Radioland.
It was years ago, sunny winter afternoon in Corpus, on one of the highway loops around town, and I was coming home from the beach, after a working weekend. I was flipping through the radio channels, and I came across some “classic rock” wherein the local DJ announced that the song was off “Boston’s first CD,” which, in fact, was really an album because Boston’s first release was long before there were any compact discs. Back when it was first released, we thought cassette tapes were hot, especially if the cassette was “Dolby” to kill the background hiss.
Sliding into Corpus just after daybreak, having exhausted a killer Hank III mix and not being in the mood for “Big Beat Techno,” I flipped over to the radio. Not much until I hit 94.7 FM [Texas Radio>. It took two full scans of the FM dial to hit that one. I caught the spot, “(noise blah-blah )Texas Radio (something else).”
“Cool,” I thought, “this could be okay.”
I wonder if anyone catches the reference to an old Doors’ song?
On my way out of town, looking forlorn at my two cassettes, thinking “8 PM, I’m on Padre Island, belly full of fried seafood, half a pack of cigarettes, and Austin’s 180 miles….” All I needed was some sunglasses.
I flipped that “Texas Radio” back on. Mostly C&W format, but with a little bit of a twist to it, see, they were playing primarily Texas artists. Nary a Nashville tune. Then, just as I hit the highway, pointed home, The Grateful Dead’s “Sugar Magnolia” backed with Wayne Hancock “Juke Joint.” The only artist that I missed on that radio station was Kevin Fowler, but they had all the rest of the local performers.
My musical interlude was interrupted by the cell phone that now has coverage all the way to and from the coast. By the time I wrapped up the family business, I was out of range for that station. Interlude: Music: Response (Chemical Brothers, tasty driving tunes).
San Antonio was Heavy Metal (Steel Wheel) and Tejano, at least, that was all I could find worth listening to. But that fits so well with my understanding of the Alamo City.
Then, once I started to hit the construction congestion between SA and Austin, it was time for the old favorite, Album Rock. They were doing an Eagles’ piece, you know, the band, the songs, and so forth. I got tired of that, and flipped it over to KVET [Austin Original> and u came “Depserado.”
