In high school in Lander WY in the 50's we cruised around at night with a case of Coors listening to KOMA. There was another one in Del Rio TX , cant remember the call letters, I think their transmitter was in Mexico and really boomed out there.
That was probably John R Brinkley's border blaster.
The Mexican government, eager to get even with its northern neighbors for dividing up North America's radio frequencies without giving any to Mexico, granted Brinkley a 50,000-watt radio license and construction began on XER-AM, his new "border blaster" across the bridge from Del Rio in Villa Acuña, Coahuila (since renamed Ciudad Acuña).[14] As construction got underway, Fishbein and the U.S. State Department desperately searched for a way to shut Brinkley down. Under heavy pressure from the State Department, the Mexican government halted construction on XER-AM, but it was only temporary. Within weeks, construction resumed and soon two 300-foot (91 m) towers reached into the sky.[45] XER, at 840 kilohertz on the AM dial, radiated by a sky wave antenna, made its first broadcast in October 1931. Brinkley called it the "Sunshine Station Between the Nations".
Brinkley used his new border blaster to resume his campaign for governor by using the telephone to call in his broadcasts to the transmitter. This approach did not work, and he lost yet another political campaign; he would lose again in 1934. Though Brinkley's American radio license had been revoked, XER's signal was so strong that it could still be heard in Kansas.[46] In 1932, the Mexican government allowed Brinkley to increase his wattage to 150,000 watts. Several months later, Brinkley was allowed to increase to one million watts, "making XER far and away the most powerful radio station on the planet" that, on a clear night, could be heard as far away as Canada. According to accounts of the time, the signal was so strong that it turned on car headlights, made bedsprings hum, and caused broadcasts to bleed into telephone conversations.[47] Local residents didn't even need a radio to hear Brinkley's station; ranchers reported that they received it through their metal fences and in their dental appliances.[48]
Wasn’t the one in Del Rio the one that had the preacher that if you sent him $5 he’d send you a plastic dashboard Jesus with “glowing eyes" that would follow you anywhere in the dark???
Founder Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
Use to travel up and down the east coast, from Boston as far south as Georgia on a regular basis when I was in college...
VW Squareback with an AM Radio and an 8 track under the dash...
Would run that route at night...could listen to the radio just like I was in town...
WKBW out of Buffalo NY...
WOWO out of Ft Wayne Ind...
WLS out of Chicago...
and far enough south, or going into Florida... A Station out of New Orleans... can't remember those call letters...
The first three stations could cover me from the Canadian border all the way down to Atlanta GA...with no reception issues..
as I recall they were not 50,000 watt stations, they were 100,000 watt stations..
use to live in MN and WCCO out of Mpls sure had a long range coverage out in the Dakotas Saskatchewan and Manitoba, even parts of Alberta, and eastern Montana...
My travels in college also took me up to the Maritime Provinces in eastern Canada...two stations out of Boston could be picked up along the eastern coast of Maine, and then all thru New Brunswick Nova Scota, PEI...Newfoundland...Both WRKO and WMEX out of Boston would instead turn their signal out to sea and up the coast... so you couldn't get it 30 miles west of Boston, but you could pick it up 800 miles up in Nova Scotia... and Newfoundland...
Girlfriend of mine went to Ireland to spend the summer with her grandmother on year, and she said she picked up the Boston Stations on the coast of Ireland at night, when the single was turned out to sea...
Most of Ontario and Quebec, I could pick up WBZ out of Boston at night...
When I was traveling long distances with a car that had an AM Radio, that is why I use to do my travels at night....the long distance radio stations you could pick up at night, and they were clear as a bell....
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
I've been up in the Coastal Mountains here in Oregon during Elk hunting season...staying over night for several days.
I'm up on mountain tops, camping out with my 4 Runner... at 4,000 feet plus, and close to to the coast...
Turn on the AM radio at night, at that elevation...I can not move the dial from one spot to another without picking up another radio station from up and down the entire Pacific Coast...
From way up in Alaska, to down to Mexico... stations out of Canada and then stuff out of Salt Lake, plenty of California, Arizona, Nevada Idaho, Washington...Hawaii
at night and up at that altitude, with no interference for the signal.. there is no dead spot from one end of the AM dial to the other....
Same thing with the CB radio.. picked up guys who claim they were located in the Philippines, besides much of the western USA and Canada...Mexico also, but I don't Habla, so can't talk to them...
Fun stuff...
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
In high school in Lander WY in the 50's we cruised around at night with a case of Coors listening to KOMA. There was another one in Del Rio TX , cant remember the call letters, I think their transmitter was in Mexico and really boomed out there.
That was probably John R Brinkley's border blaster.
The Mexican government, eager to get even with its northern neighbors for dividing up North America's radio frequencies without giving any to Mexico, granted Brinkley a 50,000-watt radio license and construction began on XER-AM, his new "border blaster" across the bridge from Del Rio in Villa Acuña, Coahuila (since renamed Ciudad Acuña).[14] As construction got underway, Fishbein and the U.S. State Department desperately searched for a way to shut Brinkley down. Under heavy pressure from the State Department, the Mexican government halted construction on XER-AM, but it was only temporary. Within weeks, construction resumed and soon two 300-foot (91 m) towers reached into the sky.[45] XER, at 840 kilohertz on the AM dial, radiated by a sky wave antenna, made its first broadcast in October 1931. Brinkley called it the "Sunshine Station Between the Nations".
Brinkley used his new border blaster to resume his campaign for governor by using the telephone to call in his broadcasts to the transmitter. This approach did not work, and he lost yet another political campaign; he would lose again in 1934. Though Brinkley's American radio license had been revoked, XER's signal was so strong that it could still be heard in Kansas.[46] In 1932, the Mexican government allowed Brinkley to increase his wattage to 150,000 watts. Several months later, Brinkley was allowed to increase to one million watts, "making XER far and away the most powerful radio station on the planet" that, on a clear night, could be heard as far away as Canada. According to accounts of the time, the signal was so strong that it turned on car headlights, made bedsprings hum, and caused broadcasts to bleed into telephone conversations.[47] Local residents didn't even need a radio to hear Brinkley's station; ranchers reported that they received it through their metal fences and in their dental appliances.[48]
have heard of more than one pirate ship located just outside the 12 mile boundary, aiming their broadcast antenna at a certain market area. if the coast guard wasn't in the solution, then the navy would engage the discussion.
back in those days, the FCC did dictate what was and what wasn't in the way of legitimate transmissions.
Wasn’t the one in Del Rio the one that had the preacher that if you sent him $5 he’d send you a plastic dashboard Jesus with “glowing eyes" that would follow you anywhere in the dark???
I don't care if it rains or freezes, as long as I got my plastic Jesus.
I'm here to increase my social credit score and rub elbows with some of the highest rollers on the internet.
