Grant Merrill, 28
General Manager
Hog Radio Inc.
Springdale
The concept was simple enough: Plant a sports-talk FM station in Hogs-wild northwest Arkansas. It was an idea so ripe, in fact, that just after Grant Merrill, a lifelong Arkansan, started KUOA-AM/FM, 1290/105.3, The Hog Sports Radio, from the ground up, a national chain flipped one of its nearby stations to ESPN programming.
The difference? "We’re pretty much all-Razorback all the time," Merrill said.
University of Arkansas athletics are social glue for the whole state, something Merrill felt growing up and attending college in Russellville. After graduating from Arkansas Tech, Merrill helped start a couple of radio stations in Fort Smith, and he still works on-air after Razorbacks games and broadcasts high school games, taking joy in being the eyes for parents and grandparents who can’t attend.
But starting his own station has been the highlight of his budding career. Together with Jay Bunyard, who owns 17 other stations, Merrill in the summer of 2008 acquired his dream station in KUOA (founded in 1922, it was broadcasting classic country when Hog Radio bought it) and a spot on the FM dial that a church had long held the rights to. Said Merrill: "It’s almost like it’s not even a job half the time; it’s so much fun."
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