XERA, Ciudad Acuna

(XERA-AM, Ciudad Acuna, Mexico - Transmitter Tube)


I still maintain we need to include Wolfman Jack as one of us.

Although he began at XERB, Tijuana, on the West Coast, by the later 1960's, he was also being broadcast over other Mexican powerhouses like XERA, out of Ciudad Acuna, across the Rio Bravo from Tejas. It was his rebroadcasts over XERA that I was first introduced to The Wolfman while going to college in Arkansas, in 1967-68. That's how far that signal went: straight across the mass of Texas and on into the backwoods of Ar-Kansas.

Check out the transmitter tube. "Can ya dig it, baby?!"

Western Electric 320A tube

Remembering Budge

Budge Thelkeld recently left us.

Budge was the creative genius behind Denver's HIGH STREET, aired weekly over KFML in the early 1970's.

There is a tribute thread to Budge at the FreeForm Radio Forum, at:

Budge Thelkeld, R.I.P.

Also, there is a "RememberingBudge Blog" at:

RememberingBudge

Please share some memories of Budge with us. His Denver HIGH STREET days are of particular interest to those of us from KFML.

Jim Hawthorne - Early FFR DJ

Jim Hawthorne was an early freeform disc jockey before freeform (as we know it) was clearly defined and programmed.

WMFU has a tribute page to Hawthorne, going so far as to say he was the "first freeform radio DJ ever." I'm not sure about that. His approach was and continued to be mostly in the comic realm. If you listen to his aircheck from KXLA-AM in 1947, you will hear freeform elements, however, and Hawthorne's creativity and wit are undeniable.

Appreciations go out to WFMU for rediscovering Jim Hawthorne. The tribute page is at:

Jim Hawthorne - The First Freeform Radio DJ Ever

Jim Hawthorne's website:

Jim Hawthorne Website