THE BORDER RADIO SHOW: THE BIG JUKEBOX IN THE SKY
Border Radio a Success! - Pictures and Review of the Event
THE BORDER RADIO SHOW: THE BIG JUKEBOX 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. Timothy Curry 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 Trevino 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, and lots of great Texas music from Mariachi Los Coyotes of La Joya ISD on the Texas border to blues diva, Miss Lavelle White and that rockin' Patricia Vonne!
* Co-author of Border Radio -- Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves.
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MORE INFORMATION ON THE SHOW
The Big Jukebox 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 distributed 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, with music direction by Mike Maddux, written by Bill Crawford and Gene Fowler, 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, Threadgill's, Chez Zee and Nuevo Leon restaurants, as well as the members and board of Texas Folklife Resources.