2026 NEA Business Impact Award recipient: Trey Stafford

When Trey Stafford was young he listened to a radio program, “The Road Show.” It featured two men, Bill and Jerry, and they would gab about various topics in and around his hometown of Marked Tree.

Stafford noticed, however, that they never talked about news coming from the local school district. He gathered up some news, and talked his parents into driving him to the station. Bill and Jerry let Stafford read his news on air, and he was immediately hooked.

He decided radio would be his career path. It led him to form the Jonesboro Media Group. Stafford is the President and General Manager.

“I was just hooked,” Stafford said. “All I wanted to do was hangout at the station. I didn’t want to do the normal things boys my age did like sports. I just wanted to be at the station.”

Stafford and his first business partner, Bill Little. bought a radio station in Jonesboro in 1984. He was only 24 at the time. They stayed together for 10 years. Eventually the company morphed and soon it had three stations.

In 2002, the Jonesboro Media Group was sold to Saga Communications, a Michigan-based company. Its owner was so impressed with the operations, he asked Stafford to remain as the president and general manager.

“I was basically told run it like you still own it and that’s what I’ve done,” he said. “For more than 20 years it worked out well.”

The company has 27 employees of which 22 are full-time. Several years ago, it launched “Jonesboro Right Now,” a newsroom within the radio stations. It has two full-time staffers and two to three part-timers.

“I was really excited when we started ‘Jonesboro Right,’” he said. “I never would have thought I’d see a newsroom inside a radio station again.”

The Jonesboro Media Group reaches 10 counties in Northeast Arkansas and is based in Jonesboro. On any given week, it reaches up to 78,000 listeners on several different platforms.

Radio, like every other industry, has evolved along technological lines. Streaming has become extremely popular, and Stafford said he thinks it will continue to grow in his industry. People are locked into their phones, and they like to stream the radio stations from their phones, he said. About 30% of their revenue comes from search products such as from Google that they sell, Stafford added.

“We have to evolve our business to accommodate these changes,” he said. “More listening is done through streaming. This non-traditional side of our business is going to keep growing.”

Stafford said he’s never regretted his drive to the radio station to read news on the “The Road Show.” If not radio, what career path would he have taken?

“I’d probably would have become a band director,” he said with a laugh. “I really liked band in school.”