[title type="h6"]Friday, September 27, 2013.[/title]
Mal Pelham wanted to get together for lunch. For at least thirty years he's been a sales manager in one way or another for WWL Radio. One of the internal changes involving the rejiggering of my radio station is that the WWL team will take over selling my show to sponsors. Mal, who knows very well what I do and how, wanted to fill in some gaps and brainstorm.
He didn't know it, but Mal and I go back much farther than my radio career. But not his. I was working at the Time Saver store in Harahan around 1970. I had the radio behind the counter tuned to WBYU, then the dominant beautiful-music station. (That whole category has since vanished.) A tall man entered the store to buy a loaf of bread. The Time Saver was the kind of store where most customers bought only one or two items they'd forgotten at the supermarket. After I told him that he owed us thirty-three cents (I'm not kidding) and gave him his change of a one, he said, "You have good taste in music!"
He must have been surprised that a nineteen-year-old kid would listen to the likes of Mantovani. Actually, I did like that music. Still do, in fact, although I can't listen to it long. "It's Bayou Stereo," I said, using the station's promotional name.
"I know," he said. "I'm an announcer there."
"I thought I recognized your voice!" I said, thrilled to meet an actual radio personality. (I was enthralled by radio starting at about age nine.) "You're the guy who shows up at a quarter to six in the morning to sign the station on, and then reads a fifteen minute newscast that makes you sound like you wish you were still in bed!"
That seemed to have taken him by surprise. He laughed with an edge of discomfort, and said, "Well, we'll see if I ever buy anything here again!" And he walked out. I became good at unintentionally offending people long before I was fully adult.
I met Mal many years later at WWL Radio. I didn't mention the Time Saver episode then, being a little more careful about what I said to whom. But I related it over our lunch today. He didn't remember the exchange, but he said that indeed he did live in Harahan around that time, and went to that Time Saver now and then.
We had a pleasant lunch. I didn't have to explain that I would not perform commercials for restaurants I wasn't already recommending. Mal, as I said, understands the concept of the Food Show, its needs, and what I bring to the table. He sold the show about fifteen years ago, during the Ciao Number Era. (Long story. Another time.)
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Eggplant at shrimp etouffee, Bon Ton.[/caption]
Instead of going through all that, we ate well. Mal had the daily special of eggplant and shrimp etouffee. A new dish on me, but he said it was pretty good as he put away about two-thirds of it. A few years ago, Mal lost a lot of weight, which struck me as odd, because he's always looked pretty fit. Nor do I remember that he had been ill. This weight-loss thing has truly taken over our society.
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Soft-shell crab at the Bon Ton Cafe.[/caption]
As for me, I ate all of a soft-shell crab Alvin. Fried, of course, with a light brown sauce that looks but doesn't taste like meuniere. Always liked that. Big crab, with extra crabmeat on top. We are in the good part of the crab season.
The conversation turned away from strict business to our mutual love of the radio medium. We both remembered dozens of people who had come and gone during our careers. There are not many people I can engage in a conversation like that anymore.
The best part of the visit may have been how I felt about the radio schedule changes afterwards. Much better than at the beginning of the week. I also learned that the management has found a private office for me. I am in need of one, because I have no place to work in town anymore. And I can't afford to waste the three hours between the end of the radio show at three and dinnertime. But I was very surprised by the space they've offered. A windowed office! I can hardly believe it. I wonder how long I'll be allowed to hang onto it.
[title type="h5"]Bon Ton Cafe. CBD: 401 Magazine. 504-524-3386.[/title]
