Piece Description

Border Radio: The Great Big Jukebox in the Sky: (Stereo) An hour-long music special on the story of Border Radio. Lots of good toe tapping music from hillbilly, western swing, Mexican conjunto and contemporary, rhythm and blues, and good ole rock and roll. Between the 1930s through the 1960s, mega-watt "border blaster" stations set up just across the Mexican border to evade U.S. broadcast regulations, and beamed programming across the United States and as far away as Europe. For the first time, American listeners heard ?race music,? rhythm and blues, and a diverse span of music from ?hillbilly? to gospel that carried the voices and sounds of Mexico and the Southwest to a vast audience. The first in a series of taped-for-radio specials, Border Radio: The Big Juke Box in the Sky features Texas musicians, including Rick Trevi?o from Grammy-winning Los Super Seven; Austin?s own blues diva, Miss Lavelle White; rock and roller Joe King Carrasco; traditional conjunto from South Texas; and contemporary Tex-Mex rocker, Patricia Vonne. Border Radio?s most famous dee-jay, Wolfman Jack, makes a fictional dramatic appearance. Other special guests on Border Radio include Dallas ?Nevada Slim? Turner, one of border radio?s original cowboy singers and pitchmen, and a surprise appearance by Kinky Friedman, humorist and wildcard gubernatorial candidate for Texas in 2006. Border Radio: the Great Big Jukebox in the Sky is produced for radio by Ginger Miles, and executive-produced by Texas Folklife, made possible in part by a grant from National Endowment for the Arts.