Music from Home

Sixty-five years ago our music from Home was at home in our house.  Sometimes on a Friday night, Mama and Tata would take out their harmonike from the closet and they would play and sing to us.  Sometimes they teach me to sing along with them. Tata made puppets from wood and plaster and mother made clothes for them.  They presented little shows for people as a hobby. To dramatize the shows, Tata would play music the way he liked to play it.

 

I remember when the leather broke on Tata's harmonika how he cried.  Tata did not cry very often.  Mama had already tried to fix hers with artificial leather. Leatherette they called it - it was a good covering for chairs but not for use in Harmonike so it had not worked very well. They cried together  because sister needed money for piano lessons and so at that time we did not have the money to buy the material to repair any harmonike.

 

Now there was no music anymore that could go around places with the puppets and soon they went away in the closet forever.  Mama and Tata are gone now but I still have two or three of their puppets.

 

Sister wanted now to go to college so Mama and Tata had to sell her piano for the money for college.  Some years later when Tata had more money and he bought piano for mother, sister became angry and she would not sing anymore with us.  Too bad for her, we sang anyway when she was not around.

 

In High School I played clarinet.  Sometimes then we had a clarinet / piano duo playing while Mama and Tata would sing.  We had a little record player which would play big records.  We owned a few good records and when people came  from Home many times they would bring new records.  We would share records with other families we knew and they would share with us.  Mama controlled the record player.  When it was time to listen to music she would say to me what she wanted to hear and I was the "disk jockey."

 

In those years I bought a little radio.  Mama and Tata were afraid at first about what kind of music I would play on this radio.  When they discovered  that I tuned into KFRD Rosenburg and KULP in El Campo they were pleased.   These stations had early morning shows which were for all kinds of Slavic people.  One of the Disk Jockeys at KFRD was Croatian man so we heard good music now in the morning. 

 

I went away a long time to college, to the military, to work.  When I came back, KFRD is gone from the air. But KULP is there still in the morning with a Polka Show but for many years I was too far away to get even their broadcast. Lots of years went by when I was busy just trying to make a living.  I missed the old ways and the old music but there wasn't much time to do anything about that except just miss it in my heart - until I was at the end of the earth down here in Brownsville where the only radio or TV is Spanish or
English.

 

Then I had a terminally ill wife on my hands who dearly wanted to hear the old music.  Somehow it was comfort to her - and to me. We had a few cassette tapes and then we bought a few CDs from Home but with all the medical  expense we did not have money to buy very many. 

 

I set out to discover what to do.  On the internet I found Dennis Svatek. He is not Croatian but he plays a lot of good music and he makes it freely available to download and listen to it. 

 

Then I discoved Radio Narodna on the internet.  On Easter after Carole died, they played on croatian a song same as in Lutheran Hymnal "Jesus Christ is Risen Today."  I shall not forget that Easter.  I stayed awake all night for Easter Vigil and was rewarded at the top of every hour with the recording of those wonderful women singing that song.  Someday I will find that recording -
I want it.

 

Along the way, I discovered many other internet radio stations with croatian language broadcasts.  Most of these stations are based in Croatia but many  are or were based also in North America. 

 

I discovered YouTube and the world of croatian music to be found there. The ladies at Croatia Gifts in Ohio once asked me how I choose the music I buy and I answered that I go to YouTube and listen to a singer first. If I like the sound, then, when I have the money, I buy the CD so I can hear the music in my car when I am away from my house. Eventually I learned a  little about making videos and I am now a "broadcaster" on YouTube. I am grateful that almost all of the Croatian performers are friendly about the promotion of their material I try to give them there. 

 

If the performers can figure out how to do it, they could even run
advertising on my videos with their music and make a little extra money for themselves.  Right now the Germans are trying to claim their material and make this money but I keep chasing them away.

 

The learning curve on YouTube is interesting.  I've had an account on YouTube since 1999 but it was a couple of years before I understood the potential there.  Now I'm getting over 3,000 views each day and that number is growing rapidly.  I've been learning and experimenting with various things and I expect that number to be over 10,000 views a day by the end of next year.  So, in fact, I am broadcasting to a fairly large and growing community.

 

Recently, Nenad Bach asked me to work on a project with him. What an honor to be asked to do this!! The project was to discover all the Croatian language radio stations in the world outside of Croatia.

 

I discovered there are some broadcasts I knew nothing about before.  There is even a broadcast from China on croatian language.  There are internet broadcasts from Australia and New Zealand, and from Argentina.  In fact, there are broadcasts from every continent except Africa and Antarctica.

 

I discovered some changes in North America which surprised me, although I should not have been surprised at all.  These changes reflect the lives of  Croatian Americans and the changing realities of an interconnected world. Radio Stations like my old KFRD are gone now from the air because we all grew up and went away somewhere else.  I remember broadcasts in the southern Wisconsin area.  There was a "Radio Club" there, organized to raise the money to see to it that Croatians had at least a little sound from Home.

In Ohio there are still broadcasts but they are mostly one hour  "packages" from Home.  One is carried by a mostly Afro-American station which views us as a "minority," which of course we are, I suppose.  I would guess that over the next five  years most of these one hour a week broadcasts will disappear.

 

I found nothing at all in Seattle where there is a sizable Croatian community.  There is a station from Vancouver however, and one in Toronto and Ottawa.  Down in California where there is a large Croatian population, there are no longer any broadcasts. St Anthony's Croatian Catholic Church used to broadcast their mass on a Sunday, but no longer.  I spoke to a priest from  there and he was not interested in the idea even that I could help him either broadcast or rebroadcast the service for free on YouTube.

 

On the Gulf Coast region of the USA there are no stations that I can find broadcasting either on the air or on the internet in Croatian even though Croatians can be found strung out all along the coast line in various  communities.

 

When I put out an appeal on both YouTube and FaceBook to help me locate Croatian Radio Stations around the world, Marijan sent me a list of Croatian radio stations accessible in Germany - all are based in Croatia.  Ana wrote "David every Monday at 14:00 your time on Radio 105 songs on request and calls live from around the world for the Croats at Radio 105! [Selnica]"

 

Does the diminishing presence of North American croatian radio indicate a lack of demand for croatian language material?  As Croatians are assimilated into an english speaking world do we want less material on croatian?  I think that these would be incorrect conclusions. The demand may be higher than ever before. The fact is that now we are connected around the world via Facebook, YouTube and other media.  The radio stations, and some TV broadcasts, from the Homeland and various locations are only a few clicks away on the internet and the streams are usually reliable. At this very moment I'm connected to Vox Croatica down in Argentina, FaceBook, and YouTube simultaneously and my cellphone is right beside me so I can talk or text anyone anywhere.  I don't need a broadcaster located in my backyard anymore.

 

That leaves open the questions surrounding the unique needs concerning Croats in the diaspora.  I don't have an answer except that as always we shall make good advantage of all the tools which come available and keep on scrambling like we always have. There are new tools just now available on YouTube and G+.  Other technology will come along.  Mama and Tata's harmonike went away years ago, but we have what we have and we shall find how to make our way somehow.

 

If you don't mind, keep your ears and your eyes open for croatian language broadcasts of any kind outside of Croatia,  and let me know what you hear and see. Also, let me know what you would like to hear and see.  There are a lot of us Croats out here in the world away from Home.  What do we want available to us?  Talk to me.  

 

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

 

9 svibanj 2013

 

PEANUT POLKA - Sunny and the Sunglows

On the label it says "La Cacahuata."  Ok.  That's what it says.  Its an instrumental performed by the Sunglows whom about all of us south of what would eventually become US Interstate 10 knew as "Sunny and the Sunglows."   No Sunny, no Sunglows that's how we saw matters.  Later they called themselves "Sunny and the Sunliners."

You have to learn to say this right:  "Sunny and The SunLIIIIINers!"  Hmmm how do I record in writing just how that was said -  the "i" in "liners" was held in your voice a little - especially when Mary on radio stanice Ka Efe Ere De announced that she had just played "The Peanut Polka" as she began her portion of the morning show on KFRD each weekday. She was on immediately after the Polka show each morning and the poor dear knew that most of us were changing our dials over to KULP in El Campo at that very moment for their morning Polka show which is still on the air after all these years. 

We stayed with Mary until the end of the Peanut Polka because usually the News on KULP was finished by that time and the music started over there.   I remember one morning when Mary said "I know a lot of ya'll will be leaving me right now to go on over where it is you go at this hour.  Zbogom, dobre den, have a nice day, and be good until I see you tomorow."   CJ just asked me if I had just a twinge of guilt when she said that all those years ago.  I answered "no, not even a twinge."  That's what we did you see, we  station hopped to get our polka music and that's how we lived everyday.  Nope, no guilt at all.

KFRD is gone now I think.  Joe Gavranovic was the DJ over there for lots of years.  chkelly1 over on YouTube has one video with Joe Patek performing "The Cradle Polka" from long ago.  KFRD used to be Fort Bend Broadcasting Co, Inc. in Rosenberg, Texas.  

I found an obituary on the Internet from October 6, 2000 for Clyde Morgan Jeffreys who was the Director of News and Talk Shows for KFRD for over 30 years.  He was born 1 Oct 1913 in Columbus Muscogee County Georgia and is interred at David-Greenlawn in Rosenberg. Buried nearby is Gonzalo Rodriguez, who was the first Program Director of the famous Spanish Program "Progreso Latino" at KFRD 980 AM in Rosenberg, Texas, in the late 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. He started with a little 15 Minute Spanish Music Format Show. The Show was so popular, eventually it went all out in a few years to 24/7 Tejano-Spanish Programing in the Greater Houston Area...with listeners all the way down to near Corpus Christi and near San Antonio to Beaumont, Galveston and beyond. In the 1980's the programing was transfered TO KFRD FM 105(aka KMIA FM 105). He was born 28 September 1902 and died 19 April 1982.
 
Last I heard, Ben Oldag was still kicking.  Ben performed live with Texas Rhythm Boys at KFRD and got a job reporting the agricultural news and later added his polka program.

Today I found a notice about Daniel Segura's death.  He was the DJ for Puro Tejano on KRFD.  The notice says "Marcua Rodrigues remembers him fondly.  Segura died 29 July 2008. I don't know how this all figures out but the Univision website says that along the line KFRD became KMIA - 10/05/1990.  KMIA became KMPQ-FM - 10/04/1993.  KMPQ became KLTO - 3/06/1995.  KLTO became KOVA - 08/01/1998.  KOVA became KPTY - 11/20/2001.  KPTY became KAMA - 12/4/2007.  The station is now owned by Univision and the Polka show is long gone but the memories remain of how Mary always always played Sunny's Peanut Polka at the end of the Polka show and the Beginning of the Tejano show every day but Sunday when the churches were on the air in the mornings.

KFRD is gone but Sunny Ozuna remains.  He is still alive and kicking, still performing although he left the Sunliners.  Sunny and a trio of close friends (Freddie Martinez, Augustin Ramirez, and Carlos Guzman) better known as The Legends, earned themselves a Grammy in 2000. According to his website "currently there is strong talk about more work with The Legends as well as many various shows and appearances by Sunny Ozuna himself in the near future."

The Peanut Polka like we used to hear it:

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
11 Listopad 2011

JULAJDA POLKA - The Dance Hall Boys

On faceBook there's a page called  "You're Probably From Wharton, Tx..." Those of us who have any connection to the town can drag up old memories and say something briefly to others.  Its amazing the viewpoints and memories that wind up there.  Nearly all happy nostalgic things. For the most part we were a happy bunch.  Maybe we didn't have sense enough not to be happy, but that's how we were. So many have come through the schools and gone on to other places.  The younger ones have different memories from the older folk. Funny, we older folk used to be the young folk.

Sigh, jedno davno i daleko daleko, another long ago and far away thing.

Here's one conversaton from "You're Probably From Wharton, Tx..."  Even though all the remarks here were made out in public, the speakers may not have anticipated just how public their remarks were going to be, so I've xxx'd out the names for the sake of  a modicum of  privacy.  

XXXXXX  Football. Current Tiger Stadium, the field at the Jr. High, and the (now gone) field at WCJC. Did WHS play home games on any other fields? Like ·  · Unsubscribe · 13 hours ago
YYYYYY  likes this.


YYYYYY Wow, I hadn't thought about field at WCJC in long time. My sister was cheerleader there and for wrestling fans "Stone Cold" Steve Austin played football at WCJC as well.... 12 hours ago · Like


ZZZZZZ It's been so long now, refresh my memory on exactly where the WCJC Pioneer stadium was located. I went to games but I'm foggy on the locale.  10 hours ago · Like

XXXXXX It was on the WCJC campus, in a field just behind the buildings. In the early 60's, they decided to build more offices or classrooms or something and needed the room. That's when the high school had to begin playing their games at the Jr. High, which had been the high school. Around 1970, they built the current Tiger Stadium. When the games were at the Jr. High, there was not enough seating. So the band had to set up chairs in concert formation near one end of the visitors' side. We couldn't even see most of the game.  4 hours ago · Like

ME pioneer stadium was still there in 'xx/yy ,, don't know after that, I was gone a good long time about an hour ago · Like

XXXXXX Yes, that's right. I can remember the cheerleaders dancing to Julida Polka on the sidelines.  33 minutes ago · Unlike ·  1 person

ME you betcha !!! were you in the band in those days?


XXXXXX  Some of the best times of my high school. Percussion. Graduated 'XX.

Oh dear, and there followed a few messages behind the scenes in which XXXXXX remembered my dad and XXXXX reminded me about a mother who taught Geometry.  I wanted so hard to please that dear lady because she had always been so kind to me and she worked to hard to help me get it, but I was such a flat liner back then ,,, and for that,  after I got out of the Air Force, God sentenced me to about 25 years hard labor at a job in which one of my functions lay at the intersection of Plane and Solid Geometry.   No one has any idea how many times I thought of Mama Rock or how many times I begged God's forgiveness for failing her. But God was relentless in His punishment. It took me about 10 years, but I got to the point where I could look at a truckload of logs and know, just know, how much veneer and how much lumber that load would produce.  I got to the point where I could gaze out upon a sawmill floor and tell you accurately how much was stacked out there and I could look at an aerial photo and tell you fairly accurately how much timber was standing on a particular plot.  Maybe Mama Rock would have finally been proud of me,  but I never could do the math. That's a job for the accountants, God bless them, or these days for my computer.  I still have a problem with math.  

In the band, XXXXX was percussion.  I was a few years ahead. I played clarinet, and we both have the same memory: "the cheerleaders dancing to Julida Polka on the sidelines."  Some Friday nights over in Pioneer Stadium you might have thought the Julida was our school fight song as often as the band struck up that song.  Oh heavens, our side  of the stadium would sound out along with the band.  You knew we were there!  So many people knew all the words back in those days.

I put this song over on  CANOVALS on YouTube back on November 4, 2010. It hasn't been one of my most watched videos, but a good number of folk from Czech Republic, Slovakia, as well as Texas and the United States seem to have enjoyed it as well as a few folks from all over Europe and even from far away India.   Even Hrvati from Australia were singing along with the song.

Maybe you noticed we've switched back and forth between spellings for the song "JULAJDA" vs Julida.  Hej, so a Hrvat has a Czech Song on his Hrvat pages.  Ok, it's Teksikanski Czech anyway.  Hej hej, that's just how it is, don't worry about it.  The song was and is part of our lives and maybe always will be.  Play it at my memorial service when the time comes, will you please?

Dennis Svatek, once one of "The Dance Hall Boys" from Texczechpolka  on YouTube and were kind enough to allow me to use their recording of the song.  Dennis lived next door to Wharton in Boling for part of his life.  I used to listen to  this recording on KULP - EL CAMPO when they played it as I was passing through at the right time of day.

Someday I will make another video to go with this song.  It deserves a better video than I knew how to make at the time . It was meant a bit as a dream sequence going by to youthful days. The little mouse all tucked in  and sleepy - that's me.  Maijka moja used to love to sing this to me.  Hej, its a happy song and it passed for a lullaby in our house.  Dear Mom.  I liked the turtle playing the keyboard in the video - if keyboards had  existed back then that's about how Mom might have looked with her kerchief on her head playing.  Yes,  XXXXX, I was remembering our cheerleaders.  I hope they don't mind that I used the dancing mice to represent them. :)

Here are the words - sing along with Dennis as you watch the video:


Ten panský kočí, má modré oči,
On se mě vyptáva, kde já spím v noci. 


R.:
Julajda, Julajda, já mám tě ráda,
Julajda, Julajda, já tě ráda mám. 


A já spím sama na naší půdě,
Žádný tam za mnou vylézt nemůže.

Čtyři tam lezli, jeden tam zůstal,
Jak jsi se, Pepičku, jak jsi se vyspal. 


Já jsem se vyspal, ale jen málo,
Mně se tam něco hezkého zdálo.


On English these words are approximately:

The carriage driver, he has blue eyes,
He is asking me where am I sleeping at night.


R.:
Julida, Julida, I like you,
Julida, Julida, you I like.


And I sleep by myself in our attic,
Nobody can climb up there to see me.


Four of them climbed there, one stayed there,
How did you, Joe, how did you sleep.


I slept, but only a little,
I was dreaming about something nice.



Now you just must understand these are not the words we sang when we sang this on english - "I got the honey if you got the money" was how the refrain went on english.

What's funny is the song was probably first sung on polish or on english.  It was written by Walter Solek, the Polish - American song writer / radio polka show host.  Solek was with the Krakowska Orchestra organized by his brother Henry, with which he recorded on the RCA Victor label.  Julida was his first major hit after World War II with Columbia Records.  It vaulted him to the top of the charts in the polka scene for a number of years.  His motto, Bringing people together through music!" helped him compete with Elvis and the Beatles.   A member of St. Stanislaus Church, Solek's seventy-five year career in music ended in 2005.  

Just a few minutes ago I found out that my friend from High School is gone.  His family has kindly allowed me to dedicate this little video to Bob McCulloch who was a good friend and one of the smartest guys I ever knew.   I swiped this photo from his sister's FaceBook page with her permission.  Except for the mustache, that's the same smile Bob had in high school all those years ago.

Bob McCulloch

JULAJDA POLKA  

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

3 Rujan 2011

Silences ,,,

As of precisely 00:01 hours this very morning train horns went silent forever in El Campo, Texas.  Shannon Crabtree writes in the El Campo Leader News  "You’ll still be able to hear the train a comin,’ but those lonesome whistles won’t be a blowin’..."  

There was another silence a few years back.  On Saturday morning the 23rd of June 2007. Bobby Jones, the "Polka King" of Wharton County didn't come to work at radio station KULP and  he hasn't been heard from since.

Wharton police found some car tracks leading down to the Colorado River and a license plate from his car but that's all.  The river was high and it was a long time before the search could really get under way in the river.  

On the State of Texas Missing Persons bulletin his is case MO706013.
Race: White Sex: Male DOB 8/13/1958 Age Missing:48
Height 5ft 7 in Weight:185 lb
Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Green
last seen: 6/22/2007 in Wharton County.
May have been traveling in a red 1993 Chevrolet four door
Lumina bearing Texas plates F37YHR.

There was a lot chatter about all this for a while.  Gossip and such too.  Maybe too much chatter and too much gossip. Last time,  I mentioned a certain silence between me and Clint Robinson about this.  Some of us just don't talk about this much anymore.  We would probably rather take a few seconds of silence and remember this fellow who was once among us.  Other than that the public liked the man and he played pretty good music, the fact is, this is about all we know. Anyone with any further information about what happened to Bobby Jones ought to call the Wharton County Sheriff's Department at 979 532-1550 and let them in on what they know.

Jim Bordelon, an obvious fan, wrote a poem 
Bobby Jones is Still the King
 (Read with the song Bob Wills Is Still The King in mind)

Bobby Jones

Well the polka halls in Texas
 Are the places we call home
 And since we live in Texas
 There is no need to roam


We grew up ’round polka dancing
 And the girls we love to swing
 It don’t matter who’s playin’ polka
 Bobby Jones is still the king


Well I can still remember
 The times we danced all night
 And if Bobby Jones was playing
 Everything would sound all right


You can listen to the Dujka Brothers
 And the “Ravens” and “Hobos” sing
 But no matter who’s in Texas
 Bobby Jones is still the king


From the 88 Lodge in Houston
 All the way to San Antone
 To the KC Hall in Sealy
 To a place we call Sweet Home


In every hall in Texas
 And everywhere in between
 When polka music’s playin’
 Bobby Jones is still the king


When you hear the polka music
 You dance with a three-step pace
 The sound of Bobby’s accordion
 Puts a smile on every face


No matter what band is playin’
 When the polka music rings
 And you’re talking polka music
 Bobby Jones is still the king


Well if you ain’t never heard him
 Well you just haven’t heard the best
 But if you’ve heard his band a-playin’
 You know he’s better than all the rest


It’s the home of polka music
 Where the bands make your heart sing
 But no matter who’s in Texas
 Bobby Jones is still the king

I don't know about Bobby Jones being "The King" and all that, but whatever you thought about Bobby, there is no doubt Bobby Jones was one of ours and he was a pretty good musician.  I think about everybody misses that big old smile he usually had when he was out among us.   Here is a video Dennis Svatek came up with over on his Texczechpolka channel on YouTube.  Dennis tells  us that this was Recorded at the SPJST Lodge 88 in Houston in May of 1985.  This has Bobby Jones - Accordion and vocals, Dennis Svatek - Trumpet, Joe Zetka Sr. - Trumpet, Teresa Zetka - Bass, Joe Zetka Jr. - Guitar, and Harvey Fajkus on the Drums.

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


Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

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