KBON: Where Mardi Gras Never Stops
Part of adjusting - and coping - to temporary news quarters while newsroom restoration work is under way has been cranking up the music.
Assistant Managing Editor Pete Churton and I are highly knowledgeable institutions when it comes to music and its history (at least we think we are), and working side-by-side has given us the opportunity to cross-pollinate.
He introduced me to soul king Wilson Pickett, for example, and I turned him onto Hum, an obscure alternative group from the 1990s. Every day is a new educational experience. We trade CDs almost on a daily basis.
However, for the past few days, we've been locked into this wonderful little Louisiana radio station, KBON, 101.1 FM. It can't be picked up by car antenna in Southeast Texas, but you can get to it online at http://www.kbon.com/support.html and play it through your computer.
I learned about it through newsroom assistant Marie Richard, who had it going at her desk on the other side of the first floor.
I got it going on Murderer's Row - where three editors, including Churton and Associate Managing Editor Sheila Friedeck, work elbow-to-elbow - and it has been a Cajun music festival ever since. One minute, Rosie Ledet is hammering away at her accordion, and the next, Chuck Berry is ripping a guitar solo and then Elvis is singing about a teddy bear. The station, based in
Eunice, La., calls its playlist "Cajun Pop," but the styles range from zydeco to blues to soul to gospel to old-timey rock 'n' roll. Heck, I think I heard an ancient Hank Williams song on there the other day.
Nothing enhances the experience of editing a Port Arthur school board story like a little Fats Domino followed by some Aaron Neville singing "Tell It Like It Is."
But perhaps the best part of KBON is the attitude. This station is independent - void of being under the thumb of some heavy-handed corporation telling it what to play - and proud of it.
Yesterday, I was so inspired that I fired off the following e-mail to the station:
Howdy!
I'm a journalist in Beaumont, Texas.
Hurricane Rita kicked our newsroom's butt, so we're all displaced throughout
the building while repairs are under way.
I work downstairs with another editor. We recently discovered the online
link to the music, and we haven't turned it off since.
It kicks ass!
Play more Rosie Ledet!!!!
Ooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Brian
I figured I wouldn't hear anything from them, but sure enough, this spicy e-mail was waiting for me when I arrived at work this morning:
Bonjour Brian. Thanks for listening.
As you may know, KBON 101.1FM is a locally owned radio station (sole-proprietorship). We are not part of the "corporate cookie-cutter" radio stations that use charts to determine what to play. We have no charts here at KBON.
Why would we depend on someone from a far away state to tell us what to play here in Acadiana. Chances are the national charts are put together by someone who has never been to our part of Louisiana, never ate a link of boudin with freshly cooked cracklins and who never sucked a crawfish head. What would they know about our people & our music?? Chances are, NUTTIN! All the music played on KBON is selected by us for our local
listeners. Of course we share our music with the world at www.kbon.com.
Merci,
Paul Marx
http://www.eunice-la.com/pmarx.html
Owner/KBON 101.1fm
www.kbon.com
How refreshing it is to see a radio station marching to its own washboard beat and thumbing its nose to the corporate giants that have turned myriad radio stations into little more than vehicles of noise pollution.
Assistant Managing Editor Pete Churton and I are highly knowledgeable institutions when it comes to music and its history (at least we think we are), and working side-by-side has given us the opportunity to cross-pollinate.
He introduced me to soul king Wilson Pickett, for example, and I turned him onto Hum, an obscure alternative group from the 1990s. Every day is a new educational experience. We trade CDs almost on a daily basis.
However, for the past few days, we've been locked into this wonderful little Louisiana radio station, KBON, 101.1 FM. It can't be picked up by car antenna in Southeast Texas, but you can get to it online at http://www.kbon.com/support.html and play it through your computer.
I learned about it through newsroom assistant Marie Richard, who had it going at her desk on the other side of the first floor.
I got it going on Murderer's Row - where three editors, including Churton and Associate Managing Editor Sheila Friedeck, work elbow-to-elbow - and it has been a Cajun music festival ever since. One minute, Rosie Ledet is hammering away at her accordion, and the next, Chuck Berry is ripping a guitar solo and then Elvis is singing about a teddy bear. The station, based in
Eunice, La., calls its playlist "Cajun Pop," but the styles range from zydeco to blues to soul to gospel to old-timey rock 'n' roll. Heck, I think I heard an ancient Hank Williams song on there the other day.
Nothing enhances the experience of editing a Port Arthur school board story like a little Fats Domino followed by some Aaron Neville singing "Tell It Like It Is."
But perhaps the best part of KBON is the attitude. This station is independent - void of being under the thumb of some heavy-handed corporation telling it what to play - and proud of it.
Yesterday, I was so inspired that I fired off the following e-mail to the station:
Howdy!
I'm a journalist in Beaumont, Texas.
Hurricane Rita kicked our newsroom's butt, so we're all displaced throughout
the building while repairs are under way.
I work downstairs with another editor. We recently discovered the online
link to the music, and we haven't turned it off since.
It kicks ass!
Play more Rosie Ledet!!!!
Ooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Brian
I figured I wouldn't hear anything from them, but sure enough, this spicy e-mail was waiting for me when I arrived at work this morning:
Bonjour Brian. Thanks for listening.
As you may know, KBON 101.1FM is a locally owned radio station (sole-proprietorship). We are not part of the "corporate cookie-cutter" radio stations that use charts to determine what to play. We have no charts here at KBON.
Why would we depend on someone from a far away state to tell us what to play here in Acadiana. Chances are the national charts are put together by someone who has never been to our part of Louisiana, never ate a link of boudin with freshly cooked cracklins and who never sucked a crawfish head. What would they know about our people & our music?? Chances are, NUTTIN! All the music played on KBON is selected by us for our local
listeners. Of course we share our music with the world at www.kbon.com.
Merci,
Paul Marx
http://www.eunice-la.com/pmarx.html
Owner/KBON 101.1fm
www.kbon.com
How refreshing it is to see a radio station marching to its own washboard beat and thumbing its nose to the corporate giants that have turned myriad radio stations into little more than vehicles of noise pollution.
posted by Brian Pearson at 10:46 AM
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