FRONT AND CENTER: Sid King

Man who brought radio to Van Buren County still jamming

Sid King of Clinton stands near his “jambulance,” a converted ambulance that plays music. King purchased the jambulance several years ago and brings it to community events in the Clinton area to promote his radio station.
Sid King of Clinton stands near his “jambulance,” a converted ambulance that plays music. King purchased the jambulance several years ago and brings it to community events in the Clinton area to promote his radio station.

Growing up in Judsonia, Sid King listened to all kinds of music. As a teenager, he found his niche playing drums each summer at Dogpatch USA, an amusement park between Harrison and Jasper. Now, he’s known as the man who brought radio to Van Buren County.

“It’s been an award-winning life with family and friends,” King said.

After graduating from Arkansas State University, King called Dogpatch USA to see if there was a job for him besides playing the drums.

“They put me in PR for the last year it was there,” he said. “And because I was in the board meetings, I knew what was going on financially.”

Dogpatch USA was failing.

In May 1972, the owners decided to build a sister park with a ski-resort theme called Marble Falls. The cost of building the park, combined with lack of interest in the old amusement park, caused the untimely end of Dogpatch USA.

During his time at the park, King met a Memphis showgirl named Judi.

“That’s my wife now,” King said. “We’ve been together since the Dogpatch days.”

But when Dogpatch was over, King needed a new job, and he remembered his old drives through Clinton on his way from Judsonia to Dogpatch USA.

“I talked to my brother-in-law, who owns movie theaters, and I said I’d like to build a radio station,” King said. “So he and I went partners to build the radio station.”

King said he grew up listening to Memphis and Little Rock radio and made disc-jockey Rick Dees his role model in college.

“I wanted to be a big-deal disc jockey,” King said.

Once in Clinton, he still had thoughts of moving on to a larger market someday.

“But then I became an owner and then had kids, and Clinton is a great place to raise a family,” he said. “I didn’t have to worry about the crime or the schools, and I’m happy here.”

KGFL, whose call-letters stand for “Greers Ferry Lake,” started out as a 250-watt AM station.

“It’s now an FM station at 25,000 watts,” King said. “We cover about a six- to seven-county radius, and we just put another FM station on the air about two months ago, which plays oldies.”

Since King started the station, it has maintained the No. 1 rating in the county, he said.

“The radio station is very well thought of in our community,” King’s friend Don Richardson said. “Sid is a community person, too, and he’s been very successful because he knows what a radio station ought to do, and that’s be supportive of the community.”

King attributes his No. 1 status to his community service.

“Our role is to serve the community,” King said. “That’s what we do, and that’s why we are licensed. Playing music is a great thing; it’s what gets you listeners, but when you have a call to action, you need to go.”

King finds himself talking through tornadoes at least once a year.

“I feel pretty safe in here,” he said. “This building is from the ’30s, and the walls are real thick, but every once in a while, I feel like I’m putting my life on the line.”

King was also present in Damascus in 1980 during the Titan-missile crisis at Titan II Launch Complex 374-7, just north of Damascus.

On Sept. 18, 1980, Air Force personnel from Little Rock Air Force Base at Jacksonville were conducting maintenance on a Titan strategic missile, and an airman dropped a wrench socket, which hit and pierced the skin on the rocket’s first-stage fuel tank, causing it to leak. Early the next morning, the missile exploded. One airman died from his injuries, and 21 others were injured by the explosion or during rescue efforts, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

It is known as one of the worst accidents in Air Force history, King said.

“That night I came back to the radio station and put it back on the air to tell people to get the hell out of here,” King said. “We started getting calls from people hearing us in Chicago wanting to know what we were talking about.”

King also won a national award for his reporting on the event.

“But at that time we were too poor, so I couldn’t make it to Chicago to go get the award,” he said.

Financial times are better now for King. His three children have graduated from his alma mater, Arkansas State University, and in the past few years, he’s been able to afford a few bells and whistles for his station, namely the jambulance, a renovated ambulance that plays music.

“There are probably 30 or 40 of them in the country,” he said. “An ambulance is perfect for a radio station because there are already so many built-in storage compartments, and with the lights on, it really catches people’s attention.”

The jambulance is also perfect for King’s community-service projects. He “stuffed the jambulance” with donated materials for tornado victims in the spring and with toys for the local Angel Tree program at Christmastime.

Everyone in Clinton seems to recognize the jambulance. King often uses it to broadcast live from events like Clinton’s Old Tyme Festival on the Square in the fall.

“I’ve checked with the police and fire departments here, and they don’t mind if I use the lights,” King said. “It’s still a working ambulance, so if they ever needed it during a natural disaster or something, I’d gladly offer it up.”

Barring a natural disaster, KGFL will keep playing the music Van Buren County residents love to hear.

“I’m sure a lot of people up here still listen to Little Rock stations, but we try to be as good as we can and still keep it local with that small-town feel,” King said.

czilk@arkansasonline.com

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