BAKER — "Laughternoons with Dermot and Dave," an Irish pop music and humor radio show, drops its brogue for a Southern accent when a regular contributor from Baker calls in.
This week, listeners of the top-rated Dublin's 98FM program will hear more Southern accents than usual when the show broadcasts May 13-15 from Baker.
"We're going to Florida to do our show live from Mary's house," Dermot Whelan announced during Thursday's broadcast. "We're so very, very excited. We're going to be live next week from Baker, Florida."
Mary Gadeken contacted the program more than a year ago and soon became a regular contributor, Crestview Mayor David Cadle, a family friend, said.
"They were delighted with her Southern accent and she now has a spot each week talking to the fellows about Southern U.S. traditions," Cadle said.
'Y'all this and y'all that'
Gadeken stumbled across the show while twiddling the dial on a new radio her children gave her that receives overseas broadcasts.
"I was listening to a local station and it was full of commercials, just one after the other, and I couldn't stand it," Gadeken said. "Then I came to Dermot and Dave and they were just hilarious."
"We loved the way you typed like you talked," co-host David Moore stated in an email to Gadeken. "Y'all this and y'all that! It was hilarious! After reading out your emails a few times, I realized we should call you and let you talk. What a great idea!"
After exchanging emails — and parcels of goodies — Gadeken, who has never traveled abroad, told her new Irish friends, "'I'm going to come see y'all,' so June 30 I'm going over there."
But they decided to surprise her by visiting Baker first.
Must dos
The Irish celebrities, winners of the Best Music Programme in Ireland Award for three consecutive years, have a checklist of must-dos while they are in town, Whelan said.
"Our priorities are shoot guns, wrestle alligators and sit in a bar and drink beer with a guy in a ball hat," he said. "And the guy has to have an alligator on a (leash)."
When Gadeken visits in June, she'll tour Ireland with her new friends, where she is something of a celebrity due to her radio appearances, and meet Dublin Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn.
"Their mayor said the other day, 'I want to meet this girl,'" Gadeken said.
But first, Cadle will greet the visiting Irishmen Tuesday and present a mayoral proclamation welcoming them to Crestview and Northwest Florida.
WANT TO LISTEN?
Dublin's 98FM's "Laughternoons with Dermot and Dave" airs 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily at www.98fm.com/Dermot-and-Dave. The program will broadcast from Baker May 13, 14 and 15.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Top-rated Irish radio show broadcasts from Baker this week