Small towns across Arkansas are experiencing the exciting of the upcoming total solar eclipse on Monday.
Patrick Massey, News Director at KDQN in DeQueen, spoke with KTLO’s Heather Loftis about the excitement the airport there is experiencing leading up to the event, along with a possible celebrity sighting.
Listen:
TRANSCRIPT
LOFTIS: Visiting with Patrick Massey, who’s the news director for KDQN in DeQueen, uh, Patrick, you have a busy little airport there in DeQueen these days.
MASSEY: Uh, we do. It turns out, I guess every celebrity in the world is trying to fly in here. No, at least, at least, at least the biggest celebrity ever, I guess, we were talking this morning. I think, uh, I think you could go to a jungle in the Amazon and people know about Taylor Swift down there. Well, apparently she flew into our airport Thursday around noon or so, left for a little bit, came back, flew back out, maybe just a preparatory mission, uh, hopefully she didn’t just realize there’s just too much fun over there. She had to go somewhere else to watch the eclipse. But, uh, now I’m getting word that even Logic is making his way to the area to watch the eclipse. Uh, uh, so if you’re a hip hop fan, uh, you might know who he is, but, uh, yeah, you know, we are on the map for this thing, our area, and, and we’ll go ahead and incorporate our, this section of Oklahoma that really should have been part of Arkansas anyways. Uh, as, as part of all this, uh, we have the greatest period of totality in the state. Apparently, we’re on the map. I was looking, uh, I’m supposed to go a little later today to some of our, uh, core lakes around here because we’ve got scientific teams from other countries from China, the UK, Australia, from what I’ve been told, that have rented out entire sections, entire campgrounds to study Monday’s eclipse, uh, I guess scientifically. I didn’t know there was a whole lot left to know about them, but, uh, they’re all here, I guess.
LOFTIS: You know, you’re either on one side or the not when it comes to the eclipse, you either think it’s going to be a big, big thing, the biggest thing we’ve ever seen, or it’s going to be a big nothing. Where do you fall now that you’re seeing all that traffic into DeQueen?
MASSEY: You know, I’m, I am really coming around to this thing. It took me a little while when I first heard about it. I was like, who’s going to come down here and just stare at our sun for a few hours? But, uh, it so turns out that I have a family member who lives in Calgary. Uh, my, an uncle of mine, who is, I did not know this. He’s an eclipse chaser. He has been all over the world to chase this thing. Cause it happens whatever, 18 months or something like that. He, if there’s one and he can make it to it, he goes. And he said this is the first time he’s been able to drive, uh, to one. It’s crazy. He, he said, no, this is a big deal. And if you guys have the length of totality that, uh, that, that all the observers are saying you’re supposed to, he said, it’s going to be big. He’s coming down. He’s supposed to be here tomorrow. I got another family member from Canada coming down. I’ve got a guy from Bulgaria who is renting an RV, supposed to be heading, supposed to be sometime this weekend, going to be parked in front of my driveway. I did the math from, from DeQueen to Sofia, Bulgaria, it’s about 5, 000 miles. That guy’s coming. I think a lot. Are and I tell you, I can sense the excitement. So I’m excited too. I think this is really cool. I’m really looking forward to it. I can, you know, you’re, you live in a small town long enough. You can feel when things are different and I can’t, the traffic is just, it’s, it’s, it’s growing. We’re seeing license plates from Alaska, California, Arizona, Florida, all over the place. The people are showing up.
LOFTIS: Well, let’s do the best thing we can for Jay Bunyard and the staff of KDQN in Dequeen. We need the, all the Swifties out there to go to their Facebook page and get all the live updates and see if the one and only Taylor Swift is making her way back to DeQueen. Patrick, good luck this weekend.
MASSEY: Thank you. And just very quickly, I got it. We’ve got some locals who are wanting to go to Hochatown and start knocking on doors of cabins. I think most presidents, most world leaders would be highly impressed by the security detail that Taylor Swift brings with her. So highly recommend that you don’t do that.
LOFTIS:
MASSEY: Well, they all want her political nod. That’s for sure. That’s right. I could use her endorsement. No doubt.
LOFTIS: Patrick, have a great weekend. Enjoy the eclipse.
MASSEY: Thanks for the opportunity. You too.
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