviewing Bob Hope or Nat King Cole, or a student winning a spelling bee at a city high school — keeping Greater Trail radio listeners enthralled, engaged and informed for 44 years.
His voice, his on-air demeanour, was endearing and insightful, providing an earful of comfort food for thousands of listeners through the Trail station CJAT, now known as EZ Rock.
On Monday morning that voice was silenced when the long-time radio host and announcer went off the air for the last time, passing at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital.
He had checked in to the hospital four days prior to his passing with “a bit of a bug,” said his son, Dale, on Wednesday. But the situation quickly took a turn for the worse over the weekend for the 84-year-old, and he developed complications, including pneumonia, contributing to his passing.
Dave was with his wife, Dawn, and Dale when he departed. It did not take long for Dale to realize his father’s passing would be felt outside of the Glover family.
Emails and phone calls began to pour in — including several to the Daily Times newsroom — for the local legend as friends and all those who knew him wanted to pay homage to Dave Glover.
“Everybody thinks they know dad because they heard him on the radio, even if they didn’t know him,” Dale said.
He was a legend, not just for his radio work, but for his devotion to the community, his extensive list of volunteering efforts, and his commitment to his family of four, including Shari, Leslie and Richie.
Every weekend he was out in the community doing something for somebody, said Dale. As a result, Dave was named the B.C. Association of Broadcasters broadcast citizen of the year by his peers in the mid 1980s, earning the moniker of Trail Citizen of the Year a few years later. He was also one of three people ever to be named a Freeman of the City of Trail.
Dale paused and took a deep breath as his father’s list of achievements sunk in.
“He was honoured, people honoured him for his services,” he said.
Even though Dave was a public figure, he was a quiet person, loved his family, gardening, fishing and was a voracious reader.
And despite a physical disability from birth with his legs — one that kept him from pursuing a career as an instrumentation mechanic at Teck — he never complained about his plight in life.
As he grew older, his disability affected him more, spending the last 25 years of his life in a wheelchair, said Dale. He always felt people were “worse off” than he was, however, and never complained about his situation.
“He was a proud and tough guy,” Dale recalled.
Born in Rossland in 1928, Dave’s interest in electronics and radio were sparked by his father, Isaac, who had the first “ham” radio transmitter in the city — a contraption he built by hand.
He signed on as a transmitter operator in Warfield in 1949 with locally-owned radio station CJAT, and became an operator in Trail in the mid-1950s — where he remained until he retired in 1993.
Dave Glover made his mark on air as a empathetic, caring and honest interviewer, said Dale. No matter who was on the air with him.
“People just loved him. In the interview process he made everybody feel at ease,” he said.
“There was no distinction between famous or not-so-famous. He was just a beautiful man, I don’t know how else to explain it.”
A memorial for Dave Glover will be held in mid June.
