Earlier this month, I was given several dozen cassettes that had belonged to veteran radio broadcaster Bob Gay, who died last December at the age of 87. Among the stations he worked for was KARN-AM 920 in Little Rock, where he was program and music director in the late 1970s.
A cassette featuring an hour of Little Rock station KARN-AM 920 on Feb. 14, 1977.
Sorting through the random mix of recordings, I zeroed in on one tape labeled KARN, Feb. 14, 1977, 4- 5 p.m. That was just five years after Ted Snider bought the station, along with what became KKYK-FM 103.7 and the Arkansas Radio Network. He built his broadcast operation into the state’s best, including a large newsroom that provided newscasts and agriculture reports heard on about 60 stations throughout the state.
Having worked at KARN in the 1990s — when the AM station was still among the top-rated in the Little Rock market — I developed tremendous respect for Snider. He ran his stations and state network with a savvy business instinct, knew how to foster relationships within the industry, treated his employees with respect and knew the importance of the stations providing community service. Snider died earlier this year on Jan. 14 at the age of 96, but at his memorial service, it was a joy learning more about his life.
So, this tape of KARN from 1977 is quite an artifact. At that time, the station’s format was easy listening, branded as the “gentle sound,” and featured a heavy news presence, with local newscasts and NBC Radio News. I don’t know if it was intentional, but the groundwork was being laid for the all news and talk format KARN would eventually implement. There’s even a reference to the station being “the news authority,” which would later become a major part of its branding.
AUDIO: A jingle for “Little Rock’s gentle sound, KARN 920,” which was included in the Feb. 14, 1977 aircheck.
Larry Duke was KARN’s vice president and general manager at the time, before buying Jonesboro station KFIN-FM 107.9 from Snider the following year. In a 2013 email to me, Duke wrote, “It was while I was GM that KARN began a two-hour news and information block 6am-8am which led to the talk format after I moved to Jonesboro. I revere Ted Snider as the greatest man I have ever had the pleasure to know.”
Among the voices on this aircheck are two commercials by Craig O’Neill, who would leave KARN in 1978 to become the morning man at top 40 station KLAZ-FM 98.5, before returning to work for Snider in 1981 doing mornings at competing top 40 station KKYK. KARN’s 4 p.m. newscast is anchored by News Director Don Corbet and includes an agriculture markets update by Bob Brice. I created a full index of every element that’s heard on this recording, which you can read here.
AUDIO: Little Rock station KARN-AM 920, Feb. 14, 1977, 4-5 p.m. The easy listening music has been edited to only feature the beginnings and endings of songs to avoid potential copyright violations.
The easy listening music is terrible, though I’m sure plenty of people loved it at the time and that it was carefully researched to target a specific demographic. KKYK, whose control room was next to KARN’s, appealed to a younger audience, so Ted Snider’s stations were reaching a broad swath of demographics.
The person on the air giving Oaklawn race results and weather forecasts never gives his name in this recording, but it was suggested in my post about this on Facebook that it might have been Chuck Stephens. I assume Program and Music Director Bob Gay was using this tape to evaluate his staff. Thanks to his son Russell Gay for sharing this and other tapes with me! I’m happy to have been able to digitize and share this with others interested in Arkansas broadcasting history.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
Each month, Arkansas PBS produces a short feature that airs between programs and is shared online, with staff talking about programming and events that will be coming up. Jamie Walters, a marketing and communications specialist with our education department, joined me to preview what would be happening in April.
As one of the events is the annual Quiz Bowl competition among high school teams from around the state, I took that as an opportunity to wear a Quiz Bowl tee shirt rather than my normal work clothes. It will be broadcast live on Saturday, April 26, and is always a blast to help produce. It’s an all-day tournament testing kids’ knowledge of a wide range of categories. It can be hectic having so many young people come through our building, where we must get teams in and out of the main studio quickly between rounds, but is always fun.
The competition is presented by the Arkansas Governor’s Quiz Bowl Association, which operates under the Arkansas Activities Association. This year is special because it’s the 40th anniversary for the event, which started in 1985 while Gov. Bill Clinton was in office. He even sat in the audience one year.
Another anniversary we discussed was 20 years of Arkansas IDEAS. A function of our education department, it provides free, online professional development for educators. More than 4.5 million professional development credit hours have been awarded over the last two decades to teachers, school support staff and administrators.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
I sat in for my pal Flap Jones this past weekend hosting Not Necessarily Nashville on Little Rock Public Radio’s KUAR-FM 89.1. It’s always a joy selecting an hour of music to play and discuss.
With only a few days before the Wednesday, March 19 screening of the Arkansas PBS documentary Unveiled: Daisy Bates and Johnny Cash at Robinson Center in Little Rock, followed a week later by Bob Dylan performing at the same venue on Wednesday, March 26, I played two songs Cash and Dylan recorded together. These versions of “Guess Things Happen That Way” and “I Still Miss Someone” were recorded during two days in a Nashville studio in February 1969 and were eventually released a half-century later in 2019 as part of Dylan’s The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15, Travelin’ Thru.
Not Necessarily Nashville, March 8, 2025, 7 p.m. on Little Rock Public Radio’s KUAR-FM 89.1.
I also played a couple of songs from an album by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Scottish musicians Lulie Fowlis and Karine Polwart. Looking for the Thread was released in January and has been a relaxing escape during my work commutes over the last few weeks.
Not Necessarily Nashville playlist, March 8, 2025, Little Rock Public Radio
Buck Owens and the Buckaroos – “Johnny Be Goode” (Buck Owens in London) Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart “Satellite” (Looking For The Thread) Jim Lauderdale “Delta Blue” (Can’t Steal My Fire: The Songs of David Olney) Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash – “Guess Things Happen That Way” (The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15: Travelin’ Thru, 1967-1969) Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash – “I Still Miss Someone” (The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15: Travelin’ Thru, 1967-1969) Glen Campbell – “These Days” (Meet Glen Campbell) Kinky Friedman – “See You Down the Highway” (Poet of Motel 6) Ray Charles and Willie Nelson – “It Was a Very Good Year” (Genius Loves Company) Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood – “Some Velvet Morning” (Movin’ with Nancy) Alison Krauss & Union Station – “Looks like The End of the Road” (Arcadia) Sam Moore and Conway Twitty – “A Rainy Night in Georgia” Ringo Star – “Time on my Hands” (Look Up) Tom T. Hall – “I Miss a Lot of Trains” Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart “Looking for the Thread” (Looking For The Thread)
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
Nathan Willis films as Benjamin Victor works on his clay model of Daisy Bates. Photo: Arkansas PBS
On this state holiday honoring civil rights pioneer Daisy Gatson Bates, people can register for free tickets to a screening next month of an Arkansas PBS original documentary that tells the story of placing statues of Bates and singer-songwriter Johnny Cash in the U.S. Capitol. While working for Little Rock Public Radio’s KUAR in previous years, I reported on each step of the process — often alongside filmmaker Nathan Willis — and know people will enjoy watching the fascinating details of the legislative debate, selection of the sculptors, the physical work of making the statues, then getting the needed approvals to place them in the Capitol.
The screening will be Wednesday, March 19, 7 p.m. at Robinson Center in Little Rock. You can register for free tickets here. There will first be a panel discussion, followed by the documentary. It will make its broadcast premiere the following night, Thursday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m.
UPDATE: After the two nights of showings, the entire film can now be watched on the PBS app and YouTube. I’ve replaced the promo clip that was below with the full film. Enjoy!
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
Former President Carter on Feb. 24, 2013. Photo: Commonwealth Club of California/Flickr
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter died Sunday, Dec. 29, the Associated Press reports. He was 100, making him the longest-living president in history. Carter had entered hospice care a year earlier.
I briefly interviewed Carter 25 years ago at an event in South Florida while working as a reporter for Miami station WIOD, NewsRadio 610. He was appearing at Books and Books in Coral Gables in January 1999. That was at the same time as a U.S. Senate trial of President Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice regarding a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinski. I asked Carter his thoughts on the trial, as well as changes in politics since his time in office.
AUDIO: Interviewing former President Jimmy Carter in January 1999 in Coral Gables, Florida.
Much was been written about Carter since his death. While he only served one term, Carter received high praise for how he lived his life. I was very appreciative that he gave me a few minutes going into the event, providing thoughtful comments to my questions.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
MICHAEL HIBBLEN: What are your thoughts on modern day presidential politics and the investigations of the president and so forth?
FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER: Well, I don’t think there’s any way to control what the investigations have done. The Congress passed the law, President Clinton signed the law into effect. The Attorney General called for a special prosecutor, a three-judge panel appointed Kenneth Starr when a vacancy occurred, but I think there’s no doubt that the special prosecutor law has been abused by Kenneth Starr. I don’t think that there’s any doubt that after this furor is over, which I hope will be fairly soon, that the law is going to be changed to put some constraints on the time spent and the money spent on investigations.
HIBBLEN: Do you think politics has become more nasty since your days in office?
CARTER: Oh yeah, there’s no doubt about that. It’s become very nasty compared to when I was in office. When I ran against Gerald Ford, who was an incumbent president, and when I ran later against Ronald Regan, he was a governor, former governor, I never referred to them as anything except my distinguished opponent or my worthy opponent. If I had run a negative campaign spot on TV, it would have been suicidal for me. I mean, the people would have condemned me. Nowadays, the common thing is not to win by what you claim that you are going to do if you get in office, but to win by totally destroying the character of your opponent, whether they deserve to be destroyed or not. The problem is the finance laws which permit unlimited use of soft money, as you probably know. The soft money cannot be used by law to promote a candidate. It can be used to tear down an opponent, and that’s one of the root causes of the negative atmosphere that exists not only in Washington but in statehouses like Atlanta and in Tallahassee.
HIBBLEN: So, you feel a lot of changes should come to politics?
CARTER: The change that needs to be done is to change the campaign finance laws. Yeah, because now we have the equivalent of legal bribery. It is legal, but somebody that wants a special favor from the Congress or from the White House, from the governor’s mansion or whatever, gives unlimited amounts of money through various means, and they don’t give it for nothing. They expect some special treatment or they expect their voice to be heard, at least, you know, when the candidate who they have helped finance gets in office. So, that’s what needs to be changed.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
This is the online home of broadcasting news veteran Michael Hibblen. I've worked for newspapers, radio and TV stations around the country, with this website telling the story of my career, including audio, photos and videos. Also featured are various interests I've researched, primarily about radio and railroads. Today I'm Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, overseeing production of Arkansas Week and the streaming of events on the Arkansas Citizens Access Network. The posts on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Arkansas PBS or my former employers.
My Book
Released by Arcadia Publishing in 2017, Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas delves into the history of the railroad which once had a huge footprint in Arkansas, as well as other states in the middle of the U.S. The book features historic photos and tells the story of the Rock Island, which was shut down in March 1980. READ MORE
For 13 years, from May 2009 to December 2022, I worked for NPR station KUAR-FM 89.1 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. That included 10 years as News Director while continuing to anchor and report. You can read and hear reports from that time on Little Rock Public Radio's website.
