Marcel - the "Bluegrass Coyote" - left the airwaves at WHUS in August 2000, when the show was still called The Magic Of Bluegrass. Here's Marcel's BG story:
Marcel Huguenin (born 3/9/1940) was always interested in music ever since there was a radio in the home to listen to. He recalls listening to The Grand Ole Opry on WSM 650 AM, WCKY Cincinnati 1530 AM (now a talk show), WJJD 1160 AM Chicago, and others. It was good old country music back then, with the likes of Kitty wells, Jean Shepard, Hank Snow, Webb Pierce Lefty Frizzell, the Louvin Brothers, Carl Smith, Hank Williams, etc.
Then it finally happened. While browsing through the record bins in the old shopping mall Marcel stumbled upon an old Flatt & Scruggs LP and it's been Bluegrass for him from that moment on. He started his LP Bluegrass collection in the early 60's and continues today with the latest of the best CDs.
It was on Memorial Day picnic, jamming around a camp fire that some friends suggested that he should take the training course at WHUS and become a Radio Bluegrass DJ. He jumped at the chance and completed the course near the end of September 1989. Bud Godreau who started The Magic Of Bluegrass guided Marcel through those first shaky days and then let the Old Coyote alternate the week-end shows with him. At first he did only one show a month because there were other Bluegrass DJ's alternating with Bud. He did his first solo show on October 22, 1989. He has kept detailed records of every show he did while at WHUS, including a cassette copy of each program start to finish. That’s quite a collection!
The Old Coyote did his last Magic Of Bluegrass show on Sunday, August 27, 2000. He and his wife, JoAnn, packed up and moved to Calabash, North Carolina on Wednesday, August 30, 2000. Looking back, Marcel says it was a fun time at WHUS, a whole new learning experience and it was encouraging to know of all the great people who listen to and enjoy Bluegrass music.
After relocating to NC, it has become a fun time of visiting many Bluegrass Jam sessions and many Bluegrass Festivals within 8 hrs drive of home. There's Graves Mountain in Syria Va, a great spot with unlimited camping and a great stage area with plenty of food & breakfast to be had within the same building structure. The best bands appear there every year with acts such as: Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, Seldom Scene, Nothin' Fancy, the Bluegrass Brothers, Cherryholmes, Tony Rice & Peter Rowan, Marty Raybon...and on and on the list goes. There's Mineral Festival at Walton Park in Mineral, VA...with Marty Stuart, Larry Sparks, Jesse McReynolds, Larry Stephenson, Ralph Stanley, Doyle Lawson, Lewis Family, and Happy Holiday Campground in Cherokee, NC with Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs, Connie Smith, IIIRD Tyme Out, Mac Wiseman, Bobby Osborne, the Jeanette Williams Band, David Peterson, Raymond Fairchild...on..&...on...the list goes. Marcel's favorite festival is held in Summersville, WV each June...four days of continuous music from 9AM 'til midnight, and then into the wee hours in the fields. How about Karl Shiflett, James King, Ronnie Reno, Mountain Heart, Melvin Goins, Goldwing, Lonesome River, the Gillis Brothers, Rhonda, Doyle, David Parmley, Bluegrass Cardinals Reunion! Marcel says there are many more fun times ahead, and is glad he made the leap from a show on WHUS to living in the Bluegrass paradise of the south. And in the same manner as he closed his show for so many years, the Bluegrass Coyote says, “I'll see ya'll on down the road.”
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