Acceptance Video

The information below is the actual nomination language used by the person who submitted the nomination. All submissions had to answer three questions: one about the nominee's career, one about their contribution to the communist they served, and finally, about their contribution to the broadcasting industry in Arkansas.

Career and accomplishments as an Arkansas Broadcaster

November of 1958 – Joined members of the Hot Springs Speech Class to start a teen request show on KWFC called the “HS Deejays.” Don Hopson, one of the staff announcers at the station, selected him from the group and trained him, teaching him how to run the control board, and he was soon hired as a part-time weekend announcer. The station changed call letters to KAAB.

By spring of 1959, he got a full-time job at the radio station KBLO, working the afternoon shift. Then he got a full-time job at KWAK in Stuttgart, working the night shift. In 1960, he moved to KBBA in Benton to do the afternoon show. Late in 1960, he got an offer from a new 5,000-watt country station in Pine Bluff covering the weekend shift while waiting for a full-time opening in February 1961.

In the meantime, Donrey Media was building the first TV station in Hot Springs, KFOX-TV, Channel 9, going on the air in February, and he was hired to be an announcer and TV weatherman. All the local shows were live (pre-tape), and he became the program director. The station went off the air after two years and two months.

He went back to radio to do mornings at KAAB. That station went dark in the summer of 1963, and he got an offer to do the morning show on a new station in Camden, AR, KJWH.
In early 1964, he came back to Hot Springs as an announcer/salesman at KZNG (formerly KBLO) and became the general manager in 1966, remaining with KZNG for 16 years, 13 of those years as GM.

In 1980, he and his wife Polly, moved into station ownership. They put KWXI-AM on the air in Glenwood, AR, Pike County’s radio station. Later, they added an FM station, KWXE.

In the mid-90s, Polly and Tom built a new FM station in Hot Springs Village, KVRE 92.9. After operating three stations for several years, they sold the two in Glenwood to concentrate on KVRE.

Some of the highlights of his career in television included televising the Hot Springs Christmas Parade for the first time and hosting the popular Tom’s Record Room for Dean’s Milk. Some of the highlights of radio were creating and hosting the “Ask Your Neighbor” show for 40 years and broadcasting the Miss Arkansas Pageant on KZNG with his wife Polly for 10 years.

Tom received many accolades including recognition in Congress by Congressman Bruce Westerman and Congressman French Hill and at the State Legislature by State Rep. Richard McGrew and State Senator Matt McKee for 65 years.

Contributions to their community during their time as an Arkansas Broadcaster

Wherever my dad has been, he has always had the same principal, “Talk to your audience and support your city of license”. The special thing about KVRE is that Hot Springs Village is split between Garland and Saline counties, and he takes very seriously serving these areas. The KVRE reach goes much further, but stays true to covering both counties.

My dad’s footprint in broadcasting is not which committee he was on or what chamber he was associated with; it has always been connecting with the listener. That is what he will be remembered for. People stop him because they hear his voice and say, “Your Tom Nichols… we listen to you on the radio, and we feel like you are one of us.”

The biggest contribution my dad has done with any station he has been part of is that he always became involved with the people in the community.

Contributions to our industry

There are not many left in these times of family-owned local radio stations, and the fact that my dad still gets up every morning and comes into the office to do his “Ask Your Neighbor” show is a testament to what a true broadcaster does. He never talks about retiring because he says, “When you retire, you end up in the obituary section of the paper… LOL.” Truly, my dad is a broadcasting legend and is the example of what a true broadcaster should do each and every day.