Vegas Entrepreneurial Spirit Still Enjoys New Challenges

Media mogul Eddie Vega’s career so far includes many firsts: first Hispanic owner of a radio station in Arkansas, founder of Northwest Arkansas’ first Spanish-language newspaper and becoming the first Hispanic member of the Northwest Arkansas Council.

And at 43, he has no intention of slowing down. On Sept. 1, his company EZ Spanish Media LLC will launch the first Spanish-language, 50,000-watt FM radio station in Little Rock.

Vega had only one radio station — KSEC-FM, known as “La Zeta” — when he was named to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 in 2004. He now has one in Tulsa as well, and expects to have a fourth station, in the Kansas City area, operating in the next few months.

In April, the last month that research firm Arbitron Inc. released market share figures to nonsubscribing stations, KSEC ranked fifth most popular out of all the radio stations in the Fayetteville-area market, with a 6.5 share.

Vega considers his biggest achievement over the last eight years to be continuing to grow KSEC and his other businesses through the recession.

“We have pretty much reached, if not all, almost all of those goals that we had,” Vega said. “And we’re setting new goals now. And going through bad times with the economy, we came through as a business, and we’re doing really well right now.

“This is the best moment in all of our companies.”

Springdale-based EZ Spanish Media, founded in 1998, serves as an umbrella company for the radio stations and Vega’s other businesses.

His 29,000-SF Springdale Civic Center not only hosts conventions, meetings and even weddings, but is mainly a concert venue for popular musical artists brought to Northwest Arkansas by yet another Vega-owned company, Aztlan Promotions.

In recent years, Vega has purchased much of the property surrounding the civic center in Phase II of Signature Square on South Old Missouri Road.

His new goals involve replicating the concert venue format that’s worked so well in Springdale by building convention facilities in Little Rock and Kansas City.

“We’re not looking at properties right now, but after the radio stations come on the scene, it’s going to be easier because we’re going to have a presence already,” Vega said. “And part of being successful with the concerts is having a radio station with a good presence to bring the people in.”

With so many irons in the fire, Vega said, “We’re doing many things on a daily basis — multitasking — but that’s how we’ve been doing things for a long time, and that’s not going to change.

“We always take on new challenges, and it’s something that we like doing.”

Vega’s business empire doesn’t cut into family time with his wife, Leticia, and their three children. The whole family, including nieces, nephews and cousins, is involved in the businesses, so work and family life blend seamlessly.

In fact, most of his employees are family, he said.

Since coming to Northwest Arkansas from California in 1993, Vega’s been an advocate for the region’s Hispanic residents and involved in many community endeavors.

Last year, he joined the 100-member Northwest Arkansas Council. He’s been active for many years with the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, and currently serves as an ex officio board member.

In May, KSEC held its second annual three-day radiothon that raised $156,087 for the Arkansas Children’s Hospital — nearly twice the $91,000 pledged by listeners during its first event in 2011.

Vega also frequently donates space in the civic center to nonprofits for meetings and events, and KSEC does lots of public service announcements for nonprofits, school districts and civic organizations.

A huge Elvis fan, Vega’s office on the second floor of the civic center is filled with Elvis memorabilia. A guitarist himself, Vega played in a band more than 20 years ago, but is too busy nowadays to do more than play occasionally.

He goes to the gym first thing in the morning six days a week, a routine he started about three years ago.

“It relaxes me and gets me ready for the day,” he said.

And although he’s a graduate of UCLA, Vega asserts he’s 100 percent Razorback.

“That’s my football team and I’m all over it,” he said. “There’s no other team for me but the Razorbacks.”