“Tejano has moved to a new home” part II
Around here, the new home is nowhere. Since late 2004, even so-called “SuperTejano” 1560-AM has gone.
Julian Limon Fernandez (of Los Texas Wranglers) wrote an open letter this fall that I can’t find on line anywhere about this situation, which appeared in print around town, including in La Prensa, as I recall. On Monday, the local daily carried a feature called “Austin radio tuning out Tejano: Interest in Mexican-Texan music fading as Latino market changes, station executive says” (byline Joe Gross) and this has been e-mailed all over town.
Yesterday, on Fiesta Musical, the entire two-hour show on KOOP 91.7-FM was taken up with discussion of this matter. Among the guests were Johnny Degollado and Marcelo Tafoya. I understood them to say that Gonzalo Barrientos is in some way looking into this matter, perhaps from the FCC angle.
It’s reported that La Ley (KKLB 92.5-FM, which frequency was the last full-time Tejano station heard in Austin on the FM band) is the number-one station of any kind among the desirable demographic aged 18 to 34, just as the Univision television network beat out all others nationally for several weeks this summer because of the telenovela La Madrastra.
This week’s Chron (“Beyond Borders,” by Christoper Gray) visits the offices of Border Media Partners, which has been behind many of these changes, at least any of them not carried out by the other big owner in town, Univision.
I hear La Ley all over town and I listen it to myself a lot when I’m on the go, because at some hours it plays lots and lots of banda music, with which I fell in love the very first time I heard it. Lately the former Super Tejano 1560-AM, which at first billed itself as musica inolvidable (unforgettable music), has been calling itself “La Lupe” and to this I also listen at times, because it plays lots of old ranchera music and plenty of Ramon Ayala y Sus Bravos del Norte.
But I and thousands of others here in Austin miss Tejano over the air. Who’s going to broadcast The Hometown Boys? La Tropa F? Michael Salgado? Jaime y Los Chamacos? Even the Kumbia Kings? These are just some of the artists that sound great coming from a radio. And I can’t even find a good on-line streaming station from somewhere else.
Letter to the editor.
Shame on you Univision and Border Media Productions!
We are Tejanos and demand to be treated with respect!
By Julian Limon Fernandez
National
Let it be understood Los Tejanos are fed up and now it
CENTRAL TEXAS IS SO DIFFERENT THAN ALL OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, DIFFERENT CULTURES ALL OVER THE PLACE. I PLAYED MUSIC PROFESSIONALLY FOR 25 YEARS. I PLAYED, WHAT TODAY IS CALLED “TEJANO”, I LEARNED MY TRADE BY WHOM I HAVE ALWAYS CONSIDERED PROBABLY THE BEST, MANUEL”COWBOY” DONLEY, THE RAMOS BROTHERS (ALFONSO,RUBEN,ELIJIO,JOE AND ROY), TO PLAY MY TYPE OF MUSIC. DURING MY YEARS AS A TEJANO MUSICIAN AND BAND LEADER I HAD THE PLEASURE TO BE THE OPENING ACT FOR SUCH ARTISTS SUCH AS JAMES BROWN, JOSE FELICIANO, TIERRA, JOHNNY RODRIGUEZ, FREDDIE FENDER, BACK IN MY PLAYING DAYS. WE AS MUSICIANS PICKED UP ALOT OF DIFFERENT STYLES, WHICH WERE INTEGRATED INTO OUR ARRANGEMENTS. YES, I LIKED MARIACHI MUSIC AND OTHER MEXICO MUSIC, BUT I DIDN’T LISTEN TO IT ALL THE TIME. AUSTIN AND CENTRAL TEXAS ALLOWED ME TO EXPAND IN MY TASTE NOT JUST IN MUSIC, BUT IN FOOD AND OTHER CULTURES.
THE RADIO SITUATION IN AUSTIN HAS REALLY MADE ME ANGRY BECAUSE I CAN’T TURN ON “ANY” RADIO STATION AND LISTEN TO MUSIC THAT I AND MANY OTHERS PREFER OR FIND OUT WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY,LIKE IN THE PAST. ALL ONE HEARS IS WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE MEXICAN COMMUNITY, WHICH I AM NOT A MEMBER OF. LET ME SAY AGAIN, “I AM A MEMBER OF THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY”, AND MUSIC THAT CATERS TO MEXICANS. I FIRST OF ALL AM AMERICAN BORN, A REGISTERED VOTER, A VIETNAM VETERAN (U.S.MARINE)1967-1970, COLLEGE EDUCATED AND I SPEAK, READ AND WRITE IN ENGLISH. I CAN ALSO SPEAK, READ AND WRITE IN SPANISH. MY CULTURE IS BEING DESTROYED BY SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER BEEN HERE FOR MORE THAT SIX MONTHS. I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST ANY RACE, RELIGION OR CREED, BUT I DON’T LIKE “ILLEGALS” TAKING OVER. SEND THEM BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM, OR LET THEM FILL OUT THE PAPERWORK TO BE HERE “LEGALLY” IF THEY WANT. IN MEXICO I AM A “POCHO”, LIKE AN MEXICAN HERE IS CALLED A “MOJADO”. THE LANGUAGE IS DIFFERENT THAN THE “TEX-MEX” WE SPEAK HERE.
I ASK FOR ALL WHO WANT TO HEAR “TEJANO” MUSIC TO CALL, WRITE, AND E-MAIL, THOSE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN CHARGE TO AT LEAST CHANGE THE PROGRAMING ON AT LEAST ONE OF THE SEVEN RADIO STATIONS IN THIS MARKET, AND GIVE IT A CHANCE TO WORK. THE TEJANOS NEED TIME TO COME BACK. WE LEFT BECAUSE WE WERE “RUN OFF” TO OTHER RADIO STATIONS (BECAUSE WE UNDERSTAND ENGLISH), WE DIDN’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO “CRAP” ALL THE TIME.
I KNOW THIS IS AN ONGOING PROBLEM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY BECAUSE OF THE INFLUX OF “ILLEGALS”, BUT I AM ONLY CONCERNED ABOUT AUSTIN AND CENTRAL TEXAS.
GRACIAS, Y HASTA LUEGO Y VIVA TEJAS