The year 2025 promises to be a historic one for the Berryville Public library and, by extension, for the town of Berryville. We broke ground on the new library in April, so the library should be finished in the spring of 2026. Preparation for the new building has made us at the Berryville Library nostalgic and reflective, not just about the library’s history but also about the town’s history. Other seminal moments in Berryville Library history occurred in 1938 and 1978, so we’ll be looking back this year on what Berryville was like then, as well as what it is like now, as we also look to the future.
For August, we were looking at what Berryville listens to, past and present, and wanted to take some time to explore the history of KTHS, our local radio station.
Did you know that KTHS is one of the most historic call signals in Arkansas radio history?!
The first KTHS station was built over 100 years ago in Hot Springs. By the early 1950s, KTHS had moved to Little Rock, and from there in the 1960s, the station was sold and became KAAY. Because the historic call sign KTHS was so desirable, Berryville’s station acquired it in 1966 and has been using it ever since.
Along the way in the nearly 60 years that KTHS has been in Berryville, it provided the first professional reporting job for Erin Hayes before she went on to a national broadcasting career with ABC and keeps the town and county up-to-date on all local news. Tradio has remained a stalwart of the station’s programming for decades. Though the format has changed over the years, the basic premise of a local market for buy, sell, and trade remains.
In 2025, KTHS 107.1 FM is a country music station, and its parent company Carroll County Broadcasting also has two other stations in the county, classic rock station KESA 100.9 and Spanish language station La Maxxima FM 96.9/102.3/1480 AM.
Carroll County Broadcasting and KTHS have also been great friends to the Berryville Library, both literally and figuratively. We frequently collaborate with them, whether it is marketing our events on their station or using their fantastic Bids for Bargains program for prizes, and they are business members of our Friends of the Berryville Library group.
We know a lot of you listen to KTHS daily, and we want to know more about what everyone listens to, whether it is radio, music, podcasts, or more!
You can answer the prompts at any of our collection stations at the library, the community center, and the historical society. Also feel free to email us your responses and any book-themed pictures you have from the 1930s, 1970s, and now at celebrateberryville@gmail.com.
Everyone who fills out the prompt is eligible for our prize drawing. Each month up to five lucky people will win small prizes that celebrate fun things to do, fun places to eat, fun things made–you get the idea–all in Berryville! Responses and photos are also eligible for inclusion in our commemorative book at the end of this project.
Learn more about Celebrate Berryville on our landing page!
The following sources were especially helpful for researching this article:
KTHS Radio website. https://kthsradio.com/
Tony Smith comment on Jerry Merriweather post. “Hot Springs Country Club
KTHS Tower on the left Late 1920s ??” History of Hot Springs, Arkansas group. March 8, 2025. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1282275508489941/
Melvin “Bud” Stacey. “KTHS.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. June 16, 2023. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/kths-radio-station-6423/
C.D. White. “Is There Life After TV News?” Eureka Springs Independent. July 2, 2025. http://eureka.news/is-there-life-after-tv-news/
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