Barnett?s Sports Rap Swaps Sponsorship

Sports Rap host Chuck Barrett has dropped the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette from his statewide talk show.
On Feb. 12, Barrett informed the D-G he would stop doing his radio ads for the statewide daily effective immediately, leading the paper to pull its ads from KFAY-AM, 1030 in Fayetteville, owned by Cumulus Broadcasting Inc.
The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas jumped into the spot and Barrett is now endorsing the D-G’s regional rival.
Barrett said he had been thinking about the move for a while. Regular Sports Rap guest and D-G recruiting writer Otis Kirk’s status with the paper was uncertain and Barrett was not a fan of a column written by sports editor Wally Hall about Arkansas football coach Houston Nutt published Feb. 9.
Barrett called Hall’s column “trash” on his Feb. 12 show.
Kirk submitted his resignation to the D-G on Feb. 9 but was talked into staying in a limited role by executive editor Griffin Smith.
Other regular guests on Sports Rap are Hawgs Illustrated’s Clay Henry and Dudley Dawson, who also pen columns for the News. Both publications are owned by the Stephens Media Group.
Barrett said it no longer made sense to endorse the D-G considering his lineup of regular guests.
He also would not factor out his displeasure with Hall or loyalty to Kirk.
“I felt like I had to do what I had to do,” Barrett said. “Otis was in limbo with them and I just didn’t feel comfortable doing it anymore. I’m not going to say it was all about Wally. That wouldn’t be true.
“I think the timing pretty much speaks for itself.”
Barrett is not under contract with the News, nor was he with the D-G. He said he felt comfortable going with the Stephens paper based on the high praise he heard often from Henry about Morning News advertising director Kent Eikenberry.
“Clay is fiercely loyal to Kent,” Barrett said. “It is more of a Northwest Arkansas newspaper. I feel like in terms of covering Northwest Arkansas, they do a better job.”