![]() I had covered many executions over the years for KARN, but this was the only time that I interviewed an inmate in the weeks before the death sentence was carried out. In August 1996, I put together a special half-hour program on a pending execution in Arkansas. Fortunately the station has long since begun only having people on the air who are knowledgeable about classical music.Ī mug shot of Si-Fu Frankie Parker on May 22, 1996. Also, I was pretty much just randomly grabbing CDs out of our library, not having any kind of structure for what I was playing. I’m sure listeners could tell I had no idea what I was talking about. Never being much of a classical music fan and not even being sure how to say the names of the composers, I was a pretty terrible classical music host. I was eventually hired at the station and spent a year or so running NPR jazz programs in the evening on KUAR, while also hosting a classical program on sister station KLRE-FM 90.5. Today it’s a thriving entertainment district known as the River Market. AUDIO: Newsroom from July 20, 1995, discussing a proposal to develop Little Rock’s riverfront area, which was then mostly abandoned warehouses. AUDIO: KUAR’S interview program Newsroom from June 15, 1995, talking with leaders of an Arkansas Vietnam veterans group about issues like finding missing soldiers and treating vets suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. ![]() ![]() I sound pretty goofy in these early shows and clearly hadn’t gotten very comfortable hosting an interview program. Before this I had only done short reports in the 40 second range. Having that kind of time to delve deep into subjects that interested me was amazing. It was my first taste of doing any kind of long-form interview program and I really enjoyed it. I would find topics for program and line up guests, with most interviews being conducted at KUAR. Each week during the summer semester in 1995 I would record a half-hour interview called Newsroom. They were excited to meet someone from Little Rock who was involved in one of the national shows they were airing and we had a good conversation.Ī couple of years later I got my first opportunity to be on KUAR through an independent study class. It was while I was an intern with C-SPAN helping to produce a weekly public radio program that I had first heard a couple of years before then on KUAR. Zafasi and her wife, Alison Zafasi, an oncology and hematology nurse at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, live in Little Rock with their dog Ella.I first met Station Manager (though he might have been program director at the time) Ben Fry and other station leaders in May 1993 at an annual public radio conference in Washington, DC. She earned a bachelor’s degree in social work and master’s degree in social work from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She has also previously worked as coordinator of residence education at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Zafasi joins UA Little Rock Public Radio from Mental Health America of Ohio, where she served as coordinator of the Franklin County Suicide Prevention Coalition and manager of support groups. ![]() In a state like Arkansas, people like to know what is happening in their local communities.” I am trying to encourage everyone to see the value of public radio. “Individual donors make up over 50 percent of our revenue, which helps us to independently report on stories, companies, and organizations without any ethical conflict,” she said. With a listenership of about 80,000 people per week, Zafasi is dedicated to showing the community the value of public radio. In her new role, Zafasi is responsible for membership services, donor relations, organizing the annual fund drives, event planning, and working with Friends of KLRE/KUAR. Our newsroom is nicely connected with university departments, and every year we get wonderful students who serve as interns for our radio stations and get a chance to see what it’s like to work in a newsroom.” “I’ve learned a lot about the importance of being an NPR affiliate station and being connected to UA Little Rock puts us in a great position. “So far my job at KUAR and KLRE has been a really cool experience,” Zafasi said. Housed within the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education, UA Little Rock Public Radio is a public service unit of UA Little Rock where university students gain professional experience by working as interns and part-time staff members. UA Little Rock Public Radio is the home of KUAR FM 89.1 and KLRE Classical 90.5 and serves as the region’s NPR news and information provider. Grace Zafasi, a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been named the new membership director for UA Little Rock Public Radio.
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