Little Rock television station KATV, Channel 7, won permission Monday to extend the height of a broadcast tower at its new Riverdale home.
The city Board of Adjustment voted 3-2 to grant the variance after an hourlong hearing that pitted station officials against residents of Little Rock's Riverdale neighborhood.
KATV, which has been at Fourth and Main streets for 50 years, is relocating its studios and newsroom to 10 Turtle Creek Lane, which the station purchased for nearly $4.4 million.
A building permit obtained in May to build a 75-foot tower, which is the maximum height allowed, came a month after KATV had withdrawn its request to build a 100-foot tower on the property.
The station refiled the request for the 100-foot tower after concluding that was the minimum height necessary to ensure its broadcast signal could reach a relay on the Regions Bank building, which can shoot the signal to the station's broadcast tower on Shinall Mountain in west Little Rock.
City planners supported the variance request, but Riverdale residents said the metal-truss tower is "ugly."
-- Noel Oman
Walmart program to help Indian firms
Walmart Inc. said Monday it's creating a supplier development program in India to prepare 50,000 small businesses there to enter global supply chains.
Called Walmart Vriddhi, the program will provide in-person training to India's micro-, small- and medium-size companies, as well as access to Walmart's global expertise and a network of peers and mentors within the businesses' communities.
The Bentonville-based retailer will work with Indian nonprofit Swasti to deliver training through university partners at 25 Walmart Vriddhi institutes. The institutes will open across the country over the next five years.
Judith McKenna, chief executive officer of Walmart International, said in a news release that the program aims to equip Indian businesses to supply not just Walmart and its subsidiaries, but also other retailers worldwide.
"Participants will be equipped for both online and offline growth, helping give them the tools to potentially become a part of the supply chains of Flipkart, Walmart Global Sourcing and Walmart India," the release said.
-- Serenah McKay
Index slips by 0.62, ends day at 468.23
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Monday at 468.23, down 0.62.
"Stocks moved lower on Monday, after last Friday's massive rally that was sparked by a much better than expected jobs report," said Chris Harkins, managing director at Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 12/10/2019