Hog Radio Inc. has closed on its purchase of 37 kW FM station KBVA in Bella Vista, Ark.
The Class C2 station, heard at 106.5, was sold for $1.15 million by Hendren Communications Inc.
The station signed onto the northwest Arkansas airwaves in September of 1991 by playing the theme from “Gone with the Wind” by the Boston Pops. “Variety 106.5” was owned and programmed by Gayla McKenzie and took a personal and family-oriented flair. According to a bio on its website, she applied for a construction permit in Bella Vista during her first year of law school.
In a closing personal note on Facebook (see image), McKenzie writes, “Thank you to everyone who posted comments on our contest and on our other posts. I’ve read each comment and shed many tears these last few days. It’s been a pleasure to program the music on Variety 106.5 for the past 26 years. You all feel like family to me.”
According to local website Talk Business & Politics earlier this year, the new station owner “plans to continue the current format that includes a variety of songs and artists from different decades.” And it quoted McKenzie, a niece of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, saying “it’s time to see maybe what else is out there.” The Westside Eagle Observer reported that the station will rebrand as Lite 106.5 but that “Programming will remain as close as possible to the current format.”
Patrick Communications brokered the sale. KBVA is in the Fayetteville metro; Hog and its principals now own or have an attributable interest in a total of five stations there, according to application paperwork to the FCC.
Hog Radio, headed by President Jay Bunyard, is licensee of three other stations in Arkansas, one AM and two FM. But the trust headed by Jay and Teresa Bunyard also has an interest in 15 Arkansas stations licensed to Carroll County Broadcasting, Radio Works, Arklatex Radio, Ouachita Broadcasting and Bunyard Broadcasting.
