[BC] WLW Superpower Coverage

[KKTY]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rob Atkinson"
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 7:57 AM

> the XE border stations seemed to rely on superpower for skywave to sell
> their quack medical remedies to night owls in the u.s. and canada since
> their ground conductivity down there south of texas must have stank.
heck,
> they may as well have shut down in the daytime and saved the money.
>

Many of them did shut down during the day... turned on around 4pm for an
evening's entertainment. Their intent never was to broadcast to Reynosa, or
Laredo, or Del Rio. They weren't selling a lot of local ad's. The whole
point was to ride the skywaves & sell stuff by mail order... quack remedys,
chickens and religion. Successful announcers were the ones who could "keep
those cards and letters coming, folks". The money was amazing. Their
audience was dirt-road rural, and radio was their first live outside
influence in many cases. Pre-tv, pre-WalMart, the border blasters were the
next marketing step past the Sears catalog.

"Border Radio" by Gene Fowler and Bill Crawford is still available on
Amazon... it's a fun read on the history of the border blasters.


Dennis Switzer
KKTY AM/FM
Douglas, WY