As a public service I visited the Holiday Trav-L-Park in Del Rio Texas and can offer the following info, in case any Winter Texans are looking. This is a 4 Star Park as rated by AAA. They have just about all the features you might want - They are located within a mile of the Amistad National Reservoir. Current rates are $26 per night, $114 per week and $206 per month. If you stay for a month or more (in a 50 amp concrete pull through) you pay an additional $21 per month for electricity. This is the nicest park I saw in touring the area and the price seemed very reasonable. They have a web site listing all the features at www.holidaytrav-l-park.com. You will be about 4 miles from Walmart in Del Rio and about 9 miles to Cuidad Acuna Mexico. Rental cars are available but I found them expensive since it is such a small city (about 40,000 on the US side and 175,000 on the Mexican side)

Warning! Thread drift.

I Never camped in Del Rio, never even been there, but the name conjures memories. In the '50s, I traveled the Southwest, out of Denver. I'd finish a call in the afternoon, then drive to my next one. Many nights I chased the little white pool of my headlights down country roads alone. Radio was my lifeline to the world.

In those days pre-FM, most AM stations went off the air at sundown, but two powerful stations boomed in wherever I was. One was KGO in San Francisco, a call-in station where the people battled city hall. I learned more than I needed about San Francisco politics.

The other station was XERF (or was it XELO?) in Del Rio Texas. They played country songs & peddled nostrums. I remember particularly an ad for goat glands to rejuvenate male potency. Didn't need it then. Now?

I remember out east, the ones I could get late at night were WOWO (Ft. Wayne, IN), and WWNO (New Orleans).

In the NW corner of Iowa, I got Del Rio and WWL New Orleans and KOA Denver and WSM Nashville at night. And KSL Salt Lake on Sunday morning for my organ and choir fix before attending our own local effort.

These were all Clear Channel Stations which were given the right to broadcast a strong signal on exclusive frequencies at night, except Del Rio. Being in Mexico and politically connected, they just ignored the laws.

quote:

""WWL..."

"THIS IS WWL, THE VOICE OF LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, COMING TO YOU FROM THE BLUE ROOM HIGH ATOP THE ROOSEVELT HOTEL IN DOWNTOWN NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA; NOW WE BRING YOU THE BEST IN JAZZ AND POPULAR DANCE MUSIC" (Segue to music..)
Ohhh, please, let's go back to those golden days of yesteryear!!!

Note: The Jazz & Popular Dance Music was "live"!

Yeah, forgot about WWL! Nowadays, I generally drive with the radio on NPR, or off entirely. Years as a ship's Chief Engineer pretty much attuned me to the music of the machinery.

As a kid, we lived on a farm on the outskirts of Minneapolis. We were sans electricity, though we had a battery-powered radio (2 batteries - an A & a B - the A was a 6v car battery, the B a heavy multi-celled dry battery). The "aerial,"(antenna) stretched between the house & the windmill.

It took three dials to tune it, & every Saturday night, WSM (Nashville) was on the dial, or a Chicago station, (WLS?) One of them hosted the "National Barn Dance," the other something else, & there were frequent animated discussions among my parents & older siblings as to who was going to listen to what, when.

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:
As a kid, we lived on a farm on the outskirts of Minneapolis. We were sans electricity, though we had a battery-powered radio (2 batteries - an A & a B - the A was a 6v car battery, the B a heavy multi-celled dry battery). The "aerial,"(antenna) stretched between the house & the windmill. It took three dials to tune it.

We lived in the country without electricity, for a while after WWII, while our family finances recovered from my Dad's military service. Our radio was a salvaged and converted car radio, which ran off the battery bank in the basement, which was kept up by a truck generator mounted near the windmill spindle. It continued to charge whenever the shaft rotated, even if the pump was not engaged, so my dad was a battery nanny, too.

quote:

Every Saturday night, WSM (Nashville) was on the dial, or a Chicago station, (WLS?) One of them hosted the "National Barn Dance," the other something else, .

WSM had the Grand Ol' Opry. I seem to remember a number of stations had their own Saturday Night Barn Dance, featuring local talent and their own version of Minnie Pearl. WNAX Yankton SD was one, and might have been received up by you and yours. Not too bad.

WLS was Chicago. "World's Largest Station", they called themselves, but it was also called "World's LOUDEST Station" by those who did not appreciate its all-talk format.

WBBM was another clear-channel Chicago station, and had really nice music late at night. Jay Andres hosted Amereican Airlines "Music Till Dawn". I still think he is the epitome of how an announcer should sound. AA had the program on clear channel stations all across the US, pretty much along their transcon routes so the signal could be picked up and piped into the headsets on the night flights. Of course, the passengers got a little AA advertising along with the music, but it was very low-key and tasteful. A far cry from the piped-in music mixed with hype in most stores today.

Hmmm - OK I thought this would be serious but - Del Rio is across the Rio Grande from Acuna where Wolf Man Jack got his fame in radio - this was before Clear Channel when all US stations had to drop below 10KW at night to preserve local broadcasting stations exclusivity. But Wolf Man led the 250 KW "Border Blaster"station until about 1983. In the 60's you could hear this station from Kansas to Chicago and both coasts. There is a museum in Del Rio with lots of artifacts for the visitor. Not sure if it includes the T shirt though.

And in New Yawk we'd travel the Wrong Island Distressway during an LIRR strike while listening to Imus in the Morning and his choir singing "I don't care if it rains or freezes, long as I've got my plastic...." And then in a mock commercial break, again from Del Rio (not really), the Rev. Billie Sol Hartgas (close) imploring the listener to "purchase your battery operated burning bush for $395.00 in order to avoid the cost of a major miracle."

Ah, such profound and classic apolitical banter of days long gone.

Yup. I remember WNAX, too. My older sibs thought it hilarious when I tried to pronounce "Yankin Thouthakoty" when I was 2 0r 3. One or the other of those stations had a performer named Ford D. Bailey. I think I was about 4 or 5 before my elders clued me that his name wasn't "forty bayleaf."

I'm surprised that you oldtimers haven't mentioned WWVA, Wheeling, W.V., played a lot of country music and I believe The Grand Ol' Opree. I vaguely recall that or another from Pittsbugh would come crashing in at night on our old Fada (or was it Faida?) a big metal case with a large separate speaker in a metal case shaped somewhat like a mantle clock. This also had a bunch of knobs for tuning. KDKA just flashed thru my mind, I don't know if that was the P'burgh station or what. I think those were the earliest stations on the air with great power. I think we got a new radio just before WWII a superhetradine, one tuning knob. Someone mentioned the LIExWay and programs howabout a little later and Jumping With Symphony Sid!