Beginning
Lester "Pe-Te" Johnson began a Cajun music program at Alvin's KTEK radio station and moved to KPFT in 1984. The May, 1984 folio contained the premiere announcement:
P.T.'s PURE CAJUN SHOW
Boiled crawfish, cold brew, and good Cajun music... let the good times roll! KPFT is proud to announce the debut of "P.T.'s Pure Cajun Show" Saturday, April 28, 6 to 9 am. Those toe-tapping, hand-clapping, and foot stomping folk sounds from Louisiana are hopefully going to be a Saturday morning fixture at KPFT for a long time to come. Les Johnson (a.k.a. P.T.) hosted a very popular Cajun show until recently on KTEK, but when that station went religious, Houston was without a Cajun music show. No longer! Welcome to KPFT, P.T.
From the beginning it held the 6-9 AM Saturday morning timeslot and Pe-Te (almost) never missed a show from its' premiere until his passing in February, 2020. Along the way Pe-Te worked as a tireless promoter of Cajun and Zydeco music and culture. In the late 80s and early 90s Cajun Bandstand hosted a series of gumbo cookoffs that served as KPFT fundraisers.
On February 8, 2020 Pe-Te passed away at his home.
The Cajun Bandstand continues to air as of the writing of this piece and appears to be the third longest running program at KPFT, after Open Journal and Irish Aires. Pete Little, who also produces Irish Aires, is the current producer, supplemented by numerous recordings of past episodes and guest hosts from the Cajun community Pe-Te promoted for decades.
Jason Theriot Interview
In 2009, as part of an interview for the Houston History project, Pe-Te sat down with historian Jason Theriot and gave a hour+ sketch of his life. The following links are hosted externally at the University Of Houston digital library.
Audio Clips
1. In this clip from 2002, Pe-Te plays one of his perennial favorites, The Cajun Airline by Dave Petitjean.
2. In 2017 KPFT celebrated the 35th anniversary of Cajun Bandstand, announced via this promo