For the picture story, we go to ABC affiliate KATV in Little Rock and reporter Oscar Alagood.
Kellams: It's Monday. This is Ozarks at Large. Kyle Kellams is with me in the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio.
Randy Dixon: Happy Monday.
Kyle Kellams: Happy Monday.
Dixon: We're going to do a legit profile of a person today, and you may not know who he is. This is a man who I heard of all my life, but I don't remember ever seeing him on TV. His name is Oscar Alagood. And if you'll notice, John Daly from ABC News—not the golfer. I'd never heard of John Daly of ABC News, but he apparently, in the ’50s, was the anchorman early in the days of television. But Oscar Alagood had the picture story. Did you notice he said picture story? I like a good picture story.
And they were, I guess, pretty new back then. Yeah.
Dixon: That was an introduction to, from what I can tell—and there's very little about Oscar Alagood on the internet. I guess he was in a period of broadcasting and television that was so new. But I believe he was the first news announcer and reporter at KATV. He later became a state senator in the mid to late ’60s.
We do have material of him on that, but we never had anything of him on television for two reasons. One, by the early ’60s he was already in politics in the legislature. And there was a fire at KATV in 1960 and it burned everything—equipment as well as film. Most of his film would have been in that part of the collection. Plus, anything he did on the air as an anchorperson was live, and there was no videotape then.
Kellams: So small stations didn't do kinescope.
Dixon: I was in this weird little dilemma that I could have profiled him as a politician, but not as the main reason I wanted to, which is because he was on KATV. Then, out of the blue, my friend Scott Charton—who for years and years was the bureau chief for the Associated Press in Missouri—sent me a link to a clip of an ABC News broadcast, 15 minutes long. That’s about how long they were back then. In September 1957, during the Central High crisis.
So let's go to this rare clip of John Daly introducing KATV's Oscar Alagood for a report on Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas.
John Daly (ABC News): The focus of conflict. No lessening of tensions as Washington put the legal machinery into operation. Today, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus was served with a summons. A step toward obtaining an injunction restraining the governor from obstructing school integration with National Guard troops. Hearings on arguments for a preliminary injunction have been set for Sept. 20. For the picture story, we go to ABC affiliate in Little Rock and reporter Oscar Alagood.
Oscar Alagood: The legal line has been drawn in the integration problem in Little Rock. Federal Judge Ronald Davies, moving with speed, issued an order instructing Governor Faubus and others to appear at a hearing on a request for an injunction to show cause why the federal court order of Aug. 28 ordering integration at Little Rock High School was not carried out. U.S. District Court Clerk Grady Miller reads the order.
Grady Miller: Governor of the State of Arkansas General Sherman T. Clinger, adjutant general of the State of Arkansas, and Lt. Col. Marion Lee Johnson, unit commander of the Arkansas National Guard, are hereby added as and made parties defendant in this cause. Paragraph two: Summons and a copy of said petition and of this order shall be served forthwith upon Governor Faubus, General Clinger, and Lt. Col. Johnson, and upon the plaintiffs and the other defendants herein. Paragraph three: A hearing upon the entry of a preliminary injunction, as prayed for in said petition, is hereby set for 10 a.m. Sept. 20, 1957, or as soon thereafter as may be heard by the court at room 436, Federal Building, Little Rock, Arkansas. Dated Sept. 10, 1957. Ronald N. Davies, United States District Judge, sitting by assignment.
Alligood: It was only a matter of 10 or 15 minutes after the order was read that U.S. Marshal Beal Kidd arrived at the governor's mansion with the summons. For the first time since the National Guards were placed around the mansion, the gates were open to a federal official. As Marshal Kidd walked the long distance around the driveway, the governor came across the lawn, greeted him warmly, and accepted the summons. They talked for a few moments, then posed for photographers who were outside the gate. Governor Faubus again shook hands with Mr. Kidd and the meeting was over.
In a special press conference, Governor Faubus said late this afternoon the tension has lessened. There isn't a need for as many troops around the high school. He said the troops will stay put until Sept. 20. Thus, the action of this afternoon apparently still means the present stalemate will continue, at least until the hearing in Judge Davies’ court 10 days from today.
Dixon: He was a household name in the early days of television.
The only reference I had heard from him at Channel 7 when I started there as a young man, I would still hear his name. I also heard it around my house when I was little because he was a big star. Back then TV was new. There were three stations, and everybody knew him.
In 1978, KATV produced a 25th anniversary program hosted by Steve Barnes, and here's how he mentions Oscar Alagood, in respect to the history of the television station.
Steve Barnes: For more than a decade, Oscar Alagood brought you the news, and he said goodbye most every night with his news closer: a light item or an anecdote that reminded the audience that somehow, someway, the world might survive. His pal Bob Hess was in charge of the highs and lows and stationary fronts. Alagood and Hess laid the groundwork for what would become the largest television news operation in Arkansas.
Kellams: What else can you tell us about Oscar Alagood?
Dixon: There's not a whole lot on the web about him. There's no bio in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Nothing on Wikipedia. Just a couple of references, and several from the Pryor Center. Our video of him as a legislator.
But I found a real expert on him—his son Greg. He’s a Little Rock attorney, recently retired and moved here to Fayetteville with his wife, Laura. I talked to him last week, and he picks up the story as we hit the early 1960s.
In 1960, he opened one of the first FM radio stations in Arkansas, KCMC, which was located in the Tower Building in Little Rock. At that point, he was devoting his full attention to getting that business going. He was such a popular broadcaster that his continued affiliation with KATV was doing the news broadcast. The Tower Building was about two blocks from the KATV studio. So at the end of the workday, he would just walk around the corner to KATV, do the 6 o’clock news, and then come home.
In the ’60s, he acquired the Central Arkansas franchise of Muzak. People like to joke about elevator music, but it sent the three Alagood children to college.
Dixon: So, legislator, senator, and one of the major legislative issues—we’re talking mid-’60s, Rockefeller as governor—there was this problem of gambling in Hot Springs. It was illegal, but it wasn’t legal. Yeah, they were going on in back rooms, the Vapors Club and that sort of thing. But here is Alagood. This is a clip from the archives. He’s a senator. He’s been interviewed by B.J. Sams, who was at Channel 7 at the time, left, later worked at KTHV, Channel 11.
Oscar Alagood: Well, B.J., once again I find myself, and very pleasurably so, in the position of offering congratulations to the director of the state police. In this instance, Colonel Lynn Davis, who has been quoted the last few days as saying that the backbone of gambling has been broken in Arkansas. I find myself in the same position of offering congratulations to Colonel Herman Lindsey, who said several months ago that illegal gambling had ceased to exist in Arkansas. I would like not to take anything away from Colonel Davis, who is doing his job admirably as a public servant, but to say at the same time that the credit for this does belong to the 1967 legislature, because it was through the actions in supporting Senate Bill 391 by various members of the legislature, that this came to fore. If you will recall, at the time that I made the statement, at the time that Senate Bill 391 was introduced, that one of two courses of action was available to the governor. That is, if he vetoed Senate Bill 391, this meant that he was forever and unequivocally opposed to legalized gambling or any form of gambling in the state of Arkansas, and he would take every means at his disposal to wipe it out. If, however, he approved the bill, this meant that he would like to have legalized gambling in the state of Arkansas to control it, or control a situation that had been going on flagrantly and illegally for years, and besides might add much needed revenue to the state.
Dixon: It sounded a little confusing about, well, it goes away if the bill is vetoed. Well, Rockefeller did veto the bill. Which, you know, was one of the last nails in the gambling coffin in Hot Springs. So in 1970, Alagood gave his support to a pro-tourism idea of adding Arkansas tourist information centers around the state.
Alagood: Well, there are two aspects into this program that make me vitally interested in it. First of all, is that this company will construct these tourist information centers at no cost whatsoever to the state. And second of all, if by any means whatsoever, and these people seem to have the answer, that we can attract travelers coming through our state to stay in a particular area one day, two days, or as long as they like more than they had originally planned.
Kellams: I just assumed tourism centers in Arkansas came with statehood.
Dixon: Yeah. No, actually, here’s a little bit of trivia. The very first one was in Bentonville, and that was in about 1967 it opened. But it was such a good idea they opened more in the ’70s—in Texarkana, Fort Smith, Van Buren, West Memphis, Blytheville, and Helena. And then the rest came.
Kellams: Harrison has one now.
Dixon: They’re all over. This next clip is kind of interesting. It’s from 1971, and I’m not really sure about the context he’s referring to, but it has to do with changing the voting age to 18.
Alagood: This issue of the 18-year-olds voting is going to mean a change in the minds of a lot of people, and the predominant question in these people’s minds are whether or not an 18-year-old is mature enough to make sound and responsible decisions. And this statement by the head of the Young Republican Party, who only last year that group made some of the kookiest decisions that I had ever had an occasion to hear about, only highlights this very issue of whether or not the youth of today are responsible enough to take on the responsibility of voting.
Kellams: Which did happen.
Dixon: Yeah, I mean, we did change the—actually that year, the 26th Amendment was ratified and it lowered the age from 21 to 18. You know, the Vietnam War was going and, you know, if you were old enough to fight, you should be old enough to vote.
He did, Alagood that is, run for higher office in ’72. He ran for secretary of state and had, I guess at the time, what would be a unique sort of campaign strategy. If you’ll remember, in ’92, Clinton and Gore had their bus tour after the Democratic National Convention. Well, Oscar Alagood did it in 1972 and had his whole campaign headquarters on wheels.
Alagood: Tried to think of something unique, Claude. I think that’s part of the secret of politics. And plus the fact that economics too, you know, don’t have all the money in the world to campaign. I don’t have an airplane so I can get around the state. And I made the vow at the beginning of my campaign that I would cover all 75 counties. I didn’t have enough money to open up campaign headquarters in some of the towns, nor to staff them. In fact, I’m using nine-tenths volunteers for people that are helping me. So I came up with the idea of leasing this bus, and I can do it very economically. And it’s a self-contained unit that we can travel and sleep and eat in it and save a lot of money and still cover the territory.
How many stops do you plan to make between now and the primary? What’s your tentative itinerary?
Alagood: Well, as far as my tentative itinerary, it only goes about four or five days, but I plan about 17 or 18 stops just before this weekend is out. And it’s problematical as to how many there will be between now and May 30, the primary date.
Kellams: As you said, it was novel then, but now you would just—okay, yeah, you’ve got a bus tour. It was innovative. \
Dixon: It was. So let’s go back to son Greg, and he’ll fill us in on some more parts of Oscar Alagood’s life.
Greg Alagood: He served two terms in the Arkansas State Senate and in 1972, he thought it would be a good idea to take on long-term incumbent Kelly Bryant for the secretary of state’s position. Lost that, and then he was subsequently hired to be the state Senate’s public information officer, kind of a press officer, I guess, if you will. And then Dad died in 1978 at the all too young age of 53. It’s amazing to me that to this day, people will tell me when they hear my name, oh, you have to be Oscar Alagood’s son. I remember him from TV. That was a long time ago.
Kellams: So he was one of the pioneers of broadcasting in Arkansas, a successful politician elected to office, a businessman as well.
Dixon: Big businessman. I mean, to have the franchise for Muzak—like Greg said, it sounds funny, but it put all the kids through school. And to have it for Central Arkansas, that’s pretty amazing.
So just to point out, I mean, you heard God’s voice. He was 5’1” and a bit, as his son even described, a little rotund. But you can’t tell that on television, you can’t on the radio, and certainly by his actions, he was a man of great stature.
I wasn’t even alive during most of his on-air career. But I’ve known his name since I was a child and through my time at Channel 7. I asked his son about what he thought he’d be remembered for now.
Greg Alagood: Probably as one of the earliest local news broadcasters. I would say, I think he was proud of his time in the state Senate. He took that work very seriously, but he was the type of person who, even though he would take his endeavors with a deadly earnestness, he still felt like you could have fun and humor could be involved in virtually everything that you do. And I think people just really remembered him for his larger-than-life personality.
Kellams: I have thoroughly enjoyed this, learning more about Oscar Alagood.
This has been fantastic. And it points out—go to the Pryor Center. Everything is up there now, about 5,000 hours. But this was spurred on by someone who found some found footage. So if you have something out there—thank you, Associated Press—but if you have something in your attic, audio or video that relates to Arkansas history, don’t assume the Pryor Center knows about it.
Dixon: Let us know. We might be able to get it digitized, and we could keep a copy of it and give you, of course, a copy and the original back.
I mean, if anyone has, you know, the Diane Blair–Phyllis Schlafly debate about ERA, the Holy Grail, if you’ve been holding out, please send it.
Kellams: Randy, thank you so much. Look forward to our next visit. Loved it.
Dixon: What if we, for a few weeks, take a little trip down death row? Some big names in crime.
Kellams: Okay.
Dixon: Is that too much?
Kellams: No. I’ll let you know when we get to be too much.
Dixon: I’ll bet you will.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
