THE OBSERVER
FREON & FRIED CHICKEN A QUIET COOLING ON THE AIRWAVES
T
he Observer listens to a lot of KABFFM, 88.3. Reasons are manyfold. It’s completely community-run and has a long history that ties it inextricably with the weirdo modern history and culture of Little Rock; those who managed to catch the DIY documentary film “88.3 FM & The Voice of the People” during its ephemeral 2022 streaming release know this. The station’s reach is notoriously broad but its focus remains hyperlocal, and I defy you to find something on the dial with more diverse programming. (Where else are you going to get an impassioned monologue from Judge Wendell Griffen but also shake your ass to some 607 and get weepy on some Angel Olsen?) Maybe most important of all, though, its volunteer DJs can utterly throw down. (Looking at you, Boom Hour and Midday Mixtape.) And over the course of a 24-hour-ish period in July, The Observer found out something kind of sweet and tender and awesome. It started late Friday afternoon when I was tuning into Amy G’s “Backroads,” a countrycentric show that wanders through rock territory and a little blues — an all-around great way to ease yourself into the weekend. Garland, a musician herself, has superb and wide-ranging taste, as did her predecessor on the show, Flap Jones, as well as Garland’s sometimes-stand-in, Aaron Reddin. When The Observer is blissfully free on Friday evenings, “Backroads” is her goto radio show for hanging out in the backyard with a super-cold Busch Light in hand. Anyway, in between songs, Garland was pointing out 106 AUGUST 2022
ARKANSAS TIMES
how much cooler the radio booth was now that the air conditioning — a perennial thorn in the side for the station’s budget and aging building — had been repaired. Garland mentioned something about the guys from “The Fix It Show” having put in a new window unit that was making the studio tons more tolerable (read as: not a sweltering hellhole, though Amy G. was a tad more diplomatic). Do you know these guys? It’s a “Car Talk”esque recipe that airs late on Saturday mornings, when you’ve had just enough coffee to make caulking around your door frames sound palatable. They talk about DIY repairs, how to fix basic things around your home instead of calling a repairman, etc. They’re very chill and they’re very knowledgeable. One of the dudes sounds uncannily like Bill Clinton, which pleases The Observer to no end. And while on a quick grocery run to put together a care package for a friend who was ill, I happened to tune in and catch them talking about: Guess what? The air conditioning unit. They said that Bobby Fuller of Fuller & Son Hardware had quietly donated a window unit — also quiet, evidently — to the station to alleviate the hotbox effect, which the volunteer DJs then installed. Go, Bobby! In short: Fuck Home Depot, three cheers for KABF, buy your hardware stuff locally.
THE OBSERVER GETS IN LINE WITH OTHER NEWS OUTLETS TO COVER A FAST FOOD OPENING
The Observer was aware of the July opening of Chick-fil-A’s new location on Broadway, not because I’m a Chick-fil-A fan, I’m not. It’s
a highly overrated fried chicken chain in a saturated market that’s not worth the wait and has a history of supporting anti-LGBTQ organizations. Easy pass. And ever since the Little Rock City Board voted to grant Chick-fil-A a franchise over a city right of way along Seventh Street and Broadway, I’ve been anticipating a lunchtime shitshow of pull your hair out traffic on Broadway. So on opening day I grabbed a water and drove over there during the noon hour lunch rush to timestamp how long it would take to get lunch in hopes of writing a snarky piece about how I foolishly waited over an hour for fast food from a ubiquitous chain on opening day. Much to my chagrin, the double line with 15 to 20 cars moved really fast thanks to the help of the 10 or so employees walking around in 100-degree heat with shaded tablets, taking orders from cars. The whole experience only took about 5 minutes. I ordered the traditional sandwich and, I’ll be honest, there have been times in my life when I really enjoyed that sandwich. But not this time. The white flour enriched bun looked like it had been smashed in a poorly packed bag of groceries. The fried chicken was OK, but nothing to write home about. It had two sad end-of-thejar-looking pickles on it and that’s it. There’s a wide variety of locally owned restaurants making fried chicken sandwiches that are far better. Take your sandwich eating talents outside your fast food comfort zone and seek them out. Oh, look, here’s a list that might’ve taken years off the author’s life: arktimes.com/ eat-arkansas/2022/06/02/a-central-arkansasfried-chicken-sandwich-guide
