KATV and KARK fav on to CNN

DEAN ON SCREEN: Those of us who have missed seeing Little Rock news personality and native Jessica Dean — who worked for the Philadelphia CBS affiliate the past five years — can watch her on TV yet again.

But Jessica, who worked for an alphabet soup of Arkansas stations, including Little Rock’s KARK and KATV and Fort Smith’s KNWA/KFTA, is not moving back.

Joined by husband Blake Rutherford, she’s in Washington, D.C., where she’ll be a CNN correspondent.

She’ll be in good Arkansas company. CNN is also where Alice Stewart, formerly of KARK, works as a political commentator. A few channel clicks away, Jessica’s former KATV colleague Kristin Fisher is a Fox News Washington correspondent.

We caught up with Jessica last week — after a PR person on the line warned she had only 10 minutes to chat (squeal! How fancy our friend is now!).

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Jessica says. “All the work I did in Arkansas laid a lot of the foundation for this.”

When can we catch her on air? “I will be across all platforms for them,” she says. “So that means from when they start New Day in the morning until Don Lemon signs off at night, I could be on any of those shows.”

TEACHER FEATURED: And the Grammy goes to … Gary Meggs, band director at Arkansas High School in Texarkana!

Well, not exactly. And not just yet. Out of more than 2,800 nominations, Meggs last week was named one of 25 semifinalists for the 2019 Music Educator Award presented by the Recording Academy and the Grammy Museum. The award recognizes those making a “lasting contribution to the field of music education.”

Ten finalists ($1,000 honorarium with matching school grants) will be announced in December; one winner will attend the Grammy Awards.

Though Meggs is only in his second year at Arkansas High School, he’s taught for four decades.

After retiring as University of Arkansas at Monticello band director, he felt led to return to teaching: “It was something I needed to do. So I took the job, and here I go again.”

As for his teaching style, Meggs says with a laugh, “I’m old-fashioned. I’m pretty strict.” With good reason.

“I enjoy seeing the kids reach a high level of musicianship,” he says. “I really like to see the kids going to college on a band scholarship. … Living in south Arkansas, it’s kind of a poor area, to be honest. It gives these kids such an opportunity to have a better life.”