Refreso en Bolsa by Bety ... written by Lui

I really miss los Refrescos en Bolsa... they are teh best thing in the world. Imagine this, a soda in a clear plastic bag with a straw, just amazing! and nobody makes Refrescos en Bolsas like Don Manuel.

Radio Alegria – Lui

I find Pandora Radio to be one of the greatest internet inventions, think about it… you tell it what you like, Enrique Bunbury, Michael Buble, Zumba, Selena and it produces a huge range of music that based on the selections, based on the tones, sounds, voice ranges… just incredible!! Plus is mostly commercial free and it lets you skip up to 10 songs per hour. No, I’m not being paid by Pandora Radio to be saying this, but maybe I should look into this…. Anyway, Pandora gave me a great gift the other day, it played Vicente Fernandez. It sounds silly I realize this, but the music of Vicente Fernandez reminded me of my favorite radio station growing up, Radio Alegria Canal 1100.

Radio Alegria is the Radiofusora from Moroleon Guanajuato; the next town from Yuriria. They played a somewhat wide range of music, and had a little bit for all tastes of music and different moods for throughout the day. I still remember most of the programming, years of listening to the station help me remember.

6:00-7:00 – Psychic line. People would send in letters and ask the psychic to help them figure out if they were making the right decisions on their lives.

7:00- 8:00- Amanecer Mexicano: First song they would play every day, every single day, Las Mañanitas; which is the traditional Mexican Birthday song. It always came with a Dedicatoria, meaning people had sent in letter or call in to request the song be dedicated to a certain person. Las Mañanitas would be dedicated to people with Birthdays or dias de Santo. Then most of the songs for that hour were traditional Mexican music, Vicente Fernandez, Los Tigres de Norte, Banda el Recodo, Alejandro Fernandez.

8:00- 9:00 – Horoscopos y Musica Pop. I still remember my Horoscope would be read at around 8:25 and for a whole month in 1993 they would also play a song by my favorite singer at the time Bibi Gaytan,  Manzana Verde.

9:00- 10:00 Noticias y Comentarios. This one is a bit more blurry in my memory since I was in school at this time or would turn off the radio to go do chores.

10:00- 11:00: Nothing memorable

11:00- 12:00 : Vicente Fernandez y Amigos. Aaahhhh!! All time favorite. How awesome does one have to be to get a radio show for 1 whole hour!!! They would alternate one Vicente Fernandez song, one of somebody else from the wide selection of Mexican Mariachi singers. I would always hope they would play one of my favorite Vicente Fernandez songs, Por Tu Maldito Amor y Aunque Mal Paguen Ellas.

12:00- 1:00: Telefono Directo- The complaint hotline. People from the town would call and complain about trash not being picked up, about their neighbors, about things that the borough had not taken care of… it was wildly entertaining!

1:00- 3:00:  Musica Grupera- Around 1990 Musica Grupera became very popular with new Grupos, like Grupo Liberacion, Grupo Libra, Grupo Ilucion. Grupos were bands of 4-5 men who sang romantic music. I was into Musica Grupera for about a year around 1990… Selena would play on this hour, and she was one of my favorites, for obvious reasons… Feisty female singer in an industry where only men were successful.

3:00- 6:00 : Regular programming, which was mostly pop music.

6:00- 7:00 : Hora de Banda. Traditional Banda music, like El Recodo, Banda Limon, Banda Maguey, Joan Sebastian. I didn’t’ listen to this one as much, TV took over.

7:00- 8:00- Las viejitas de ayer- Oldies but goodies, at the time they played music from the 70s, 60s and I loved it .

8:00- 9:00 – Musica tropical- Mostly cumbia, to my misfortune I didn’t really start listening to Cumbia until I moved to PA.

Couple other things that I remember about the radio station was that most of the Radio Locutores were men, and they sounded so very handsome… who knows, most likely they looked like dogs! But I still had a voice crush on them. When I lived in Mexico Radio Alegria was not very friendly on playing music that was sang in English, or Rock. I got my Rock music and English music from another Radio station as I tried to find myself.

Pandora Radio doesn’t compare to my Radio Alegria, which will hold a special place on my memories of music for the rest of my life.