Border blasters: The outlaw stations that changed radio
They brought us country music, jazz, R & B, rock and roll and Wolfman Jack.
Border blasters: The outlaw stations that changed radio
By Sheryl Losser
Columbus Metropolitan Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons/Photoscape
If you’re like me, you love “Pirate Radio,” starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy. The movie follows a group of rogue DJs who set up an outlaw radio station on a boat off the coast of Great Britain to broadcast rock and roll to fans hungry for the music.
Before pirate radio, however, there was border radio. The concept was the same — avoid regulations and censorship, broadcast music not being carried by mainstream radio and evade the long arm of the law. Border radio introduced Americans to country music, jazz, rock and roll, and Wolfman Jack.
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