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Writer Bill Crawford on Border Blasters

Fresh Air | By Dave Davies
Published April 21, 2005 at 12:00 AM EDT
Bill Crawford helped write the liner notes to the new album, I Heard It On the X by Los Super 7. The CD captures the feeling of the music heard on the border radios -- a mi--of rock 'n' roll, R&B, hillybilly and Mexican music.
Bill Crawford helped write the liner notes to the new album, I Heard It On the X by Los Super 7. The CD captures the feeling of the music heard on the border radios -- a mi--of rock 'n' roll, R&B, hillybilly and Mexican music.

Crawford is co-author of the book, Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves. It's about the "border blaster" stations that set up across the Mexican border to evade U.S. regulations, and beamed broadcasts into the United States.

It covers the period from the 1930s through the 1960s and included such colorful characters as Wolfman Jack, Rev. Ike, "Dr." J.R. Brinkley, and Pappy O'Daniel.

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Dave Davies
Dave Davies is a guest host for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
See stories by Dave Davies