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History Page
~FRANKIE FIRME & THE 2nd TIME AROUND SHOW ~ Keeping it fine, since 1999 !
I've been a lover of Music forever! My Mom & Dad were East L.A. "Pachuko Jitterbuggers" from the 1940's and 50's, and family parties
happened all the time where the family, friends, and neighbors got together to play music and dance. Everybody knew everybody, and it was all good! People stuck together, and we appreciated the World we made for ourselves. I can't remember when
somebody wasn't playing and listening to music ...even during hard times!
I grew up in the East L.A.~San Gabriel Valley area in the 1960's and
70's,during the birth and heyday of the "West Coast East Side Sound" and
Lowriding CHICANO Music, Lowriding, the Civil rights era, the Chicano Movimiento & Moratorium, the High School walkouts, the Viet Nam war, and the explosion of American Rock & Roll into many different and new genres...just too much history & cultural change to absorb & digest at one time, so we made it easier by taking it in
with the music that represented our hearts & souls at the time...and now, over40 years later, with a better educated older generation of Gente taking better care of themselves and living fuller, more active lifestyles, the music remains alive, and is inspiring live shows & concerts, books, movies, comedy, plays, poetry, art,...and of course, more beautiful Chicano music. Our generation, our people, and the music that represents us is not lost, and in the tribal tradition, it should and will be shared.
I started out on the American Radio Network's cable radio station KCLA FM, 99.3
in 1999, after winning a Doo~Wop DJ contest, and the owner of the ARN invited me
to join his station network . They added internet/satellite station KCLAFM.com in 2000. During the taping of one of the earlier shows, one of the station managers complimented me on my choice of music & songs that he had never heard
during a show he was monitoring. ( originally called "Firme Hits of the Past with Frankie Firme"). When finding out that most of the music was from an era when he himself was young and had focused only on hard rock & "surfer music", he stated "Wow! I missed that stuff the first time around... Glad you're keeping it alive, Frankie! Thus, were "The 2nd Time Around" and the "bringin' it back, and keepin' it alive" concepts born, and my show began to be heard coast to coast, & around the World, with over 2 million listeners weekly. People just couldn't get enough of a good thing, it seems, and then, other internet Oldies radio stations started popping up after mine...not that I claim exclusive domain, just the huevos to get something started that
didn't leave the classics behind for more modern music and a new kiddie audience .
In early 2004, I was invited by the legendary "Godfather of Tejano Soul" Crazy Chuy Hernandez of Texas's CHICANO EXPRESS RADIO NETWORK and member of the prestigious TEJANO R.O.O.T.S. Hall of Fameto begin taping shows for his station, and in late 2005, I was invited by East L.A. Chicano Music pioneer "Froggy" Camarena to also submit shows to his short lived Q~VO Radio Shows.
In late 2006, in response to a large World wide listening audience's suggestions and problems encountered by overloaded webstreams, I left KCLA FM after 7 years, and Q~VO Radio after 6 months, to move to bigger web server capabilities that were available exclusively only on East L.A. Revue Radio (California) and Chicano Express Radio (Texas), where the clear, digital sound is now even available for downloading, and Internet "drop offs" are almost a thing from the past.
In late 2008, popular L.A. Club DJ Art 'Mr. O.G" Rocha started his own Oldies
Radio Station "The Lost Memories Show" after a brief stint with the East L.A. Revue, inviting me to record & broadcast shows on yet a third world wide Internet radio station, where listeners could hear what most other commercial FM stations that claim
to be "Oldies" stations just don't play... we're talking the rare & hard to find stuff !
I laugh now when I remember the "Oldies DJ's" from some commercial L.A. FM station I once interviewed for who just didn't know the music, and relied on old sales charts, a researcher, and engineers to help them find music put together their "Oldies" shows, which were pretty much standard, and run of the mill stuff I didn't listen to when it was supposedly "top 40". At the time, they attempted to make me feel "out of the loop" and "not with it" for not bowing down to some lame , inexperienced, so called "programming manager" who insisted that Oldies fans in L.A. wanted to hear non-stop Beach Boys, Beatles, Hollies, and Air Supply, with an occassional Motown song thrown in...and NO southwestern Chicano rock & roll bands that have had the reputation for keeping it alive for years! . So I didn't take the job...and they are no longer on the air for lack of an audience!
It is with that in mind that I do what I do, with so many talented artists and fans
supporting me around the World, I don't think I'll ever stop!
THANK YOU ALL! And may the music play forever!!
HEAR THE FINEST CHICANO MUSIC ON:
www.eastLArevue.com ~ ~ everyday ~ www.ChicanoExpress.com ~ ~ weekly ~ www.djchentemrog.com/RADIOSHOW.htm ~ everyday ~ ...by the way, that's the legendary Chris " Lil' Santana" Reserva of the SATISFACTION Band in the above photo, plying his trade at a gig circa 2005-2006. This homie can "chop an axe"!! Probably one of the most talented guitar players in Los Angeles today.
The History Behind My Site
Once my radio show "the 2nd Time Around" became popular on the Internet around 2000, and commercial radio stations ignored the Chicano & Black audience with their take on Oldies, I thought of a webpage where other Oldies lovers could drop by and check out all the 411 I could find on music, books, groups, dances, concerts and other websites without the corny "happy days" commercial spin. I also began promoting Lowrider car shows & dances, and my audience just grew & grew. From 1999 to 2006, I developed an audience made up of listeners from all over the United States, as well as Europe, Japan, Canada and U.S. military personnel from different parts of the World. ...that audience listens faithfully to this day!
The Family of CHICANO MUSIC
As my involvement with music grew, I became priviliged to meet some of the talent of my music world, and have been invited to promote, host, or emcee live shows ( and make friends ) with such greats as Steven Chavez's East L.A. Revue All Star Band, The Coasters, The Satisfaction Band, The Olympics, The Blues Straight Up Band, The Temptations, Tierra, Chico, Nuestro, Rosie & The Originals, Steve & Rudy Salas, Brenton Wood, Soto, Gilbert Esquivel, The Premiers,Cory Silva, Sangria, Malo, Pepe Marquez, Cannibal & The Headhunters, Rocky Padilla, Al Wilson, Joe Bataan, El Chicano, Sapo, The Kool Katz, The Latin Oldies Festival, The Chicano Oldies- Rock n Roll & Blues Show, The Oxnard Annual Salsa Festival, Thee Mr. Duran Show, and Aaron Ballesteros & APB, among others. "Bringing it back, and keeping it alive " has become the theme of my show & commitment to the music of Aztlan, writing all about it in www.LatinoLA.com , and broadcasting it all over the World on Internet radio stations www.eastLArevue.com , www.ChicanoExpress.com, and www.djchentemrog.com/RADIOSHOW.htm ~ whoever said "you can NEVER get enough of a good thing" must have been in love with a BROWN woman and Chicano music!
www.LatinoLA.com
The first, and fastest growing West Coast Web magazine dedicated solely to the Arts, Culture, Education, Entertainment, and Business interests of the Brown side of the greater metropolitan area of Los Angeles, the West Coast, Aztlan, and the World. Established in 1999, Editor Abelardo de la Pena Jr. is given much credit for pionering a previously unheard of undertaking of promoting the lifestyles of the Brown & Proud to the World, outside of American Corporate control & censure, and has inspired many other Latino flavored Internet publications. This website, East L.A. Revue, Lost Memories, & Chicano Express Radio shows, along with the many artists of Aztlan, and a vast ommunity of people of color,owe Mr. Abelardo de la Pena a sincere debt of gratitude!
NOBODY DOES IT BETTER THAN US!
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