in my continuing efforts to mitigate loss of brain functionality (see also "math problem of the day"), i have taken up listening to the local tejano radio station.
between my two usual country haunts, there's one each: jack-fm, contemporary christian, spanish-language tejano format, and small town sports - the kind where they're broadcasting little league and shit. anyway, i'll run up and down between the country stations when they're both on commercial break, looking for something besides commercials, so i knew the spanish-language station was in there, but i'd never stopped to listen.
the other day, while blasting up and down the dial (i know... i know... it's not a "dial"), i remembered the spanish-language and stopped. it was the morning commute and they had what was clearly a morning drivetime talk show. it was like a guy and a girl, or maybe two guys and a girl, and they were talking and laughing. suddenly, one of them was doing a crazy raspy high-pitched voice like a ventriloquist and then they all freaking cracked up. see? clearly, morning drivetime shtick.
they did that for a while, and then they launched into commercials. i decided to stick around because spanish commercials are not boring...? anyway, here's what i found out. of the very few spanish words i know, numbers figure prominently. in the radio commercials i heard during this timeslot on spanish-language radio, numbers also figure prominently. i am fairly certain these are telephone numbers -- firstly by the way they are recited over and over (as radio commercials will do), and secondly because they mostly begin with "seis quince" which is "615" which is the local area code. i did hear one commercial today use "seis uno cinco" which mimics how it's said in american: "six one five". the other, "seis quince" translates to "six fifteen", but i am still convinced they are phone numbers. i mean, the entire language is different - they're allowed to say area codes differently.
one of the commercials i heard this afternoon was for "grumpy's" which is a bail bondsman. i brilliantly deduced this because they kept saying "grumpy's". another mentioned "certificado de matrimonio" which is pretty clear in meaning, but weird on a radio commercial. another sounded like it might have been a cinco de mayo promo from the station. firstly, they said, "cinco de mayo" and the name of the station, and i also heard: coca-cola, piñata, and bimbo. (in case you are laughing right now because bimbo i will tell your ignorant self that bimbo is a brand of sandwich bread.) so, i concluded that this was an ad for a cinco de mayo outdoor concert.
the station is called "el jefe" which means "the boss". the station promos just boom out in this deep voice like, "EL HEFFFAAAYYYY!!" so of course when i looked it up, i looked up "el hefe". hahaha!!! idiot.
the format is tejano, and i do know how to spell tejano, which you might not guess based on my poor showing with jefe. tejano is spanish for texan, and logically, the musical format is texmex. germans and eastern europeans who settled in texas contributed polka and waltz rhythms and accordion. mexicans contributed melodies and guitars. voila - tejano!
i generally enjoy tejano but didn't realise how large a part accordions play. i mean, accordion in every freaking song. i am good with it for now but not sure how long it will last.
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