The Monitor from McAllen, Texas • 45

THE MONITOR rrt AS1'' 7v: j. 'TlCTOfY ft .,,1 1 I i tin i. -W( bai 93( 19 -da 8 ia; 9fg (be 4 5 it i i I ft' i -iT I' CMcia lopnTh Monitor Hit hands weath ered by hard work, fingernailf crusted with flour, Joiui Gonzales (abovo and right), in front of his McAllon homo and business, caressos an old violin ho purchased in Moxico. TO CMcio lopaiTht Monitor With iii -Je- 13V 910 no -nu 300' ad) bsi- '-n is i i poT i twi. i q3 Oi!) BIS 'fiv ecv rJr f.i: eud Jrfg iui -iq spiiiisi 1 sO? JlkfMl (1 0 Composer, poet, tortilla maker waxes philosophical (Mi By VILMA MALDONADO and EVA MAZA The Monitor 7 7 arly in life, Don Jesus Gonzales was a panhandler on the streets of Tampico, Mexico, singing to passers-by, hoping to draw their attention and their pesos.

God to give me strength: 'I can't take these beatings So I ran to another hacienda (homestead) close by," Gonzales said. He explained his situation to the owner, who allowed him to stay on. He lived there six years, and was paid one peso each month for working on the ranch. The owner soon accepted him into his own family. 'The day he told me this, I felt as Mr.

Alvaro Loera once said in his rough but witty way I felt 'que el sol se paraba en ese momento para iluminar la voluntad de este senor con su corazon tan grande (as if the sun were rising at that moment, to give its blessing to the wishes of this man with his enormous More than 59 years have passed since that moment, but Gonzales See COMPOSER page 2C musicians. And always, he keeps the memories burning. "This is the story of my life," Gonzales says, as his eyes, mottled with age and hardship, well with tears. Eorn in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico, Gonzales knew tragedy at a tender age. His mother died when he was 7 years old.

Soon after, his father sent him to live with an aunt and uncle, separating Gonzales from his only brother. There, the tribulations began. His duties included caring for more than 500 sheep. If a sheep disappeared, Gonzales was severely disciplined. The beatings continued for five years.

His voice trembles as he recounts the details of his escape from the former home he now refers to as his Calvary. "One day, at 12 years old, I asked Today, at 76 and with no formal education (by his own admission he reads and writes poorly), Gonzales documents those recollections in poetry and song, using memory as a lone but "'powerful tool to express life's regrets, drawing consolation from melody and rhyme. He lives and works in McAllen now, and he no longer has to panhandle for a living. He and his wife of 40 years, 8rPorfiria, make and sell flour tortillas in ioia little shop on 21st Street. He also e-it composes music which has, from time to time, been recorded by loal Tejano Dckio lopuTh Monitor Porfirio Gonxalos provides tho TLC, trimming tho tortillas with scissors to make thorn perfectly round.

-in. -91 Ratings reveal the shifting sands of Valley radio from rock to contemporary. Valley's largest Hispanic major players in Valley By AVREL SEALE Monitor Features Writer When people who work in raaio lain atxiut uie uwn, Al rt fVlO I' Bible tnougn wey ireai meir Report. THE BOOK The Birch Report is 282 pages of statistics based on a survey of 1,655 Valley listeners in the "McAllenBrownsville" market, which is ranked 78th in the country. It reports on so Analysis many target demographics and time-slots that virtually every radio station can claim to be "number one" to some group at some time of the day.

This incredibly complex analysis is to the advantage of the stations that subscribe to ratings services, because they can highlight those statistics to -re prospective advertisers. KRGY (99.5 FM) has gone from 4.2 this time last year to 17.9. KTEX has increased its teen audience as well from 13.9 to 19.2, robbing KBFM of its mainstay all the while. Spanish-language KIWW (96.1 FM) comes in at 8.5 and has shown steady growth since its yearly low of 4.8 in the summer of 1990. KELT (94.5 FM) registers a 7.3 rating with it's adult contemporary format, approximately where it was a year ago after being as high as 9.1 and as low as, 4.8 for the year.

After dipping to 3.6 in the summer of 1990, KRIX bounced back as KRGY and currently has a 6.5 overall. See RADIO page 4C station, comes in with 10.3, but it moves into second place across the board when teenagers are not counted. Together, the "Big Three" of Valley radio capture nearly half of all listeners, with 44.3 percent. KGBT is in second place in all categories except teens, in which is registers a mere .6 percent for the quarter, while KBFM carries a whopping 34.6 percent. Impressive as KBFM numbers might sound, the station appears to be in sharp decline.

One year ago it ruled the teen market with an iron fist, dominating an incredible 75 percent of teen listeners between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. One reason for KBFM's recent slippage is the change of KRIX to KRGY its format commercial radio reside in this group. WHO'S WINNING? KTEX (100 FM), the Valley's only 100,000 watt country station, is at the top of the heap in a wide swath of categories. In the widest of all categories persons 12 years and up, Monday through Sunday, 6 a.m.

to midnight, KTEX boasts a convincing 21.6 percent of listeners. It must be called the undisputed winner of the spring's ratings war. The next highest spot in this, the broadest of all categories, belongs to KBFM-104, the Valley's long-time CHR or contemporary hit radio station. The spring of 1991 showed B-104 with a 12.4 rating. KGBT (1530 AM), the VALLEY RADIO ROSTER Birch studies 25 stations in what it calls a two-county market.

Of those, eight stations are listed as Hispanic, three as contemporary, three are simulcasts of other stations, two country, two oldies, two news talkinfo, one adult contemporary, one easy listening, one public Hispanic, one public inspirational and one contemporary Christian. Two of the 25 originate outside of the market KTRH (740 AM) of Houston and XHRY (90.1 FM) of Reynosa, both capturing less than one percent of the audience in the widest category of measurement. Eight Valley stations operate at 100,000 watts, the highest wattage available. Most of the "book with I reverence TheyV" speaking ot ratings books, quarterly report put out 0 by se-eral companies. Arbitron Birch are to radio what the famed Nielsen ratings are to television.

The study for the Spring quarter of 1991 was completed at May's end and makes an interesting overview of the "'ever-changing business of radio in the Valley. All of the following data was obtained from the Birch Scarborogh Research rvimnmfinn. Soring 1991 -1.