Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Radio Story

Well, I thought I would now take the opportunity to devote a whole post to the sharing of what has come to be known as “The Radio Story.” It all started last week when I was visiting Réunion. It was Wednesday, and I had the whole day to go exploring with my friend who was hosting me, Béné. We left early in the morning to go see some beaches on the southern tip of the island. While driving, though, we realized that the last remnants of Cyclone Lola were making weather conditions less than ideal. It wasn’t anything big, just a little rain and clouds. So Béné decided it would be a good idea to turn on the Réunion Island radio station, Radio FreeDOM, to listen if they would be giving out information about where there was good weather on the island.

So as we drove around for a bit, we listened as the host answered phone calls about everything from people asking questions about politics, to people putting out requests for returning lost pets. As Béné told me, the station is very popular on the island and almost everyone listens to it. She once called in when she lost her car keys and someone called the same day saying they’d found them and wanted to give them back. It’s a very “small island” kind of thing.

We continued listening as we drove, and I noticed that Béné was on the phone with someone, but thought nothing of it. Suddenly, the radio host answered another call and, to my astonishment, I heard Béné’s voice on the radio. Completely shocked that my friend had just called in and was put directly on the air, I look at her and all I could say was “QUOI?!”

Quite naturally, she started telling the radio host how she had this American friend who was visiting the island for a week and wanted to go do something where there was good weather. But as soon as the host heard that I was American, she launched out a barrage of questions asking “Where is he from? … What, Los Angeles! The City of Angels? … What, he can speak French? Is he there now? Well put him on!!”

Suddenly having the phone thrust upon me, I had no other choice but to start talking to the radio host (in my badly-accented French) about how I came to be on the island and how much I was liking it so far. It would seem that finding a tourist who wasn’t French was such a rare and exciting event that it had thrown this lady into a complete state of hysteria. After asking me a second barrage of questions, we posed our question again (which had, in fact, been the purpose of the call) asking whether there was something we could do on the island where there was good weather.

Hanging up, we listened and waited to see if anyone would call in to respond to us. Sure enough, three minutes later someone called in to respond to “Carl l’Américain” telling about how it was gorgeous over on her side of the island and that if I came over I should go to such and such restaurant to eat a traditional Réunionais Créole dish. Three minutes after that, someone else called in saying that it was great weather in St. Pierre and that I should come over and they would take me around and cook me food. And for the next hour, honestly no joke, dozens and dozens of people were calling in excitedly proposing things for Carl l’Américain to do. Each time someone would come on saying “What? Is there really an American on the island? Fabulous! Well he should come over to my place and do so and so and eat such and such!” we would roll with laughter.

Eventually, we made our way up into the mountains and got out to have a little excursion. After having a lengthy walk around the village of Cilaos, and a nice lunch (of traditional Créole food in a restaurant), we got back into the car three hours later, turned on the radio and heard “Oui, ça c’est pour Carl l’Américain…” Not knowing how this whole business could still be going on THREE HOURS later, we just looked at each other and laughed our heads off. It seemed that the radio host had taken up our cause with great determination and for each caller that called in, regardless of what they were talking about, would ask if they at least had a few words of advice for Carl l’Américain.

Seeing that I was still a main topic of conversation on FreeDOM, we decided to call in again. This time, we got on even easier than last time, and all I had to say was “Bonjour, c’est Carl l’Américain” and the radio host was going crazy over me all over again. “What? How was Cilaos? What did you do? How did you like it? What did you have for lunch? Was it not too spicy?” For some reason, she was very keen on asking if radio stations in the US were like this one, to which I said “Of course not! Radio FreeDOM is the best radio station in the world!” which seemed to bring her great joy. But honestly, I could not imagine a station like this in the States that has tens of thousands of listeners being this easy to get on by calling in. Nor would people use it as a lost and found, or announcement board, which are cool uses for a local radio station.

With this second call in, we asked whether it was good weather in the south in order for us to go and see the waterfalls of Langevin. Again, it didn’t take long for someone from Langevin to call in saying that it was beautiful and that I should definitely come down and see the waterfalls. So we did, but sadly didn’t find anyone to take us in to their home to offer us more Créole food.

But it did seem that my “celebrity status” had spread at least a little, because even a few days later, an old woman was talking to Béné about how she had heard on the radio there was this Américain staying on the island. “Yeah, and he’s even staying at MY house!” she responded. At this, the woman insisted that she make me some traditional Créole soup and gave it to Béné to give to me.

So yeah, THAT is how I got to be on the radio and became famous.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

that sounds like a good road trip. hint hint...

gabe said...

Carl, that is a delicious little story.
Only in America...

surrealswirls said...

wow! best story ever!! -Olivia

Unknown said...

That's totally awesome.

gabe said...

UPDATE!!