By Ben Parks, Sound Wrangler American Cowboy Radio
I’m Ben Parks, basically a lifelong resident of Amarillo and jack-ofall-trades, from sales to restaurants to railroads. In 2018 Jim Turvaville, my friend of thirty-some-odd years, mentioned that he had a construction permit to build an FM radio station in Guthrie, Texas, but he planned to let it expire. He didn’t see any commercial potential since the coverage area for the radio permit was limited to King County, the second least populated county in Texas. With only 277 residents, Guthrie is the county seat for King County.
Ranch, the Tongue River Ranch and the Pitchfork Ranch. In the cattle and horse world, Guthrie is well known. I’m not a cowboy myself, but I grew up on ranches around Amarillo and eastern New Mexico and had the pleasure of helping (read - getting in the way of) the real cowboys on these ranches when they were working cattle and branding. The music of the cowboy was instilled in me early, with songs like Eddy Arnold’s “Wagon Wheels” and the Sons of the Pioneers’ “Cool Water” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.”
could never understand why Roy would want to spend time with Dale Evans when he could be playing his guitar or riding Trigger into the sunset. I’ve been exposed to most music genres, but the one I keep coming back to is known as western or cowboy music. It’s different from country; its roots are founded in the strong values of the American cowboy rather than the honky-tonk tales of country music. I once discovered an internet radio station that played the format I longed for, but when the lady who created it passed away, the music went off the net.
When Jim said Guthrie, my ears perked up, and I verified that it was Guthrie, Along with this musical influence, Texas - not Guthrie, Oklahoma. I I would get up early on Saturday Western music isn’t a format that is immediately saw the potential for mornings and watch the test pattern readily available on your radio, so other combining the broadcast radio station until the station came on the air bringing than building your own playlist, it’s with an internet station playing cowboy Roy Rogers and Trigger into the living hard to find. There is a lot of good music music - at a location where there are real room. Remember the fist fights on top out there with a lot of great independent cowboys. Guthrie and King County may of moving railroad cattle cars? Roy artists producing new songs every day, be short on population, but those folks would never lose his hat, and when the but they need an avenue to get their art know cowboys! It’s part of the big ranch train stopped, Trigger was right there to the public. Although many stations country of West Texas, home to the 6666 to chase down the bad guys! As a kid, I across the country may have a cowboy
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WWW.PANHANDLEMAGAZINE.COM | SUMMER 2020
