DJ GB the AD

Lots of us around Natchitoches have our radios tuned in to 100.7 KZBL FM, not only because it’s the home of the Demon Sports Network, but because we enjoy the music and personalities.

KZBL showcases characters such as Johnny Earthquake, the alter ego of local attorney and band leader Rodney Harrington, an NSU grad from the mid-1970s. C-Rod, as friends have been known to call him, hosts “The Jammin’ with Johnny Show” Wednesday mornings from 8-9 and Friday afternoons from 4-5ish, often welcoming guests and co-hosts.

Today’s co-host was Greg Burke, our outstanding athletics director – and a huge rock music fan. Greg and Johnny introduced songs, asked music trivia questions of the listeners while giving away tickets to Saturday’s Demon football game, and visited about music and NSU sports.

GB the DJ had a couple of interesting dedications. The KZBL studio is located on Jefferson Street and at the same time Greg and Johnny were discussing the Demons’ game against Arkansas-Monticello, the UAM buses drove past the studio. Prompted by a caller, the co-hosts dished out the novelty song “The Boll Weevil” by Brook Benton. Seriously.

The song begins:
“Let me tell ya a story about a boll weevil;
Now, some of you may not know,
but a boll weevil is an insect.
And he's found mostly where cotton grows.
Now, where he comes from, hmm,
nobody really knows.
But this is the way the story goes.”
Really!

Burke also couldn’t resist dedicating the song “Simply Irresistible” to Lady Demon basketball coach Jennifer Graf. Before you get the wrong idea, you need to know that Graf and former assistant Kia Converse convinced the music-loving AD to join them in a karaoke contest singing that song while they were attending a Southland Conference spring meetings in Galveston a couple years ago.

Let’s just say GB is a much better DJ than a vocalist, or so I’m told.

He is a near-savant when it comes to his knowledge of 1970s and 1980s rock and pop music lyrics and artists. He traces it back to his days as a high school band member, but it can’t be sheer coincidence that he grew up in Alliance, Ohio – not that far south of Cleveland, home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Burke, an avid concert-goer then and now, told the listeners that one of his greatest regrets from his youth was passing up a free ticket to a mid-1970s Earth, Wind and Fire concert.

Can’t argue that!

The show went over the normal hour “because we can,” said Johnny. Good for Greg’s parents, who were in town all week from Ohio and no doubt were thrilled to hear their hard-working son plugging NSU athletics and enjoying one of his lifelong passions, music.