Merle Haggard Story

By John Wesley Karson

John Wesley Karson grew up in Texas in the 1960’s and 70’s and was a fan of the country music scene thriving in Austin and Houston. He first began working in radio as a teenager at KPFT in Houston, a listener supported radio station which featured many of the outlaw country artists of that time. He worked on a volunteer basis at first, cleaning up around the station, emptying trash and taking every opportunity afforded him to learn the technical aspects of running the stations equipment. Eventually he was asked to operate the control board for Jerry Jeff Walker one night when he was guest hosting a radio show. It was at that point John was hooked and he knew his future would be in broadcasting. After 45 years in the broadcasting business, working as a commercial radio disc jockey and talk show host, John Wesley Karson retired in Bakersfield in 2020. When his friend Danny Hill bought KVLI radio in Lake Isabella, California in 2021 and launched Outlaw Country Radio 103.7FM, he asked John if he would like to host a weekend show. He gave John Wesley complete creative control over the shows content and John created “The Icons of Outlaw Country”. “It’s a complete labor of love,” John said, “This is the music I grew up listening to in Texas and I just want to share it with people as a way of honoring the contributions these great artist’s made to the world.” “It’s a celebration of the individual, over the collective and the rights as free and sovereign men and women to create what first and foremost pleased them, not some record company executive occupying space in an office building in lower Manhattan or West Los Angeles. “The right of the artist to demand control of their own destiny and their own intellectual property is a sacred right and only when the artist is able to achieve this is the artist truly free to create. Music is practically the only art form where the rights of the artist are superseded by some corporate weasel in a suit and tie sipping decaf lattes from the back of a limo. “As Ayn Rand put it, a 'Right'…means freedom from compulsion, coercion or interference by other men and that applies to record companies and producers as well as governments.” John Wesley Karson had a front row seat long before the term “Outlaw Country” was even used to describe what was known at that time as the “Cosmic Cowboy” revolution. John’s radio career spanned over four decades and each week he shares music and insight into these icons of country music, taking his listeners on a two hour sonic journey through the past and into the present state of the world of country music from his studios in Bakersfield, California.