Union Pacific CEO Lance Fritz on Monday announcing a donation by the railroad to a Little Rock museum. Photo: Michael Hibblen
This is a time of change at the nation’s largest railroad. The key thing I’ve been hearing about and not completely understanding is something called Precision Scheduled Railroading. The change is prompting widespread job cuts and the closing of many facilities, including the hump at the Pine Bluff, Arkansas yard. What is Precision Scheduled Railroading? I put that question to the head of Union Pacific on Monday.
Company President and CEO Lance Fritz was in Little Rock to join Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson for a pair of news events. After one press conference, I introduced myself to Fritz and recorded a brief interview, which you can hear or read a transcript of on the link. You can also find links to stories about the events in the state that Fritz look part in.
KUAR Station Manager Nathan Vandiver, anchor/ reporter Daniel Breen, anchor/ reporter Sarah Kellogg, Arts & Letters host J. Bradley Minnick, News Director Michael Hibblen and Development Director Vanessa McKuin.
As news director, I’m proud to say KUAR won the Arkansas Times‘ 2019 readers survey for Best Radio Station. We picked up the award at a ceremony on Thursday, June 27 at the Albert Pike Masonic Center in Little Rock.
We’ve won or been the runner up plenty of times over the years and it’s always gratifying. Readers of the monthly magazine are surveyed on over a hundred categories. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock, which operates KUAR and KLRE, touted our win in this post.
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.
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.
