1930s Mexican Border Radio Carter Family sings Motherless Children

[catman5169]

They were all small town stations...no more than 5000 watts in the Ms. Delta...I doubt if you've ever heard of them...WGRM, WABG, WDRU, WXTN,.WRDC...small time...the first time I heard XERF I lived in Greenwood, MS and thought we had a new station in town. When they said 250,000 watts of power...I couldn't believe it

[preservationhall01]

@catman5169 I used to listen to XERF in England back in its 250000 watt days. We could receive it in the "dark" hours from about 1AM to 5AM Greenwich time. We could get the Wolfman Jack show clearly 4X4 on a transistor radio. XERF is now at 5000 watts and we can receive it clearly in Texas but its all Spanish Language now.

[catman5169]

Back in the '60's, I loved to listen to the border blaster XERF with Paul Kallanger, your good neighbor along the way. Having worked in small market radio...very small market...I dreamed about what the XERF xmitter looked like...Big ole RCA...while the one at the station I worked for was a Gates...cut down to 250 watts at night...

[preservationhall01]

@catman5169 Well, now you know what it looked like. What station did you work for?

[charliethemaddawg]

I miss the days of this border-blaster station along with XERF. I remember programs, such as this, being blown on our radios like smithereens. Sure, most of the programs were played by schiesters that just wanted our money, and sure most of us, who ever had any sense never gave them any, but at least their programming was original and, for the most part, entertaining.

Now, if someone could post more XEG and XERF programs from the late 70's and early 80's that would be great.

[1920sbuff]

Fascinating document, thank you for sharing!

[preservationhall01]

@1920sbuff Thanks for your interest. Glad to hear from you again! In the 1930s to WWII, XERA could be heard clearly in Belgium and all of Europe without need of special antennas etc.

[1920sbuff]

@preservationhall01 That was incredible indeed. Now we need dozens of internet relays for it.

[CrystalFan4ever]

Interesting bit of radio history. Thanks for sharing B.

[preservationhall01]

@CrystalFan4ever Hope you enjoyed. I got a message from Shelley Alley's son who said Shelly broadcast his Shelly Alley and the Alleycats Band over XEPN in Piedras Negras. He said he got to meet some of the "characters" in this vid. Must have been interesting.

[n64wilbert]

@preservationhall01 I hear [[Yes - I've Seen All Good People]] is playing in the background from the 1970s.

[n64wilbert]

@preservationhall01 In San Diego and Los Angles the vast majority of the stations are being transmitted in Mexico. The unusual thing is that the fact that they broadcast Mexican politics in English!

[preservationhall01]

I also used to listen to Radio Luxembourg in Texas but I think it has also had its' power cut back.

[crystalgayleaddict]

Interesting story about radio broadcasting, I didn't know. This is mazing they didn't have yet set up international regulation rules to solve this kind of problem.

This sound a real interesting page of history!

how did you get those mexican radio recordings?

[preservationhall01]

@crystalgayleaddict The first 19 seconds were recorded by a radio DX'er (amateur enthusiast) in Finland who was also amazed he could pick up a broadcast band station over such great distance. Some of the other programming is from radio transcriptions that had been kept by the Carter Family and others who performed on the stations. I used to listen to XERF Ciudad Acuna 1570 in England.

[crystalgayleaddict]

@preservationhall01 This is incredible what those North people have in their collection. I myself got my French TV videos of CG from a swedish collector! One of them is aired again remastered tonight on cable channel named melody TV. I ll try to record, and someone from facebook else will do too.

Which is incredible is that you could catch the radio station from UK! Wonder if could also from France ...

[preservationhall01]

@crystalgayleaddict You could have heard XERF in France before 1989 unless a French station also happened to be @1570 khz. It was still broadcasting at 250,000 watts then but today it has been cut back to 5000 watts. The north beamed signal would have come into France straight over the North Pole. If you look at the picture of the transmitter aerials in the vid, the open end was pointed at the US and the powerful signal went right over the north pole into Europe, Russia, and the Middle East.