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Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves, Revised Edition
 
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Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves, Revised Edition [Paperback]

Gene Fowler (Author), Bill Crawford (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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This book adds immeasurably to our appreciation and understanding of the power the aural medium possesses to mirror and shape culture. (Christopher H. Sterling and Michael C. Keith Communication Booknotes Quarterly )

Book Description

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.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Radio History At Its Best, July 18 2002
By 
James Tedford (Bothell, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves, Revised Edition (Paperback)
We're all familiar with infomercials promising miracle diets, TV preachers promising salvation, and e-mail spam promising riches. Although their transmission means are modern, the scams themselves aren't new. They were a born out of the radio age, through stations sometimes called "border blasters." These were high-power AM broadcasters set up just over the Mexican border to beam music, medical miracles and merchandise to the U.S. in a way never heard before on domestic radio.

BORDER RADIO is a wonderful history of the border blaster stations. Fowler and Crawford have compiled an exhaustive history of the stations and personalities in a way that captures the flavor of the times. Some of the radio personalities, like the Goat Gland Doctor, were outright frauds, others, like Wolfman Jack, were the purveyors of the exciting, underground culture of rock-and-roll. All hawked their wares on the border stations, making an impression on American broadcasting, popular music, advertising and merchandising that is still felt today.

Superbly detailed, BORDER RADIO covers the evolution of the medium from the early days of the 1930s when hillbilly music and medical quacks ruled the airwaves, to its demise in the 1960s when television and broadcasting treaties silenced the border stations for good. If you love radio and Americana, you won't be able to put this book down. Highly recommended.

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5.0 out of 5 stars I Heard it on the ' X ', Jun 6 2002
By 
John Lease (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves, Revised Edition (Paperback)
This book introduces us to the colorful world of a bygone era, that of border radio. Brilliant technicians constructed gargantuan transmitters along the border towns of Texas/Mexico and beamed their signal into all of North America - one angry resident complained that was ALL he could get on his radio. These stations were distinguished by their call signs that began with an 'X'. This spawned an industry of singers, politicians, preachers and pitchman the type we now see on "infomercials". Mail was the barometer of the day - the more mail you "pulled" in from listeners the more clout you carried with stations - "keep those cards and letters coming!" New Federal regulations put an end to this wild world but not until the airwaves crackled with everyone from Wolfman Jack to the Rev. Ike - "get out of the ghetto and get into the get-mo!" This is a marvelously written treasure trove that will be welcomed by anyone interested in radio, salesmanship, and American sub-cultures and the bizarre.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Put Your Hands on the Radio (and this book), Jan 21 2002
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This review is from: Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves, Revised Edition (Paperback)
Most books about US radio history are written like a doctoral thesis or ex-dj's gossip gabfests. The non-fiction book tells true tales of tall characters, with enough information sprinkled through to make radio geeks interested. If this were fiction, you'd swear the characters were invented by Kinky Friedman. After reading several books on radio history in recent years, this stands as one of the most informative and entertaining.
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