Tom Nichols
Celebrated radio host from Hot Springs whose long career in Arkansas broadcasting made him a beloved voice and community institution.
Tom Nichols is a longtime Arkansas radio broadcaster based in Hot Springs Village. With his wife, Polly, he built and operated a series of Arkansas stations over a career spanning more than six decades, beginning in the late 1950s. In 1980 the couple established KWXI-AM, the first radio station in Glenwood and Pike County, later adding KWXE-FM. In 1994 they founded KVRE 92.9 FM in Hot Springs Village, which Nichols continues to own and operate. He co-hosts the station’s daily “Tom and Alice” program with his daughter, Alice Bates, who serves as KVRE’s general manager.
In 2025 Nichols was inducted into the Arkansas Walk of Fame, honored at a ceremony at The Vapors Live in Hot Springs alongside psychologist Mamie Phipps Clark and Tom Wilkins. The same year he was named to the Arkansas Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame, recognizing his decades of contributions to broadcasting in the state.