Ali King Sugg learned early this year that a woman owning a radio station needs the right toolkit — literally.
Her Red River Radio Inc. of Heber Springs is tied for 45th on this week’s list of Arkansas’ women-owned businesses.
The corporation operates KSUG-FM, The Lake.
Sugg has been around radio all her life — her father, Sid King, founded KGFL-AM and KHPQ-FM in Clinton.
Her sister, Ashley King, is host of “The Vine,” a lifestyle program on television’s KTHV in Little Rock, and a radio person-ality on Alice 107.7 in Little Rock and KISS FM in Jonesboro.
Sugg was well versed in the ad sales and on-air sides of the industry, having worked for her dad in Clinton and taken a degree in radio-TV from Arkansas State University.
But the technical side?
Not so much.
“I didn’t see the engineering aspect of it,” said Sugg, who started the only station in the Cleburne County lakeside town in May 2016.
“I had to get my own toolkit and learn how to use it when we went off the air just three days into the new year. My dad always carried a toolkit in his car, but I didn’t know how often he was at the transmitter fixing things.”
On the cusp of its seventh anniversary May 9, KSUG is having its best year ever, she said.
“Of course we had a down year in 2020, but we’ve rebounded and it seems that a lot of business in Heber Springs and Cleburne County are doing well” as Arkansans choose weekend getaways to the lake over longer and more expensive vacations out of state.
“Our tourism has been really, really good the past couple of years.”
KSUG is named for Sugg, who says her daughter and son may have the station someday.
The Federal Communications Commission doesn’t make it easy to start or name a new station, she said.
First she endured a bidding war for a place on the radio dial. That ended with her paying $309,000 for a piece of paper and FM frequency 101.9. She still thinks it was a good investment. The call letters themselves cost her only time and mental energy.
“You go to the FCC website and type in a K,” the initial letter of stations west of the Mississippi.
“Then, you try whatever other three letters you think might work and be meaningful.”
She tried KHSA for Heber Springs Arkansas. No go.
After “probably about 2,000 combinations, I tried KSUG, for my last name. I thought ‘I can’t do that,’ but I did.”
Red River Radio is newly subscribed to Nielsen Audio, formerly Arbitron, which estimates that in any given time it’s on the air, KSUG has 10,000 to 15,000 listeners.
Sugg likes giving them local news, weather and sports, as well as an on-air sense of community.
“I wanted to bring this area a local radio station that could talk about what is going on here and be a part of events,” she said. “If there’s an emergency, we can help people by getting them the information that they need. And I think we’ve done that.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
