AHC: Big radio stations on Mexican border in 1940s have political effect?

Beyond the Latino World War II Hero: The Social and Political Legacy of a Generation, Ch. 2 "Embracing the Ether," Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez, University of Texas Press, 2009.

https://books.google.com/books?id=7...re to replace a man's prostate gland"&f=false

' . . . "Dr." Brinkley was best known as the "goat gland surgeon," for his trademark surgical procedure to replace a man's prostate gland with a goat prostate; thus, Brinkley claimed, the patient would be imbued with renewed vigor. In 1930 the Federal Radio Commission revoked his KFKB broadcasting license in Kansas, accusing him of defrauding the public with false promises of medical cures. After losing a court appeal, Brinkley moved his operation to Villa Acuña (now Ciudad Acuña) in 1931 and was given a license to broadcast, first at 75,000 and later at 500,000 watts. His station, XER, operated until 1934 and resurfaced the following year as XERA, which lasted until 1941. . . '
Kooksville populist (and/or medical flim-flam) is not guaranteed to have any particular political effect. But maybe if this guy fights the medical establishment, he might also fight big corporations in general. And might have some effect in the 1946 generally anti-union mid-terms as well as overall rightward drift of U.S. politics?

There were other of these "Border Blasters."

PS Ciudad Acuña is across the border from Del Rio, Texas.
 
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Beyond the Latino World War II Hero: The Social and Political Legacy of a Generation, Ch. 2 "Embracing the Ether," Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez, University of Texas Press, 2009.

' . . . [Lydia] Mendoza recorded songs on the Blue Bird label, and these were played on Brinkley's XER in Villa Acuña—reaching Hank Cervantes in California and Ramón Rivas in Alaska. . . '
yes, sometimes at night radio can really travel :)
 
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border%20blaster%20maps.jpg

http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/border stations geo.html

so a fair number of cities with one or more "Border Blasters"
 
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http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/border stations geo.html

While the federal government of the United States did not particularly like them, the stations the only restriction the United States government could place upon them was a law which forbade studios in the U.S. from linking by telephone to border-blaster transmitters in Mexico. This law was introduced in the wake of John R. Brinkley's romance with fascism prior to World War II on XERA.
Ouch!

well maybe, competing stations which dislike Brinkley for all kinds of personal reasons could then try to prove that he's dead wrong on politics. And just because he's enamored with fascism, other stations need not be.
 
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Beyond the Latino World War II Hero: The Social and Political Legacy of a Generation, Ch. 2 "Embracing the Ether," Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez, University of Texas Press, 2009.

' . . . Brinkley, originally of Kansas, had a $100 diploma from the Kansas City, Missouri, Eclectic Medical School, a diploma recognized in eight states. . . '
yes, John Brinkley was very much a "Dr." in quotation marks! :p
 
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in OTL, the Civil Rights movement for African-Americans broadly took place in the 1950s and '60s, whereas the Chicano Rights movement including the United Farm Workers took place in the '60s and '70s.

How about an ATL in which broad political activism by and for Hispanic Americans comes first?
 
PDF --> http://www.fronterismo.org/transfro...illy-Blast-from-the-Past-Lawrence-Taylor1.pdf

' . . . became even more stringent in the Cárdenas period with the passage of the broadcasting Reglamento of 1936, which demanded that every program contain at least 25 percent of "typical Mexican music" (Reglamento, 1936). . . . '
and with only a 25% of the station's time being typical Mexican music, yes, this would admittedly make it more difficult for these stations to lead or seriously cover political movements
 
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One way to look at the Civil Rights movement by African Americans was that legal victories raised expectations and then people were willing to invest time, effort, and hope, and in most cases incur personal risks, because the goals did seem achievable and in many cases were achievable.

So, one obvious way to have earlier Hispanic American civil rights activism is to have this same general sequence, although I don't think it necessarily needs to be the only way.
 
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Beyond the Latino World War II Hero: The Social and Political Legacy of a Generation
, Ch. 2 "Embracing the Ether," Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez, University of Texas Press, 2009.

https://books.google.com/books?id=F...hen he was stationed in Dutch Harbor"&f=false

'During World War II, my father, Ramón Rivas, a young army private, eagerly volunteered for overnight guard duty when he was stationed in Dutch Harbor, in the Aleutian Island chain off the coast of Alaska. It wasn't that he preferred solitude or that he relished the cold and darkness. Rather, it was that now and then, when the AM radio waves bounced just right, he could tune in a radio station, on the Mexican border, that carried the music and the language of his people, five thousand miles away. In 1999 he recalled his desperate homesickness and fear of losing Spanish, the only language spoken by his family and friends in South Texas. Finding the Spanish-language radio stations from Del Rio, Texas, was one of the ploys he used to hold fast to his native language. "Since I was the only Mexican American in my outfit," he recalled, "I used to have to practice speaking Spanish. I used to keep myself speaking Spanish so I could speak to people when I came home." . . . '
Wow, 5,000 miles away! At night, sometimes, when the AM radio waves bounce just right.

As far as potential political effects, I love the idea of unions either leasing major time or owning stations out right. The unions could even decide, look, we can't tell people things that aren't true. In fact, we should try to tell the whole truth, including the parts not flattering to ourselves (rather hear bad news from a friend than someone else). And on top of that, we should democratically allow different viewpoints within the union to be heard. And all this, on maybe only a couple of 15 minute news sections during the day on a station which is mostly music.

Of course, when it all comes down to it in the hectic push of events, the union may not always be able to live up to these high ideals, just like is the case for all of us.
 
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https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sets/the-united-farm-workers-and-the-delano-grape-strike/

'On September 8, 1965, Filipino farm workers organized as the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) decided to strike against grape growers in Delano, California, to protest years of poor pay and working conditions. The Delano Grape Strike grew from a long history of labor organizing and protest by Filipino workers in agriculture and canning on the West Coast. AWOC leaders asked the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), a mostly Latino farm workers union led by Cesar Chavez, to join their strike. . . '

I did not know that Filipino workers started the 1965 Grape Strike.

And yes, a "Border Blaster" radio station could take up the cause of social justice and union rights, almost accidentally as it were due to a wild owner. But all the same, the station would still face the challenge of getting enough businesses to advertise. Maybe such a station could get businesses in San Antonio who have primarily a Hispanic clientele, and where being in favor of a farm workers union would bring a certain cachet to the business. Maybe. It would take some lines of circumstance crossing and a good helping of good luck! :)
 
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