Nolan Rinehart, known to his many fans as “Cowboy Slim,” finally relented on Oct. 21, 1948 and agreed to his first ever recording session.
The Comanche County native was just another guitar playing hillbilly singer in 1937, when he decided to try his luck on XEPN, the “outlaw” radio station in Piedras Negras on the other side of the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass. The so-called “border blaster” gave him a huge national audience and a fast-pass to music stardom.
The United States and Canada had only themselves to blame for the birth and phenomenal growth of border radio. They divided long-range radio frequencies between their two countries leaving Mexico completely out in the cold.
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