Very entertaining piece in yesterday’s Post about KBON, the amazing Cajun/Zydeco/swamp pop/New Orleans R&B/all-around Louisiana music radio station in Eunice, Louisiana. (Eunice is about 15 miles from Rayne, my hometown.) The reporter, Steve Hendrix, became addicted to KBON over the Internet and decided he had to make it down to Eunice to see the station itself.

It’s a good piece, skipping a lot of the more absurd Cajun stereotypes. I’m even willing to look past the sprinkling of errors. (It’s Geno Delafose, not Gino, and Opelousas, not Opalousas. Eunice is due west of Opelousas, not “just north.” All of his pronunciation guides are also screwy: Aucoin is OH-kwahn, not aw-KWAN, boudin is BOO-danh, not boo-DAN, and Savoy is SAHV-wah, not sav-WAH.)

But I do like that Hendrix agrees with me that the Cajun Music Hall of Fame is “modest” (which is code for “it sucks and Josh should start a better one”). And he does a great job of hitting the station’s community tone — particularly these two quotes from the station’s DJs on air:

“Baby chicks! Baby chicks! Baby chicks! Ms. Emily at Fisette’s Feed and Garden Center in Opelousas has just received a large shipment of baby chicks. Get your baby chicks now and by this winter they’ll be just the right size for the gumbo pot.”

And this one: “And one final announcement before we go. If you know David Thibodeaux and his fiancee, Dana, they want you to come to their wedding this Saturday. They said they didn’t have time to get out all the invitations. So if you know Big David and Dana, come on out. It’s gonna be a good party.”

22 September 2003

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