KBON "Louisiana Proud": The Voice of the Prairie

KBON 101.1 FM
"Louisiana Proud" Radio
109 South 2nd Street
Eunice, LA 70535
Phone (337) 546-0007
December 3, 2010

On my last visit to Louisiana, I drove to Eunice to make a pilgrimage to the place that plays the most satisfyingly eclectic collection of recordings -  blues, oldies, swamp pop, country, classic country, Cajun, and zydeco - I've ever heard on one radio station. Now I can picture the broadcast booth every time I tune in online as a subscriber to KBON FM.
One of my ambitions is to announce the top of the hour KBON radio tag, "Louisiana Proud KBON 101.1 FM, Mamou, Eunice, Ville Platte, Opelousas, Lafayette, et...Tous Le Monde!" Listen to the cheerful energy owner and founder Paul Marx puts into that five second FCC required announcement and you'll get a sense of the station's  joie de vivre.

I’ve had a hankering to see the inside of KBON FM ever since its low power southwest Louisiana signal lit up the radio dial on my first trip to Louisiana in 2008. That and the fact that I nearly drove into the Atchafalaya Basin listening to the first few minutes of the most amazingly eclectic collection of recordings I’d ever heard – blues, oldies, swamp pop, country, classic country, and of course, Cajun, and zydeco – being broadcast from someplace called Eunice, Louisiana.

I’d had to restrain myself from jamming on the brakes on I-10 and jumping out of the car to dance in the breakdown lane with my traveling companion, a Baton Rouge native who was wet nursed on this music and would have needed no prompting whatsoever to embrace me as we waltzed around the rental car with 18 wheelers whooshing by at 75 mph.

KBON is the kind of down-home station that daily announces birthdays and anniversaries listeners have sent in.  You won’t hear advertising from chain stores, but if you need a chain saw repaired you’re sure to find out where to get it done somewhere in the range of KBON’s studio on 109 South 2nd Street in Eunice.

Ten years ago, Paul Marx was vexed because he knew that local musicians and music weren''t getting enough air play and worse, weren't getting the respect he knew they deserved. He founded KBON. The  “Louisiana Proud” radio station promotes the rich culture and heritage of southwest Louisiana every day of the year.

Don't be surprised to hear the DJ's and guests occasionally break out in Cajun French. Owner and founder Paul Marx does his whole Friday 6 AM to noon show “en Francais!” Louisiana music and musicians are 85% of the weekly programming. And it rocks, Cajun style.

I’ve spent hours listening to KBON’s disc jockeys on a streaming Internet connection. When I arrive at 102 South 2nd Street at 3 PM Friday afternoon, there is “Gumbo” Phil Daigle in the broadcast booth a few feet away from the station’s entrance.

Daigle sees me and waves. A few minutes later, having cued up a couple of songs, he pops up from his chair, hand extended in greeting.

“Hey, how you doing. Just about everyone else at the station is on our big weekend cruise," Daigle says. Sure enough, the place looks deserted, no one at the receptionist's desk, the lights off in a conference room to my left.

“I’m from Boston and a subscriber to KBON. I listen to you guys online all the time and have been dying to see where it all comes from,” I say as I shake his hand.

Southern hospitality kicks in. "I’m on my own here but let me show you around,” Daigle says

 “Just about every musician who’s been here has signed their name on the wall,” Phil says as he gives me a three-minute tour between songs. Hundreds of names, greetings and testimonials cover the station's  light green hallway walls.

Phil retreats to the broadcast booth. I absorb the energy of this “little station that could.” Its 25,000 watts of power reaches up to Alexandria to the north, Abbeville to the south, Butte LaRose to the east, and Lacassine to the west.

This is the second landmark I’ve visited in Eunice that exudes such an authentic sense of place, the first being the Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Everyone I’ve listened to at KBON has encyclopedic knowledge of music. They don’t just know it, they love it. And there’s nothing fake about every disc jockey’s southwest Louisiana accent. If you’re an armchair traveler wanting a slice of Louisiana culture mediated by the Internet, subscribe to KBON.

Since the station appears empty, the door to the broadcast booth is open. I lean on the doorframe a few feet away from Phil and watch him in action.

“This touch screen console is great,” he says. “The play list is here on the right. This tab on top shows how many seconds of the song are instrumental so if I want to say something about the artist or the song, I know how much time I have to talk before the singer begins.” (I always wondered how DJs managed that.) Just about everything that goes on the air is controlled on that touch screen.

On the desk is a list of the advertisement spots he has to cue up each hour, some pre-recorded (just touch that little icon on the console), some are live. A computer screen at eye level to his right shows the local weather that he announces between a set of songs. A plasma tv is playing Fox News with the sound muted. Hundreds of CDs line the shelves an arm's length away.

During the next hour Daigle answers the phone, gives away complimentary posters and bumper stickers to another walk-in guest, announces the day’s list of birthdays and anniversaries (a long time feature that, given the size of the list, nearly everyone in the listening area makes use of), prints out a weather forecast for the top of the hour, and gives on-air intros to several songs.

While I’m reading the autograph wall in the hallway I’ve got to laugh. There’s Daigle’s voice singing along with the artist on the air and the sound of his hands tapping out the rhythm on his desk - just what I do while listening at home.

“I never get tired of this, it’s something I love, and I get paid for it. I’ve been doing this since right after Paul Marx founded the station,” Daigle says, pointing to a photo of Marx with two fans.

When I ask him about play lists and their library, Daigle walks me into a storeroom with masses of CDs piled up on the floor, in cartons, and on shelves. I've heard songs with pedigrees way back to the 1950s - blues and rock 'n roll that still burn incandescently in the adolescent section of my psyche - on KBON. They're all here somewhere.

“Some day we’ll have this organized,” he says with a grin. I have serious reservations that this is a task any mortal can accomplish but keep my thoughts to myself. There’s enough music here to play for five years without interruption.

“Musicians are always walking in the door to tell us they’ve just cut a new album or bring in a new CD. As often as not, we’ll play a few cuts and talk with them on air while they’re right here.” And add the CD to the pile in the next room.

Now when I listen to KBON online, I can see Daigle’s face, reading glasses perched precariously on his nose, poking icons on the super duper new console and chuckle when I imagine him singing along with a Louisiana musician’s latest song. I can feel the “Louisiana Proud” vibe all the way up here in Boston.

Memorabilia in the station's entryway and autographs on the hallway walls inside.
  

Most of KBON is a model of functionality... then there's the storeroom which is 'in progress'

"Gumbo" Phil Daigle (L) and owner, founder Paul Marx (center in photo on R)

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
For a cool virtual tour of KBON
http://kbon.com/news/new-hd-virtual-station-tour/

Comments

[David Connor]

Really good one, Paulito.

[Suzanne Steele]

Hi.
Loved this piece. As always, your words paint such a great picture that I walk away from my computer feeling like I've just gotten back from a trip.
Thanks for sharing it.

[Paul Tamburello aka pt at large]

That's music to my ears...just like listening to KBON. Thank you, Suzanne!

[Phil Daigle]

Great read!!! Thanks my friend!!!

[Paul Tamburello aka pt at large]

Glad you liked it, Phil, thanks for responding. I look forward to my next visit to KBON.

[Linda Weaver]

Paul, you must have lived here in a previous life!
Delightful as usual.
Linda

[Paul Tamburello aka pt at large]

A wave of Sicilians immigrated to the New Orleans area in the early 1900s. My father's mother and father were from Sicily. Who knows, one of my relatives might have headed west toward Eunice and ended up growing rice and crawfish!

[May Louise White]

Another great, great and very true story. You are making this part of Louisiana come alive for people who have never even been here. I loved it, and I do love listening to KBON.

Well, tomorrow is Christmas Eve.....may I be the first to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

[Phil Woodbury]

So remind me, Paul, why is it that you still live up here in yankee land?

Phil

[Linda Weaver]

Merry Christmas!!
Hope I get a chance to share a dance with you soon.
Linda