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 appeal to 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.
