In Creole Country, Zydeco Seeks Place on the Dial By Jesse Walker Opelousas, population 20,000, rests on the eastern edge of southwestern Louisiana, where Highway 190 crosses Interstate 49. They're pushing everybody else out.
Nobody has an opportunity.
Fortunately, the city's many zydeco devotees have another option. It will thus add a shot of diversity to a consolidating medium where ''variety'' ordinarily means a station that plays 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys. From May 30 through June 8, the FCC received the first wave of applications, from would-be broadcasters in 12 states and territories. One of those states was Louisiana, and one of those applicants was the Southern Development Foundation, an Opelousas-based group that sponsors agriculture programs, leases land to farmers, raises money for scholarships for needy kids and helps people learn to read, in addition to sponsoring a popular zydeco festival. The group also employs Levier, who stumbled on the FCC's micro-radio initiative while exploring the Web.