Border radio : quacks, yodelers, pitchmen, psychics, and other amazing broadcasters of the American airwaves / Gene Fowler & Bill Crawford ; foreword by Wolfman Jack.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fowler, Gene, 1950- author.

Crawford, Bill, 1955- author.

Contributor:

Jack, Wolfman, writer of foreword.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Radio broadcasting--Mexican-American Border Region.

Radio broadcasting.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (372 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

Revised Edition

Place of Publication:

Austin, Texas : University of Texas Press, 2002.

Summary:

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. This book traces the eventful history of border radio from its founding in the 1930s by "goat-gland doctor" J. R. Brinkley to the glory days of Wolfman Jack in the 1960s. Along the way, it shows how border broadcasters pioneered direct sales advertising, helped prove the power of electronic media as a political tool, aided in spreading the popularity of country music, rhythm and blues, and rock, and laid the foundations for today's electronic church. The authors have revised the text to include even more first-hand information and a larger selection of photographs.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword

Introduction: Turn Your Radio On

Del Rio's Dr. Brinkley: The Big Daddy of Border Radio

Purple Shadow on the Rio Grande: Norman Baker in Nuevo Laredo

Border Blaster at Black Rock

Crazy

Please Pass the Tamales, Pappy

"'Radio Waves Pay No Attention to Lines on a Map"

"Coast to Coast, Border to Border . . . Your Good Neighbor along the Way"

Howlin' on a Quarter Million Watts

Blasting from Baja

Radio Station S-A-V-E-D

That Outlaw X

Selected Bibliography

Index

Index of Song Titles

"Border Radio" song lyrics from Nevada Slim

About the Authors

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780292789142

0292789149

9780292759718

0292759711

OCLC:

1269268908