After 45 years of filling the airwaves on AM and FM stations in Northwest Arkansas, KURM radio station in Rogers will be closing.
KURM owner, Kermit Womack, said health issues led to his decision to shut down. “Health issues here lately, having an artificial heart valve put in, has certainly given me the indication of the need to terminate the broadcasting activities,” Womack said.
Kermit Womack got his start in radio in 1952 when he took a job at a radio station at Arkansas Tech in Russellville. Since then, he’s been active in the Arkansas radio community. In 1979, Womack became an owner of KURM where radio programs often focused on a variety of local matters including education, politics, and sports.
“If it’s important to a region, he wanted to be a reflection of those activities,” Kermit’s son, Congressman Steve Womack, said. “He grew up on a farm, so he’s got a special interest for production agriculture. Because agriculture in this region is one of the most important economic drivers for the Northwest Arkansas economy, he wanted to give special attention to agriculture.” Kermit enjoys going to county fairs and reporting on cattle prices and even owned a couple of farms in his life.
KURM radio is part of a shrinking community of independently owned radio stations in the state. “His style of radio is kind of vanishing now from the marketplace,” Congressman Steve Womack said. “It’s hard to cover. It’s people-intensive. It’s problematic to find the kind of staff necessary to deliver those kinds of things, and when most radio stations today are heavily automated and heavily syndicated, he kind of swims upstream.”
Kermit said the station is currently up for sale and hopes the buyers continue the type of coverage KURM has done over the years. The business will officially cease operations on July 1.
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