ALL ABOUT 105-5 KEUN on The Cajun Prairie

WHERE WE ARE

The broadcasting studios for 105-5, KEUN, are located at 1237 East Ardoin Street in Eunice, where KEUN-AM  signed on the air in 1952, with a frequency at 1490 AM. We have just recently moved from our previous location at 330 West Laurel Avenue in Eunice (at right), although we still receive mail there.

We're all digital with the latest broadcast technology inside from the R. W. Cavaness Broadcasting Facility, named after our CEO and owner, the late Roger W. Cavaness, a Eunice native, and former announcer on KEUN in the 1960's.

If you would like to visit our studios, business hours are Monday through Friday 9:00 am to 12 noon. For tours and group visitations, call to let us know you're visiting, our number is 337-457-2348.

Both of our stations are the only two broadcast facilities licensed by the FCC to broadcast our signal from the city of Eunice, and we were the first radio stations in St. Landry Parish to convert to an all-digital studio in 1994.

The best-selling songs when KEUN-AM signed on were "You Belong To Me" by Jo Stafford, "Walkin' My Baby Back Home" by Johnnie Ray, and "High Noon" by Frankie Lane.

October 1952

The people of Eunice heard their very own radio station, KEUN-AM 1490, for the first time when it  signed on the air in October 1952. This was the year that Ronald Reagan married Nancy Davis, the Diary of Anne Frank was first published, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson for President of The United States, The Korean Conflict had been going on for almost two years, a G.I. had the very first successful sex-change operation, 3,300 died from Polio in The U.S. that year (0 died in The U.S. from Polio in 2004), Charles Chaplin was expelled from the U.S. after being exposed by Senator McCarthy, Cheez Whiz went on sale in grocery stores for the first time, Curly of the Three Stooges died after several strokes, "The Saddlemen" changed their name to "Bill Haley & His Comets", the highest rated TV programs were "I Love Lucy", "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts", "Dragnet" "You Bet Your Life w/Groucho Marx" and "The Jack Benny Show", and the week KEUN signed on was also the same week "Bandstand" (later re-named "American Bandstand") debuted on WFIL-TV in Philadelphia.
In October, 1952, The FCC granted a broadcasting license for operation of an AM radio station at 1490 khz to be the only AM radio station licensed to the city of Eunice, twenty-nine years later (to the month!) the FCC would grant a license to the only FM station licensed to Eunice, 105-5 FM.
Even to this day, KEUN AM & FM are still the only radio stations licensed to the city of Eunice by The Federal Communications Commission!
Today these two radio stations remain on air as the only two FCC licensed stations to provide the city of Eunice with radio programming. The FM went on the air October 22, 1981, continuing the KEUN tradition of weekend Cajun Heritage Music programming right up to today, listen to our Cajun Music Show every Saturday morning at 5:00 am for twelve hours, this show started in 1952 on KEUN and is still on the air!

King Karl DeRouen 1954

The original sign-on studios for KEUN 1490-AM were located at 1237 Ardoin Street near Highway 13 South in Eunice, the location we have just recently moved back to, broadcasting the 1490-AM signal from a transmitter at the facilities.

In the picture above "King" Karl DeRouen is sitting at the main studio control board on Ardoin Street in 1954. Karl has worked for KEUN off and on (He took a hiatus from radio to go to college in Texas for a while) since 1953. The control board is a 1952 "Gates Studioette" (Parker Gates 1907-1986) vacuum tube broadcast console, which has since disappeared into time.

The microphone in the picture at left is an RCA 44-BX ribbon type and is now at the Ardoin Street studios in the same condition as pictured here. The RCA 44-BX was the standard broadcast microphone for NBC radio in the late 1940's right up to 1955, when RCA discontinued this model

The large turntables are Gates MO-2705-A, type CB-11, standard two-speed (78 & 33 1/3 RPM), with a Gray Research tone arm (that had to be purchased separately), presumably the cartridge in the tone arm was a GE VR, possibly with a 3mil stylus for 78 RPM records like the one Karl has in his hand. For some unknown reason, the turntable on the far left is installed backwards (the tone arm should be visible as being on the right side of the record from the operator's view), but the one in the background on the right is correct.

The small 45 RPM record "changer", seen in the picture, is a consumer model #45 J-2 (this was the RCA model that did NOT have it's own amplifier and had to be connected to an existing console system) with a bakelite casing, rigged up by the station engineer since 45 RPM records were becoming increasingly popular for Pop music that year. We assume this was a temporary fix to play the new 45's, since consumer products such as this are not broadcast quality to the standards of the industry. The 45 RPM record had just been invented five years earlier in 1949. This model now sells for over $500.00, we have no idea where this one went. This unit was obviously still in the process of being installed at the time this picture was taken, or was under repair, look closely for the tone arm on it... there is none!

KEUN eventually installed professional broadcast turntables capable of playing 45 RPM records, as shown in a photo taken a few years later at right. Turntables were standard use in radio stations around the world until the mid-1960's when cartridge tape (Called "carts" in the industry) became the quality standard, eliminating pop, crackle, and "cue burns" (noise at the beginning of a record after several hundred plays from the DJ cueing it to start on time) that were evident on all records handled by station personnel, as DJ's are notorious for being rough with broadcast equipment.

55th YEAR REUNION!
KEUN-AM 1490 turned 55 years old in October of 2007, and an on-air reunion and open house is in the works, listen on air for details and for your invite!