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Filling in Hosting KUAR’s Not Necessarily Nashville

by | Jun 23, 2019 | Music

About two or three times a year I get the pleasure of sitting in for Flap Jones hosting her alternative country program Not Necessarily Nashville on KUAR. On Saturday, June 22, I filled in playing several songs from Willie Nelson’s new album Ride Me Back Home, which had been released the previous day. I also aired some James McMurtry, Marshall Tucker Band, Gram Parsons, Joe Ely, Tom T. Hall and an advance track from an album Rodney Crowell will be releasing in August.

I also featured an interview in the second hour with Dr. Ruth Hawkins, director of the Arkansas Heritage Sites program, who has been key in overseeing the restoration of Johnny Cash’s boyhood home in Dyess, Arkansas. I’d interviewed her many times over the last decade about the project and, as she is about to retire at the end of June, wanted to hear her thoughts looking back. This interview was conducted by Johnathan Reaves, news director of our partner station KASU in Jonesboro.

AUDIO: Hear the first hour of KUAR’s Not Necessarily Nashville, June 22, 2019.
AUDIO: Hear the second hour of KUAR’s Not Necessarily Nashville, June 22, 2019, which begins with the interview with Dr. Ruth Hawkins about her work overseeing the restoration of Johnny Cash’s boyhood home.

Among the recollections shared by Hawkins was bringing Cash’s siblings through the house after the restoration was complete in 2012. I was there that morning and ended up using audio from that to produce a six minute feature about the project that aired nationwide on NPR’s Weekend Edition. You can hear that report here.

Dr. Hawkins (left) taking notes as Johnny Cash’s siblings got the first tour of their childhood home on Oct. 6, 2012 after its restoration had been completed. Here Tommy Cash is inspecting a cabinet as sister Joanne Cash Yates looks on. Photo: Michael Hibblen.

I always enjoy filling in for Flap on Not Necessarily Nashville. It’s a changed of pace from my current job as news director and reminds me of my early days in radio when I was a disc jockey, sitting back and just enjoying the music.

Reporting on the Death of ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ Musician Bob Dorough

by | Apr 25, 2018 | Music

Bob Dorough

It’s probably safe to say most people from my generation were familiar with Bob Dorough, even if they didn’t know his name. He was musical director of Schoolhouse Rock!, the animated television series that ran during the 1970s and early ’80s on Saturday mornings between cartoons on ABC. He also wrote and sang on many of the catchy three-minute songs that taught math, grammar and civics lessons, including the songs “Three Is a Magic Number” and “Conjunction Junction.”

Dorough was born in Cherry Hill, Arkansas in 1923, grew up in Texas and became part of the New York jazz scene in the 1950s. When we got word at KUAR Monday, April 23 that he had died that day in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania at age 94, I reached out to musicologist Stephen Koch, host of the weekly Arkansongs feature that runs on public radio stations in the state. He met Dorough several times over the years in Arkansas and recorded an interview in 2006. With the interview, Stephen’s comments and clips of his music, I prepared an obituary for KUAR, which you can read here, as well as hear a five minute report I produced for the following morning.

AUDIO: Hear my report for KUAR on the death of Bob Dorough, which aired Tuesday, April 25.

I thought I knew a lot about Dorough, but learned a lot more while reporting on this. It was sad that we’d lost another musical treasure who got his start in Arkansas, but he had a great long life! I also filed a report that aired nationally on NPR’s All Things Considered.