It's still dark as I pull out of the hotel parking lot in Forrest City at 6 a.m. on Good Friday. I'm headed north on Arkansas 1, and the radio memories are flooding back as I follow Crowley's Ridge to Wynne. I first went on the air at age 13, and I've loved radio ever since.
Bobby Caldwell, the owner of East Arkansas Broadcasters, has invited me to appear on Yawn Patrol on KWYN-AM, 1400. This morning show has been airing five days a week for 61 years. That makes it one of the oldest programs of its type in the country. Yawn Patrol is as local as it gets. As I pull into the station parking lot just off U.S. 64, hosts Bill Dugan and David Sills are reading school menus. I hear what the students in Cherry Valley are having for breakfast and lunch.
Caldwell's ancestors came to this part of the state around the time of the Civil War. The family has a rich history here. I drive through the community of Caldwell between Forrest City and Wynne. I pass Caldwell Pharmacy as I enter Wynne. Bobby is one of 10 children, eight of whom are still alive. His brother, Ron, is a state senator who founded and managed Caldwell Lumber Co.
Bobby Caldwell married into the radio business. His wife is a daughter of Raymond O. "Bud" Raley, who operated doughnut shops in Northeast Arkansas in the 1950s. Raley made an offer to buy KBTM-AM in Jonesboro. When the price increased at the last minute, Raley decided instead to apply for a new frequency at Wynne. He was awarded a license by the Federal Communications Commission, and KWYN went on the air on Sept. 28, 1956, with Yawn Patrol airing each morning. Raley, a Paragould native, came up with the phrase "City With A Smile," which Wynne still uses as its slogan. One of those who unsuccessfully vied for the Wynne license was Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records at Memphis.
The station signed on in time to broadcast Wynne High School's football game against Marianna. It has been broadcasting Yellowjacket football ever since. In a town where high school football is extremely important, the Bud Raley Award has been awarded to the outstanding senior player since 1958. Governors, U.S. senators, famous musicians, authors and many more have appeared on Yawn Patrol through the years. Sister station KWYN-FM went on the air on May 15, 1969.
Caldwell began dating Raley's daughter when they were in high school. The station's founder was killed in an automobile accident in 1966. There were no other males in the Raley family. Caldwell changed his major to radio and television at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and came back to Wynne on weekends to work at the station. Caldwell got married in 1969 and began working full time. He became station manager in 1973. KWYN was in an old building with worn-out equipment, but people listened. That convinced Caldwell to air heavily local content like that heard on Yawn Patrol, which airs from 6:30 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.
"Being on the air is very important in these smaller markets," Caldwell once told an interviewer for Radio & Records. "When you go to the coffee shop, people know you. When they turn on their radio in the morning, they're inviting us into their homes. ... You've got to build a relationship with the community. It's not me who owns these radio stations. It's the community. They need access to them and a chance to participate with them. I'm in it for the long haul. I don't make as much money as some people, and I'll probably do a deal that somebody else won't because they want a quicker return. I'm looking at it down the road."
Caldwell's East Arkansas Broadcasters now owns 30 stations. They're not just in East Arkansas anymore. Caldwell operates stations licensed to Russellville, Dardanelle, Atkins, Morrilton and Clarksville in the western half of the state. EAB dominates the booming Jonesboro market in Northeast Arkansas with six stations. But KWYN-AM is where it all started, and it remains important to Caldwell.
There's not a lot of turnover. News and sports director Lindell Staggs, who shows up at 4:30 a.m. each day, has been with the company since 1982. Yawn Patrol co-host Bill Dugan comes from a well-known Wynne family. His father, Joe Dugan, was a star athlete at Western Military Academy in Alton, Ill., and came to the state in the late 1940s to play football and run track for the University of Arkansas. Among his best friends were famous sportscaster and former Razorback Pat Summerall and Olympic medalist Clyde "Smackover" Scott. Known as "Jumpin' Joe," Dugan moved to his wife's hometown of Wynne and began a chain of women's apparel stores called The Colony Shop. He eventually had nine locations in Arkansas and one in Memphis. Sills, the other Yawn Patrol co-host, is a former musician with a background in the Memphis music scene.
"Some people like to say that AM radio is dead, but it's not dead in Wynne," Caldwell says.
The station airs three 30-minute newscasts a day and broadcasts high school sports in addition to football. On Good Friday, both the mayor and county judge drop by the studio.
"It's like the daily front page," Caldwell told Radio & Records when asked about Yawn Patrol. "People can walk in off the street if they've got a subject they want to talk about. If it's a commercial, we charge for it. If not, we give away lots and lots of time. ... Too many people are looking at stations like commodities now. They should look at the communities the stations serve. People will go wherever the information they want is."
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 04/11/2018