Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves

Gene Fowler, Bill Crawford

University of Texas Press, 2002 - Performing Arts - 360 pages

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.

What people are saying

Review: Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves

User Review  - Lisa - Goodreads

A brisk, entertaining read that gives the quacks in question perhaps more credit than they deserve, but the authors' generosity keeps the mood upbeat. The authors make an effort to balance a US ...

Review: Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves

User Review  - Rick - Goodreads

Lots of fun to read. Very interesting

Contents

• Turn Your Radio On: 1
• The Big Daddy of Border Radio: 15
• Norman Baker in Nuevo Laredo: 67
• Border Blaster at Black Rock: 103
• Crazy: 135
• Please Pass the Tamales Pappy: 159
• Radio Waves Pay No Attention to Lines on a Map: 199
• Coast to Coast Border to Border Your Good Neighbor along the Way: 229
• Howlin on a Quarter Million Watts: 259
• Blasting from Baja: 275
• Radio Station SAVED: 295
• That Outlaw X: 328
• Selected Bibliography: 335
• Index: 347
• Index of Song Titles: 357
• Border Radio song lyrics from Nevada Slim: 359
• About the Authors: 361

About the author

Fowler is pastor of Mayfair Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Illinois. He has a PhD in pastoral theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Bill Crawford is a journalist and media producer who has written for Texas Monthly, the Austin Chronicle, and other publications. He is the coauthor of Stevie Ray Vaughan: Caught in the Crossfire and the author or coauthor of several other books.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves
• Authors: Gene Fowler, Bill Crawford
• Edition: 2, illustrated, revised
• Publisher: University of Texas Press, 2002
• ISBN: 0292789149, 9780292789142
• Length: 360 pages
• Subjects: Performing Arts / Radio / History & Criticism; Social Science / Media Studies