Radio Show Really Cooks For Baker
It’s Sunday morning in Sandpoint, and Joe Tajan is living out a dream.
After rising at his Pack River home north of Sandpoint, he heads for town and the local radio station. By 5 a.m. Tajan - now JoJo Baker - begins his five-hour weekly show.
“Good morning, this is official barbecue day - Father’s Day, 1997,” the soothing, relaxed voice tells KPND-FM listeners. “The weather is sunny and warm … the wind is barely rolling. So enjoy.”
He leads listeners through a blend of blues, R&B and other progressive sounds. Baker particularly enjoys introducing vocalists like female blues artist Rory Block or British blues transplant John Mayall. Mayall is on this summer’s Festival at Sandpoint calendar.
“I (really) like the stuff with no singing,” the 50-year-old Houston native said. “It’s a theater of the mind-type thing where you can take the music and groove with it.”
Listeners get more than music from JoJo Baker, whose radio name evolved from his career in the kitchen. His culinary talent dates back to his childhood when his mother enrolled him in a summer cooking class to keep him busy.
“I liked it. I even won first prize in a cooking contest,” Baker recalled. Whipping up dishes like gumbo and catfish in resort restaurants and even a prison kitchen has left its mark. He seasons musical offerings with weather commentary, thoughts on the particular day and recipe ideas.
“I talk about the mood of the morning and start throwing out ideas for breakfast,” Baker said. “For Father’s Day I suggested waffles.”
Baker’s musical/culinary blend has provided the right recipe for the local radio station. Owner Kim Benefield credits JoJo Baker with helping KPND-FM see a dramatic increase in its audience after going to 100,000 watts in 1993, expanding it to a regional facility.
The station reaches listeners as far as 75 miles away. “Tons of people I know listen lightly all week long,” Benefield said, “but even more turn it on specifically Sunday morning for his show.”
Baker’s popularity follows some dark years that tested both him and his family. He served five years at Spokane’s Geiger Correctional Facility after federal marshals showed up at the family’s home one day in 1989 to inform him that witnesses from a drug bust had testified against him.
“I was indicted for aiding and abetting the manufacture of marijuana,” he recalled. “The whole scene of the courtroom and being taken away was pretty strong.”
Counseling afterward brought the family together and awakened a sense of responsibility in his two sons. Crosby Tajan, 22, an offensive left tackle for the University of Idaho football team, will serve as the Vandals’ team captain this fall. Adam, 20, recently received a soccer scholarship at the University of Southern Colorado.
“It was quite a chapter I didn’t really want, but it didn’t turn out too bad,” he said. “When things bad happen, things good will follow.”
He took classes at Geiger, including speech. He even served as Toastmasters president.
After his release in 1994, a friend suggested he talk to Benefield about a job in radio. His laid-back approach has delighted listeners ever since.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and kids of all ages: Forgive your parents,” he advises weekly.
“Keep things light.”
, DataTimes