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- Jul 6, 2010
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- Broken beyond repair but highly affable
Bill Arhos was looking for a show to make use of a new studio at Austin, TX public station KLRN (now KLRU) and PBS was looking for new programs from smaller stations. The idea soon came up to pitch a show of live country music from the Texas music scene and Arhos convinced PBS to take a chance and air the pilot with Willie Nelson during the 1975 national pledge campaign.
Thus history was made and the most successful music based program in television history was born. Arhos was the executive producer at the start and from 1982 until 1999, the longest of any to hold that position.
Around 1979 the show expanded it's reach to add indie rock and eventually eclectic and talented artists of many genres, especially Latin music. In a time when some groundbreaking public television shows existed to bring the music world to it's viewers, it outlived all of them. The show created the current highly vibrant Austin music scene out of nearly nothing, making it 'The live music capital of the world' as one of the show's sponsors proclaims weekly.
https://vimeo.com/92351112 Willie Nelson opens show one with 'Whiskey River'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHunNJ9TvSA ACL Hall Of Fame induction clip May 2014
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Thus history was made and the most successful music based program in television history was born. Arhos was the executive producer at the start and from 1982 until 1999, the longest of any to hold that position.
Around 1979 the show expanded it's reach to add indie rock and eventually eclectic and talented artists of many genres, especially Latin music. In a time when some groundbreaking public television shows existed to bring the music world to it's viewers, it outlived all of them. The show created the current highly vibrant Austin music scene out of nearly nothing, making it 'The live music capital of the world' as one of the show's sponsors proclaims weekly.
https://vimeo.com/92351112 Willie Nelson opens show one with 'Whiskey River'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHunNJ9TvSA ACL Hall Of Fame induction clip May 2014
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