San Antonio, South Texas Tejano music fans mourn loss of TV host Johnny Canales

SAN ANTONIO – During the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, music fans across the country tuned in weekly for the greatest showcase of Tejano music anywhere. Johnny Canales, host of the “The Johnny Canales Show,” was the heartbeat of that pioneering showcase.

Fans across San Antonio and South Texas are remembering him for his contributions to Tejano music.

“There were so many groups that he would to invite (to “The Johnny Canales Show”),” Irma Gutierrez, who helps operate Del Bravo Record Shop on the West Side, told KSAT photojournalist Adam B. Higgins. “He wanted them to be exposed.”

Canales was born in Mexico and raised in Robstown. When he returned to the Coastal Bend after serving in the Army, he earned a job as a disc jockey at a Spanish-language station.

Canales’ connection with music fans in South Texas never faded. KRIS, a Corpus Christi television station, was the first station to air Canales’ show for a TV audience. Before Univision began syndicating the show internationally in 1988, Canales taped the show at Brownsville television station KVEO, a 1988 Texas Monthly profile noted.

Canales’ wit was another trademark. He also appeared in several advertisements for Bert Ogden car dealerships located across the Rio Grande Valley.

Canales’ death was announced Thursday morning. He was 77.

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• Legendary Tejano music host Johnny Canales dies at 77