Not that you asked...

I was sitting around the other day thinking profound thoughts, when it occurred to me that for a city as small as Marked Tree, it has sent a lot of its citizens into the world of radio.

Now, I know that for many of you the old joke about having a face perfect for radio came to mind. While I'm sure it's safe to declare that none of these people will ever show up as People's Sexiest Man, they don't make extra money on Halloween being paid to scare children.

There are at least four people from Marked Tree that have made a living talking into a microphone. Two of them were no surprise to me, and two were. One of the surprises was Ralph Walker, Jr. Then when I started thinking about it, making a living talking is perfect for Ralph. He is probably retired by now, but the last I heard of him he was working at WREC in Memphis.

The other surprise was Scott Aycock, because he had not shown much interest in radio when he was here. He has been a fixture on the radio in Tulsa. His programs promote folk music. It's no happy accident that Scott is involved in music; in fact two of his sons are musicians.

The two people who were no surprise at all were Stewart Brunner and Trey Stafford. Both of them worked at the Marked Tree radio station, KPCA. That means that both of them are honor graduates of the DeWhitt Waites Broadcasting Academy.

Brunner went to work at KPCA when the station put a help wanted ad in the school bulletin. These days he is involved with several stations in Mountain Home.

Stafford has been on the radio longer than any of the others. It began when he stopped by the station after school and asked the manager if he collected school news could he read it on air. He was eight years old, and to this day he hasn't shut his mouth. He eventually became the manager at KPCA, where he was best known for putting the station on the air after hours to read weather reports during stormy weather.

Today Trey is in the Jonesboro Radio Group. They have multiple stations, with every possible format you can imagine. Chances are if you listen to radio in Jonesboro, you're listening to one of his.

That's all I've got for this week. No liberal rants, no name calling. Not even an evil word for Sean Hannity. Just an unusual fact about Marked Tree.