Select Page

Veteran broadcaster, high school teacher Bob Gay dies at 87

by | Dec 9, 2024 | Radio

Bob Gay after we met for lunch on July 14, 2004. Photo: Michael Hibblen

I’m sad to learn my high school radio broadcasting instructor Bob Gay died Friday, Dec. 6. He was 87. Bob had a lengthy career working at radio stations and later shared his wealth of knowledge with students. While I later learned more nuanced information in college, especially about journalism, I always felt I got more real world information about this challenging industry from Bob.

In his class at Little Rock’s Metropolitan Vocational Education Center, which I took from 1988-89, he even taught us things like how to cold call program directors to express interest in working for a station. He didn’t sugarcoat the profession, and for those interested in pursuing a career, offered advice on how to build professional relationships and what not to do.

For much of the class we operated as a radio station, with students rotating through different positions each week: being a DJ following a strict format clock, writing and producing commercials, writing and delivering newscasts, and preparing commercial logs. It enabled us to have an understanding of how all broadcast-related positions worked together to make a station function. We operated out of facilities that up until a year earlier had housed a real radio station, KLRE-FM 90.5, which was central Arkansas’s first NPR station and had initially been licensed to the Little Rock School District.

I wish I remembered details of the stations and places where Bob worked. One time in class he put a tape on the reel-to-reel machine and played an aircheck he was clearly proud of him with him being a DJ for a top 40 station, circa 1974. I’m making that assumption on the time period because he played Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown,” which was released that year, several times during his shift. I’m confident that station wasn’t in Arkansas.

Bob eventually worked for KSSN-FM 95.7 in Little Rock starting in the 1970s, which grew to become the top-rated station. Longtime morning man Bob Robbins mentioned Bob Gay while telling a story at a 2015 reunion of radio people. The newscasts at KSSN were recorded, and Bob Robbins said he stumbled midway through a newscast and proceeded to yell a string of expletives. He rerecorded the newscast, but ended up putting the wrong tape into the automation system and those profanities were played on the air. Bob Gay didn’t hear the broadcast, but came out of his office asking, “What did you say? What did you say?” One of the many things Bob Gay taught us was never say anything in a radio studio you wouldn’t want to be broadcast, and perhaps this incident was why.

Bob helped me get my first paying radio job — a small, financially struggling AM station in Benton where most of my paychecks bounced. But it gave me a chance to get some experience, get better on the air, and I got hired at a better, more financially stable radio station six months later. My career progression was exactly what Bob encouraged his students to do. Keep improving our skills, then look for better stations or bigger markets. I ended up working in radio for 34 years and don’t think it ever would have started without Bob. I’m still in broadcasting, but today in television at Arkansas PBS.

I met up with Bob a few times over the years. The last time I saw him was in 2004 during a visit home to Arkansas. He was thrilled that at the time I was working as a news anchor and reporter for a major station in Miami, and he seemed to enjoy hearing my adventures. I wish I’d reached out to him in recent years.

I know there are many other students who learned a great base of knowledge from Bob and went into radio. I hope to see some at his service, scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 12. According to his obituary, it will be at Smith North Little Rock Funeral Home with visitation to begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by the funeral at 11:30.

UPDATE:

I learned a lot more about Bob during his service, and it was wonderful visiting with his wife and childern. A few of Bob’s former students were also there, including Doug Virdin, who was in my class, and Todd Stuart, who had gone through the radio program a few years before me, but who I would eventually work with at KJBR, Power 102 in Jonesboro.

The man who led the funeral spoke about how Bob had grown up in Newport, Arkansas and experienced a few tragedies in his life. During a July 4th celebration, he witnessed the drowning of his 18-year-old brother. He also developed polio in 12th grade and lost all muscle in his legs. Bob ended up having to walk a mile to school each day using crutches while relearning how to walk. 

A man who worked at a local radio station saw Bob and started giving him rides. Eventually he brought Bob to the station where he worked, which was the beginning of Bob’s radio career. Eager for more opportunities, he would take jobs at radio and TV stations around the country in markets of all sizes. 

Bob met the woman he would later marry on the first day he arrived for a job in Marion, Alabama. He also worked for stations in Burlington, North Carolina, Memphis, Tennessee, and at WBCM in Baltimore, Maryland. I might be missing others.

He eventually returned home to Arkansas, working in Little Rock at KARN, television station KTHV, and as I mentioned earlier, helped put KSSN on the air, with a country format that would dominate Little Rock radio for decades. He also did some on-camera work in TV as a weatherman, though I’m not sure if that was at KTHV. Among photos rotating on screens as the visitation was underway was one showing Bob at a weather map in the pre-radar days, with hand-drawn weather patterns on a board. Another photo showed Bob in front of a large television camera with KTHV on the side. 

It was a nice service and I’m glad I learned more about Bob’s life and career. Somehow these details never came out when I was his student or in later years while visiting over lunch.

Trey Stafford discusses growing up in radio

by | Dec 28, 2023 | Radio

It was a joy listening to an interview with Trey Stafford, a boss of mine 33 years ago at KDXY-FM 104.9. An institution in northeast Arkansas broadcasting, he was featured in the latest episode of Paragould Podcast with Jared Pickney. Trey shared details about beginning in radio at the age of 9 on his hometown station KPCA-AM in Marked Tree. More than 50 years later, he dominates morning radio in Jonesboro.

There are several great stories that harken back to what small town radio used to be like, including when — at the age of 10 — he was called to sign the daytime-only station back on the air late one night to warn people of a potential tornado. At the age of 14, when he didn’t become a paid employee as promised, he left the station in a huff, but advanced his career. Trey’s life story is fascinating and I’m glad it was documented in this podcast. Give it a listen!

In addition to co-hosting the morning show with Jim Frigo at what is today known as 104.9 The Fox, Trey is President/ General Manager of Jonesboro Radio Group. He not only survived a tumultuous era of deregulation, he adapted and rose to the top in his market.

What I appreciated in 1990, as I note on the page detailing my experiences at the station,  was the respect he gave a 19-year-old with just a little bit of experience by offering me my first full-time radio position, complete with health insurance and other benefits. I’ve only seen him once since leaving Jonesboro in 1993, but am confident his success is thanks to his broadcasting business savvy and a strong personality that radiates into the community. 

Radio legend Jim Bohannon dies at 78

by | Nov 13, 2022 | Radio

I was saddened to learn of the death of national talk show host Jim Bohannon from cancer on Saturday, Nov. 12. It happened about a month after he ended his long-running late-night radio program citing health issues. Bohannon had been very influential to me when I was starting my career, and years later, I was proud to report regularly from Miami for his “America in the Morning” program. I also got the opportunity to join him once live in the studio during his late-night show.

Bohannon had a warmth that radiated through the radio, along with intelligence, wit and an amazing voice. He was very comfortable to listen to. While acknowledging that his personal political beliefs were slightly conservative, Bohannon maintained a middle-of-the-road style on the air, at least in the years I was a regular listener.

This quote from him in 2003, included in Wikipedia’s entry on Bohannon, says it all:

“Our political system gives the extremes too much of a say-so. We’re very often given the choice between an off-the-wall, right-wing whacko or some left-wing idiot. The result is that the sensible center – where things actually get done in this country – winds up having to choose from the ‘evil of two lesser,” Bohannon said in an interview with Inside Radio.

Nineteen years later, in today’s era of hyper-partisan commentary, I think his comments can also be reflective on one reason so many once-dominant commercial news and talk stations have low ratings.

I became familiar with Jim Bohannon around 1990 when I would hear him on Little Rock affiliate KARN-AM 920 while driving home from my evening shift as a DJ at KLRA-FM 96.5 in England, Ark. He often filled in for Larry King on the Mutual Broadcasting System and had his own Saturday night show on the network. After King left the late-night show for an afternoon radio program in January 1993, Bohannon got the coveted slot.

In May 1993, I was hired by KARN as a news anchor, reporter and producer. It was then that I started hearing “America in the Morning,” which Bohannon also hosted. After the three-hour late-night program ended, he would spend the next three hours preparing the hour-long morning program, which was more of a magazine-style format and seemed to be a great lead-in for morning drive at affiliates. It must have been a grueling all-night shift for him.

In 2000, when I began working as a Miami-based freelance reporter for CBS News Radio, I would also file two-minute reports for “America in the Morning.” At that time, CBS and Bohannon’s programs were distributed by Westwood One, and they shared news content. I was one of two people CBS had in Florida, and between the two of us, we would travel around the state to cover stories of national interest.

At a time when reports for commercial radio stations typically ran 40 seconds at the most, it was a treat to produce longer versions of my stories that I felt provided better context and perspective. I could use several soundbites, and if they were strong, longer cuts, like exchanges during interviews or courtroom trials. The reports for “America in the Morning” would typically be the last thing I would produce after a day of covering developing stories and feeding reports for CBS hourly newscasts. The longer reports provided a chance for me to reflect on what had happened during the span of the day and how best to sum everything up.

While my reports to CBS would be fed to a producer in New York over phone lines using an expensive piece of equipment called a Comrex Hotline, which the network had assigned to me, my reports for Bohannon’s show were simply emailed as an MP3. While I saved those reports, for my own archives, I wanted to have Bohannon’s introductions to my reports. So during one trip to New York to spend a few days at the CBS Broadcast Center, I stopped at the Arlington, Virginia Westwood One studios where Bohannon’s program was based and his producer gave me access to recordings of the full programs so that I could record.

Jim Bohannon came in to do his program and we met for the first time. While making polite conversation about a story I had filed a day or two earlier about a large number of passengers becoming sick on a cruise ship that returned to South Florida, he invited me to join him on the air during a segment when he had no guests scheduled and was taking calls from listeners.

AUDIO: Joining Jim Bohannon on his national radio program on Dec. 2, 2002.

Needless to say, it was an honor to sit in with Bohannon. We’ve lost another great broadcaster and a throw back to a more congenial era of broadcasting.

AETN Details the Arrival of Radio in Arkansas

by | Dec 26, 2019 | Radio

In 1922, the first radio station in Arkansas was put on the air by Harvey Couch, creator of Arkansas Power & Light. The call letters for WOK stood for “Workers of Kilowatts.” Couch made his first broadcast using a tower at his home in Pine Bluff, with a group listening at the nearby Hotel Pines.

I was among those interviewed about this for the AETN documentary “Music in Arkansas: Origins 200 BC-1941 AD.” As I explained, the arrival of radio would have a tremendous impact on the state, especially by connecting those living in rural areas with the rest of the country. You can watch that segment of the program below.

Writing About Pioneering Radio Station KBTM for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas

by | Nov 29, 2019 | Radio

I’m proud to have been asked by the Encyclopedia of Arkansas to write an entry on KBTM, which was one of the state’s early radio stations, while its FM frequency with the same call letters is believed to have been the first licensed FM in the state. The online encyclopedia is a project of the Central Arkansas Library System.

I had extensively researched the Jonesboro radio station in 2011, even interviewing many people who worked there, as well as members of the Patteson family, which owned the AM/FM combo for 35 years. My research was spurred by eventual corporate owner Clear Channel Communications killing off the powerful FM frequency to put a lower power station on the air in Memphis, which would make more money being in a larger market. It was a joy to revisit my research as I prepared the entry for the encyclopedia, following its style. The entry was published Nov. 23, 2019 and can be read here. If you’d like to read what I originally wrote for my website, which includes audio of my interviews, you can find it here.

Little Rock Radio Legend Tom Wood Cut By Radio Giant

by | Apr 10, 2019 | Radio

Tom Wood being interviewed on Feb. 24, 2019.

This is a sad day for Little Rock radio. Tom Wood, a radio legend in this market, was told today by iHeartMedia that his job was one of 70 being eliminated in the latest round of cuts by the bankrupt corporate radio company. His was one of the most familiar and beloved voices in Arkansas. Tom’s dismissal is just the latest example of how far the struggling industry has fallen, not only decimating heritage radio stations, but getting rid of icons like Tom.

He helped create the popular, longtime rock station Magic 105 in 1980, but with the deregulation of radio in the 1990s, Clear Channel bought the frequency and made changes leading to its downfall. Tom stayed with the company and even became the namesake for another station in the cluster called Tom-FM. But that station, following the corporate programming strategy of “we play it all,” was eventually changed to Big 94.9. Then the frequency changed formats again.

I interviewed him in February about his long career, which you can hear on the link. I hope his voice once again returns to the airwaves in Arkansas. READ MORE.