Through The Years: The ’90s (40 Years of Arkansas Business)

Editor’s note: This article is part of a special magazine celebrating 40 years of Arkansas Business. The full magazine is available here.

Taking the weekly leap

In 1990, Publisher Alan Leveritt mulled over the challenge of transitioning Arkansas Business from a biweekly, feature-oriented publication to a more hard-hitting weekly newspaper. Most of the business publications that had popped up across the country in the previous decade started as monthlies or biweeklies, and by the fall of 1990, nearly all had become weeklies.

But in Little Rock, a newspaper war was still raging between the then-mighty Gannett Co., which owned the Arkansas Gazette, and the Arkansas Democrat, owned by the Hussman family’s much smaller Wehco Media. Both dailies had robust business reporting staffs trying to out-write, out-spend and out-circulate the adversary.

Undeterred, Leveritt took the leap in October 1990. Fueled by his considerable sales prowess and a more aggressive approach to news, the shift to weekly publication was an immediate success. Advertising revenue jumped with more pages to sell, and the additional revenue paid for a rapid expansion in the reporting staff. Veteran journalist Rex Nelson, who later became editor, joined in early 1991, and the transition to a probing, insightful, influential publication was complete and was promptly recognized with top honors by the national Association of Area Business Publications.

When the newspaper war ended and the newly christened Arkansas Democrat-Gazette emerged in October 1991, Arkansas Business’ niche solidified as the number of business reporters in the market shrank dramatically.

Over the next few years, the staff at Arkansas Business continued to accumulate editorial experience and its expertise grew. Under the guidance of Olivia Farrell, executive vice president of the Arkansas Writers Project, I worked as publisher to grow the special publication division and the events division.

In 1996, Farrell and Leveritt split the assets of the Arkansas Writers Project, and Farrell’s Arkansas Business Publishing Group was solidly profitable and positioned to adapt to the coming age of the internet.

 

– Wythe Walker
Publisher 1989-1996

 

 

---

1990

► Bob Lamb stepped down as executive director of the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, Bill Bowen left as chairman of First Commercial Corp., and Beverly Bassett turned in her notice after six years of battling bond daddies as state securities commissioner.

► Howard J. Wiechern, who transformed FirstSouth into the state’s largest financial institution, was convicted of conspiracy and bank fraud. His was the first major conviction in Arkansas during the S&L crisis.

► Walmart founder Sam Walton revealed he was being treated for bone cancer.

► Alltel Corp. acquired another Little Rock operation, Systematics Inc., following surprisingly secret negotiations. Stephens Group Inc. became a major shareholder in Alltel.

► Arkansas voters rejected Amendment 2, which would have eased the state’s interest rate laws.

► Worthen Banking Corp. helped set both national precedent and state banking history when it overcame a court challenge to buy Independence Federal Savings Bank. In the process, it became Arkansas’ first statewide bank. Jack and Witt Stephens, meanwhile, increased their stake in the holding company from 31% to 35.8%.

► Fairfield Communities Inc. and the Crestwood Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Fairfield’s was the biggest in
state history.

► The last of the big Little Rock bond shops, Allison Rosenblum & Hannahs, closed its doors.

---

1991

► W.R. “Witt” Stephens, the legendary financial and political kingpin in Arkansas, died Dec. 2 at age 84.

► The Persian Gulf War began in January and took its toll on the nation’s economy.

► The final edition of the 172-year-old Arkansas Gazette was published Oct. 18. Arkansas Democrat Publisher Walter E. Hussman Jr., left, purchased the assets of the Gazette from Gannett Co. for $69 million. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette debuted as “The Best of Both” on Oct. 19.

► Melvyn Bell stepped down as chairman of Environmental Systems Co. in Little Rock.

► Bill Clinton announced his candidacy for president in October at the Old State House.

► Stock winners were First Commercial Corp., up 125%; Walmart Stores Inc., up 90%; and Worthen, up 66%.

► The crumbling of Jones Truck Lines in Springdale, once the nation’s 16th-largest less-than-truckload company, shook the industry. Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The biggest benefactor was Arkansas Freightways Corp. of Harrison, which picked up 25% of Jones’ business. Cannon Express of Springdale, another beneficiary of JTL’s failure, led the growth among Arkansas stocks with a 303% increase to $19.25 over its closing price of $4.75 in 1990.

---

1992

► Walmart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton, known by friends and business associates as “Mr. Sam,” died April 5 after a long bout with bone cancer. He was 74. His oldest son, S. Robson “Rob” Walton, was elected chairman to succeed his father the day after his death. Rob Walton’s son-in-law, Greg Penner, would succeed him as chairman in 2015.

► Arkla Inc. struggled with a 32% drop in stock value. Its chairman, Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, left to become President-elect Bill Clinton’s chief of staff.

► Acxiom Corp. of Conway was a roller-coaster ride for investors, with the data processing firm suffering from the recession at the beginning of the year before enjoying a 143% jump in stock price by year’s end. Chairman Charles Morgan led the company’s restructuring effort and struck major contracts by midyear.

► Other Arkansas stock winners for the year were El Dorado’s First United Bancshares, up 92%; Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff, up 63%; and Hudson Foods Inc., up 57%.

► Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was elected president of the United States, bringing worldwide attention to Little Rock and Arkansas. Clinton made his victory speech on the steps of the Old State House.

► The state saw major political developments with Lt. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker becoming governor in December, longtime U.S. Reps. Bill Alexander and Beryl Anthony being defeated in Democratic primaries, longtime U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt retiring, and U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers surviving a challenge by Republican Mike Huckabee for a fourth term.

---

1993

► Mike Huckabee defeated Democrat Nate Coulter in a special election to become lieutenant governor.

► Jack Stephens became chairman of Donrey Media Group after the Stephens Group bought controlling interest in the media conglomerate left behind by the death of Donald W. Reynolds. Stephens’ purchase price formed the endowment for the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

► First Commercial Corp. announced plans to acquire State First Financial Corp. of Texarkana, making First Commercial the state’s largest bank holding company.

► Baptist Medical System and Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield announced a joint effort for managed health care called Health Advantage.

► Bill Clinton’s inauguration as president of the United States took dozens of Arkansas business and political leaders to Washington, D.C., including Rose Law Firm partners Webb Hubbell, William Kennedy and Vince Foster. Foster committed suicide in July.

► Worthen Banking Corp. and The Union of Arkansas Corp. completed their banking merger.

---

1994

► Charles Murphy Jr. relinquished the chairmanship of Murphy Oil Corp. in El Dorado to his son, Madison Murphy.

► Baptist Health System bought an $8.7 million tract in North Little Rock with plans for a new hospital.

► The Office of the Independent Council, established to investigate a Clinton business deal known as Whitewater, set up an office in Little Rock. Arkansas business and political connections came under increased scrutiny as Tyson Foods and Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy were accused of improprieties, and former Rose Law Firm partner and U.S. Associate Attorney General Webb Hubbell pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud charges and tax evasion.

► After losing its much-ballyhooed David vs. Goliath patent infringement lawsuit against Mobil Corp., Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies Inc. of Springdale saw its stock plummet from a high of $2.25 a share to as low as 19 cents, a 92% fall.

► Doctors Hospital in Little Rock was renamed Columbia Doctors Hospital as Columbia-HCA Healthc

are Corp. launched an effort to expand its presence in Arkansas.

► St. Louis bank holding companies acquired two of the state’s largest franchises. Boatmen’s Bancshares Inc. bought Worthen Banking Corp. of Little Rock in a $530 million deal, and Mercantile Bancorporation Inc. bought TCBankshares Inc. of North Little Rock for $155 million.

► Herschel Friday, managing partner of the Friday Eldredge & Clark law firm, died in a plane crash.

---

1995

► Gov. Jim Guy Tucker was indicted over his past Arkansas business deals as part of the all-encompassing Whitewater investigation that had gained a new prosecutor, Kenneth Starr.

► Ground was broken for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Benton County.

► State legislators overwhelmingly approved the Patient Protection Act that would require health insurance companies to open their provider networks to “any willing provider.” The controversial new law was immediately challenged by insurers and large employers and wasn’t enforced until 2005.

► Ownership of the Northwest Arkansas Times in Fayetteville became the subject of a lawsuit featuring Arkansas’ two most powerful families, the Waltons and the Stephenses.

► Tyson Foods Inc. and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. each created the new position of “senior chairman” to accommodate the retirement of their namesake chairmen Don Tyson and J.B. Hunt.

► Pulaski County voters approved a sales tax increase to fund the “River Project,” including a $72 million multipurpose arena.

► Longtime U.S. Sen. David Pryor, D-Arkansas, shook up the political landscape by announcing he would not seek re-election in 1996.

---

1996

► President Clinton brushed off the conventional wisdom and won re-election to a second term, returning to Little Rock once again for his election night acceptance speech.

► The Republican Party enjoyed unprecedented victories in the General Election: Tim Hutchinson became the first Republican senator from Arkansas since Reconstruction, joining brother Asa in Congress, Winthrop Paul Rockefeller won the lieutenant governor’s seat, and Jay Dickey was re-elected to Congress from the 4th District.

► The downtown Fort Smith business district was devastated by a tornado, which led to a redevelopment of the area.

► A constitutional amendment that would have allowed casino gambling at Oaklawn Park — bankrolled by Oaklawn owner Charles Cella — failed at the ballot, as had every other casino proposal to date.

► Jerry and Clete Brewer took the lead in the roll-up of temporary staffing companies to create Arkansas’ newest public company, StaffMark Inc. of Fayetteville. Harrison-based First Federal Bancshares of Arkansas and Deltic Timber Corp., a spinoff of Murphy Oil Corp. of El Dorado, also went public.

► Convicted of two felony charges related to business deals in the 1980s, Gov. Jim Guy Tucker announces after the verdict that he would resign. As Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee prepared to take the oath of office, Tucker decided at the last minute not to resign after discovering new information in the case. Under pressure from shocked legislators, Tucker relinquished the governorship later the same day.

► The $40 million Arkansas Heart Hospital was built in west Little Rock.

---

1997

► Longtime U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Arkansas, announced he would not seek re-election in 1998.

► Little Rock was chosen as the site of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

► Construction problems continued at the Alltel Arena when the NBA teams that were to open the 18,000-seat facility in October were sent back to their buses after cracks were found in the concrete beams supporting the upper deck. The arena opened a couple of weeks later and has since had two more names, Verizon Arena and Simmons Bank Arena.

► Johnny Allison, the Conway manufactured-home magnate and bank entrepreneur, escaped unharmed after being kidnapped by an escaped convict, James Avery Slack. Allison believed he was targeted because of his friendship with investment adviser Alex Lieblong of Conway, whose wife, Jo Ann, had been kidnapped by Slack in 1993.

► The sudden separation of longtime Arkansas accounting icon H.G. “Jack” Frost Jr. and philanthropist Bernice Jones evolved into remarkable allegations of fraud centered on her multimillion-dollar trust funds.

► The recall of 25 million pounds of beef — the largest recall of its kind in U.S. history — resulting from an E. coli bacteria scare at a Hudson Foods plant proved fatal to the Rogers-based food giant. The result was a $680 million sale to Tyson Foods of Springdale.

---

1998

► Alltel Corp. of Little Rock acquired 360 Communications Co. of Chicago in a $6.2 billion transaction. It was the highest-dollar business deal ever in Arkansas.

► The $72 million Alltel Arena project in North Little Rock fell behind because of construction problems.

► Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Alabama, acquired the state’s largest bank holding company, First Commercial Corp. of Little Rock, in a $2.7 billion stock deal.

► StaffMark Inc. of Fayetteville continued its roll-up of staff services companies with its biggest deal ever, the $179 million purchase of Robert Walter PLC, based in the United Kingdom.

► Acxiom bought its chief rival, May & Speh Inc. of Illinois, for $625 million in stock and launched a major employment expansion in Little Rock, including the relocation of its corporate offices from Conway.

► The Walton Foundation donated $50 million to the University of Arkansas College of Business Administration and $30 million to the University of the Ozarks.

► After a long drought of major acquisitions and reversing a 60-year tradition of buying stores at bargain prices, Dillard’s Inc. of Little Rock outbid competitors to acquire Mercantile Stores Inc. of Fairfield, Ohio, for $2.9 billion in cash.

► The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, under construction since 1995, opened in Highfill.

---

1999

► A series of January tornadoes killed four people and injured dozens while damaging 1,000 homes and 120 businesses.

► Congress passed the first major overhaul of Depression-era laws to allow banks, brokers and insurers to enter one another’s businesses. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act included provisions allowing banks in Arkansas to get around the usury limit in the state Constitution.

► Unable to substantially expand its presence in Arkansas, especially the northwest Arkansas market, Columbia/HCA sold Columbia Doctors Hospital to St. Vincent Health System and withdrew from the market.

► Sizable cuts in reimbursements to Medicare providers contained in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act continued to cause havoc in Arkansas and across the country and were compounded by continued reductions in payments by managed care companies.

► Longtime state Sen. Nick Wilson, D-Pocahontas, was convicted of tax evasion and conspiracy in a corruption scandal that also snared 10 other people.

► After intense political debates, the General Assembly adopted legislation to deregulate the electric utility industry in the state. The law, heralded as a model for the rest of the nation, would have allowed competition in electric distribution as early as 2002.