Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and ... (ISBN 0292725353)

Humorous history of radio's wildest personnas:
"Border Radio . . ." was featured on the radio program "Fresh Air with Terri Gross" and the interview with the author piqued my curiousity enough to buy the somewhat hard to find book. While most of us born later than the 1960's have probably never heard border radio, we nonetheless have at least heard of it thanks to ZZTop's classic "Heard It On The X". By Mexican law, all radio station call letters had to begin with the letter "X", hence the title. These stations were situated just across the U.S. - Mexican border and blasted the North American continent with as much as 500,000 or even a million watts! Perhaps the funniest part of the story is the anecdotes by people not far from the tower in southwest Texas near Del Rio, particularly who reported picking up transmissions off barbed wire fences, fillings in teeth and, in the last portion of the book that feautures the late Wolfman Jack, his recalling of birds flying too close to the towers and frying in mid-flight! It's a wonderful history of preachers, the forerunners of today's televangelists, quack doctors, some genuine musical genius, including a young Bob Wills before founding the Texas Playboys and, of course, the Wolfman himself. Claims of these AM radio giants being heard world-wide can truly be considered a direct ancestor to the world wide web, complete with its own spam in the form of wild commercials and hawking some truly bizarre health products, prayer cloths and just about everything under the sun. "Border Radio . . . " is well researched and written with obvious great admiration for a lost chapter in broadcast history. A fine read.

Wonderful World of Radio:
Take a trip back to radio's beginning. I've wanted this book for a long time and if you are like me and still get a thrill listening to distant am stations at night this book is for you. This book covers it all with forward by Wolfman Jack. Well worth your time. A great read!

High Powered Hoopla:
Anyone who thinks that instant virility claims and easy money offers got their start with the Internet should read these tales of super salesmen broadcasting from South of the Border at 200,000 watts. Everything from goat gland "male rejuvenation" to religious salvation was available for a price and with little or no FCC interference. Add in a few "psychics" and some country & western music and you have a formula that the legal stations in the US couldn't (or wouldn't) match. It was outlaw radio. Go get this book, friends and neighbors, and keep those cards and letters coming in!

Fantastic.:
If you have been or know someone who is in the radio business, this book will be a fascinating read. I couldn't put it down after the first chapter detailed the famous radio quack who surgically placed goat glands into human males for renewed vigor! It goes to show us that the masses will believe anything radio and all the media purports to be true. Preachers-fake doctors, wayward singers and hucksters were the programming content of these stations. The book details the stories of almost all the AM stations that dotted the Mexican-U.S. border with higher power than what stateside stations were allowed to have. This caused great consternation with U.S. broadcasters and the FRC (FCC) at the time. I was lucky enough to experience Wolfman Jack on XERF all the way up in Maryland one late night in the 60's. This book quenched the curiosity I always had about the station(s) and its now famous DJ who details driving over sand dunes to work at the station that he eventually became General Manager of. Read it. You'll laugh for hours.

Nostalgia:
Great book if your are 50+. Other wise you won't know what great entertainment the Mexcian border stations really were.