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The El Paso radio and TV disc jockey made a lasting impact on the city’s music scene and contributed to the mixing of cultures that still makes far west Texas so special. This is an extended interview about an effort to document Crosno’s impact before his death in 2006.
The full transcript of this episode of Texas Standard is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Laura Rice [00:00:00] Hi podcast listeners, this is Laura Rice with a Texas extra extended and special content just for you. A couple of weeks ago on the show, we aired a feature from Texas Standard intern Adam Regalado about the late, great El Paso DJ and television star Steve Crosno. KUT’s Wells Dunbar picks it up from here.
Wells Dunbar [00:00:27] This is Wells Dunbar with the Texas Standard. And you were listening to a Texas standard Web actor. We are talking about a legendary figure in Texas Broadcasting in the studio with me. I have an old pal of mine, Chris Cordova. El Paso native current Austinite and Steve Crosno, enthusiast. And I should note that much of the archival audio you hear in Adams feature about Steve Crosno comes from a recording around the turn of the millennium that Chris made with Steve Krasnow in Las Cruces, right outside of El Paso. So tell us about Steve Krasnow and what drew you to going out to El Paso. When was it in 2000 or 2001 to to interview him?
Chris Cordova [00:01:16] Yeah, it was it was about 2001, I think it was about March. And I was managing a couple of bands. I had I had set up some interviews with Steve via my one of my cousins, Frank Briones. He had a friend, Andrew McGuinness, who’s really good friends with Steve here in Austin. A lot of my friends were in the music scene, a lot of us from El Paso, and we were just talking about growing up in El Paso. But Steve Krasno was always a consistent guy that would always come up in conversation, whether it was his show on B 94, a farm or it was the Studio 14 dance show that he would have on Saturdays. So that was just kind of something in the 80s we all grew up with. Over time, Steve became more of a Sunday deejay cruising. All these kind of deejays. Just finished up an internship with Richard Linklater and, you know, is great being an intern there. But I started thinking of my own projects. I had a degree in history from Saint Ed, so.
Wells Dunbar [00:02:19] Zane Edwards in Austin.
Chris Cordova [00:02:21] Correct. And I, I started thinking about who would be cool to feature, you know, just kind of people you’d want to interview. And we just, you know, reached out to Steve. Luckily, he was really he let us talk to him. He just spent some time with us. He knew when I brought in my digitally, you know, camcorder, he would Ken and a lot of these little tricks. I didn’t have a real background in film, so it was just learning a lot of tricks. And but he would call me big time because he knew I was not a big time filmmaker, but he would be, Hey, big time. You’re back. Big time. Okay, okay. Big time. But that was Steve. He is just a funny guy. And he was Steve was quick with the jokes and he was quicker to the jokes than you ever that I ever was going to be. So, yeah, he was just hilarious.
Wells Dunbar [00:03:11] And so. So taking a step back, I would imagine most folks, if they’re listening to this right now, have an idea of who Steve Krasnow is or at least have heard the report that we’ve put together using some of this archival audio. But if you could describe Steve Krasnow and the sort of sound he helped popularize, how would you do that?
Chris Cordova [00:03:30] We called it the El Paso sound, but a lot of his sound was very R&B 1960s go anywhere from doo wop to kind of like your your Sonny Ozuna and the Sonny in the Salinas type type music. He was he had a real tight relationship with James Brown. And it was over the years we found out he was a pretty prolific like music producer as well. So there are a lot of bands he helped produce over the years, but I would say R&B, a lot of cruising kind of music. He always referenced that, like Art Laboe in L.A. had a similar sound. So Art Laboe is kind of the lowrider DJ of the L.A. area. He had in, as Steve referenced, this East Side Stories were these compilation CD’s albums that got put together. But a lot of the things Steve was putting out in the El Paso area was right up with what Art Laboe was doing in L.A. as well.
Wells Dunbar [00:04:25] And this was approximately the same sort of time period, right?
Chris Cordova [00:04:28] Yeah, same same time period, late 1960s. That’s kind of when Steve really kind of made his name. He he really, you know, just kind of like he would say in some of the interviews, he would hire people right off the street, like people in El Paso knew the El Paso sound. You didn’t have to work it or tweak it, but it was just kind of what was popular that day. But I would always say if you kind of go back to what the classic sounds were on the Sunday show, he would do it with a lot of smile Now Cry later. It was a lot of Duke of Earl. I’m your puppet, some Bretton Woods. And again Burgum. If if you go to El Paso right now on Sundays you have Mike he’s got the Fox Jukebox. And these songs are consistent with, you know, the Crosby sound and what Mike G does really kind of carrying the. Horror of that Lowrider Sound for El Paso. But I listen, I love my guy. I listen to his show as often as I can. He you know, it’s just like seven hours of oldies on Sunday afternoon.
Wells Dunbar [00:05:35] Well, that’s the thing. You know, I was just thinking, when you’re describing this and when he started, it’s like it was arguably oldies at the time, but only removed by a few years. But but this is a career that he had in broadcasting that stretched on for decades going back to the 60s. And then you referenced, what, Studio 14 that that that televised dance show, and that was more of the 80s. So it’s fascinating to think about how I guess his sort of influence evolved, but that that core group of songs kind of came out of that same time period as well.
Chris Cordova [00:06:12] When I talked to El Paso people and I bring up, yeah, I worked on this Steve Krasno project in the 2000s, it just seems like a lot of people have their own point of reference when it comes to Steve because in the 60s, 70s, he had his show, he had his other dance show that was called The Cross, No Hop. So that was one generation of kids. So then it was like in the 80s, he had the Studio 14 show, which was more of the 80s. That was more of your MTV generation. So he really kind of he was really able to go from the American Bandstand generation to the MTV’s, You know, Club, MTV days, but he was making it very modern for the El Paso crowd. And and I would say the big difference between the two was that, you know, in the 80 show, he had a lot he would play a lot more what was popular on MTV at that time, but he also played a lot Latin freestyle. So the Jets, Lisa Leeson cult jam, those got more.
Wells Dunbar [00:07:11] Modern dance music.
Chris Cordova [00:07:12] Yeah, it was it was more real. It was like Latino music for teens at the time. And, you know, Steve would have his show on Saturdays, but they would have like teen clubs on the west side that like these teens were, you know, they had dance crews and that sort of thing. But yeah, that was a whole thing on Sundays that kids were into in the late 80s, early 90s.
Wells Dunbar [00:07:33] So when you caught up with him, he was still and was it 2000 or 2001?
Chris Cordova [00:07:38] I think it was about 2001.
Wells Dunbar [00:07:40] Okay. When you caught up with him, he was still broadcasting. The television show was over. He was still broadcasting, though, but he was in Las Cruces in New Mexico. Right outside of El Paso, correct?
Chris Cordova [00:07:51] Correct. Yeah. He was on this oldies station in Las Cruces at the time. And he had he had his Cruisin with Craziness show at the time. And this was.
Wells Dunbar [00:08:00] Like 4 or 5 hours again, it was like one of these, like, sort of marathon career shows.
Chris Cordova [00:08:06] Yeah, but technically, he wasn’t on air in El Paso. It was technically in Las Cruces. You could still pick up the show. I think it was like 105.3, something like that. But it was called like 105.3 gold. But he was on the air and he had his whole studio in his in his house. But I at the time and I was really, you know, dead focused on working on this documentary. So I would record as many of his cruising with Krasno.
Wells Dunbar [00:08:32] Yes.
Chris Cordova [00:08:33] Shows as much as possible.
Wells Dunbar [00:08:35] And that’s another thing that we haven’t really touched on. You know, earlier you noted how quick he was with a joke or a reference. When we talk about cross and we talk about the music, but you also have to talk about the personality there because, yeah, he was just a jokester, admittedly, a lot of corny jokes, but still, you know, funny, funny ones. And even like the, you know, like these recurring sort of gag segments and stuff like that.
Chris Cordova [00:09:00] He was always known for this one joke, chicken fat and booze. He would just kind of plug that in. He would use he was known for these like really like your mother in law jokes or.
Wells Dunbar [00:09:11] Say hello.
Chris Cordova [00:09:12] Yeah. SAGAL and he was just kind of really know for I would get to say this when I was like fifth, sixth grade. We and he had this be 94 FM show. It was I did like if you’re a middle school kid, it was a deal. It was very sophomoric humor. But it was just.
Wells Dunbar [00:09:36] Yeah. The stuff that makes you laugh.
Chris Cordova [00:09:38] Yeah, you were. You’re a Mexican-American kid in the 80s. He knew how to bridge these corny jokes that, like your parents would say, but he kind of made them still kind of funny that you and your buddies, you know, probably after you know, by the time you started your your musical tastes started maturing a little bit more. It was something you left behind. But I remember 1986 having a big 94 FM button. Everybody loved Krasno. And I would say at that point he was kind of like in that third generation of his career, like that third decade of his career. But we we were still total fans of him. It was kind of something that if you’re a music fan, you listen to the radio all day. Krasno is definitely a bright spot in your morning. He cracked you.
Wells Dunbar [00:10:22] And baked into the DNA Baked in.
Chris Cordova [00:10:25] It’s kind of that real taco style culture, you know, if if it it’s part of Chico’s tacos. It’s part of like, what high school you went to. But it’s really part of that, you know, are you are you from El Paso or are you a long time generational guy here? But it’s just kind of part of the El Paso fabric of kind of very familial, very culture driven. Jim, part of the video, he would say on the streets of Oregon instead of saying Oregon. But he kind of really knew how the El Paso dialect really ran through that ran through the town.
Wells Dunbar [00:11:02] And so that’s a real fascinating thing about him, too, is that he was this Anglo guy in El Paso with an obvious, you know, sort of love and appreciation for the culture and and the artists that it birthed. It’s an interesting dynamic and one that I don’t think folks really explored at the time that it was, you know, this this white guy playing all these songs that resonated so strongly with this Mexican-American audience.
Chris Cordova [00:11:28] He was a deejay of the time where you really got to know your audience. He was deejaying, dances, the violins. He was I understand he would he would deejay a lot of high school dances as well. You know that it wasn’t all about the clubs because kids weren’t at the clubs. They were there at their high school dance. But he was also getting to know these kids from his shows, and he had his regulars. It was kind of like the Corny Collins show in that movie, Hairspray. He was that guy. He was like our own You are. He was like the local Dick Clark for El Paso for for, you know, a couple of generations there.
Wells Dunbar [00:12:04] So when you had a chance to to speak with him, what really when you think back on that mean and goodness it’s been over two decades now what really sort of leaps out at you.
Chris Cordova [00:12:16] We traveled out to his place in like, Old Mesilla and he had his little home studio there. And we you would just look around his home studio. And he had just so many El Paso artifacts throughout his career. He also added his wall of wigs. We have this video of him explaining it, but he was like in an accident. So he had like a scar. He can grow his hair out, so he’d always wear wigs. So, yeah, you’d see him out around town. And he was always known for these, like, wild hair hairstyles. So that was one thing, like to see the wall of wigs across those houses is a huge deal. But you also just we are just so impressed with how open he was about sharing his life in sharing his stories. He was just very frank with us. We were trying to get some more insight, just try to find out who, which artists he really liked. And he said he was more into jazz. Frank Sinatra growing up, which we were really surprised about because this guy introduced so many generations to rock and roll. With that, he would reference way more rock. But, you know, his music tastes were a little bit more chilled. And then we had imagined, but now he was just super cool with us. He had like a couple of his staff people that worked with them that were there while we were there, and they just said, Yeah, Steve’s just very laid back. He’s used just very calm. He kind of really knew where his jokes were and he would really kind of amp up the comedy. He was big on comedy, timing and kind of what recordings worked with his act or kind of what what zingers he was trying to get in. I think another big point was he also loved to hear from the Collins and when people would make the dedications or I want to dedicate this one to my wife, I wanted to dedicate this one to my family or to my high school class. He gave time to a lot of people who wanted to shout out something. He didn’t have the opportunity. Facebook was available back then. So yeah, you could call it the radio. You get your message known on the radio. Happy birthday. Happy anniversary. And it was a big deal. You got the whole city to hear it.
Wells Dunbar [00:14:19] I don’t want to say this was sort of at the ebb of his career, but he had done a whole lot prior to this point. And he did speak to, I think, as you were saying, in pretty unvarnished terms, you know, talking about sort of issues he had had with like, you know, programing directors and things like that in the past and emphasizing, you know, that his success was directly attributable to listening to the audience and responding to them and playing the music that they wanted to hear. So he does come across as pretty unguarded in a lot of those conversations. Could you talk some about where he went after your conversation if he stayed on the air in Caruso’s or if he went to another market, or was that the conclusion of it?
Chris Cordova [00:15:04] He probably only lived another ten years after we recorded that. And it just kind of seemed like his health was dwindling just just over time. We were trying to get in contact with them. It was just kind of a little harder. I think that he just kind of had some. Health issues going on. So I think he was more anxious about being filmed. There were some. Some folks did film them towards the end of his life. But I think his that last cruise, this show was his final show he had.
Wells Dunbar [00:15:35] When you look back at those tapes or listen to them, are there any other sort of avenues that you wanted to talk to or questions that you think about? And you’re like, dang, I wish I had a chance to to talk to him about that.
Chris Cordova [00:15:48] It was really hard to think of it in those terms because I just wanted to be respectful of what he wanted to share. I didn’t want to go any further. I think since the 20 years I’ve just gotten to know more about him as, as more a kind of like bringing El Paso shows into bringing different musical acts to the El Paso area. His involvement with that, what that was like, just working with bands he produced, working with just it was always interesting why his story about how he went to San Diego didn’t like it and why he came back to El Paso. He was really committed to the area. He was really committed to the the youth of of the area as well. So we talk a lot about figures of the El Paso scene. I went to that exhibit they have right now at the History Museum in El Paso music. There wasn’t as much I was expecting a lot more on Krasno. But, you know, there are these folks like him and I think more in the 80s, 90s, like Joe Dorgan that were really crucial in bringing bands to the area, bringing just kind of just creating a space for young people to have a good time and being, you know, Paso is really interesting place to grow up on the border being this cross-cultural area. So, yeah, as time goes on, I really admire what he did more and more, and especially the more people I get to know from El Paso, they all kind of have these really positive experiences with this radio show.
Wells Dunbar [00:17:21] We’ve been talking with Chris Cord of El Paso when Austinite and one of the folks behind the Chico Life account on Instagram. That’s the underscore Tuco underscore life on Instagram where you can find memes and exciting stuff about all things El Paso. And we’ve been talking about Steve Krasno. Thanks for your time.
Chris Cordova [00:17:41] I appreciate it. Well, it a pleasure talking to you.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
