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KUT's Border Blasters and Outlaw Broadcasters
Listen
to the Border Radio Show and to Bill Crawford aired Sunday, July 9
2006:
from the http://kut.org website:
Major funding
provided by: William and Salomé Scanlan Foundation of Austin and San
Antonio. Additional funding from George and Fran Ramsey and the
listeners of KUT, Austin
Note:
Border Blasters and Outlaw Broadcasters was based on
this book from the University of Texas Press.
For more
information:
KUT Border Radio News Articles |
The magical sounds and stories of the "X" stations
located just on the other side of the border in Mexico from the
1930s to the 1950s are rediscovered in KUT Radio's documentary.
"Border Blasters and Outlaw Broadcasters" examines the border radio
phenomenon that helped reshape contemporary music, modern
advertising, the media and American culture.
"The 'X' stations beamed their programs from across
the border in Mexico to circumvent U.S. government regulations,"
explains Emily Donahue, KUT news director and the documentary's
producer. "Ultimately, this renegade radio project permanently
changed the sound and business of American radio and altered
American life - from music and religion to politics and even civil
rights."
The one-hour special is hosted by Asleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson
and features interviews with musicians Angela Strehli, Joe Ely and
Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, as well as historians Bill Crawford
and Gene Fowler who wrote the book "Border Radio: Quacks,
Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the
American Airwaves."
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honkytonks.org: Honky Tonks, Hymns and the Blues -NPR site -reviews
the roots of American music
Border Radio, A Nuevo Vaudeville Documentary Performance, is a live
musical theater piece that utilizes live action, narration, song, image,
"séance-like performances," vintage commercials, cultural artifacts, and
other phenomena to represent the wild and colorful legend of the
high-powered "outlaw" radio stations that set up on Mexico's northern
border and blasted unusual programming all over North America (and
beyond) from the early 1930s to the mid-1980s. It's astory of goat-gland
sex treatments, Crazy Water, hillbilly music, screamin' preachers,
rock-n-roll and rhythm-n-blues, singin' senoritas, and international
intrigue.
Other people turn off today's syndicated crud, and moan that radio
broadcast standards have never been lower. Well, these fine folks
apparently don't know about
XER,
XERA, and XERF. These letters were all used by the megawatt border
blaster that sold a nation on goat testicles, and forever defined what
real AM radio would be about. Read the full
press release.
| Pappy's paper mache capital-dome sound truck |
XELO publicity showing the reach of the station's
signal. |
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We're pumped up about the BRS
Blog! And
coming soon, a BRS "podcast"
THE BORDER RADIO SHOW:
THE BIG JUKE BOX IN THE SKY!
An
Unforgettable Evening of Music and Stories: Part I of a
Three-Part Radio Special Taped With a Live Audience!
Paramount
Theatre in Austin, Texas
Saturday, September 17, 2005
8:00 P.M.
Join us for a trip along the Rio Grande
of the Mind, as TFR launches The Border Radio Show.
Bill
Crawford
and Gene Fowler* will host an unforgettable evening of live
music and stories. The show weaves together vignettes from the annals
of border radio, live performances with extraordinary Texas musicians,
and stories from Texas authors. Austin's own Rick Treviño kicks off
the series, with special guests like Dallas "Nevada Slim" Turner, one
of border radio's original pitchmen and singers, a certain kinky
singer and gubernatorial candidate, a reading by author Jan Reid, and
lots of great Texas music from "Mariachi Los Coyotes" of La Joya on
the Texas border to blues diva, Miss Lavelle White and that rockin'
Patricia Vonne!
*Authors of Border Radio --
Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters
of the American Airwaves.
Tickets go on sale August 8th!
Ticket Information
More Information on the Show
The Big Juke Box in the Sky introduces you to
some outrageous characters and pays tribute to beloved musicians who
made their careers on border radio. The show roams through our
borderland heritage, from the Carter family, Rosa Dominguez and Lydia
Mendoza to Bob Wills, Cowboy Slim Rinehart and some of the bluesiest
gospel to be heard this side of the Mississippi. The Border Radio
Show will be broadcast and distibuted to Texas public radio
stations by flagship station, KSTX, Texas Public Radio, San Antonio.
The live show is being produced and directed for
TFR by Sidney Brammer, written by Bill and Gene, and prepared for
broadcast by the award-winning Radio Artist and Producer, Ginger
Miles. So, come make radio history with TFR and The Border Radio
Research Institute!
What is Border Radio, you might ask?
"For more than 40 years, stations located just
over the U.S. Mexican borders beamed high-powered signals into the
U.S. heartland, skirting American broadcasting regulations, and who
knows how many health and safety laws. All manner of religious
hucksters, medical quacks and con men of every sort mixed their
messages of salvation and physical health with hillbilly and gospel
music."
-- Wolfman Jack, from the foreword of Border
Radio -- Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing
Broadcasters of the American Airwaves (Bill Crawford and Gene
Fowler, Texas Monthly Press, Austin, 1987; Limelight Editions, NYC,
1991; University of Texas Press, Austin, 2002)
Before the Internet brought the world together,
there was border radio. These mega-watt "border blaster" stations, set
up just across the Mexican border to evade U.S. regulations, beamed
programming across the United States and as far away as South America,
Japan, and Western Europe.
The book Border Radio -- Quacks, Yodelers,
Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American
Airwaves traces the eventful history of border radio. The first
station was founded in the 1930s by "goat-gland doctor" J. R.
Brinkley, who made a fortune selling an unusual, pre-Viagra operation
to men that involved inserting slivers of goat glands into their
prostates. Dr. Brinkley was but the first in a whole parade of
promoters, holy men, and seers who sold cures, preached religion, and
built political careers with the aid of radio broadcasts. Listen to
co-author of the book, Bill Crawford, talk about these "border
blaster" stations during his recent
interview on NPR's "Fresh Air". Much more to come from Bill and
Gene's Border Radio Research Institute!
"Turn Your Radio On!"
The Border Radio Show is made possible
with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Humanities
Texas, The City of Austin through the auspices of the Cultural
Contracts Division, and major underwriting from Texas Public Radio,
KSTX San Antonio, Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel, Hilton
Austin, KUT/Austin and support from local businesses including Ginny's
Printing, Guero's and Threadgill's restaurants, as well as the members
and board of Texas Folklife Resources.
Did you come and
and see us! We played at The Bob Bullock Texas State History
Museum, Austin, Texas
We
were standing room only for two months to packed houses! And recorded all our
shows for the BRS Archives, so glad you brought your smilin' faces!
And did you see us at our
A
Month of Sundays at the Steamboat, Austin!
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A Nuevo
Vaudeville Documentary Performance |
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A Live Musical Theater Piece |
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Based on the book
Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics,
and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves
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by Gene
Fowler and Bill Crawford
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The Border Radio Show Texas-World Tour '03
was a huge success!!!!
We are headed out on the dusty trails
during 2005, folks!
Thank you for joining us for our Gland
Opening, and yes, that's spelled correctly:
SUNDAY January 26, 2003 @ 3pm. We
were live on the Border Radio
Show from STEAMBOAT, on the warm welcoming banks of the Colorado
River in South Austin, Texas. We played a 3 month run in our hometown, as
we began to book more dates throughout Texas and beyond. Mark your date books
for "A Month of Sundays" at the 'Boat on the Border Radio Show. |
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