On The Media

OTM,

When the story about border radio mentioned the Mexican town Acuna, it reminded me of a funny story that my parents tell. When they lived in Del Rio, Texas, they say that a radio station there once had a contest in which first prize was a week's stay in Acuna. The funny part was that second prize was a TWO week stay in Acuna. LOL!

Cheers!

Steve Petersen

I loved the show on the boarder radio broadcasts. Do you know if recordings are available for purchase? Thanks.

I loved the segment on border radio. It was quite entertaining and really very informative. It was also a pleasant change to hear about something media-centric which doesn't immediately reflect today's culture.

I do wish to point out, however, that to many people who never lived near the border (particularly of my age - their 30's and 40's), the first thing we ever heard about border radio was the old ZZ Top song, "Heard it On the X"

Really loved the segment. Thank you.

An outstanding piece of work, Jamie. It was thoroughly entertaining and informative.

terrific piece on a phenomena that i was totally unaware of. it really covered all the bases, touching on all aspects from the origins to influences and all points in between. even the technological bit that was fairly mind blowing. the reach those stations acieved is unbelievable

I started my radio career in Del Rio, Texas across the Rio Grande from Acuna. At that time (1973) border radio was still alive and well with XERF, XEMO, and XEROK just name a few. What a great time in radio history.

Good piece on The Border Blasters. Wonder if the old XERF transmitter site is still there? Do you need more help with this subject? Wonder if the controlroom used in the Wolfman movie America Graffi was an actual "twin" to the XERF facility south of Del Rio? An engineer wants to know.

Good work Jamie.

I remember the border blasters in the 60's. But it was XEROK (X-ROK 80) that really grabbed me in the 70's.

But alas their 150,000 watt Continental transmitter has been scrapped and they now broadcast on a maximum of 50,000 watts in spanish. I remember the day I heard Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do" the very first time on the Xrok, what a great station.

I enjpyed the information on border radio. I liked the jingles inbetween. Can anyone tell me where the 'turn your radio on' jingle is from? Thank you.

Being in my 20's "Heard it on the X" was my first introduction to the Border Radio phenomenon as well, which just happened when i picked up a copy of their album "Fangango" so build up my newly begun vinyl collection.

Thanks for the inisght!

"Turn your radio on" was the intro jingle for the Carter Family singers that broadcast on John Brinkley's various stations (XER, XERA, XET, and XEPN).

Recordings of these stations are available, they are mostly traded between collectors, trawl the web looking for the above radio station call letters and the word "aircheck".

The University of North Carolina has an absolutely massive collection of recordings, hundreds and hundreds of hours, of all kinds of old border blaster matter, including the Carter Family, Cowboy Slim Rinehart, and others. I have tried contacting them; they used to have a web page dealing with it, including a complete index of music, but some library administrator at UNC has decided that the collection will not be available to the public.

Absolutely heartbreaking that a library refuses to lend or display material to those that would give anything to hear it. I have maybe 7 hours of recordings in my collection and cherish every minute of it, and they have hundreds of hours that they won't let out of their clutches. Yet another example of how the government thinks it knows whats best for you without you having any say.

I was LIVE on the air playing rock & roll at XeROK 80 from summer 77 through late 79. What a BLAST... Lets do it again.

I remember when Keith was on the X-rok, Happy days, unfortunately we all move on, things change and now days people are too addicted to Video games, internet and other artificial media, they will never know the pleasures of the Skywave