WSQK Hawkins’ Hitmaker

"Let me tell you, there's three things I can guarantee when you hear my show. One: I play the biggest hits for Hawkins, none of these middle of the road filler records, just the cream of the crop. Two: We'll let you know what's happening out there in Hawkins with our updates each hour. And three: uhh... What was my third? Nah, two will do" - Vance Goodman at around 1:21:08

"50.000 watts, 50.000 PROBLEMS more like" - Vance Goodman at around 2:31:50

"Oh the tunes are just hitting the spot on WSQK the squawk aren't they? What can I say, they are handselected by yours truly. I'd like to think. It's Vance Goodman broadcasting across Hawkins. And uh I know it feels like I'm always on the mic keeping you company, but uh do you know what some of the other guys and gals have started doing at this place? They've started COUNTING their shows. Yeah, there's a chalkboard in the office with how many broadcasts everyone has done. Lame-o or what? Haha. You know who's the worst for doing it, don't ya? Mindy Flare. She's done over 300 shows, which... uh you know she's always going on about it but she's still not top though which I always find funny. Uh, I might go and change the numbers now. *smug laughter* They'll never know. Hang tight Hawkins, I'll be back with more hits and uh slightly chalky fingers and uh maybe... maybe some razor stains on my trousers right after this" *goes to commercials* - Vance Goodman at around 2:43:17 (I don't know if the stains are racer, razor or raiser. Potentially it could also be eraser. None of the options make sense to me anyway)

watts... whats... 50.000 questions, 50.000 plotholes/problems

just another piece of evidence for Vecna still being controlled by the mindflayer and how we didn't really dive into that in the show (despite the play being about how Henry and how he wasn't always evil/vecna) Weird mentions of things with 3. Three things Vance can guarantee, but forgetting the third (if the WSQK website is official, then the vol. 3 bootleg tapes: lost is even more suspicious with this in mind). Mindy Flare has broadcasted THREE-hundred shows. Something about changing the numbers, and then afterwards mentioning coming back. Sure, the "I'll be back with more hits" could JUST be referring to the ads, but it COULD be about the episodes. (if vol. 3, and maybe some of vol. 2, is a vecna vision and not the actual ending: we might be going back and see what actually happened. And in a way, that would be changing the numbers, because even if the theorized secret 9th episode gets added, technically episode 8 isn't canon and therefore doesn't really count - which means the numbers would have to be changed, in a way)

Thank you to everyone who has preserved (parts of) the radio station, as the official has been removed. Referencing anything from WSQK and being able to back it up with actual evidence of it happening is great. So thank you thank you thank you

You’re riding in the passenger seat of a beat-up sedan, the hum of tires on asphalt a steady rhythm. The air is thick with the smell of vinyl seats and distant rain. Your hand reaches for the dial, scanning through the static until a burst of tinny synth and a wildly enthusiastic voice cuts through: “You’re listening to WSQK, The Squawk! That was the one and only Kate Bush running up that hill, and let me tell you, she’s not just running, she’s sprinting straight to the top of our charts! It’s 4:15 in the PM, and I’m your host coming at you from the Hawk’s Nest. Stay tuned, because coming up next, we’ve got the Material Girl herself, Madonna and her new hit "Into The Groove".

I wasn’t ready for the wave of nostalgia that hit me that the Stranger Things Radio WSQK The Squawk brought out. After seeing a post on social media about an online "radio station" of The SQAWK that played 80's hits with quirky DJ's and goof ads I had to check it out. It took a few searches and downloading an App from the UK  - But I Found It. I was instantly transported to my childhood. Riding in the back of an old white Pontiac station wagon listening to the latest hits. For those of us who lived through the real 80s, hearing it wasn't just a clever show promotion—it was a direct, crackling transmission to a core memory I’d almost forgotten.

The genius of The Squawk isn’t just in the killer song selections (though the music supervisors deserve a Nobel Prize in Nostalgia). It’s in the ritual it resurrects. The over-caffeinated, slightly unhinged DJ, is every local radio host we ever loved. He wasn’t a corporate robot playing a preset list; he was a community weirdo, a late-night friend who might mispronounce a band’s name, tell a painfully long joke, and then slam into a perfect, life-changing song just as you were about to change the station.

But the real magic The Squawk conjures is the memory of The Pause.

You’d hear the opening synth line of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” or the iconic guitar riff of “Master of Puppets.” Your heart would leap. This is it. This is the missing piece for the mixtape for Lindsay. You’d lunge for the cassette recorder already wired into the stereo, slam down the play and record buttons with a satisfying clunk-click, and then… hold your breath.

Because the DJ loved the sound of his own voice. The song would fade, and just as your finger hovered, ready to stop recording, he’d burst back in: “WOO! That was Simple Minds, telling us all to remember! And before that, the mighty Metallica! Speaking of remembering, don’t YOU forget about Mel’s Auto Body on 3rd! Fender benders are a bummer, but Mel’s prices will have you smiling! Brought to you by the finest Bondo in the state of WV”

A groan. You’d missed the clean intro. The tape was ruined. You’d rewind, eject, and wait. Sometimes for hours. The dedication was real. The mixtape was a language, a love letter, an artifact. The Squawk brought back that core memory of the chaotic, unreliable, yet glorious search for the perfect mixtape source material.

The ads were another masterpiece of memory-jogging. Mel’s Auto Body, the Hawkins Star newspaper, the Starcourt Mall’s “blowout sale.” They weren’t slick national commercials; they were read live, often fumbled, for businesses that probably only existed in a five-mile radius. They sounded like they were recorded in a broom closet, which they probably were. This was the hyper-local, gloriously amateur sound of a pre-internet world.

Hearing The Squawk in does more than set the tone. It rebuilds an ecosystem. It reminds us that once, music wasn’t an on-demand stream, but a treasure hunt. Your connection to the songs you loved was mediated by these charismatic, goofy gatekeepers spinning platters in small studios. You discovered music through them, taped it from them, and built the soundtrack of your life around their whims.

So, thank you, Duffer Brothers for this marketing genius. Thank you for the missed intros, the wacky segues, and the pure, unfiltered 80s cheese. This wasn't just a fictional DJ in a show about monsters and psychic kids. It was the static-filled, joyous echo of a thousand afternoons spent by a radio, finger on the record button, waiting for the perfect song to begin. “This is The Squawk, signing off. Remember, keep your feet on the ground and your heart in the stars. We’ll be back after these messages.”

And just like that, we’re back in that car, scanning the dial, forever waiting for the next perfect song to drop.

What song did you wear out your “record” button trying to capture? Share your own mixtape memories below.

Check Out The Playlist Based On The SQUAWK

This is the static that played just before they put the show's intro and then ended the broadcast. (this explanation was provided to me by @moonyscupid)

They're in mp3 format and most of them are mono audio but the last week I archived them in stero and got a majority of the regular broadcasts.

So if you've been listened to wsqk you'd know they've been experiencing "technical difficulties". So I was listening earlier today and Vance was talking about how they've finally have someone to fix the radio tower, now I don't remember his exact words but basically he then complained that it would be in 8 hours and then how it'll take 45 minutes and with his luck another 30 minutes.

So let's look at the math:

45+30=75 — 8 hours and 75 minutes

That equals 9 hours and 25 minutes.

Now I added up the time of all the episodes we have now, volume 1 + volume 2, according to the minutes next to every episode listed on Netflix.

ive been listening to wsqk religiously and vance goodman does a repeated lil chat segment about kids/bikes and "never knowing when its going to be your last ride together"

just now i saw this pic on threads

and it got me thinking how: yeah, we probably wont see this again.

the concept of them (possibly- one ep left) putting that clip in the squawk broadcasts KNOWING that theyre never going to show us that again. that the last ride together already happened, and we didnt realize it at the time. calling our attention to it now.

evil. cruel. but clever? maybe?

end ramble

It was just on WSQK radio. Does it mean anything? I have separated it to this but it doesn’t make sense. It isn’t a sentence that I can make out. Is it just nonsense?

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1) when Mindy Flaire said that she used a microwave for the first time and that it was the future. A comment she made many times. (Which is how Lucas had the idea)

Here’s what Mindy Flare just said:

Vance Goodman said he could DJ forever, he never wants to do anything, he could do this all day. Unless its time for Mindy Flare's segment, then she takes over....

Vance really wants to drive the WSQK van around town, but he doesn't have the keys. He said something along the lines of "guys, let me drive! No? Alright. :("

...he wants to take the wheel, so to speak? But Mindy runs the show and wont let him...? Mindy Flare ... Mind Flayer runs the show. But Vance = Vecna wants to take control...?

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And finally, this one is more silly and uses a FNAF Game Theory... Vance was heckled by a worker at the mall to buy perfume. So I'm thinking... Does Vance STINK? Like the security guard in FNAF, who got fired due to odors, and was a literal purple decomposing corpse? Could Vance possibly be a puppet, a vessel for the Mind Flayer? Just a corpse? A flayed zombie? He definitely wouldn't smell GOOD. No wonder he was pressured into buying perfume 🤣