I’m excited to share audio of a newly-digitized recording of legendary Little Rock R&B station KOKY-AM 1440 on August 8, 1975. The 90-minute cassette, recorded from the air signal, captures a strong presentation by midday disc jockey Harold Torrence. He was clearly very busy, talking between nearly every song and bringing together the many elements on the air.
A recording of Little Rock’s KOKY-AM 1440 on August 8, 1975.
The station was heavily promoting its summer “Stash the Cash” contest, which involved $250 being hidden somewhere in Little Rock. That’s the equivalent of about $1,500 today. 12 clues hinting at where the money was located were being broadcast and printed on KOKY’s Soul Express Music Survey, which could be picked up at businesses throughout central Arkansas.
There are lots of great jingles in between current and classic R&B hits. KOKY aired national newscasts from Mutual Black Network News, which was created in 1972 specifically for stations targeting Black audiences. The lead story in this recording was the death that day of jazz musician Julian “Cannonball” Adderly at age 46. There’s also part of a local newscast, but the recording doesn’t include the local anchor’s name. Side A of the cassette ran out midway through the newscast and perhaps he gave his name at the end. I’ve prepared a full index of what’s in the recording, including quotes of the DJ patter, which you can read here.
AUDIO: Little Rock radio station KOKY-AM 1440 on August 8, 1975 from 10:10 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. The music has been edited to only include the beginnings and ends of songs to avoid potential copyright violations.
KOKY was put on the air Oct. 8, 1956, initially calling itself the “Greater Little Rock’s Ebony Station,” with studios at 1604 West 14th Street. The FCC had awarded the license that year to John M. McLendon, who also owned three radio stations in Mississippi. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas has a detailed history of the station, which was the first in the state to have a Black staff and to be programming for a Black audience. Among KOKY’s early DJs was Central High School student Al Bell, who would later become co-owner of Stax Records in Memphis.
Nineteen years later in this recording, KOKY was calling itself “Soul Express Radio” and had moved eight blocks to 723 West 14th Street. After initially broadcasting a 1000-watt daytime-only signal, within a few years it was approved for a power upgrade to 5,000 watts, which more effectively covered central Arkansas.
KOKY had been sold several times over the years while retaining its format until 1979 when a new owner, Forus Communication of Arkansas, changed the programming to religious and the call letters to KITA. The studios remained in the building on 14th Street for decades.
The skinny building that housed studios for KOKY-AM 1440 in 1975 at 723 West 14th Street in Little Rock. The photo was taken on June 7, 2025, with the building currently housing a music production studio. Photo: Michael Hibblen
The building is now home to Braceface Music Studio, according to its website, with a banner on the outside that says BFM Studio. A tall radio microwave tower secured with guy wires still stands behind the building, which I assume is to relay programming for KLAL-FM, Alice 107.7, from Cumulus Media’s building in west Little Rock to the broadcast tower at Wrightsville. The FM station, which hit the air in March 1992 and also had studios in the building, was originally known as Heaven 107-7.
An FCC database shows the AM 1440 signal in Little Rock is, as of this writing, off the air. With the decline of AM radio, many companies are abandoning their licensed frequencies.
The KOKY call letters — after disappearing from the radio dial for years — were revived in the late 1990s by corporate radio chain Citadel Broadcasting when it was planning to put an urban adult contemporary station on the air at FM 102.1. The company’s Director of Programming “Broadway” Joe Booker told the Arkansas Times in a 2019 story that he felt the call letters “would be perfect” for the format. And indeed, KOKY-FM 102.1 consistently ranks near the top of Little Rock radio ratings. The heritage and history of KOKY was celebrated at a 2019 event organized by the Central Arkansas Library System’s John Miller, which included a panel discussion with many people who have been associated with the station.
The 1975 broadcast comes from a collection of tapes I’ve been digitizing that had belonged to longtime broadcaster Bob Gay. He worked at several Little Rock radio and TV stations, though not KOKY. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bob recorded this to monitor competing stations, though his writing “do not erase” on the label shows he knew it was worth saving. Bob Gay died last December at the age of 87. Thank you to his son Russell Gay for giving these tapes to me.
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 1977.
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 radio operation into the state’s best, including a large newsroom that provided newscasts and agriculture reports heard on about 60 stations statewide.
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.”
Me (Michael Hibblen) with Randy Hankins, AKA Craig O’Neill, at an Arkansas PBS pledge drive on August 11, 2025. Before the photo was taken, we had just been talking about him starting his career in Jonesboro KBTM, where I would work about 25 years later. He then worked at KARN as production director, then doing sales under Larry Duke before leaving toward the end of the 1970s to DJ mornings at KLAZ-FM 98.5 in Little Rock. Photo: Marge Betley
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. I talked with him about working for Larry Duke at an Arkansas PBS pledge drive on August 11, 2025. Not on the air, obviously, but in-between live segments. There was a time in the late ’70s when O’Neill was working only doing sales at KARN, with Duke being his supervisor, and always on his ass. He said it was during that time period that he decided to return to being on the air.
In the recording, 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.
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.
This is the online home of news veteran Michael Hibblen. I've worked as a reporter, editor and manager for newspapers, radio and TV stations around the country, with this website telling the story of my career. Also featured on this site are outside interests I've researched, primarily about radio and railroads. The views expressed here are my own and might not reflect those of my employers. Today I work for Newsroom Ventures as an editor and reporter for its six newspapers.
Preserving the Rock Island Depot at Perry
Since 2017, I've been part of a group working to preserve the former Rock Island Depot at Perry, Arkansas. To keep it from being demolished, we raised money to move the depot to an adjacent lot, still alongside the tracks, which is now owned by the city. The building has since been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and our group has become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PRESERVATION OF THE DEPOT.
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. The book features historic photos and tells the story of the Rock Island, which was shut down in March 1980. READ MORE ABOUT MY BOOK.
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.
