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Highway 49 Revisited airs on KASU

KASU-FM, the non-profit radio service of Arkansas State University, will present “Highway 49 Revisited,” a five-part radio series examining business growth along Highway 49 from the Hilltop area of Jonesboro through Brookland to Paragould. These half-hour programs will be broadcast on 91.9 FM and streamed live at www.kasu.org<http://www.kasu.org> Monday through Friday, April 9 through April 13, at 8:20 a.m. each day.

KASU reporter Johnathan Reaves extensively researched the impact of development along this portion of Highway 49, in particular increased traffic, economic growth, rising land values, growing population, and new jobs. The series will also examine in detail the construction of the new NEA Baptist Hospital complex and the new Craighead County fairgrounds. The radio series will feature comments from the mayors of Jonesboro, Brookland and Paragould. Business leaders, realtors, and educators were also interviewed for this series.

Portions of the Highway 49 Revisted radio series were originally broadcast on KASU as individual news reports which are archived at www.kasu.org/news<http://www.kasu.org/news>.

On Monday, April 9, Highway 49 Revisited will provide an overview of development along Highway 49 and a discussion of the new NEA Baptist Hospital complex.

On Tuesday, April 10, the series will feature audio tours of both the NEA Baptist construction site and the new fairgrounds construction site. Job growth related to the new hospital will also be discussed.

On Wednesday, April 11, Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin will discuss the impact on the city of the growth along Highway 49. Local business leaders will also discuss the highway, the traffic and the economic growth along that road.

On Thursday, April 12, Brookland mayor Kenneth Jones will discuss the growth of his city, and Brookland School District administrators will detail steps being taken to address the growth in the number of students in that district.

On Friday, April 13, Paragould mayor Mike Gaskill will describe how his city has been affected by growth along Highway 49. The increased vehicle traffic on the road will also be addressed.

KASU-FM is Arkansas’ oldest non-commercial radio station. KASU features a wide variety of news, discussion and music programs. Additional information about the station is at www.kasu.orghttp://www.kasu.org.

 

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.