Media in Little Rock, Arkansas


The Little Rock–Pine Bluff media market, which encompasses the state capital and two of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. state of Arkansas, maintains a variety of broadcast, print and online media outlets serving the region. The Little Rock–Pine Bluff market includes 38 counties in the central, north-central and west-central portions of the state, serving a total population of 1,172,700 residents ages 12 and over as of 2021. As of September 2021, it is ranked as the 59th largest American television market by Nielsen Media Research and the 92nd largest American radio market by Nielsen Audio.
The Little Rock–Pine Bluff designated market area is served by 13 television stations and 54 radio stations licensed to communities within of downtown Little Rock, along with nine television stations and 110 radio stations serving counties outside of the core metropolitan area.
The following is a list of newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and online media that currently operate or have previously operated in Central Arkansas. In addition to referencing broadcast media outlets that serve the immediate Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway and Pine Bluff metropolitan statistical areas, the article also lists television and radio stations licensed to non-metro counties within the broader Little Rock–Pine Bluff DMA.

Newspapers and magazines

The major daily newspaper published in Little Rock is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which is circulated statewide and publishes standalone print and digital editions focusing on the Arkansas River Valley and Ozark regions from a satellite facility based in Lowell. Founded as the Arkansas Gazette by William E. Woodruff in November 1819, it was the first newspaper to begin publication in the then-Arkansas Territory and was originally published in the pre-statehood territorial capital of Arkansas Post, before relocating to Little Rock shortly after it became the capital city in 1821. The Gazette and the rival Arkansas Democrat were consolidated into a single publication in October 1991, after Gannett sold the Gazette, which had been in financial decline for several years, to Democrat parent WEHCO Media. The Democrat-Gazette transitioned from print delivery to offering digital-only replica editions of its Monday-Saturday editions statewide in 2019, though it continues to produce a Sunday print edition.
In addition to the Democrat-Gazette, a number of other regional and special-interest newspapers are published in the area such as the alternative weekly Arkansas Times and business publication Arkansas Business. Several local magazines are also published in the city, most of which maintain a focus on business, lifestyle or religious interests.

Daily

  • Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
  • ''Daily Record''

Weekly

Air Scoop Arkansas BusinessArkansas Catholic Arkansas TimesBaptist Trumpet El Latino
  • ''Hola! Arkansas''

Community

Beebe NewsThe Daily Citizen The Leader Log Cabin Democrat Pine Bluff CommercialSaline Courier Sheridan Headlight
  • ''Sherwood Voice''

College

The Echo Frank: Academics for the Real World
  • ''UALR Forum''

Business, legal, entertainment and other local periodicals

501 Life MagazineArkansas Bride Arkansas Flavor Arkansas Food and Farm Arkansas Green Guide Arkansas LifeArkansas Living MagazineArkansas Money & PoliticsArkansas Next - Money Arkansas Next PROS Arkansas Next: A Guide to Life After High School Arkansas TotalArkansas Wild Aspire ArkansasAt Home in ArkansasAY MagazineENGAGE MagazineGreenhead Inviting ArkansasLease Guide Little Rock Beauty Black Book Little Rock Family Little Rock Guest Guide Little Rock Soirée Living in Arkansas Meeting Planner Metro Little Rock Guide Oxford AmericanRural Arkansas MagazineSavvy Kids URBANE Magazine
  • ''Venture''

Defunct newspapers and publications

The American GuideArkansas AdvocateArkansas BannerArkansas CarrierArkansas FarmerArkansas FreemanArkansas GazetteArkansas MansionArkansas RecorderArkansas StarArkansas State PressArkansas Supreme Court Advance SheetsArkansas Survey-JournalArkansas Temperance JournalArkansas Times and Advocate Arkansas Traveller Arkansas TribuneArkansas Union Labor BulletinArkansas Weekly SentinelArkansas Weekly TimesThe Arkansas WorldCabot Star-Herald Daily Legal NewsDaily RepublicanDas Arkansas Echo Independent DemocratInclusion MagazineLegislative DigestLittle Rock Free PressNational Democrat North Little Rock TimesPine Bluff Weekly HeraldPolitical IntelligencerSpectrum WeeklySpirit of the AgeTrue DemocratUnconditional Union
  • ''Woman's Chronicle''

Digital media

Television

The first television station to operate in Arkansas, KRTV, signed on from Little Rock on April 4, 1953; however, the station faltered mainly because it transmitted on the then-unviable UHF band, as television sets were not required to be manufactured with built-in UHF tuners at the time of its sign-on. In April 1954, KRTV forfeited its license to the Federal Communications Commission and sold its studio facility to Central-South Sales Co. to serve as an auxiliary studio for the state's first VHF station, KATV, which began operations in Pine Bluff in December 1953 and moved its city of license to Little Rock in 1958. KETS signed on as the state's first educational station on December 4, 1966; between 1976 and 2006, the Arkansas Educational Television Commission expanded its Little Rock-based station into a statewide education television network, now known as Arkansas PBS, signing on five satellite stations to provide educational programming throughout Arkansas.
Most of the transmitters belonging to television and radio stations in the area are located atop Shinall Mountain, just west of the immediate Little Rock city limits and near its Chenal Valley neighborhood; transmitter facilities for certain other area broadcasters are maintained near Redfield in Jefferson County.

Local broadcast stations

Outlying areas

Areas outside the immediate Little Rock–Pine Bluff metropolitan statistical area are served by mostly low-power stations, with the exceptions of three full-power stations, two of which operate as satellite stations of the Arkansas PBS network and one acting as a satellite of the locally programmed religious Victory Television Network.

Local independent cable channels

Subscription television

Subscription television service in the Little Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area is primarily provided by Comcast and AT&T U-verse. Cable television service in Pulaski County began in 1973, with service divided between Arkansas Cable Television in suburban Little Rock, North Little Rock Cablevision in North Little Rock, Television Inc. in the suburbs of North Little Rock and Sherwood, and Sherwood Cablevision in Sherwood; they would later be joined by Riverside Cable in Little Rock in 1980. Cable service was established in Pine Bluff the year prior through Television Communications Corp.-owned Pine Bluff Video. Conway Corporation, which also provided electricity, water and telephone service to residents in Conway, began offering cable service in 1979.
Arkansas Cable Television became part of Storer Cable in 1979; Storer expanded into North Little Rock and Jacksonville in July 1985, as part of a system swap—then the largest system trade in cable television history—that resulted in Storer also acquiring Times-Mirror's cable systems in Louisville, Kentucky and Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, and Times-Mirror acquiring Storer-owned systems in Phoenix, Paradise Valley and Mesa, Arizona, and Laguna Beach, California. Storer's Central Arkansas systems became part of Comcast in June 1994.

Radio

WOK was the first radio station in Arkansas, founded by Arkansas Power & Light Co. founder Harvey Couch and debuting in Pine Bluff on February 18, 1922. In its two-year existence, among other firsts, it became the first broadcaster in Arkansas to broadcast a sermon, to broadcast a sports event, and to broadcast a concert. The non-commercial station was entirely financially supported by AP&L, ultimately becoming a financial drain on the utility company, the limited number of frequencies then available led to complaints of WOK's signal causing interference with other stations. WOK ceased operations in June 1923 and its license was terminated by the FCC in June 1924. The first radio station in Little Rock was WSV, which debuted on April 8, 1922. Little Rock's first continuous radio station, KLRA, began in Fort Smith as WLBN in June 1927 and was reassigned to Little Rock in January 1928. The station, which would become a CBS Radio affiliate in 1929, employed an on-staff band for live in-studio broadcasts and often conducted remote broadcasts. KLRA-AM would remain popular into the 1980s and was among the last Little Rock stations with a staff of full-time news reporters.
KAAY began operations on 800 AM in Hot Springs in December 1924; the station, which became an NBC Blue affiliate in March 1929 and switched to CBS Radio in June 1953, was reassigned to Little Rock—following an aborted attempt in 1949 to relocate it to West Memphis—and became the state's first 50,000-watt clear channel station—relocating its transmitter to a tower in Wrightsville, which produced a nighttime signal that covered much of the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley regions and could be received as far as parts of Cuba—in March 1953. Following its 1962 purchase by LIN Broadcasting, the rechristened KAAY switched to an innovative mixed format for the time of top 40 music, news and agricultural reports, and religious programs; KAAY became known for its Arkansas Razorbacks football broadcasts and for being the originating station of Beaker Street, an underground music program that gained a cult following throughout the Central United States during its 1966–72 run. After earlier attempts to shift to adult contemporary, country music and oldies, following its sale to Beasley Broadcasting Group in 1985, KAAY adopted a religious format consisting of Southern gospel music and brokered religious programs, which it maintains to this day.
KOKY signed on as a daytime-only station in October 1956; as the first Arkansas radio station to employ an African American staff and to feature programming directed towards a Black audience, it gained a following among Little Rock's Black community due partly to the station's direct community involvement, including hosting and sponsoring various events throughout the city. Programming focused on Black rock-and-roll, blues and R&B music, religious programming and specialty programs. One of the station's DJs, Al Bell, regularly visited local restaurants, barbershops and record stores in the city's Black neighborhoods to help influence the content on his programs around the community's musical interests and tastes.
The Arkansas Radio Network syndication service was founded in Little Rock in 1967 as the Delta Farm Network, originating as an early-morning program hosted by Bob Buice. Utilizing news staff from KARK radio, general manager Ted Snider founded ARN following his 1971 purchase of the KARK radio stations from the Arkansas Radio & Equipment Company and expanded its offerings to include statewide news, weather and sports updates as well as specialty programs, along with its agricultural reports. By the late 1980s, ARN programming was distributed to nearly 70 radio stations across Arkansas. On February 21, 2022, Cumulus Media announced plans to suspend the network's operations effective March 20.

Outlying areas

Areas outside the immediate Little Rock metropolitan statistical area are served by radio stations of various formats :

NOAA Weather Radio

All NOAA Weather Radio stations serving the Little Rock market are operated by the National Weather Service office based in North Little Rock.
Frequency CallsignCity of license
162.400KXI96Russell
162.400WXJ54Star City
162.425KXI92High Peak
162.450WXL66Mountain View
162.475KXI91Morrilton
162.525WWF96Russellville
162.550WXJ55Little Rock