November 4, 2025 • 51 mins
What turns a busy downtown into a true community? We sit down with Aaron Nolan, UCA alum, veteran broadcaster, and now communications director at Downtown Bentonville Inc., to unpack the playbook behind block parties, farmers markets, and a holiday season that lights up the square for thousands. From the outside, it looks effortless. Behind the scenes, it’s a masterclass in planning, partnerships, and storytelling.
Aaron takes us from a UCA bulletin board that launched his anchor career to the grind of early jobs, the leap to a national network, and the long runway required to cover the Olympics in Rio and Korea. He shares how in-depth research transforms interviews into genuine relationships, why a gold medal moment still gives him chills, and what curling has taught him about humility and preparation. Those lessons now inform how DBI programs free, family-friendly experiences that feel organic rather than manufactured, and why their Emmy-nominated show, Downtown Now, keeps the spotlight on the people behind the scenes.
We also acknowledge the challenges of growth. Parking perceptions, real traffic challenges, and constant construction are part of a fast-growing region. Aaron explains how DBI coordinates with City Hall, Visit Bentonville, and the chamber, and why the new A Street Promenade could become a regional destination if it’s programmed thoughtfully from day one. Alongside that, we talk about UCA’s expanding footprint in Northwest Arkansas, alumni engagement, talent pipelines, and telling the stories that connect Conway to Bentonville’s square.
If you care about placemaking, local events, and the mechanics of civic storytelling, this conversation delivers practical insight and a few great laughs. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves downtowns, and leave a review to tell us what you want to hear next.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
This is Central to NWA, a UCA podcast.
I'm your host, Paul Gatling, andwe are bringing the University
of Central Arkansas to NorthwestArkansas.
Each episode, we will talk withleaders, alumni, and innovators
driving this region forward.
People who are shapingindustries and defining what is
next for our state.
(00:22):
Let's get started.
Welcome to Central to NWA a UCApodcast, where we will highlight
the stories, the voices, and theimpact of UCA alumni and others
who are shaping one of thefastest growing regions in the
country.
I'm Paul Gatling, and I'm theUniversity of Central Arkansas's
first senior director ofNorthwest Arkansas Engagement.
(00:43):
And for this debut episode,we're going into the heart of
Bentonville with someone who hasbeen telling Arkansas stories
for two decades, from the anchordesk to the downtown square.
He's the University of CentralArkansas graduate who has made a
name for himself inbroadcasting, from covering
national news to working onOlympic assignments seen around
the world.
And these days, he's thecommunications director for
(01:06):
downtown Bentonville, Inc.,where he helps publicize all
things related to the downtownarea.
He's also the co-host of theweekly television program
Downtown Now, Aaron Nolan, UCAclass of 2004.
How are you?
Paul, good to be here.
SPEAKER_02 (01:20):
Excited to be a part of this, really proud of the
time I spent at UCA and theimpact that it made.
Man, you read 20 years.
I'm like, really?
20 years?
Doesn't get any better.
SPEAKER_00 (01:32):
Yeah.
It only gets longer better.
It's only going to get longer.
SPEAKER_02 (01:35):
Wow.
But, anyways, really happy to behere, Paul.
SPEAKER_00 (01:37):
Yeah, and I really appreciate your time as we
discuss coming in.
I know you have nothing elsegoing on that you're planning
for in downtown Bentonville overthe holiday season coming up.
SPEAKER_02 (01:47):
Nothing going on.
There's there's there's not alighting of the square with 30
miles of lights and two 20,000people.
There's not a Christmas paradecoming.
Nothing at all, Paul.
Nothing that I would not put onthe shelf for you.
SPEAKER_00 (01:59):
Yeah.
Lighting of the square, doesthat does that give you anxiety
just by saying that?
Or it how does that compare withlike breaking news on live
television, Brent?
Completely different, right?
SPEAKER_02 (02:08):
So uh breaking news, I I felt like I was able to
compartmentalize quite a bit.
Um, whether it's it's a fire oror you know, unfortunately, some
some other nefarious things thatgo on, you kind of go into a
different mode.
I'm still teaching myself how tobe involved in these massive
community events.
SPEAKER_00 (02:28):
And yeah, I was gonna say the mode you're in is
crowd control.
That's the mode, that's it.
That's it, biting of the squareand the parade and all of those
fun things you get to do.
SPEAKER_02 (02:36):
So yeah, so from a community engagement standpoint
for what we do at downtownBentonville, it the holidays are
intense.
We'll use intense.
We won't use stressful, they'reintense.
Yeah, they're fun.
They are a blast.
I wouldn't want to be anywhereelse.
Uh you know, Mayberry ain't gotnothing on Bentonville,
Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00 (02:54):
That's right.
Where else would you rather be?
All right, so you've worn a lotof hats we've discussed.
Journalist, broadcaster, now uhstoryteller, communications
director.
How do you describe the throughline um for all of those things?
And maybe just start by what doyou do these days at we'll call
it DBI, which I know is what youguys refer to it as downtown
Bentonville.
Tell us about your job with DBI.
SPEAKER_02 (03:14):
So, right now, uh made the shift, uh, I guess
about three years ago fromjournalism on the national scale
with News Nation.
Uh, my wife and I were fortunateenough to help start that
network.
Um, and we came back home toArkansas.
We landed in Bentonville and wason the board of downtown
Bentonville, Inc.
And through a transition, wasasked to join the team there.
(03:37):
Couldn't be more happy to be apart of that.
My kids wanted to be in downtownBentonville, and I saw this is
exactly what the next phase ofmy career needed to be.
Uh, and so at DBI, we put onhuge block parties for people.
We our mission statement is toconvert uh to cultivate
community in downtownBentonville.
(03:58):
Uh we do it through farmersmarkets that is about to set a
record for all-time sales,meaning we are not only bringing
people produce and farm freshgoods, those farmers are also
able to make a living.
Uh, we're very proud of thatsignature event that we do.
First Fridays, you mentionedseven events, 12 to 15,000
people are down on theByttonville Square each month
(04:20):
from April through October.
And then we've got those holidayevents as well.
So we're really focusing onfinding ways to create this
organic lifestyle of communityblock parties, of being together
as a people.
Um, we really do have a lot ofdifferent uh uh ways of life in
Bittenville, and we want tobring all those people together.
(04:41):
So at the root of it all, that'swhat we do.
Now we also have a storytellingelement through now a two-time
Emmy nominated program downtownnow.
Uh, we're excited to be able totell those stories because
behind every good event, thereare there are stories to be
told.
There are people who areexcelling and finding new ways
to do different things thatimpact us on a daily level that
(05:01):
maybe we never knew about.
SPEAKER_00 (05:02):
Right.
Daily level.
What is a day in the life?
What is a typical morning atdowntown Bentonville?
With all that you just said,that's 12 months a year planning
of for of some kind of what's atypical day like that.
That's it.
SPEAKER_02 (05:14):
It's planning.
It's it's it's the emails thatare unexpected, having to pivot
on a dime to make sure and toprotect the masses that come to
downtown Bentonville that theydon't see that, right?
We want to make sure they'rethey're having a joyous, uh,
happy, free family entertainmentat all times.
So daily, we're going throughthose processes to make sure
(05:35):
they don't see that, thatthey're only experiencing the
highs.
We're communicating with cityleaders uh today uh in our
office.
We had a city leader talkingabout this brand new A Street
promenade that's gonna open upon November the 15th.
These are big moves in downtownBentonville.
And so we are intrical, the teamthere at downtown Bentonville,
they are integral in making sureall of those things happen.
(05:56):
I'm just there kind of steeringthe communication.
How are we saying things andwhere we're saying them with our
executive director?
And um it's it's it's alwayssomething new.
Uh I would say in journalism,you kind of get into the same
old, same old.
Every story may be tolddifferently, every story may be
different, but in eventmanagement, in in being a part
(06:19):
of building something from theground up, and in and whether
it's an event or whether it's astory, uh, this is very mentally
stimulating day-to-day at DBI.
SPEAKER_00 (06:27):
You mentioned visiting with a city leader.
Yeah.
How would you describe thepartnership between um you know
event planning, city hall, visitBentonville, the Chamber of
Commerce?
Where is D DBI's place in that?
And just kind of what is thestructure of who does what, I
guess?
SPEAKER_02 (06:43):
Yeah, I think that's a very valid question, Paul, and
something that took a lot oftime for me to figure out.
I I would say right now, DBIcompared to journalism first.
Journalism was kind of on theoutside looking in when it came
to the city of things, right?
What the news of the day is.
We had mayors and city councilmembers who may not be as open.
(07:04):
And you understand this, Paul,from your days in journalism.
But when you switch sides andyou go to something that is that
is really ground floor buildingcommunity in our town, you're on
the inside track.
You're on the inside.
So you get to go, you get calledto the mayor's office, and you
know, all those TV shows, well,I've I've been called to the
oval.
I've got to go to the oval.
That happens now at DBI, andit's a fun thing, it's a good
(07:25):
thing.
Um, but as far as separation ofDBI, the city, um, Visit
Bittenville and the Chamber,they all have their different
ways.
Um, the easy way to say it iscity is the government.
It is the part that is runningthe city on a day-to-day basis.
Visit Bentonville is an outwardfocusing group that's really
focused on tourism bringing themhere.
(07:46):
The chamber is focused onbusiness.
DBI is really focused on inwardgrowth and really accelerating
the community in downtown tobring people from all walks of
life, from everywhere aroundNorthwest Arkansas to
Bentonville.
We really want to focusinwardly.
And then we go to thatstorytelling element, and that's
where we want to accentuatewhat's happening here.
Not what's happening on theoutside that's broad here, but
(08:08):
what's happening, what's thetrue heartbeat of what
Bentonville is?
And for us at DBI, I think DBIreally is that heartbeat of
Bentonville, of downtown, reallydowntown Bentonville, and the
heartbeat of keeping thingsgoing and making sure that we're
finding those ways of life thatwe can accentuate and continuing
to throw parties.
Can't can't not say that aboutDBI.
SPEAKER_00 (08:29):
We love to throw parties.
Right.
What's what's morenerve-wracking for you, uh,
going back to that question weasked a minute ago, is it is it
broadcasting live on air, or isyou mentioned that first Friday
on the stage in front of 12 to15,000 people?
I mean, that's um that's apretty big deal in in a city the
size of Bentonville.
SPEAKER_02 (08:48):
For me personally, I it's it's one of my favorite
things in the world to be onstage in front of people.
Yep.
Not a lot of people know that.
I think uh you're you're not asmuch of an old journalist as I
am.
The real old journalists areintroverts.
They really are absolutelyextroverted introvert.
That's right.
Right.
Yeah.
Uh and so I can play that roleon stage really nicely.
(09:10):
Uh I came up with this a longtime ago, Paul.
I guess probably right after Ileft UCA.
I'm not an idiot, but I'll playone on TV.
And I enjoy that part of it, andI get to do that.
Um, the stress of going back tobreaking news, the stress, the
stress of trying to get everyfact correct for me.
Uh, this is more fun on thisside.
(09:31):
And so I would say being on onstage at First Friday or
lighting in the square that'scoming up here in a couple of
weeks is so gratifying for me.
It's a blast.
SPEAKER_00 (09:39):
Also, let's talk about UCA.
All right, let's face it acouple of times.
And um, you know, you're fromyou're from Arkansas, Central
Arkansas.
Take take me through the uh thethe circumstances that led you
to choosing UCA as as yourcollege and just and what did
you study?
What did you go there intendingto do?
What was that like?
SPEAKER_02 (09:57):
So I've thought a lot about my story when it came
to to college because I knew wewere going to talk about this.
Um I grew up in a conservativehousehold, and so all the
college visits that I took wereChristian schools.
Um I realized early on that inmy situation, I needed to stay
(10:18):
closer to home because I neededto work.
I needed to continue to pay forthe car that I got a graduation.
And so real world stuff.
That was it, thrown in, 18, 19years old.
Uh and so I chose to live athome in Maumel, Arkansas, just
outside of Faulkner County inConway.
And I would commute about ahundred miles round trip every
(10:42):
single day from what I took 15hours the first semester, 15
hours of school, drive somewhereto go work, and then drive back
home.
And that triangle happened allthe time.
So I would say I needed UCA.
It was a necessity for me.
I needed that opportunity to beable to travel and do those
things.
And it ended up being such ablessing.
(11:05):
I do remember, Paul, I thinkI've told you the story.
I remember the first day ofschool vividly.
The first day I had ever walkedon the campus, um, I was trying
to figure out where biology was.
And you watch those Netflixshows, and the first time
students walk on, and and theguy with glasses, I'm old now,
so I'm wearing glasses.
The guy with glasses is lookingand he can't find it, so he
(11:27):
brings out this map.
Right.
I was the kid at 18 years old, Ithink I was 17 at the time, with
the map open trying to find thebiology lab.
I walked in so late on the firstday.
I still remember walking intothat lab going, what have I
gotten myself into?
Right.
Only up from there, though,right?
Only up from there.
(11:48):
Uh, right before we met today, Iwent and had Chick-fil-A.
I think the first time I everate Chick-fil-A was in the UCA
um student center.
I I I do think that may be thecase.
I remember having pizzas at thePizza Hut there and Chick-fil-A
all the time.
So you lived at home for allfour years, or did you ever
transition to EFS?
(12:09):
I I uh, boys and girls watchingat home, I would not recommend
this.
I followed a girl to anotherschool, uh, lost two years for
one semester that Itransitioned.
So I did leave for uh asemester.
Um that relationship didn't workout.
Lesson learned.
It was a lesson learned, andcame back.
Um, but I was there for Igraduated there.
(12:31):
That's what we'll say.
I graduated.
Uh it was not four years, but Idid graduate.
Um, and I remember, Paul, themoment when journalism became a
thing for me.
And uh it was at the Universityof Central Arkansas.
Okay.
I was a theater major.
I thought I had acting in myblood.
(12:51):
I thought that I was gonna goand George Clooney had nothing
on me.
And there was, I don't know ifit's still there, um, but there
was a a board and whether it wassororities, fraternities, clubs,
they would just hang things up,and it just said channel six, be
a news anchor.
And I think they were still, youknow, remember this where they
(13:12):
were split off and you'd have totear the little thing off
because that was your ownappointment.
Yeah.
I think I had to tear it off,and I said, huh.
Let's go try it.
Sounds neat.
News anchor.
So channel six, the newbuilding, had not been built.
Uh it was built, I think, Ithink it was opened later that
semester.
(13:33):
I remember going to a basementthere and reading off a
teleprompter for the very firsttime.
I'd never done it before.
And I landed the news anchor jobat Channel Six.
That changed the course of mylife based on what I was walking
around with at your campus.
SPEAKER_00 (13:50):
Goodbye, George Clooney.
Hello.
SPEAKER_02 (13:52):
That was it.
Walter Clooney.
Exactly.
Yeah, Dan Reddit.
Never never got there.
But you know, you mentioned theOlympics.
Um those things would have neverhappened.
Um got a couple Emmy Awards,those things would have never
happened.
Going to Korea, going to Brazil,going to Chicago to start a news
network to try to rival CNN andFox, those things would have
(14:14):
never happened outside of thatmoment where I said, I'll try
something different.
So got the news anchor job, uh,changed my major to
communications, still have aminor in theater.
We're in a couple plays.
If you go to the theater there,you'll see my name on a couple
of things there.
Um and and really kind of dug into that journalism world.
(14:39):
And it was because of of thatmoment that was on campus.
SPEAKER_00 (14:43):
Right.
Was it all just the theon-camera TV desk experience, or
was the classroom experience?
Was there a teacher that wasparticularly um impactful to you
during that stage?
Or just tell me how youprogressed onto graduation and
what your your education trackwas like.
SPEAKER_02 (15:01):
So it was a there was a lot of different things
covered under the communicationsplatform.
Uh I wrote a, I think I wrote amovie script or something for uh
we all they were all firstnames, so I don't remember last
names.
Jack was his name.
Um these were moments where yourealized that writing in
journalism, in communications,carries weight.
(15:24):
Um Mark, I can't remember hislast name, great professor.
Uh we've we haven't touched basein a while, but but I still we
would reach out every once in awhile.
Um he saw something in me that Iprobably didn't see in myself.
Um we would rent equipment andwe would go tell stories.
We were talking about the storyI did on the late Lou Harden.
(15:45):
Right.
Um I remember being in his inhis uh the president's house
there.
Um and those all came from thosemoments with Mark, who didn't
see or who saw something in methat I didn't see myself.
So absolutely, there were thosemoments.
Then it was just the communityaround, right?
It was it was the people, it wasthe other students that were
(16:07):
constantly pushing you.
And some relationships I stillhave today, some couldn't tell
you who they were.
But they were all grounded inthose moments of being in that
new facility because it wasbrand new.
That year that I was named theanchor, it was that was the
first year.
We were the first News Sixchannel station newscast in the
(16:29):
new facility there that now Ithink shares with AETN.
SPEAKER_01 (16:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (16:33):
Is that right?
Um and and I remember sitting inthere, the first newscast,
you'll love this.
We didn't, we weren't live yet.
We would sit there and werecorded for a 30-minute
newscast.
It probably took eight hours.
We would sit there and whetherit was me saying the wrong word
or my co-inker saying somethingwrong, or the sports guy saying,
(16:56):
or it was behind the camera, theteleprompter, all of these
different things.
It took forever to get a30-minute newscast down.
SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
Did your sports caster say boom goes to
dynamite?
SPEAKER_02 (17:05):
He did not.
I I remember seeing that.
So I saw that for the first timein my first job in journalism.
Right at scared you to death.
Right out of college.
I may have worked that into afew sports casts because I I
went into sports first.
Yeah.
Um, but I saw it for the firsttime like months after I
graduated from UCA.
SPEAKER_00 (17:23):
So months after you graduated, what what was your
first big break?
What was the first door thatopened?
How did you pursue your firstjob in uh broadcasting?
SPEAKER_02 (17:33):
So I had um, I would not recommend this.
Well, actually, we're at adifferent point in life now with
Chat GPT and all.
I went to Chicago and had aresume tape made.
Um basically I became just aperformer on I would just read
what's there.
So I sent those off.
I sent it to Bangor, Maine.
I'll never forget.
I was like, where the heck isBangor Maine?
(17:54):
So sent it, never heardanything.
Sent one to Grand Junction,Colorado.
Uh they said, Hey, we want you.
I said, Cool.
All right, what does this looklike?
20 some odd hours away.
Uh, it's not a lot of snow.
I don't know if you know this.
There's not a lot of snow on thewestern plains of Colorado.
I did not know that.
It's more of a desert overthere.
(18:14):
Okay.
But I took the job, they sent mea piece of paper, they faxed it
over to me, Paul.
Uh it said$17,000 with car.
And I went, okay, I can make Ican make that work.
2004.
The problem was it was$17,000 ayear.
The fax machine kind of leftsome ink out.
(18:36):
I went ahead and took it.
Uh my family drove me out there.
It ended up being a greatexperience.
But that whole walking to schooluphill both ways, you realize
that when you're 20 hours awayfrom home.
And I spent about 10 monthsthere and I packed up my old
(18:57):
Ultima and everything that Ipossibly could.
Um gave or sold everything elsethat I had, drove myself back
across Colorado through Oklahomaand Kansas and back down to
Little Rock, Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00 (19:11):
Without a job.
SPEAKER_02 (19:12):
Without a job.
Quit the job.
Uh went and worked for myparents, small business.
Okay.
And uh oddly enough, my parentsbuilt swimming pools in Little
Rock.
I get a call from a newsstation, and I'm like, I'm I'm
but there by myself.
And I answer it, and he goes,Yeah, I want a pool.
Okay, cool.
I can hook you up with my dad,all this stuff.
(19:32):
I said, What do you do at K ARK?
I'm the new general manager.
So, about that, I just quit ajob a couple months ago.
Do you have anything?
And that's how I got involvedinto this company that I was
with for 17 years that also ownsNews Nation, where I finished my
journalism career.
So all this big cycle, man.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:51):
What did he have for you?
SPEAKER_02 (19:52):
What was his answer?
What did he uh it took a littlewhile, um, but I ended up
getting a a sports role.
And um weekend sports anchor wasloosely what it was, and just
kind of worked my way throughthere.
Ended up meeting my wife in thatnewsroom, came up here to
northwest Arkansas, spent sometime at the news station up
(20:14):
here.
unknown (20:14):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (20:15):
Then we moved to Springfield, Missouri, then we
moved back to Little Rock, andthen Chicago called, and that
was uh a whirlwind year.
SPEAKER_00 (20:23):
Yeah, so and for most people who don't know or
may not who know who your wifeis, she has a name up here.
Who is your wife?
SPEAKER_02 (20:28):
Ashley Katz, uh her married name at Five News, she
was an anchor for a while.
She's uh now back here workingin northwest Arkansas.
Um, but yeah, it was great.
Uh my my kids experience.
So not only was I hired inLittle Rock based on that
conversation, I met my wife inthat newsroom.
She was trying to get the job,Paul.
She didn't get the job, she gotthe boy.
(20:52):
My kids have been to thatnewsroom.
My wife, um my daughter justcelebrated her tenth birthday,
my youngest.
The night that she was born,Ashley was at the news station
and had a piece of paper andgoes, Okay, I I can I I gotta go
voice this.
I gotta go and you would read ina microphone like this.
(21:13):
I gotta go voice this becausethis story needs to air.
Yep.
She was going through pregnancyin childbirth and read the story
and like all of that in thatsame newsroom.
SPEAKER_00 (21:22):
Well, along those same lines, I guess what was
maybe what was some of your yourtoughest assignment, so toughest
breaking news day, somethinghappening um behind the scenes
that nobody realized washappening.
What was one of your your mostmemorable days in the news?
SPEAKER_02 (21:37):
There are for me the it's the stories that are longer
than just one day or one night.
Um this was in Saline County.
A a kid was and his family hadfallen on hard times.
They were at a roadside motel,and a part of the wall fell on
the kid and hurt him.
Um we went, we interviewed thefamil the family at the
(22:03):
hospital, Arkansas Children'sHospital.
We went to the hotel, the hotelmanager talks.
Hotel managers never talk inthose situations.
They're always buttoned up.
He happened to talk to us.
A couple years later, the mom Ithink was arrested for some
nefarious stuff, some bad stuff.
Uh I don't want to say what thatwas because I don't remember
(22:24):
what it was.
But I think the kid has diedsince, and that mom is maybe
behind bars.
Um, those are the storiesbecause I remember the kid.
I remember I went to his housewhen he was in a wheelchair and
his dad was playing with like Iremember those things.
So the the emotionalentanglement sometimes I can
compartmentalize in journalism,but there are others that man,
(22:46):
do they hit home?
And that one for me was you sawso much and you were invested in
that family, and they trustedyou, and the audience trusted me
to tell those stories and thento know how it ended.
Those are tough.
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
Yeah.
Well, when you're tellingstories of people and places and
things in the news business, anduh even in print journalism for
me, it every day is different.
There's no day the same, there'stough days, and then there's
there's great days, there'smemorable days that you'll carry
with you forever along those.
You covered two Olympics.
I mean, you covered the Olympicsin Reno or at Rio.
You covered Olympics uh, youknow, halfway across the globe.
(23:24):
I mean, what was what were someof the memorable, you know, cool
moments, the weird moments, justthe things you'll you'll never
forget from from thoseassignments.
SPEAKER_02 (23:32):
So outside of the call, I was in Little Rock at my
kids' school, and the likecorporate news director calls
me.
Aaron, what are you doing?
I'm picking up my kids, man.
What's up?
Uh we want you gonna Rio.
What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00 (23:48):
Rio what?
Did you know the Olympics?
That's what he meant when hesaid Rio?
Yeah, okay.
That was just on your radar.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (23:55):
And I'm like, I yeah.
Go to Ashley, we go through thatprocess.
But I I think what you don'tunderstand when it comes to
whether you watch the NBA kickedoff last night, and I thought it
was fascinating to me that MikeTarico had just called Sunday
night football, and then twodays later he's calling NBA
basketball.
(24:16):
The research that goes intothose things is wild.
Right.
And so when I said yes to Rio, Ithought I was saying yes, I'll
go to Brazil for four weeks.
This was yes, I'll go to Brazilfor four weeks, but I'll also
plan for a year ahead.
When was that phone call?
I mean, how many months inadvance of the Olympics did you?
I think that one was about ninemonths.
(24:37):
Okay.
For Korea, we started a yearahead.
And I was on the Tokyo team aswell.
I ended up having to pull myname out of that hat.
But for Tokyo, we started a yearahead.
Um, so the process that goesinto this is extremely intense.
And and that's because, Paul,you know this.
You're forming relationshipswith athletes.
(24:58):
Sandy Morris, who won a silvermedal uh in Rio.
I could still text her.
You know, these arerelationships.
These are these are things whereI need to know more than than
possible.
Uh going back to your previousquestion about stories, uh Jeff
Henderson won a gold medal inthe long jump.
(25:19):
I had been in his house withJeff, his dad, and his mom who
was going through Alzheimer'smonths before.
And I'll get chill bumps andI'll fight back a tear.
I I remember him telling hismom, saying, Do you want me to
win the goal?
Because I'm gonna do it.
(25:39):
And I got the chance in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil, to say, Jeff,
do you remember that?
What do you want to say to yourmom now?
So all of that prep work ismonths, six months, eight months
in that case.
For Korea, it was completelydifferent.
Arkansas has great athletes whenit comes to Summer Olympics,
winter Olympics, it's different.
Found a guy who lives innorthwest Arkansas who was on
(26:00):
the Swedish, the Swiss curlingteam.
SPEAKER_00 (26:03):
I've curled with that guy.
SPEAKER_02 (26:04):
Yes, Dominic is Dom is a one-of-a-kind dude.
SPEAKER_00 (26:08):
Um Mark is a rotary club member with me and Rogers,
and he's, you know, um fromWisconsin and has and has
competed, and he's he's grown upwith curling.
So we're at the my firstmeeting, and I've met him and he
was talking about curling andsaid, uh, we do it at the Jones
Center.
Are you any good at curling?
Oh my gosh.
(26:28):
It was one of the hardest thingsever.
Right.
And I I grossly um miss, I justI didn't just the movement, you
know, it's kind of like, youknow, I could swing a golf club,
but I couldn't, I can just tellsomebody how to do it.
I can't show them, and that'skind of how I I felt for Mark,
you know, trying to tell me howto do it.
It was just very awkward, but Ienjoyed it.
SPEAKER_02 (26:48):
It I remember Dominic, uh Dominic Markey, uh
he works at a jewelry store inRogers.
Um I remember him trying toteach me at the Jones Center.
And like, guys, you like youlook at these guys, it's
effortless.
They slide across the ice.
It was not a good one.
I made it this far, and I'mtrying to push this stone down
the ice.
(27:08):
But those are, you know, goingback to the preparations, I
don't remember how I found outthat Dominic Markey was a Swiss
curler.
Right.
But then I'm there, and I rem Ihave a picture on my phone where
he's like this, and he had justwon a bronze medal.
SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (27:27):
That's crazy.
Yeah, that's pretty neat.
We went to, I'll take that storya little bit further.
We went to the gold medal match.
That's the only gold medal eventthat I have ever been to.
So at the Olympics, you're not,you don't get to go to all these
things.
You're constantly working,you're constantly have a camera,
you're constantly talking topeople, or on live TV across the
country.
Um but I got to go to the goldmedal when the USA won the gold
(27:52):
in Pyongyang.
Um it was it was so surreal, twothings.
One, it was the first time I sawthe red, white, and blue raised
in a foreign country at theOlympics.
I'm a diehard Olympic fan.
Love it.
It's it's amazing.
And so that was a really uniquechill bump moment.
Then Ivanka Trump and SarahHuckabee Sanders walked in.
(28:15):
I go over to the nationalcorrespondent, it was Peter
Alexander, who's on the TodayShow still.
Said, Peter, I know you don'tknow me.
I know Sarah Sanders.
I our kids went to the sameschool.
I kind of I did a bit where Iwas an MC, she was there, this
whole thing.
He goes, Yeah, come on.
We walked, didn't stop at SecretService at all, walked up to
(28:37):
her, and Peter goes, Sarah, thisguy says he knows you and he
made fun of you at an event.
She got up and gave me a bighug.
Yep.
Days later, there's a picture ofme behind Ivanka who's holding a
curling player's son and SarahSanders, and I have the reverse
image of it because I just get apicture of the two of them.
(28:58):
Uh, those are things that justdon't happen.
Um, there's so much preparationthat goes into that.
SPEAKER_00 (29:04):
Right.
Well, you carry that forward toyour job with DBI.
And you talked to you mentionedit, preparation, right?
Planning, preparation, planning.
So what is the biggesttransformation you've seen just
in downtown Bentonville, theorganization?
Okay.
Um, from when you before youstarted to to now into your job.
What's the what's the biggestchange?
SPEAKER_02 (29:25):
It's constantly pushing the envelope to not only
include um Walmart, to not onlyinclude the world's biggest
company, to not only includetheir vendors, whether it's the
Ink Pen or the cell phonevendor, they want to play.
They want to be.
Do they want to be included?
They want to be a part of it.
I mean, we're in a buildingright now that houses two of our
(29:46):
vendors.
Like they want to be here.
Because if they're able tosupply to the crowds that we
bring, there's a pretty goodchance that their customer is
there.
Um but the biggesttransformation is the fact that.
That we continue to push theenvelope.
That we're not stagnant atanything that we're trying to
do, that we're constantlysaying, okay, cool, we did this.
(30:09):
Cool, there's going to be 20,000people for lighting of the
square.
That's great.
But how do we give them the bestexperience possible?
Mention customers.
They're our customers.
They're the people that wereally are trying to serve.
What is the best return oninvestment if they spend the
time to navigate downtownBentville to be at this?
(30:30):
Is it a Broadway-style Christmasparade show, which we will have
this year?
Is it a uh, you know, partneringwith the city to have an ice
skating event, which we willhave this year?
Is it utilizing the vendors andand the community that has, you
know, candy and toys for aSanta's workshop at Lightning
Square, which we will have thisyear.
(30:52):
But that's the biggest change isthat we are constantly asking
those questions of how are wenot only pushing the
organization, but we're alsoreaching out to the community to
make sure that they understandthat this free family
entertainment is from the heartand it's organic and we're
thoughtful and we're pushing it.
SPEAKER_00 (31:08):
What are some things that maybe, I mean, you have
these events, you have enough onyour plate, but is there
something in your mind?
What is your big hairy idea fordowntown Bentonville that you
would love to see happen inthree years or five years?
Is there something that you andtalk about?
Absolutely.
We'd love to do this.
This is it.
Are you ready?
SPEAKER_02 (31:27):
Bentonville Country Club.
That's what I want.
unknown (31:30):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (31:30):
We need a golf course down here like crazy.
That's the one big hairy idea.
Right.
Uh, I'm only half serious.
No, but can that happen?
SPEAKER_00 (31:39):
Well, I've learned, and you know you've learned too.
I've I've been here long enoughto never discount anything that
you hear when it comes toNorthwest Arkansas as a whole in
general.
I mean, we all hear um, we'regonna have a WNBA team, we're
gonna have a velodrome, we'regonna have a, you know, whatever
it is, you know, there's acertain degree of skepticism,
but there's also should be ahealthy degree of that might
(32:02):
that could happen.
Because if it's if it couldhappen any place, it's going to
be here, right?
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (32:07):
So for what we're what we're doing right now, it's
it really goes to that newwalkable A Street Promenade.
If you haven't been to downtownBentonville, I encourage it.
There's a great new area thatused to be a street that you can
drive through.
Yeah.
Right now, it's on bricks andit's just a leisurely stroll.
The vision for what that thingis going to be is five years
down the road.
(32:27):
So the big thing for us needs tobe how can we continue to make
or to really start?
How can we start to make this adestination not only for
downtown Bentonville, not onlyfor Bentonville, not only for
Benton County, but really all ofNorthwest Arkansas and state of
Arkansas?
And so we are really right nowthoughtfully looking at, yeah,
it's gonna the grand opening,the ribbon cutting, which will
(32:48):
happen on November 15th, isgonna be special, but how can we
continue to showcase what thisis, the amenity that it is for
our city?
So that's the big thing rightnow, is is how can we continue
to push the envelope to showthat this is cool now for when
all the future developmenthappens and local businesses are
around it for what it's gonnabecome?
SPEAKER_00 (33:09):
When you showcase downtown Bentonville, you know
what what are and when you sayfor what it is, what is it?
I mean when you when you runinto somebody from high school
that you haven't seen in 20years and you try to explain to
them, you know, downtownBittonville at large and the
square and the things thathappen, what are the themes that
come across in your explanationto what is happening here?
SPEAKER_02 (33:30):
So the the easiest way for me to describe it is
going back to the Andy Griffithshow, which I think is possibly
the epitome.
SPEAKER_00 (33:38):
Favorite show, watch it every day.
I watch Andy Griffith every day.
SPEAKER_02 (33:41):
It's the epitome of of of what America used to be.
And so I say it's Mayberry.
Um it's it's I don't want to usePleasantville, but it's the
concept of Pleasantville.
Um it's a Hallmark movie.
It is a place where families cancome together, that every door
(34:03):
is open, but it's just it's adifferent heartbeat.
And I know that you've beenthere, I know you've been there
for events.
I'm not talking about events.
True story.
Um, my wife and I were watchinguh The Diplomat.
It's a great show on Netflixright now.
Fantastic.
Um the new I don't want to gotoo far.
An actor on the show.
(34:24):
I don't want to give anythingaway if you haven't seen it yet.
An actor on the show makes hisfirst appearance.
I look at my wife and I go, thatguy was sitting on the downtown
Bentonville Square by himself,reading a book or listening to a
book.
That to me is the epitome ofwhat our little corner, our
(34:45):
square, should be.
It's it's the freedom foranybody at any time, any walk of
life, it doesn't matter, to comeand experience this the
beautiful fountain, the iconiccourthouse, the Walmart Museum
at Five and Dime, and just sitthere.
SPEAKER_00 (35:04):
So now I'll give you a chance to brush off your
talking police.
Oh, here we go.
Ask you about uh the prevalenttopics of the of the downtown,
the parking and the constructionand the change, because those
are all very polarizing topics.
How do you navigate that as youcontinue to move your
organization forward and do allthese great and neat things
downtown?
SPEAKER_02 (35:23):
There are great new things that are coming to that
are gonna ease some of thoseconcerns.
Uh there's a new parking garagethat will certainly help.
Um I I'm gonna be a little toohonest with you, Paul, right
now.
I don't think parking's theissue that a lot of people think
it is.
And that that's me in Chicago.
(35:45):
Chicago, you drive aroundforever, or you pay to park.
We don't have paid parking inbed, though.
We may have to park a little bitand walk a couple blocks, but
that's normal.
And I think some of us, meincluded, when I gripe about
getting there early in themorning just to get a parking
spot, that's okay.
So I'm not now the traffic, wecan talk about the traffic all
day long.
(36:05):
I I do think we got some someinfrastructure changes that that
certainly could help that.
Parking, I I'm not so sure is ahuge issue.
And city council members, pleaseplease don't come to me on that.
Um traffic, I d I don't know.
Right.
Well, I mean I I've got ideas,and we you've seen Dana and I,
our executive director, we wereable to to host a a mayoral
(36:28):
debate where that issue was wasbig.
Um and I think it will continueto be big and as the growth
happens, 30 some odd peoplemoving to northwest Arkansas
each and every day.
That's not gonna change.
Right.
Um, but I think we gotta wegotta think ahead.
I think that's the key in all ofthis is we gotta think five, ten
years down the road and reallystart making those changes
(36:52):
tomorrow for what's five yearsin one day already.
SPEAKER_00 (36:55):
Yeah, again, and really all of those things that
we just that you discussed thatare all relative, like you
pointed out, Chicago or youknow, Dallas or whatever town
you want to use, everything isrelative.
And um, those are the changesthat are happening that are all
going to be polarizing.
You know, they're nobody's evergonna agree on those things.
But those are the changes, andthat is the growth that is
happening that kind ofunderscores um why UCA is here,
(37:17):
why UCA wants to grow itspresence and grow its brand in
Northwest Arkansas for all theobvious reasons, right?
I mean, um I haven't I haven'trun into anybody uh who has a
heart for UCA or has a a degreefrom UCA who thinks it's a bad
idea that we're up here and thatthey've created this position
for me to um connect with alumsand connect with business
(37:38):
partners and and civic leaders.
So uh if you know, as we'replanting a bigger flag here, um,
you know, whether that's eventsor or or a uh talent pipeline or
or just more storytelling uphere, you know, where where do
you think it could make thebiggest impact?
Where would you like to see UCAum plant a bigger flag and
become more visible in NorthwestArkansas?
(38:00):
What does that look like to you?
SPEAKER_02 (38:01):
Oh man, that's a loaded question.
You could have given me sometime to actually think about
that, Paul.
Um I I I think that's that'svalid.
Um I would always go toBentonville.
Um, but I also see, again,forward thinking, right?
So I was eating my Chick-fil-Ain the car, looking at the
building that we're in rightnow, and I had a thought of why
(38:24):
didn't Paul and I go in together10 years ago to build a building
like this, but build it indowntown Bentonville across from
the home office where wherevendors could then rent space
from us at an exuberant price sothat Paul and I are actually
making a lot of money.
That was a real thought thathappened.
So I think I would challengeyou, CA, to look at something
like that, right?
(38:45):
What is something that we can donow that we can see the
trajectory of the city goingtowards the area?
And what is that?
I can't give you an answer.
I'm just gonna be honest withyou.
I don't know what that is rightnow.
I I think some of that is islike-minded individuals, right?
Finding a place where whetherthey're alums, whether they're,
(39:08):
you know, I remember NathanBrown as a player, not just a
coach.
Well, you know, I covered him atbefore there were stripes on the
field.
Um but it is it mingling thosepeople together with Coach
Brown, with the president, youknow, bringing people together
and having those.
And I know that that's on youragenda, and I know you and I
(39:29):
have talked off camera about howthat's doing, but I I I think
the start would be creating anetwork of people in the area
who have whether it's a passionor whether it's a background,
those two things can become thesame to get together and just
really network.
SPEAKER_00 (39:50):
Yeah.
Well, I'm glad to hear you sayboth of those things because we
have done those things.
I knew you had, I set you up,Paul.
Started those things.
We've had our Northwest Arkansasblitz this past spring, which
was uh extremely successful.
We did bring um everyone up tofrom campus, our president, our
deans, and Coach Brown was here,our athletic director, and um uh
(40:11):
and then we've formed aNorthwest Arkansas Advisory
Council.
So the thing I joke with, youknow, you mentioned could
thinking about 10 years ago.
Why didn't I think of that?
The thing I joke with with uhPresident Davis now, now that
I've gotten to know him uhenough where I can joke with
him, um, you know, talking aboutmy job and this job, it's like,
why didn't we should have donethis 10 years ago?
(40:31):
Right.
I mean, have somebody up here.
So to me, that is the first stepis to just say, okay, we're
going to be here.
We're not just coming to visit.
We're not just coming up hereto, you know, revive an alumni
group or do an alumni event.
We want to be part of thecommunity up here.
So uh I'm hoping that thatresonates with UCA alums, and I
hope it resonates um with thepeople in my network who I've
(40:54):
known for almost 25 years ofliving up here, that um, you
know, I didn't go to school atUCA, but I believe enough in
UCA, and I think of UCA as abrand name in Arkansas, the same
way that Baptist Health orNabholtz or our best bank.
Uh UCA is a brand name inArkansas, and so I'm I'm proud
to work for the school up hereand proud to grow our presence
(41:15):
up here.
But uh enough of enough of thatsoapbox up there.
SPEAKER_02 (41:18):
You know, I I think that that's important, Paul,
because you look at sitting herelistening to that, like when's
the best day to get started?
It's always today.
Yeah.
And I can sit here and and I Iagain I I speak in stories like
an old man.
They they they make fun of methat I'm the old man of the the
(41:39):
office, but there was a lotavailable for sale next door to
me here in Bentonville.
I didn't buy it because Ithought it was ridiculous the
price they were quoting me for aquarter acre of land.
I wish I would have now.
But it was that day, that wasthe best day to do that.
Sure.
And so when it comes to UCA andits presence here in Northwest
Arkansas, it's today that thebest time to do it is now, and
(42:02):
and to keep moving and and tokeep connecting people together
so that when the question arisesof how is UCA impacting
Northwest Arkansas, well, itstarted here.
It started the relationships.
SPEAKER_00 (42:16):
Right.
That's how that's actually kindof how I'm I'm positioning that
is this this is going to besomething in three to five
years.
Right.
You'll you'll be proud thatyou're involved in the three to
five years from now.
SPEAKER_02 (42:26):
So and you gotta and sometimes you gotta struggle
through those things.
Sometimes you've got to jumpover hurdles and whether it's a
brand new story series that Istarted, you know, it's not
easy.
Right.
But in three to five years.
SPEAKER_00 (42:38):
Yeah.
Well, I mean, and I thinkeverybody knows, I mean, the the
hurdle for one of the hurdlesfor us, you know, there's a
there's a large four-yearinstitution up here in this part
of the state, but no, we're notcompeting.
This is not a competing um ideaor competing enterprise that
we're doing.
This is a complimentary thingthat we're doing for higher
education uh in Arkansas.
So, yeah, not competing um withthe University of Arkansas on on
(43:01):
any level.
But um anyway, so let's kind ofwrap up uh a couple of things
here.
Uh again, appreciate your time.
I know that you're busy.
Um if if you were speaking to aUCA student in their fourth
year, senior, who says, Man,I've just listened to your
podcast.
I'd like to do what you do.
I think I'd like to be in abroadcast journalism position.
What advice would you give them?
SPEAKER_02 (43:22):
It goes back to the same thing we were just talking
about, and it's networking.
Um I don't do you know youremember the name TJ Holmes?
I do, yes.
Yeah.
So uh I did a documentary at UCAon TJ.
Um I remember setting in uh thenewsroom there, I didn't work at
that newsroom, but in thenewsroom there, I remember it,
and his feet were up on thedesk, and he looked at me, and I
(43:45):
think I may have had a camera onhim on the time.
He goes, Aaron, you know themost important thing about a
good newsman?
I'm on baited breath, right?
All right, TJ, what do you giveme?
He said, It's the tie knot.
What are you talking about?
Years later, I'm covering afight, a Jermaine Taylor fight,
in I think it was Vegas, couldhave been a number of different
places I covered the fight.
(44:05):
Uh, and I saw TJ and I walked upto him and talked to him.
So networking, networking,networking.
So if that if that senior wantsto do this, reach out to me.
Go to LinkedIn.
Never was a LinkedIn guy untilabout two years ago.
It is, it is what Twitter andFacebook really started.
LinkedIn is finally doing forprofessionals.
Absolutely.
So lean into that.
(44:26):
Don't be afraid to reach out topeople, um, whether who I'm now
on the dark side of media, oryou know, I can connect you with
people who are currently in themiddle of what media is.
I that's that's the thing aboutthis, about communications.
If you're not grounded, and thebiggest pride point that I have,
and I think Paul, you probablywill say, is who's in my phone,
(44:49):
who I can text on any givenmoment and say X, Y, or Z.
So start that process now.
Start that process intern.
Find someone that you like inlocal TV and and meet them, talk
to them, find out how to tie andtie knot, apparently.
Um, and then reach out to peopleyou don't know on LinkedIn, but
you appreciate them.
(45:10):
Going back to the story in Koreaabout Peter Alexander, I didn't
know him from anybody, but Iknew that if I needed to get the
big interview with at that pointthe White House press secretary
who's from Arkansas, I had to goto somebody.
And I said, Peter, you don'tknow me.
I'm a local affiliate guy,you're a national guy.
(45:31):
Help me out.
SPEAKER_01 (45:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (45:33):
Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Right.
You mentioned networking andLinkedIn, two big things that
I'm big fans of, by the way.
Well, what is what is your senseof the alumni network uh as it
exists for UCA in NorthwestArkansas?
Do you run into UCA alums uphere?
Do you make those connections uhin your day-to-day and been?
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I know one.
(45:53):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (45:54):
So, and I think that's where I got really
excited, Paul, when you tookover this position because I
knew that that was gonna change.
SPEAKER_00 (46:00):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (46:01):
And I hope it has changed.
And I think I think that that'simportant.
And I think that like-mindedindividuals coming from a
like-minded background is vital.
Okay, it's vital to the successof me who's jumped into a brand
new career and I don't know whatthe heck I'm doing still.
Right.
Uh, those things are important.
Yeah.
And the connection points ofgoing back to Lou Harden, that I
(46:24):
knew Lou very well.
Um, I knew his daughter.
We were co-anchors together inLittle Rock.
Um, those connection points godeeper than my time in Conway.
Than my time at Ferris.
That my time, you know, youknow, Steve Estes.
We've talked about Steve a lot.
That my relationship with Steveat the athletic department.
(46:46):
All of those things, the deeperyou can can go when it comes to
networking LinkedIn alumni, thebetter it's gonna be.
SPEAKER_00 (46:55):
Well, we're gonna get you back on campus and
you're gonna speak to someclasses for us.
SPEAKER_02 (46:58):
That's what I've heard.
That's what I've heard.
But you I will do it under onecircumstance, Paul.
You cannot, by any stretch ofthe imagination, find any old
tapes from Channel 6.
I will give you the picture.
I still have it, it's printed.
I don't know why we printedpictures, uh, but I still have
it.
SPEAKER_00 (47:16):
Yeah.
Um we've got to have a then andnow.
That was one of my favoritefeatures at the Business
Journal.
We did a then and now for R40,and and some of those, some of
those back-to-back pictures wereum hilarious.
I mean, it were they were justhilarious.
SPEAKER_02 (47:28):
I don't know if I could find that picture now, but
I think my hair was straight upand it may have blonde tips.
Yeah.
Oh man.
So we've got to find that.
And that is your news anchor onChannel 6 News.
SPEAKER_00 (47:39):
That's awesome.
Well, Baron, real quick, wherecan people keep up with your
work and and see what DBI?
SPEAKER_02 (47:43):
LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn.
Okay.
Um that's the place to do it.
It's still Aaron Nolan News onall my social media platforms.
Decided to keep that becauseit's synonymous with everything
that's going on.
Uh, and thendowntownbentonville.org.
Um I again, I cannot say enoughoutside of what UCA and Conway
did for me.
(48:04):
People experience Bentonville inany way you can right now.
Um, just be there.
Right.
It's uh there's a Seinfeld joke.
Are you a Seinfeld guy?
Big Seinfeld joke.
Okay.
There's a Seinfeld joke whereNewman says, in Hawaii, the the
air is so dewy sweet, you don'thave to lick the stamps.
Lick the stamps.
That's what Bentonville is rightnow.
(48:25):
So uh experience Bentonville.
That is that is my last thing.
Gosh, well now we could justtalk about Seinfeld for another
45 minutes.
So Dana, you know Dana well.
Dana and her husband, uh, wehave a text thread that goes
back and forth about questionsabout Seinfeld.
So yeah.
I'm I'm glad I got Paul on thedewy sweet Hawaiian stamps
moment.
SPEAKER_00 (48:45):
You did.
You got me.
And I I like that you said uhjust be there.
We're here.
We are here.
UCA is here, and we've got a lotof uh exciting things coming up
and big plans for being heremore, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02 (48:58):
All right, let's flip this.
I know where are we at on time?
We're good.
I'm gonna ask you one question.
I'm gonna give you a chancehere.
I was in two productions at UCAon stage.
You have two guesses.
Can you guess which two?
One was a holiday production,and one was an Oscar
award-winning film.
Wizard of Oz.
No.
(49:19):
I don't think we ever did Wizardof Oz.
That's a good guess.
Why Christmas?
It's pretty close.
Christmas story.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (49:28):
And well, it's the holiday film and the Oscar
winner.
SPEAKER_02 (49:32):
The Oscar winner was Jack Nicholas was McMurray.
I think McMurray is the rightname.
Um you got it.
Nurse Ratchet?
Yes.
Um I actually just forgot it.
One floor over the cuckoo.
One flew over the cookies.
I was called back for McMurray,and I ended up being Aid Warren.
(49:52):
If you can find they used to putposter boards with the in the in
the theater there.
I was Aid Warren, the firstspoken production, and we did it
in the round.
Okay.
And so everyone was on the stagethere, which was wild.
Final fact for you, because it'shilarious.
They're on campus at UCA.
(50:12):
I was in Nurse Ratchet's littlenursing stage in the round, and
the medicine that they wouldgive the actors was Skittles.
So I would sit there in the asthe play was going on, just
eating skittles.
Yes.
Acting like I was getting highon the medicine the patients
were getting.
See, you would have been afantastic actor.
(50:32):
Random story.
Fantastic.
End up story.
SPEAKER_00 (50:34):
All right.
Well, listen, Aaron, greatcatching up with you.
Absolutely.
You've been covering Arkansas.
Now you're covering Bentonville.
And uh, again, I know you'rebusy planning for the holiday
festivities down there, but umuh these are the kind of stories
that this podcast hopefully willbe built to tell.
SPEAKER_02 (50:48):
So thanks for your hey, going back to that thing
right there storytelling andUCA, they run deep.
Sure.
So keep it up, man.
SPEAKER_00 (50:56):
All right, I appreciate you.
And this was a great, very firstepisode.
So thank you for our debutepisode.
I'm looking at you, Houston.
Great fused guest.
All right.
And that's our time today forour very first edition of
Central to NWA, a UCA podcast.
I'm Paul Gatling.
Until next time, go bears.
That's it for this episode ofCentral to NWA, a UCA podcast.
(51:17):
I'm Paul Gatling, SeniorDirector of Northwest Arkansas
Engagement for the University ofCentral Arkansas.
Be sure to subscribe to the showand follow UCA on all the
appropriate social media.
I'll see you next time onCentral to MWA.
This is Central to NWA, a UCA podcast.
I'm your host, Paul Gatling, andwe are bringing the University
of Central Arkansas to NorthwestArkansas.
Each episode, we will talk withleaders, alumni, and innovators
driving this region forward.
People who are shapingindustries and defining what is
next for our state.
(00:22):
Let's get started.
Welcome to Central to NWA a UCApodcast, where we will highlight
the stories, the voices, and theimpact of UCA alumni and others
who are shaping one of thefastest growing regions in the
country.
I'm Paul Gatling, and I'm theUniversity of Central Arkansas's
first senior director ofNorthwest Arkansas Engagement.
(00:43):
And for this debut episode,we're going into the heart of
Bentonville with someone who hasbeen telling Arkansas stories
for two decades, from the anchordesk to the downtown square.
He's the University of CentralArkansas graduate who has made a
name for himself inbroadcasting, from covering
national news to working onOlympic assignments seen around
the world.
And these days, he's thecommunications director for
(01:06):
downtown Bentonville, Inc.,where he helps publicize all
things related to the downtownarea.
He's also the co-host of theweekly television program
Downtown Now, Aaron Nolan, UCAclass of 2004.
How are you?
Paul, good to be here.
SPEAKER_02 (01:20):
Excited to be a part of this, really proud of the
time I spent at UCA and theimpact that it made.
Man, you read 20 years.
I'm like, really?
20 years?
Doesn't get any better.
SPEAKER_00 (01:32):
Yeah.
It only gets longer better.
It's only going to get longer.
SPEAKER_02 (01:35):
Wow.
But, anyways, really happy to behere, Paul.
SPEAKER_00 (01:37):
Yeah, and I really appreciate your time as we
discuss coming in.
I know you have nothing elsegoing on that you're planning
for in downtown Bentonville overthe holiday season coming up.
SPEAKER_02 (01:47):
Nothing going on.
There's there's there's not alighting of the square with 30
miles of lights and two 20,000people.
There's not a Christmas paradecoming.
Nothing at all, Paul.
Nothing that I would not put onthe shelf for you.
SPEAKER_00 (01:59):
Yeah.
Lighting of the square, doesthat does that give you anxiety
just by saying that?
Or it how does that compare withlike breaking news on live
television, Brent?
Completely different, right?
SPEAKER_02 (02:08):
So uh breaking news, I I felt like I was able to
compartmentalize quite a bit.
Um, whether it's it's a fire oror you know, unfortunately, some
some other nefarious things thatgo on, you kind of go into a
different mode.
I'm still teaching myself how tobe involved in these massive
community events.
SPEAKER_00 (02:28):
And yeah, I was gonna say the mode you're in is
crowd control.
That's the mode, that's it.
That's it, biting of the squareand the parade and all of those
fun things you get to do.
SPEAKER_02 (02:36):
So yeah, so from a community engagement standpoint
for what we do at downtownBentonville, it the holidays are
intense.
We'll use intense.
We won't use stressful, they'reintense.
Yeah, they're fun.
They are a blast.
I wouldn't want to be anywhereelse.
Uh you know, Mayberry ain't gotnothing on Bentonville,
Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00 (02:54):
That's right.
Where else would you rather be?
All right, so you've worn a lotof hats we've discussed.
Journalist, broadcaster, now uhstoryteller, communications
director.
How do you describe the throughline um for all of those things?
And maybe just start by what doyou do these days at we'll call
it DBI, which I know is what youguys refer to it as downtown
Bentonville.
Tell us about your job with DBI.
SPEAKER_02 (03:14):
So, right now, uh made the shift, uh, I guess
about three years ago fromjournalism on the national scale
with News Nation.
Uh, my wife and I were fortunateenough to help start that
network.
Um, and we came back home toArkansas.
We landed in Bentonville and wason the board of downtown
Bentonville, Inc.
And through a transition, wasasked to join the team there.
(03:37):
Couldn't be more happy to be apart of that.
My kids wanted to be in downtownBentonville, and I saw this is
exactly what the next phase ofmy career needed to be.
Uh, and so at DBI, we put onhuge block parties for people.
We our mission statement is toconvert uh to cultivate
community in downtownBentonville.
(03:58):
Uh we do it through farmersmarkets that is about to set a
record for all-time sales,meaning we are not only bringing
people produce and farm freshgoods, those farmers are also
able to make a living.
Uh, we're very proud of thatsignature event that we do.
First Fridays, you mentionedseven events, 12 to 15,000
people are down on theByttonville Square each month
(04:20):
from April through October.
And then we've got those holidayevents as well.
So we're really focusing onfinding ways to create this
organic lifestyle of communityblock parties, of being together
as a people.
Um, we really do have a lot ofdifferent uh uh ways of life in
Bittenville, and we want tobring all those people together.
(04:41):
So at the root of it all, that'swhat we do.
Now we also have a storytellingelement through now a two-time
Emmy nominated program downtownnow.
Uh, we're excited to be able totell those stories because
behind every good event, thereare there are stories to be
told.
There are people who areexcelling and finding new ways
to do different things thatimpact us on a daily level that
(05:01):
maybe we never knew about.
SPEAKER_00 (05:02):
Right.
Daily level.
What is a day in the life?
What is a typical morning atdowntown Bentonville?
With all that you just said,that's 12 months a year planning
of for of some kind of what's atypical day like that.
That's it.
SPEAKER_02 (05:14):
It's planning.
It's it's it's the emails thatare unexpected, having to pivot
on a dime to make sure and toprotect the masses that come to
downtown Bentonville that theydon't see that, right?
We want to make sure they'rethey're having a joyous, uh,
happy, free family entertainmentat all times.
So daily, we're going throughthose processes to make sure
(05:35):
they don't see that, thatthey're only experiencing the
highs.
We're communicating with cityleaders uh today uh in our
office.
We had a city leader talkingabout this brand new A Street
promenade that's gonna open upon November the 15th.
These are big moves in downtownBentonville.
And so we are intrical, the teamthere at downtown Bentonville,
they are integral in making sureall of those things happen.
(05:56):
I'm just there kind of steeringthe communication.
How are we saying things andwhere we're saying them with our
executive director?
And um it's it's it's alwayssomething new.
Uh I would say in journalism,you kind of get into the same
old, same old.
Every story may be tolddifferently, every story may be
different, but in eventmanagement, in in being a part
(06:19):
of building something from theground up, and in and whether
it's an event or whether it's astory, uh, this is very mentally
stimulating day-to-day at DBI.
SPEAKER_00 (06:27):
You mentioned visiting with a city leader.
Yeah.
How would you describe thepartnership between um you know
event planning, city hall, visitBentonville, the Chamber of
Commerce?
Where is D DBI's place in that?
And just kind of what is thestructure of who does what, I
guess?
SPEAKER_02 (06:43):
Yeah, I think that's a very valid question, Paul, and
something that took a lot oftime for me to figure out.
I I would say right now, DBIcompared to journalism first.
Journalism was kind of on theoutside looking in when it came
to the city of things, right?
What the news of the day is.
We had mayors and city councilmembers who may not be as open.
(07:04):
And you understand this, Paul,from your days in journalism.
But when you switch sides andyou go to something that is that
is really ground floor buildingcommunity in our town, you're on
the inside track.
You're on the inside.
So you get to go, you get calledto the mayor's office, and you
know, all those TV shows, well,I've I've been called to the
oval.
I've got to go to the oval.
That happens now at DBI, andit's a fun thing, it's a good
(07:25):
thing.
Um, but as far as separation ofDBI, the city, um, Visit
Bittenville and the Chamber,they all have their different
ways.
Um, the easy way to say it iscity is the government.
It is the part that is runningthe city on a day-to-day basis.
Visit Bentonville is an outwardfocusing group that's really
focused on tourism bringing themhere.
(07:46):
The chamber is focused onbusiness.
DBI is really focused on inwardgrowth and really accelerating
the community in downtown tobring people from all walks of
life, from everywhere aroundNorthwest Arkansas to
Bentonville.
We really want to focusinwardly.
And then we go to thatstorytelling element, and that's
where we want to accentuatewhat's happening here.
Not what's happening on theoutside that's broad here, but
(08:08):
what's happening, what's thetrue heartbeat of what
Bentonville is?
And for us at DBI, I think DBIreally is that heartbeat of
Bentonville, of downtown, reallydowntown Bentonville, and the
heartbeat of keeping thingsgoing and making sure that we're
finding those ways of life thatwe can accentuate and continuing
to throw parties.
Can't can't not say that aboutDBI.
SPEAKER_00 (08:29):
We love to throw parties.
Right.
What's what's morenerve-wracking for you, uh,
going back to that question weasked a minute ago, is it is it
broadcasting live on air, or isyou mentioned that first Friday
on the stage in front of 12 to15,000 people?
I mean, that's um that's apretty big deal in in a city the
size of Bentonville.
SPEAKER_02 (08:48):
For me personally, I it's it's one of my favorite
things in the world to be onstage in front of people.
Yep.
Not a lot of people know that.
I think uh you're you're not asmuch of an old journalist as I
am.
The real old journalists areintroverts.
They really are absolutelyextroverted introvert.
That's right.
Right.
Yeah.
Uh and so I can play that roleon stage really nicely.
(09:10):
Uh I came up with this a longtime ago, Paul.
I guess probably right after Ileft UCA.
I'm not an idiot, but I'll playone on TV.
And I enjoy that part of it, andI get to do that.
Um, the stress of going back tobreaking news, the stress, the
stress of trying to get everyfact correct for me.
Uh, this is more fun on thisside.
(09:31):
And so I would say being on onstage at First Friday or
lighting in the square that'scoming up here in a couple of
weeks is so gratifying for me.
It's a blast.
SPEAKER_00 (09:39):
Also, let's talk about UCA.
All right, let's face it acouple of times.
And um, you know, you're fromyou're from Arkansas, Central
Arkansas.
Take take me through the uh thethe circumstances that led you
to choosing UCA as as yourcollege and just and what did
you study?
What did you go there intendingto do?
What was that like?
SPEAKER_02 (09:57):
So I've thought a lot about my story when it came
to to college because I knew wewere going to talk about this.
Um I grew up in a conservativehousehold, and so all the
college visits that I took wereChristian schools.
Um I realized early on that inmy situation, I needed to stay
(10:18):
closer to home because I neededto work.
I needed to continue to pay forthe car that I got a graduation.
And so real world stuff.
That was it, thrown in, 18, 19years old.
Uh and so I chose to live athome in Maumel, Arkansas, just
outside of Faulkner County inConway.
And I would commute about ahundred miles round trip every
(10:42):
single day from what I took 15hours the first semester, 15
hours of school, drive somewhereto go work, and then drive back
home.
And that triangle happened allthe time.
So I would say I needed UCA.
It was a necessity for me.
I needed that opportunity to beable to travel and do those
things.
And it ended up being such ablessing.
(11:05):
I do remember, Paul, I thinkI've told you the story.
I remember the first day ofschool vividly.
The first day I had ever walkedon the campus, um, I was trying
to figure out where biology was.
And you watch those Netflixshows, and the first time
students walk on, and and theguy with glasses, I'm old now,
so I'm wearing glasses.
The guy with glasses is lookingand he can't find it, so he
(11:27):
brings out this map.
Right.
I was the kid at 18 years old, Ithink I was 17 at the time, with
the map open trying to find thebiology lab.
I walked in so late on the firstday.
I still remember walking intothat lab going, what have I
gotten myself into?
Right.
Only up from there, though,right?
Only up from there.
(11:48):
Uh, right before we met today, Iwent and had Chick-fil-A.
I think the first time I everate Chick-fil-A was in the UCA
um student center.
I I I do think that may be thecase.
I remember having pizzas at thePizza Hut there and Chick-fil-A
all the time.
So you lived at home for allfour years, or did you ever
transition to EFS?
(12:09):
I I uh, boys and girls watchingat home, I would not recommend
this.
I followed a girl to anotherschool, uh, lost two years for
one semester that Itransitioned.
So I did leave for uh asemester.
Um that relationship didn't workout.
Lesson learned.
It was a lesson learned, andcame back.
Um, but I was there for Igraduated there.
(12:31):
That's what we'll say.
I graduated.
Uh it was not four years, but Idid graduate.
Um, and I remember, Paul, themoment when journalism became a
thing for me.
And uh it was at the Universityof Central Arkansas.
Okay.
I was a theater major.
I thought I had acting in myblood.
(12:51):
I thought that I was gonna goand George Clooney had nothing
on me.
And there was, I don't know ifit's still there, um, but there
was a a board and whether it wassororities, fraternities, clubs,
they would just hang things up,and it just said channel six, be
a news anchor.
And I think they were still, youknow, remember this where they
(13:12):
were split off and you'd have totear the little thing off
because that was your ownappointment.
Yeah.
I think I had to tear it off,and I said, huh.
Let's go try it.
Sounds neat.
News anchor.
So channel six, the newbuilding, had not been built.
Uh it was built, I think, Ithink it was opened later that
semester.
(13:33):
I remember going to a basementthere and reading off a
teleprompter for the very firsttime.
I'd never done it before.
And I landed the news anchor jobat Channel Six.
That changed the course of mylife based on what I was walking
around with at your campus.
SPEAKER_00 (13:50):
Goodbye, George Clooney.
Hello.
SPEAKER_02 (13:52):
That was it.
Walter Clooney.
Exactly.
Yeah, Dan Reddit.
Never never got there.
But you know, you mentioned theOlympics.
Um those things would have neverhappened.
Um got a couple Emmy Awards,those things would have never
happened.
Going to Korea, going to Brazil,going to Chicago to start a news
network to try to rival CNN andFox, those things would have
(14:14):
never happened outside of thatmoment where I said, I'll try
something different.
So got the news anchor job, uh,changed my major to
communications, still have aminor in theater.
We're in a couple plays.
If you go to the theater there,you'll see my name on a couple
of things there.
Um and and really kind of dug into that journalism world.
(14:39):
And it was because of of thatmoment that was on campus.
SPEAKER_00 (14:43):
Right.
Was it all just the theon-camera TV desk experience, or
was the classroom experience?
Was there a teacher that wasparticularly um impactful to you
during that stage?
Or just tell me how youprogressed onto graduation and
what your your education trackwas like.
SPEAKER_02 (15:01):
So it was a there was a lot of different things
covered under the communicationsplatform.
Uh I wrote a, I think I wrote amovie script or something for uh
we all they were all firstnames, so I don't remember last
names.
Jack was his name.
Um these were moments where yourealized that writing in
journalism, in communications,carries weight.
(15:24):
Um Mark, I can't remember hislast name, great professor.
Uh we've we haven't touched basein a while, but but I still we
would reach out every once in awhile.
Um he saw something in me that Iprobably didn't see in myself.
Um we would rent equipment andwe would go tell stories.
We were talking about the storyI did on the late Lou Harden.
(15:45):
Right.
Um I remember being in his inhis uh the president's house
there.
Um and those all came from thosemoments with Mark, who didn't
see or who saw something in methat I didn't see myself.
So absolutely, there were thosemoments.
Then it was just the communityaround, right?
It was it was the people, it wasthe other students that were
(16:07):
constantly pushing you.
And some relationships I stillhave today, some couldn't tell
you who they were.
But they were all grounded inthose moments of being in that
new facility because it wasbrand new.
That year that I was named theanchor, it was that was the
first year.
We were the first News Sixchannel station newscast in the
(16:29):
new facility there that now Ithink shares with AETN.
SPEAKER_01 (16:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (16:33):
Is that right?
Um and and I remember sitting inthere, the first newscast,
you'll love this.
We didn't, we weren't live yet.
We would sit there and werecorded for a 30-minute
newscast.
It probably took eight hours.
We would sit there and whetherit was me saying the wrong word
or my co-inker saying somethingwrong, or the sports guy saying,
(16:56):
or it was behind the camera, theteleprompter, all of these
different things.
It took forever to get a30-minute newscast down.
SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
Did your sports caster say boom goes to
dynamite?
SPEAKER_02 (17:05):
He did not.
I I remember seeing that.
So I saw that for the first timein my first job in journalism.
Right at scared you to death.
Right out of college.
I may have worked that into afew sports casts because I I
went into sports first.
Yeah.
Um, but I saw it for the firsttime like months after I
graduated from UCA.
SPEAKER_00 (17:23):
So months after you graduated, what what was your
first big break?
What was the first door thatopened?
How did you pursue your firstjob in uh broadcasting?
SPEAKER_02 (17:33):
So I had um, I would not recommend this.
Well, actually, we're at adifferent point in life now with
Chat GPT and all.
I went to Chicago and had aresume tape made.
Um basically I became just aperformer on I would just read
what's there.
So I sent those off.
I sent it to Bangor, Maine.
I'll never forget.
I was like, where the heck isBangor Maine?
(17:54):
So sent it, never heardanything.
Sent one to Grand Junction,Colorado.
Uh they said, Hey, we want you.
I said, Cool.
All right, what does this looklike?
20 some odd hours away.
Uh, it's not a lot of snow.
I don't know if you know this.
There's not a lot of snow on thewestern plains of Colorado.
I did not know that.
It's more of a desert overthere.
(18:14):
Okay.
But I took the job, they sent mea piece of paper, they faxed it
over to me, Paul.
Uh it said$17,000 with car.
And I went, okay, I can make Ican make that work.
2004.
The problem was it was$17,000 ayear.
The fax machine kind of leftsome ink out.
(18:36):
I went ahead and took it.
Uh my family drove me out there.
It ended up being a greatexperience.
But that whole walking to schooluphill both ways, you realize
that when you're 20 hours awayfrom home.
And I spent about 10 monthsthere and I packed up my old
(18:57):
Ultima and everything that Ipossibly could.
Um gave or sold everything elsethat I had, drove myself back
across Colorado through Oklahomaand Kansas and back down to
Little Rock, Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00 (19:11):
Without a job.
SPEAKER_02 (19:12):
Without a job.
Quit the job.
Uh went and worked for myparents, small business.
Okay.
And uh oddly enough, my parentsbuilt swimming pools in Little
Rock.
I get a call from a newsstation, and I'm like, I'm I'm
but there by myself.
And I answer it, and he goes,Yeah, I want a pool.
Okay, cool.
I can hook you up with my dad,all this stuff.
(19:32):
I said, What do you do at K ARK?
I'm the new general manager.
So, about that, I just quit ajob a couple months ago.
Do you have anything?
And that's how I got involvedinto this company that I was
with for 17 years that also ownsNews Nation, where I finished my
journalism career.
So all this big cycle, man.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:51):
What did he have for you?
SPEAKER_02 (19:52):
What was his answer?
What did he uh it took a littlewhile, um, but I ended up
getting a a sports role.
And um weekend sports anchor wasloosely what it was, and just
kind of worked my way throughthere.
Ended up meeting my wife in thatnewsroom, came up here to
northwest Arkansas, spent sometime at the news station up
(20:14):
here.
unknown (20:14):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (20:15):
Then we moved to Springfield, Missouri, then we
moved back to Little Rock, andthen Chicago called, and that
was uh a whirlwind year.
SPEAKER_00 (20:23):
Yeah, so and for most people who don't know or
may not who know who your wifeis, she has a name up here.
Who is your wife?
SPEAKER_02 (20:28):
Ashley Katz, uh her married name at Five News, she
was an anchor for a while.
She's uh now back here workingin northwest Arkansas.
Um, but yeah, it was great.
Uh my my kids experience.
So not only was I hired inLittle Rock based on that
conversation, I met my wife inthat newsroom.
She was trying to get the job,Paul.
She didn't get the job, she gotthe boy.
(20:52):
My kids have been to thatnewsroom.
My wife, um my daughter justcelebrated her tenth birthday,
my youngest.
The night that she was born,Ashley was at the news station
and had a piece of paper andgoes, Okay, I I can I I gotta go
voice this.
I gotta go and you would read ina microphone like this.
(21:13):
I gotta go voice this becausethis story needs to air.
Yep.
She was going through pregnancyin childbirth and read the story
and like all of that in thatsame newsroom.
SPEAKER_00 (21:22):
Well, along those same lines, I guess what was
maybe what was some of your yourtoughest assignment, so toughest
breaking news day, somethinghappening um behind the scenes
that nobody realized washappening.
What was one of your your mostmemorable days in the news?
SPEAKER_02 (21:37):
There are for me the it's the stories that are longer
than just one day or one night.
Um this was in Saline County.
A a kid was and his family hadfallen on hard times.
They were at a roadside motel,and a part of the wall fell on
the kid and hurt him.
Um we went, we interviewed thefamil the family at the
(22:03):
hospital, Arkansas Children'sHospital.
We went to the hotel, the hotelmanager talks.
Hotel managers never talk inthose situations.
They're always buttoned up.
He happened to talk to us.
A couple years later, the mom Ithink was arrested for some
nefarious stuff, some bad stuff.
Uh I don't want to say what thatwas because I don't remember
(22:24):
what it was.
But I think the kid has diedsince, and that mom is maybe
behind bars.
Um, those are the storiesbecause I remember the kid.
I remember I went to his housewhen he was in a wheelchair and
his dad was playing with like Iremember those things.
So the the emotionalentanglement sometimes I can
compartmentalize in journalism,but there are others that man,
(22:46):
do they hit home?
And that one for me was you sawso much and you were invested in
that family, and they trustedyou, and the audience trusted me
to tell those stories and thento know how it ended.
Those are tough.
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
Yeah.
Well, when you're tellingstories of people and places and
things in the news business, anduh even in print journalism for
me, it every day is different.
There's no day the same, there'stough days, and then there's
there's great days, there'smemorable days that you'll carry
with you forever along those.
You covered two Olympics.
I mean, you covered the Olympicsin Reno or at Rio.
You covered Olympics uh, youknow, halfway across the globe.
(23:24):
I mean, what was what were someof the memorable, you know, cool
moments, the weird moments, justthe things you'll you'll never
forget from from thoseassignments.
SPEAKER_02 (23:32):
So outside of the call, I was in Little Rock at my
kids' school, and the likecorporate news director calls
me.
Aaron, what are you doing?
I'm picking up my kids, man.
What's up?
Uh we want you gonna Rio.
What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00 (23:48):
Rio what?
Did you know the Olympics?
That's what he meant when hesaid Rio?
Yeah, okay.
That was just on your radar.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (23:55):
And I'm like, I yeah.
Go to Ashley, we go through thatprocess.
But I I think what you don'tunderstand when it comes to
whether you watch the NBA kickedoff last night, and I thought it
was fascinating to me that MikeTarico had just called Sunday
night football, and then twodays later he's calling NBA
basketball.
(24:16):
The research that goes intothose things is wild.
Right.
And so when I said yes to Rio, Ithought I was saying yes, I'll
go to Brazil for four weeks.
This was yes, I'll go to Brazilfor four weeks, but I'll also
plan for a year ahead.
When was that phone call?
I mean, how many months inadvance of the Olympics did you?
I think that one was about ninemonths.
(24:37):
Okay.
For Korea, we started a yearahead.
And I was on the Tokyo team aswell.
I ended up having to pull myname out of that hat.
But for Tokyo, we started a yearahead.
Um, so the process that goesinto this is extremely intense.
And and that's because, Paul,you know this.
You're forming relationshipswith athletes.
(24:58):
Sandy Morris, who won a silvermedal uh in Rio.
I could still text her.
You know, these arerelationships.
These are these are things whereI need to know more than than
possible.
Uh going back to your previousquestion about stories, uh Jeff
Henderson won a gold medal inthe long jump.
(25:19):
I had been in his house withJeff, his dad, and his mom who
was going through Alzheimer'smonths before.
And I'll get chill bumps andI'll fight back a tear.
I I remember him telling hismom, saying, Do you want me to
win the goal?
Because I'm gonna do it.
(25:39):
And I got the chance in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil, to say, Jeff,
do you remember that?
What do you want to say to yourmom now?
So all of that prep work ismonths, six months, eight months
in that case.
For Korea, it was completelydifferent.
Arkansas has great athletes whenit comes to Summer Olympics,
winter Olympics, it's different.
Found a guy who lives innorthwest Arkansas who was on
(26:00):
the Swedish, the Swiss curlingteam.
SPEAKER_00 (26:03):
I've curled with that guy.
SPEAKER_02 (26:04):
Yes, Dominic is Dom is a one-of-a-kind dude.
SPEAKER_00 (26:08):
Um Mark is a rotary club member with me and Rogers,
and he's, you know, um fromWisconsin and has and has
competed, and he's he's grown upwith curling.
So we're at the my firstmeeting, and I've met him and he
was talking about curling andsaid, uh, we do it at the Jones
Center.
Are you any good at curling?
Oh my gosh.
(26:28):
It was one of the hardest thingsever.
Right.
And I I grossly um miss, I justI didn't just the movement, you
know, it's kind of like, youknow, I could swing a golf club,
but I couldn't, I can just tellsomebody how to do it.
I can't show them, and that'skind of how I I felt for Mark,
you know, trying to tell me howto do it.
It was just very awkward, but Ienjoyed it.
SPEAKER_02 (26:48):
It I remember Dominic, uh Dominic Markey, uh
he works at a jewelry store inRogers.
Um I remember him trying toteach me at the Jones Center.
And like, guys, you like youlook at these guys, it's
effortless.
They slide across the ice.
It was not a good one.
I made it this far, and I'mtrying to push this stone down
the ice.
(27:08):
But those are, you know, goingback to the preparations, I
don't remember how I found outthat Dominic Markey was a Swiss
curler.
Right.
But then I'm there, and I rem Ihave a picture on my phone where
he's like this, and he had justwon a bronze medal.
SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (27:27):
That's crazy.
Yeah, that's pretty neat.
We went to, I'll take that storya little bit further.
We went to the gold medal match.
That's the only gold medal eventthat I have ever been to.
So at the Olympics, you're not,you don't get to go to all these
things.
You're constantly working,you're constantly have a camera,
you're constantly talking topeople, or on live TV across the
country.
Um but I got to go to the goldmedal when the USA won the gold
(27:52):
in Pyongyang.
Um it was it was so surreal, twothings.
One, it was the first time I sawthe red, white, and blue raised
in a foreign country at theOlympics.
I'm a diehard Olympic fan.
Love it.
It's it's amazing.
And so that was a really uniquechill bump moment.
Then Ivanka Trump and SarahHuckabee Sanders walked in.
(28:15):
I go over to the nationalcorrespondent, it was Peter
Alexander, who's on the TodayShow still.
Said, Peter, I know you don'tknow me.
I know Sarah Sanders.
I our kids went to the sameschool.
I kind of I did a bit where Iwas an MC, she was there, this
whole thing.
He goes, Yeah, come on.
We walked, didn't stop at SecretService at all, walked up to
(28:37):
her, and Peter goes, Sarah, thisguy says he knows you and he
made fun of you at an event.
She got up and gave me a bighug.
Yep.
Days later, there's a picture ofme behind Ivanka who's holding a
curling player's son and SarahSanders, and I have the reverse
image of it because I just get apicture of the two of them.
(28:58):
Uh, those are things that justdon't happen.
Um, there's so much preparationthat goes into that.
SPEAKER_00 (29:04):
Right.
Well, you carry that forward toyour job with DBI.
And you talked to you mentionedit, preparation, right?
Planning, preparation, planning.
So what is the biggesttransformation you've seen just
in downtown Bentonville, theorganization?
Okay.
Um, from when you before youstarted to to now into your job.
What's the what's the biggestchange?
SPEAKER_02 (29:25):
It's constantly pushing the envelope to not only
include um Walmart, to not onlyinclude the world's biggest
company, to not only includetheir vendors, whether it's the
Ink Pen or the cell phonevendor, they want to play.
They want to be.
Do they want to be included?
They want to be a part of it.
I mean, we're in a buildingright now that houses two of our
(29:46):
vendors.
Like they want to be here.
Because if they're able tosupply to the crowds that we
bring, there's a pretty goodchance that their customer is
there.
Um but the biggesttransformation is the fact that.
That we continue to push theenvelope.
That we're not stagnant atanything that we're trying to
do, that we're constantlysaying, okay, cool, we did this.
(30:09):
Cool, there's going to be 20,000people for lighting of the
square.
That's great.
But how do we give them the bestexperience possible?
Mention customers.
They're our customers.
They're the people that wereally are trying to serve.
What is the best return oninvestment if they spend the
time to navigate downtownBentville to be at this?
(30:30):
Is it a Broadway-style Christmasparade show, which we will have
this year?
Is it a uh, you know, partneringwith the city to have an ice
skating event, which we willhave this year?
Is it utilizing the vendors andand the community that has, you
know, candy and toys for aSanta's workshop at Lightning
Square, which we will have thisyear.
(30:52):
But that's the biggest change isthat we are constantly asking
those questions of how are wenot only pushing the
organization, but we're alsoreaching out to the community to
make sure that they understandthat this free family
entertainment is from the heartand it's organic and we're
thoughtful and we're pushing it.
SPEAKER_00 (31:08):
What are some things that maybe, I mean, you have
these events, you have enough onyour plate, but is there
something in your mind?
What is your big hairy idea fordowntown Bentonville that you
would love to see happen inthree years or five years?
Is there something that you andtalk about?
Absolutely.
We'd love to do this.
This is it.
Are you ready?
SPEAKER_02 (31:27):
Bentonville Country Club.
That's what I want.
unknown (31:30):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (31:30):
We need a golf course down here like crazy.
That's the one big hairy idea.
Right.
Uh, I'm only half serious.
No, but can that happen?
SPEAKER_00 (31:39):
Well, I've learned, and you know you've learned too.
I've I've been here long enoughto never discount anything that
you hear when it comes toNorthwest Arkansas as a whole in
general.
I mean, we all hear um, we'regonna have a WNBA team, we're
gonna have a velodrome, we'regonna have a, you know, whatever
it is, you know, there's acertain degree of skepticism,
but there's also should be ahealthy degree of that might
(32:02):
that could happen.
Because if it's if it couldhappen any place, it's going to
be here, right?
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (32:07):
So for what we're what we're doing right now, it's
it really goes to that newwalkable A Street Promenade.
If you haven't been to downtownBentonville, I encourage it.
There's a great new area thatused to be a street that you can
drive through.
Yeah.
Right now, it's on bricks andit's just a leisurely stroll.
The vision for what that thingis going to be is five years
down the road.
(32:27):
So the big thing for us needs tobe how can we continue to make
or to really start?
How can we start to make this adestination not only for
downtown Bentonville, not onlyfor Bentonville, not only for
Benton County, but really all ofNorthwest Arkansas and state of
Arkansas?
And so we are really right nowthoughtfully looking at, yeah,
it's gonna the grand opening,the ribbon cutting, which will
(32:48):
happen on November 15th, isgonna be special, but how can we
continue to showcase what thisis, the amenity that it is for
our city?
So that's the big thing rightnow, is is how can we continue
to push the envelope to showthat this is cool now for when
all the future developmenthappens and local businesses are
around it for what it's gonnabecome?
SPEAKER_00 (33:09):
When you showcase downtown Bentonville, you know
what what are and when you sayfor what it is, what is it?
I mean when you when you runinto somebody from high school
that you haven't seen in 20years and you try to explain to
them, you know, downtownBittonville at large and the
square and the things thathappen, what are the themes that
come across in your explanationto what is happening here?
SPEAKER_02 (33:30):
So the the easiest way for me to describe it is
going back to the Andy Griffithshow, which I think is possibly
the epitome.
SPEAKER_00 (33:38):
Favorite show, watch it every day.
I watch Andy Griffith every day.
SPEAKER_02 (33:41):
It's the epitome of of of what America used to be.
And so I say it's Mayberry.
Um it's it's I don't want to usePleasantville, but it's the
concept of Pleasantville.
Um it's a Hallmark movie.
It is a place where families cancome together, that every door
(34:03):
is open, but it's just it's adifferent heartbeat.
And I know that you've beenthere, I know you've been there
for events.
I'm not talking about events.
True story.
Um, my wife and I were watchinguh The Diplomat.
It's a great show on Netflixright now.
Fantastic.
Um the new I don't want to gotoo far.
An actor on the show.
(34:24):
I don't want to give anythingaway if you haven't seen it yet.
An actor on the show makes hisfirst appearance.
I look at my wife and I go, thatguy was sitting on the downtown
Bentonville Square by himself,reading a book or listening to a
book.
That to me is the epitome ofwhat our little corner, our
(34:45):
square, should be.
It's it's the freedom foranybody at any time, any walk of
life, it doesn't matter, to comeand experience this the
beautiful fountain, the iconiccourthouse, the Walmart Museum
at Five and Dime, and just sitthere.
SPEAKER_00 (35:04):
So now I'll give you a chance to brush off your
talking police.
Oh, here we go.
Ask you about uh the prevalenttopics of the of the downtown,
the parking and the constructionand the change, because those
are all very polarizing topics.
How do you navigate that as youcontinue to move your
organization forward and do allthese great and neat things
downtown?
SPEAKER_02 (35:23):
There are great new things that are coming to that
are gonna ease some of thoseconcerns.
Uh there's a new parking garagethat will certainly help.
Um I I'm gonna be a little toohonest with you, Paul, right
now.
I don't think parking's theissue that a lot of people think
it is.
And that that's me in Chicago.
(35:45):
Chicago, you drive aroundforever, or you pay to park.
We don't have paid parking inbed, though.
We may have to park a little bitand walk a couple blocks, but
that's normal.
And I think some of us, meincluded, when I gripe about
getting there early in themorning just to get a parking
spot, that's okay.
So I'm not now the traffic, wecan talk about the traffic all
day long.
(36:05):
I I do think we got some someinfrastructure changes that that
certainly could help that.
Parking, I I'm not so sure is ahuge issue.
And city council members, pleaseplease don't come to me on that.
Um traffic, I d I don't know.
Right.
Well, I mean I I've got ideas,and we you've seen Dana and I,
our executive director, we wereable to to host a a mayoral
(36:28):
debate where that issue was wasbig.
Um and I think it will continueto be big and as the growth
happens, 30 some odd peoplemoving to northwest Arkansas
each and every day.
That's not gonna change.
Right.
Um, but I think we gotta wegotta think ahead.
I think that's the key in all ofthis is we gotta think five, ten
years down the road and reallystart making those changes
(36:52):
tomorrow for what's five yearsin one day already.
SPEAKER_00 (36:55):
Yeah, again, and really all of those things that
we just that you discussed thatare all relative, like you
pointed out, Chicago or youknow, Dallas or whatever town
you want to use, everything isrelative.
And um, those are the changesthat are happening that are all
going to be polarizing.
You know, they're nobody's evergonna agree on those things.
But those are the changes, andthat is the growth that is
happening that kind ofunderscores um why UCA is here,
(37:17):
why UCA wants to grow itspresence and grow its brand in
Northwest Arkansas for all theobvious reasons, right?
I mean, um I haven't I haven'trun into anybody uh who has a
heart for UCA or has a a degreefrom UCA who thinks it's a bad
idea that we're up here and thatthey've created this position
for me to um connect with alumsand connect with business
(37:38):
partners and and civic leaders.
So uh if you know, as we'replanting a bigger flag here, um,
you know, whether that's eventsor or or a uh talent pipeline or
or just more storytelling uphere, you know, where where do
you think it could make thebiggest impact?
Where would you like to see UCAum plant a bigger flag and
become more visible in NorthwestArkansas?
(38:00):
What does that look like to you?
SPEAKER_02 (38:01):
Oh man, that's a loaded question.
You could have given me sometime to actually think about
that, Paul.
Um I I I think that's that'svalid.
Um I would always go toBentonville.
Um, but I also see, again,forward thinking, right?
So I was eating my Chick-fil-Ain the car, looking at the
building that we're in rightnow, and I had a thought of why
(38:24):
didn't Paul and I go in together10 years ago to build a building
like this, but build it indowntown Bentonville across from
the home office where wherevendors could then rent space
from us at an exuberant price sothat Paul and I are actually
making a lot of money.
That was a real thought thathappened.
So I think I would challengeyou, CA, to look at something
like that, right?
(38:45):
What is something that we can donow that we can see the
trajectory of the city goingtowards the area?
And what is that?
I can't give you an answer.
I'm just gonna be honest withyou.
I don't know what that is rightnow.
I I think some of that is islike-minded individuals, right?
Finding a place where whetherthey're alums, whether they're,
(39:08):
you know, I remember NathanBrown as a player, not just a
coach.
Well, you know, I covered him atbefore there were stripes on the
field.
Um but it is it mingling thosepeople together with Coach
Brown, with the president, youknow, bringing people together
and having those.
And I know that that's on youragenda, and I know you and I
(39:29):
have talked off camera about howthat's doing, but I I I think
the start would be creating anetwork of people in the area
who have whether it's a passionor whether it's a background,
those two things can become thesame to get together and just
really network.
SPEAKER_00 (39:50):
Yeah.
Well, I'm glad to hear you sayboth of those things because we
have done those things.
I knew you had, I set you up,Paul.
Started those things.
We've had our Northwest Arkansasblitz this past spring, which
was uh extremely successful.
We did bring um everyone up tofrom campus, our president, our
deans, and Coach Brown was here,our athletic director, and um uh
(40:11):
and then we've formed aNorthwest Arkansas Advisory
Council.
So the thing I joke with, youknow, you mentioned could
thinking about 10 years ago.
Why didn't I think of that?
The thing I joke with with uhPresident Davis now, now that
I've gotten to know him uhenough where I can joke with
him, um, you know, talking aboutmy job and this job, it's like,
why didn't we should have donethis 10 years ago?
(40:31):
Right.
I mean, have somebody up here.
So to me, that is the first stepis to just say, okay, we're
going to be here.
We're not just coming to visit.
We're not just coming up hereto, you know, revive an alumni
group or do an alumni event.
We want to be part of thecommunity up here.
So uh I'm hoping that thatresonates with UCA alums, and I
hope it resonates um with thepeople in my network who I've
(40:54):
known for almost 25 years ofliving up here, that um, you
know, I didn't go to school atUCA, but I believe enough in
UCA, and I think of UCA as abrand name in Arkansas, the same
way that Baptist Health orNabholtz or our best bank.
Uh UCA is a brand name inArkansas, and so I'm I'm proud
to work for the school up hereand proud to grow our presence
(41:15):
up here.
But uh enough of enough of thatsoapbox up there.
SPEAKER_02 (41:18):
You know, I I think that that's important, Paul,
because you look at sitting herelistening to that, like when's
the best day to get started?
It's always today.
Yeah.
And I can sit here and and I Iagain I I speak in stories like
an old man.
They they they make fun of methat I'm the old man of the the
(41:39):
office, but there was a lotavailable for sale next door to
me here in Bentonville.
I didn't buy it because Ithought it was ridiculous the
price they were quoting me for aquarter acre of land.
I wish I would have now.
But it was that day, that wasthe best day to do that.
Sure.
And so when it comes to UCA andits presence here in Northwest
Arkansas, it's today that thebest time to do it is now, and
(42:02):
and to keep moving and and tokeep connecting people together
so that when the question arisesof how is UCA impacting
Northwest Arkansas, well, itstarted here.
It started the relationships.
SPEAKER_00 (42:16):
Right.
That's how that's actually kindof how I'm I'm positioning that
is this this is going to besomething in three to five
years.
Right.
You'll you'll be proud thatyou're involved in the three to
five years from now.
SPEAKER_02 (42:26):
So and you gotta and sometimes you gotta struggle
through those things.
Sometimes you've got to jumpover hurdles and whether it's a
brand new story series that Istarted, you know, it's not
easy.
Right.
But in three to five years.
SPEAKER_00 (42:38):
Yeah.
Well, I mean, and I thinkeverybody knows, I mean, the the
hurdle for one of the hurdlesfor us, you know, there's a
there's a large four-yearinstitution up here in this part
of the state, but no, we're notcompeting.
This is not a competing um ideaor competing enterprise that
we're doing.
This is a complimentary thingthat we're doing for higher
education uh in Arkansas.
So, yeah, not competing um withthe University of Arkansas on on
(43:01):
any level.
But um anyway, so let's kind ofwrap up uh a couple of things
here.
Uh again, appreciate your time.
I know that you're busy.
Um if if you were speaking to aUCA student in their fourth
year, senior, who says, Man,I've just listened to your
podcast.
I'd like to do what you do.
I think I'd like to be in abroadcast journalism position.
What advice would you give them?
SPEAKER_02 (43:22):
It goes back to the same thing we were just talking
about, and it's networking.
Um I don't do you know youremember the name TJ Holmes?
I do, yes.
Yeah.
So uh I did a documentary at UCAon TJ.
Um I remember setting in uh thenewsroom there, I didn't work at
that newsroom, but in thenewsroom there, I remember it,
and his feet were up on thedesk, and he looked at me, and I
(43:45):
think I may have had a camera onhim on the time.
He goes, Aaron, you know themost important thing about a
good newsman?
I'm on baited breath, right?
All right, TJ, what do you giveme?
He said, It's the tie knot.
What are you talking about?
Years later, I'm covering afight, a Jermaine Taylor fight,
in I think it was Vegas, couldhave been a number of different
places I covered the fight.
(44:05):
Uh, and I saw TJ and I walked upto him and talked to him.
So networking, networking,networking.
So if that if that senior wantsto do this, reach out to me.
Go to LinkedIn.
Never was a LinkedIn guy untilabout two years ago.
It is, it is what Twitter andFacebook really started.
LinkedIn is finally doing forprofessionals.
Absolutely.
So lean into that.
(44:26):
Don't be afraid to reach out topeople, um, whether who I'm now
on the dark side of media, oryou know, I can connect you with
people who are currently in themiddle of what media is.
I that's that's the thing aboutthis, about communications.
If you're not grounded, and thebiggest pride point that I have,
and I think Paul, you probablywill say, is who's in my phone,
(44:49):
who I can text on any givenmoment and say X, Y, or Z.
So start that process now.
Start that process intern.
Find someone that you like inlocal TV and and meet them, talk
to them, find out how to tie andtie knot, apparently.
Um, and then reach out to peopleyou don't know on LinkedIn, but
you appreciate them.
(45:10):
Going back to the story in Koreaabout Peter Alexander, I didn't
know him from anybody, but Iknew that if I needed to get the
big interview with at that pointthe White House press secretary
who's from Arkansas, I had to goto somebody.
And I said, Peter, you don'tknow me.
I'm a local affiliate guy,you're a national guy.
(45:31):
Help me out.
SPEAKER_01 (45:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (45:33):
Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Right.
You mentioned networking andLinkedIn, two big things that
I'm big fans of, by the way.
Well, what is what is your senseof the alumni network uh as it
exists for UCA in NorthwestArkansas?
Do you run into UCA alums uphere?
Do you make those connections uhin your day-to-day and been?
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I know one.
(45:53):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (45:54):
So, and I think that's where I got really
excited, Paul, when you tookover this position because I
knew that that was gonna change.
SPEAKER_00 (46:00):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (46:01):
And I hope it has changed.
And I think I think that that'simportant.
And I think that like-mindedindividuals coming from a
like-minded background is vital.
Okay, it's vital to the successof me who's jumped into a brand
new career and I don't know whatthe heck I'm doing still.
Right.
Uh, those things are important.
Yeah.
And the connection points ofgoing back to Lou Harden, that I
(46:24):
knew Lou very well.
Um, I knew his daughter.
We were co-anchors together inLittle Rock.
Um, those connection points godeeper than my time in Conway.
Than my time at Ferris.
That my time, you know, youknow, Steve Estes.
We've talked about Steve a lot.
That my relationship with Steveat the athletic department.
(46:46):
All of those things, the deeperyou can can go when it comes to
networking LinkedIn alumni, thebetter it's gonna be.
SPEAKER_00 (46:55):
Well, we're gonna get you back on campus and
you're gonna speak to someclasses for us.
SPEAKER_02 (46:58):
That's what I've heard.
That's what I've heard.
But you I will do it under onecircumstance, Paul.
You cannot, by any stretch ofthe imagination, find any old
tapes from Channel 6.
I will give you the picture.
I still have it, it's printed.
I don't know why we printedpictures, uh, but I still have
it.
SPEAKER_00 (47:16):
Yeah.
Um we've got to have a then andnow.
That was one of my favoritefeatures at the Business
Journal.
We did a then and now for R40,and and some of those, some of
those back-to-back pictures wereum hilarious.
I mean, it were they were justhilarious.
SPEAKER_02 (47:28):
I don't know if I could find that picture now, but
I think my hair was straight upand it may have blonde tips.
Yeah.
Oh man.
So we've got to find that.
And that is your news anchor onChannel 6 News.
SPEAKER_00 (47:39):
That's awesome.
Well, Baron, real quick, wherecan people keep up with your
work and and see what DBI?
SPEAKER_02 (47:43):
LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn.
Okay.
Um that's the place to do it.
It's still Aaron Nolan News onall my social media platforms.
Decided to keep that becauseit's synonymous with everything
that's going on.
Uh, and thendowntownbentonville.org.
Um I again, I cannot say enoughoutside of what UCA and Conway
did for me.
(48:04):
People experience Bentonville inany way you can right now.
Um, just be there.
Right.
It's uh there's a Seinfeld joke.
Are you a Seinfeld guy?
Big Seinfeld joke.
Okay.
There's a Seinfeld joke whereNewman says, in Hawaii, the the
air is so dewy sweet, you don'thave to lick the stamps.
Lick the stamps.
That's what Bentonville is rightnow.
(48:25):
So uh experience Bentonville.
That is that is my last thing.
Gosh, well now we could justtalk about Seinfeld for another
45 minutes.
So Dana, you know Dana well.
Dana and her husband, uh, wehave a text thread that goes
back and forth about questionsabout Seinfeld.
So yeah.
I'm I'm glad I got Paul on thedewy sweet Hawaiian stamps
moment.
SPEAKER_00 (48:45):
You did.
You got me.
And I I like that you said uhjust be there.
We're here.
We are here.
UCA is here, and we've got a lotof uh exciting things coming up
and big plans for being heremore, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02 (48:58):
All right, let's flip this.
I know where are we at on time?
We're good.
I'm gonna ask you one question.
I'm gonna give you a chancehere.
I was in two productions at UCAon stage.
You have two guesses.
Can you guess which two?
One was a holiday production,and one was an Oscar
award-winning film.
Wizard of Oz.
No.
(49:19):
I don't think we ever did Wizardof Oz.
That's a good guess.
Why Christmas?
It's pretty close.
Christmas story.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (49:28):
And well, it's the holiday film and the Oscar
winner.
SPEAKER_02 (49:32):
The Oscar winner was Jack Nicholas was McMurray.
I think McMurray is the rightname.
Um you got it.
Nurse Ratchet?
Yes.
Um I actually just forgot it.
One floor over the cuckoo.
One flew over the cookies.
I was called back for McMurray,and I ended up being Aid Warren.
(49:52):
If you can find they used to putposter boards with the in the in
the theater there.
I was Aid Warren, the firstspoken production, and we did it
in the round.
Okay.
And so everyone was on the stagethere, which was wild.
Final fact for you, because it'shilarious.
They're on campus at UCA.
(50:12):
I was in Nurse Ratchet's littlenursing stage in the round, and
the medicine that they wouldgive the actors was Skittles.
So I would sit there in the asthe play was going on, just
eating skittles.
Yes.
Acting like I was getting highon the medicine the patients
were getting.
See, you would have been afantastic actor.
(50:32):
Random story.
Fantastic.
End up story.
SPEAKER_00 (50:34):
All right.
Well, listen, Aaron, greatcatching up with you.
Absolutely.
You've been covering Arkansas.
Now you're covering Bentonville.
And uh, again, I know you'rebusy planning for the holiday
festivities down there, but umuh these are the kind of stories
that this podcast hopefully willbe built to tell.
SPEAKER_02 (50:48):
So thanks for your hey, going back to that thing
right there storytelling andUCA, they run deep.
Sure.
So keep it up, man.
SPEAKER_00 (50:56):
All right, I appreciate you.
And this was a great, very firstepisode.
So thank you for our debutepisode.
I'm looking at you, Houston.
Great fused guest.
All right.
And that's our time today forour very first edition of
Central to NWA, a UCA podcast.
I'm Paul Gatling.
Until next time, go bears.
That's it for this episode ofCentral to NWA, a UCA podcast.
(51:17):
I'm Paul Gatling, SeniorDirector of Northwest Arkansas
Engagement for the University ofCentral Arkansas.
Be sure to subscribe to the showand follow UCA on all the
appropriate social media.
I'll see you next time onCentral to MWA.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Male Room with Dr. Jesse Mills
As Director of The Men’s Clinic at UCLA, Dr. Jesse Mills has spent his career helping men understand their bodies, their hormones, and their health. Now he’s bringing that expertise to The Male Room — a podcast where data-driven medicine meets common sense. Each episode separates fact from hype, science from snake oil, and gives men the tools to live longer, stronger, and happier lives. With candor, humor, and real-world experience from the exam room and the operating room, Dr. Mills breaks down the latest health headlines, dissects trends, and explains what actually works — and what doesn’t. Smart, straightforward, and entertaining, The Male Room is the show that helps men take charge of their health without the jargon.