Clint Robinson - KULP Radio

A few days ago when I wrote about the Dance Hall Boys' Strašidlo, I was having difficulty remembering stuff from fifty years ago -  like the name of the Disk Jocky on radio KULP in El Campo, Texas - the one my mother took me to meet.   Crandall Notes is a geneologist who is good at digging and rooting things up.  She read over Strašidlo and messaged a phone number and a link to a web page to me right away.  Ding!!! Why didn't I think of that?

It was late, so Tuesday morning I called the number she found for me. After a very courteous greeting from the man who answered the phone, I learned that, yes, my disk jockey's name is indeed Schwartzkopf. Chuck Swartzkopf had come to visit his friends at the station the day before.  My old hero is in his 80's and still kicking.

Clint Robinson

In a couple of minutes I got another treat.  I was passed over to  Clint Robinson.  Wow.  Clint Robinson, another of the Texas greats, and he was actualy on the phone with me!  We set up a time for a  brief chat.    I learned that Texas Polka Parade was the very  oldest, longest playing radio show of any kind in Texas history. The Texas Polka Parade has been on the air continuously since 1948.  

Now, in case you didn't know it, while a lot of the world thinks of Hollywood perhaps as the communications captol of the world, down here in Texas we lead the word in electronic communicaton.  Heh,  the most listened to radio station on earth, bar none, head and shoulders above all the rest, is a Texas radio station, KFAN-FM in Johnson City, which broadcasts on the air and over the internet.

As a matter of fact, you can listen to KULP all day from anywhere on the planet that you can find an internet connection and you can listen as Clint Robinson hosts the Texas Polka Parade live between 8:00 and 9:00 AM Central Time Zone (U.S.)  Monday through Friday every week  Clint Robinson knows a lot of the bands he features up close and personal.  When he is not on the air, Robinson is a performer himself.  He started playing guitar at ten years of age.  He's played with the Drifters from Victoria and the Taylor Brothers Band among others.  While most of the music on his show is from Texas polka bands, he does have some music from "up north" and some from Europe. He told me, "we are here to entertain the people.  What they want is what we play."

Chuck Swartzkopf wasn't the first Polka Hour DJ on KULP and there have been a few between Chuck and Clint.  There were names like Jerry Halls, Al Kozel who was a morning regular for 37 years, Sablatura -  names all  well known far beyond the local El Campo, Texas community.  There was a blessed silence between Robinson and me about another name.  I didn't want to ask.  I couldn't tell if he wanted to tell, so we didn't talk  about Bobby Jones.  Jones could be the topic for another day.  KULP's on the air range during the day is about from Crosby, Texas to Beeville and not quite to Austin, about a hundred twenty miles or so in every direction, but the DJs on KULP's Texas Polka Parade have all been well known and loved and have become institutions really throughout most of the Slavic community in Texas.

Joe Nick Patoski 

I snuck over to "Texas Monthly" where Joe Nick Patoski writes quite a bit.  (By this time you really didn't expect an Irishman to be writing about Texas music, did you?)  Besides having been a broadcaster, Patowski was a columnist for the Austin American-Statesman and once upon a time a stringer for the Roling Stones. I wish I could write like Patoski,  oh man can he write!

Back in the March, 1999 issue of Texas Monthly Patowski says:   "The tower with the blinking red lights on the edge of a small town has the distinction of being the tallest man-made object for miles around—taller than the water tank, the courthouse, and the grain elevator. It signals the presence of a radio station, the electronic heartbeat of any community,  the chronicler of local concerns and local eccentricities in the absence of  a daily newspaper or a television station. That concept may be an anachronism in the modern media climate of lifestyle formats and niche  marketing, but to loyal listeners, it’s the way it always has been and always should be ,,, It is music selected by the disc jockeys themselves..." Now, you just can't say it much better than that. 

The radio was our internet before there was such a thing as the internet.  Storm clouds would pop up on the horizon.  Papa suddenly loved the radio. "Turn that thing of yours on" he would say. "Check KFRD": "snap, crackle, pop". "Now check Brenham", "snap, crackle, pop," "Now check KULP": ~~nice sweet music and no snap crackle pop~~.  Almost instantly we knew the storm was wide spread and coming in from the north. Now we look at the weather channel on the internet and even there, radio is part of our internet  experience. So guess what?  Now we turn on the computer and we watch the radio. My laptop is lot smaller than the old family Philco.  There are more colors than just orange and white too.

About KULP and Clint Robinson, Patowski says "This great station in Texas' rice belt radiates stability. Music director Clint Robinson was playing his version of the Americana format—an eclectic mix of Texans singing  country, rock, and folk—before it had a name" An article in "Experience El Campo the Pearl of the Prarie" for 2011 quotes Robinson as saying: "I guess being at the radio station keeps me updated ... and performing live ,,, keeps me aware of what people are dancing and partying to, so  one always influences the other."

Fifty years ago Chuck Swartzkopf said "dobrodošli" to a young man who was awed.  Fifty years later Clint Robinson actually conversed with me, and you know what?  I'm impressed. Music is near the heart and soul of who we are.  Clint Robinson keeps our music going out.  Governors come and go.  Presidents of the USA come and go.  Whole countries come and go.  It's people like Chuck Swartzkopf, Al Kozel, and Clint Robinson who help us keep on being who we are. That's important.    

KULP - El Campo Texas

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

UNDER THE BRIDGE - Pod mostom

"IT STARTS AT 7:00 PM," the headline screamed.  The end of the world  you'd have thought it was.  Carmageddon they called it.  A bridge over the 405 in Los Angeles was coming down.  You half way wanted to break into song: 

"London bridge is coming down, coming down 

London bridge is coming down, my faaairrrre lady."

London Tower Bridge

Even though Americans seem wont to do such things as build a bridge at the cost of millions of dollars and then turn around and tear it down, its not surprising that there was a lot of hullabaloo about tearing  down a bridge.

"New" Bridge

All over the world people are emotionally attached to their bridges.  In Brownsville, Texas, we have the "Old Bridge" and we have the "New Bridge" and we have the "Los Tomates Bridge" which is newer than the "New Bridge" but the "New Bridge" has been the "New Bridge" for more than half a century and it will remain the "New Bridge" until hell freezes over.  

Mostar

During the Balkan wars of the '90s the bridge at Mostar was  destroyed.  Almost instantly everyone was horrified.  I think even the ones responsible were horrified.  What had they done?  The stones of a bridge that had stood for 500 years lay in in  the river. The bridge itself was a symbol of unity which needed to be restored, and quickly it was.

Charles Street Bridge, Praha

Then there is the Charles Street Brige in Praha.  On the far side rises the magnicent wonders of the Hradčany. Perhaps the largest Hrvat monument in the world, it houses the government of the Czech Republic.  Did I say Hrvat?  Jup.  I shore 'nuf did.  First of all, history bears me out.  Secondly, half the names in the Prague phone book are Croatian names.  Thirdly, the only really important difference in the language of the two is that the Czechs want a complicated set of spelling and grammar rules and we Croats don't.  Aside from that we are pretty much the same.

There are other bridges too which are the stuff of poetry and romance.  Sometimes bridges are the stuff of stories ,,, 

A few nights ago I was chatting with Crandall Notes. Here is how that  conversation went: 

me: do you know the story of billy goat gruff?

Crandall Notes: Oh that has faded into the mists of memory.

me: billy goat gruff loved to play and play

Crandall Notes: I remember the Harbor of Hush-a-bye Ho though.

me: Harbor of Hush-a-bye Ho?   that you will have to tell me sometime

me: once upon a time ,,, long ago and far away

  there were three billy goats

  little billy goat gruff

  middle billy goat gruff

  and BIGGGGG billy goat gruff

Crandall Notes: Oh my

me: they decided to go up on the hill to eat the grass there 
  but they had to cross a fast moving stream on a little bridge

  under the bridge lived an ugly old troll

  with BIGGGGGGGGGG eyes

   and a BIGGGGGGGGGG nose

  and BIGGGGGGGGGGG teeth

Crandall Notes: ooooooh my!

 me: and BADDDDDD BREATH

Crandall Notes: Ewwwwww

me: here comes little billy goat gruff

  trip trap trip trap crossing the bridge

  and the Troll says

  WHO IS THAT ON MY BRIDGE

 and the little billy goat gruff says ,, its me little billy goat gruff I want to eat grass and grow big

  and the troll says I'M GOING TO EAT YOU ALL UP

 and little billy goat says ,, why don't you wait for the next billy goat I'm just a mouth full for you

  and the troll says ,, SCAT

  here comes middle billy goat

  trip trap trip trap trip trap crossing the bridge

 and the trol says WHO IS THAT ON MY BRIDIGE?

  and middle billy goat gruff says ,, its just me middle billygoat gruff

  and the troll says IM GOING TO EAT YOU ALL UP

Crandall Notes: hungry troll

me: but middle size billy goat says oh please troll , I'm just two little bites for you I need to eat 

some grass and get big ,,, why don't you wait for the next goat, he's bigger

  and the troll says SCAT

  TRIP TRAP TRIP TRAP TRIP TRAP here comes big billy goat gruff

  and the troll says WHO IS THAT ON MY BRIDGE?

  and big billy goat gruff softly says ,, just me billy goat gruff coming across to eat some grass

  and the troll says I'M GOING TO EAT YOU ALL UP!

  and big billy goat gruff says ,, yeah? you and who else?

  and the troll came to eat billy goat gruff all up

Crandall Notes: Uh oh

me: but billy goat gruff lowered his head and gave him such a butting that the troll ran  away across the bridge to the the north and that that's why we call that country HUNG'RY 

because its full of trolls our goats butted up that direction and they are all hung'ry.

I still have to hear Crandall Notes story about the "Harbor of Hush-a-bye Ho," but  while we are waiting for that story, over on her blog are a number of wonderful stories well worth the read.

Today's song is "Under the Bridge."  I didn't make the video, Dennis Svatek doesn't perform in it, but it is on Texczechpolka which is Dennis' Channel.  This is the LeeRoy Matocha Orchestra, another one of the greats of our time.  LeeRoy is gone now, but he was important because he was a leader in replacing the tuba with the string bass in his band thus taking a major step away from dechovka back toward Hrvati tamburasi with his instrumentation although he did retain brass in the ensemble.  

Under The Bridge.  A place where trolls live and the setting for romance, mystery, and intrigue.  Here is LeeRoy:

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac