This summer, staff members of Marfa Public Radio are contributing to the Desert Dispatch. This week, Christopher Dyer speaks with the DJ behind one of the longest-running shows on our airwaves: Joe Nick Patoski.
“From a secret location, in an unmarked cave, on the wrong side of the Rio Grande, this is nuevo border radio…”
So begins the Texas Music Hour of Power with Joe Nick Patoski, a weekly broadcast on Marfa Public Radio that's been on the air since the station’s earliest days. Every Saturday from 7-9 p.m., listeners gather around the “electronic campfire” to listen to a high-energy, two hour dive into the mind of Patoski and his vast knowledge of music history in the Lone Star state. The goal, listeners are told, is “to help you forget the past and not fret about what’s ahead - to be here now, in the moment, and make yourself a party.”
Having coordinated a couple of his live shows in Marfa, I can tell you the Texas Music Hour of Power is really a party. When Patoski is in the studio, the station is a who’s who of West Texas. Guests are flowing in and out, chatting, laughing and hula-hooping (yes, hula-hooping) to feel-good Texas tunes.
Patoski first made his way to Marfa in the early 90s. He was writing for Texas Monthly, and one of his beats was Far West Texas. His articles on the area caught the attention of the locals, including then Marfa Public Radio General Manager Tom Michael who invited Patoski to put together a music program for the station.
It was an easy decision: “Marfa is such a rarefied place,” said Patoski. “It’s really unique and the station is such a beautiful compliment.”
Patoski has published a lot on the subject of Texas music. He was a long time staff writer for Texas Monthly, and a contributing editor for No Depression magazine. He has written a variety of publications including the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Cream, Country Music Magazine, and the Texas Observer. Among his many books, he has authored biographies on Willie Nelson, Selena, and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
In addition to being a prolific writer, Patoski has had a long history in broadcasting. “I’m a radio guy, it’s in my blood,” he said.
Patoski first started in radio in 1971 working at KFAD, an underground commercial station in Arlington. There, armed with access to the station’s “mind blowing” music library, he was given only one command, which was to “play good music and…” don’t screw up. Other early radio gigs in Austin included a brief stint at KOKE-FM, the progressive country station (prior to its format change), a show at KUT, and a morning show at KGSR where he talked about sports and what was going on at Texas Monthly.
For his Marfa Public Radio show, Patoski draws on several of his early inspirations, including the antics of famed disc jockey Wolfman Jack, along with reviving the spirit of border radio (“when you turned it on, you never knew what you were going to hear”), which he thought was “mysterious and brilliant” and “the coolest thing” he had ever heard.
He also gives credit to Texas Radio pioneer Gordon McLendon, who created on-air personalities with the goal of radio being “the theater of the mind” - creating a drama in the imagination of the listener through sound.
The Texas Music Hour of Power covers a wide range of genres including brown-eyed soul, Tex-Mex, Tejano, zydeco, and “just about anything with accordions.” New music plays alongside old standards. The only requirement for inclusion on the “T-M-H-O-P” is that “it’s gotta be jumpin’," said Patoski. "I want people to get in an upbeat, party mood. Beyond that, everything is fair game.”
Putting together the show takes Patoski about four hours, which includes researching the music, then putting it all together with a cohesive flow. And that doesn’t include the time he spends during the Saturday night broadcast doing what he calls “Picture Radio,” where he and his team of “Image Wranglers” post a live blog on his Facebook page of photos and facts related to the music in the show.
For Patoski, it’s all time well spent. “I’ve been doing radio for a long time. For over fifty years," he said. "But nothing gives me greater satisfaction than putting together a show…I like sharing what I know with the audience while hopefully entertaining them.”
After years on the microphone, his show is now appointment listening for folks in Far West Texas and beyond. For those two hours every Saturday, Patoski spreads the gospel of Texas Music where, as he says, “anything is possible and almost everything is probable.”
We've reached Volume 20 of the Desert Dispatch! Thanks so much for reading and sharing your thoughts and feedback along the way. This work is made possible by the generosity of our readers and listeners, so if you enjoy this newsletter, support it by making a donation here.
Caló
Chinelas - It means shoes and comes from the 1900s shoe product brand, Chinola. It also serves as a polite surrogate for the terrible curse word that has many surrogates, like Chihuahua and changada (pack of apes). As both an old brand name and a surrogate for a curse word, chinelas is an amorphous, highly-flexible term and, because of that, a magical word in Caló. You can use it to mean simply shoes, but with the added meaning of nice shoes, high status or airs of high status. You can also use it to communicate disdain for those who presume high status, as in “hay chinelas,” indicating that their chinelas are not the appointment they may think it is.
Caló is a borderland dialect. You can find more episodes here.
Other recent programming:
A longtime program that provided the only mammogram services in the rural Big Bend region has been discontinued, meaning locals will now have to drive for hours to cities like El Paso and Odessa to access potentially life-saving breast cancer screenings. Travis Bubenik has that story here.
Summer monsoons are a lifeline for West Texas, and when rains come the jubilation is general — as birds sing and bees buzz, grasses grow and ranchers rejoice. In the West Texas mountains, a tiny creature adds its voice to the celebratory chorus. Chirping frogs are typically less than an inch long, and you could mistake their whistling, trilling calls for an insect’s. But these little creatures have an epic story, one that distills the deep mysteries of biodiversity. You can listen to that story in this Nature Notes episode.
High Five
This week’s high five comes from Joe Nick himself – no sad tunes, high-energy only!
- Heard It On the X - ZZ Top
- Houston, The Action Town - Weldon “Juke Boy” Bonner
- Hey Baby Que Paso - Texas Tornados
- Fool In Love - Lou Ann Barton, Angela Strehli, and Marcia Ball
- See See Baby - Freddy King
Tune in to the Texas Music Hour of Power every Saturday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Marfa Public Radio.
PSAs
The Food Pantry of Jeff Davis County, located in Fort Davis, is seeking the support in continuing its mission of “neighbors feeding neighbors”
Financial donations are needed to help meet increasing applications and rising food costs and volunteers are also needed for distribution days and office support.
For more information on how to get involved, visit FoodPantry-JDC.ORG.
If you have PSAs you'd like to hear on the air or see in this newsletter, head to www.marfapublicradio.org/psa.
