Frank Deford Comes to Arkansas for KLRE/KUAR Fundraiser

 

Frank Deford Comes To Arkansas for Fundraiser

Frank Deford Comes To Arkansas forKLRE/KUAR Fundraiser

Frank Deford Comes to Arkansas for Fundraiser

The Friends of KLRE/KUAR will host a fundraiser featuring an evening with sportswriter and public radio commentator Frank Deford. “The Politics and Economics of Sports” will be the theme at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19 at Embassy Suites in west Little Rock. The event will include a dinner, talk and book signing with Deford. Arkadelphia native and Sporting Life Arkansas featured writer, Rex Nelson will be the master of ceremonies. A cash bar will precede the dinner in the foyer of the Embassy Suites ballroom.

“We’re very excited to be welcoming Frank Deford to Little Rock,” says Katherine Lu, board president of the Friends of KLRE/KUAR. “He’s more than just an NPR personality – he’s a national sports icon,” she says of the Baltimore native whose work appears regularly in Sports Illustrated, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and National Public Radio. Deford is the author of 18 books, nine of them novels, and was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Obama on July 10. His Wednesday morning sports commentaries are broadcast on KUAR FM 89 at 7:50.

Rex Nelson, the Southern Fried Blogger, will be introducing Deford and conducting the question-and-answer session at the end of Deford’s presentation. Nelson is a regular political commentator on KUAR news, president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges & Universities association, a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and a former advisor to Gov. Mike Huckabee. His career started as broadcaster and sportswriter covering the Ouachita Baptist Tigers.

“Rex is going to be a great host because he’s a real expert on Arkansas culture with a background in politics, sports and writing,” says Lu. “We hope that this event will help Public Radio reach a new segment of our regular listeners and get to know some of our more occasional listeners better.”

Admission to the Frank Deford event is $100, and proceeds will benefit KLRE/KUAR’s 40th anniversary equipment fund. The top priority is replacing the stations’ aging audio control boards – used to broadcast the station signal and record local content. “The equipment is more than 15 years old and starting to fail,” says General Manager Ben Fry, “And some of the parts for these boards are getting hard to replace,” he says.  “Reporters, producers and board operators are constantly having technical problems. It’s time to update.”

The Friends of KLRE/KUAR is a nonprofit organization that financially supports the two stations of UALR Public Radio. Unlike commercial radio, “members” of the Friends of KLRE/KUAR make financial contributions to support the stations’ annual operating budgets. “Hundreds of listeners participate in our semi-annual fund drives and become members of UALR Public Radio,” says Development Director Mary  Waldo. “But it’s been several years since we’ve hosted a major fundraiser,” she says. “This year our focus is to improve the equipment for KUAR FM 89 and KLRE Classical 90.5. We do rely on the support of our listeners and members to serve central Arkansas.”

KLRE FM 90.5, Little Rock’s first public radio station, went live in 1973 and became a member of National Public Radio in 1984. KUAR FM 89.1 went on the air in 1986. Today the two stations serve a third of the state’s population and even more people through live streaming on the internet. KUAR broadcasts news and information programming, including daily newsmagazines from NPR and local news. KLRE broadcasts classical music 24 hours a day.

An evening with Frank Deford will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 19 at Embassy Suites, 11301 Financial Centre Parkway. Admission is $100 per person, and $50 of that is a tax deductible donation to public radio. Reservations are available at kuar.org.

Tags: , , ,