Bauder Named President of KHBS/KHOG-TV

Hearst-Argyle Television of New York has named Ken Bauder president and general manager of KHBS-TV/KHOG-TV, the ABC affiliates serving Fort Smith and Fayetteville. The appointment is effective April 9.

Bauder comes to Northwest Arkansas from the Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C. market, where for the last 10 years he worked as general sales manager at WYFF-TV. He succeeds Jeff Bartlett, who was recently named president and general manager of Hearst-Argyle’s WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H.

Before joining WYFF-TV in 1991, Bauder was general sales manager for Gannett Broadcasting’s WTLV-TV.

Hearst-Argyle Television owns and/or manages 27 television stations and several radio stations throughout the U.S.

Don who? Morning News misses Reynolds donation

One of the biggest news stories across the nation on March 14 was that a famous American landmark had been saved by an act of charity.

The portrait of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1796, had hung in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington since 1968. But the painting was about to be repossessed by its owner, Lord Harry Dalmeny of England, and sold to the highest bidder if the museum didn’t cough up $20 million to buy it.

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation stepped forward with a $30 million donation to allow the Smithsonian to buy the portrait. The extra $10 million will finance a special display area and national tour of the painting.

The story made the national television newscasts on the evening of March 13 and was a Page 1 story in newspapers across the country (including the Arkansas Democrat Gazette) on March 14.

But there was no mention of the donation in The Morning News of Springdale, which is owned by Donrey Media Group, which in turn is named for Donald W. Reynolds, its founder.

Instead, the Morning News ran an editorial about the donation on March 15. Page 1 of the Fayetteville edition of the Morning News on March 14 contained stories about standardized school testing, Greenland voters considering a property tax increase, and the death of a rare blind crawfish in a cave near Bella Vista.

“What it boils down to is somebody just wasn’t watching the wire very close,” said Jim Morriss, executive editor of the Morning News. “We goofed.”

Morriss said there is no connection between the Reynolds Foundation and Donrey Media Group other than the fact they’re named for the same person. Donrey is now owned by Stephens Group Inc. of Little Rock.