Tejano lovers say it's not just music, it's a way of life. That's why Letty and Martin Yanez insisted a DJ play Tejano music at their wedding. The couple was married Sunday in Southeast Austin.
"It makes you happy. It makes you smile. When you're dancing, it just brings out the happiness," Letty said.
But special events like weddings are the few places you can still hear Tejano music in Austin.
Tejano, or "Tex-Mex" became popular in the 1950s and is distinctly Texan, influenced by Mexican and American pop music. It differs from Norteño music, a genre of Mexican music that station programmers say is more popular in the immigrant community.
Seven radio stations used to play Tejano music. That was before Border Media Partners and Univision bought them out.
Now the only remaining Tejano is broadcast Sunday nights on KINV 107.7 FM. According to Arbitron, the show has the highest rating in its time slot.
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Tejano music
The Austin Tejano Music Coalition is trying to get it back on the radio.
 
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"They got bought out by some people called BMP. And since they owned it, they decided not to play Tejano music," trumpet player Albert “Skeeter” Amezquita said. "It's like taking candy away from a child. It's all we had."
Skeeter's been playing music since 1970. Back in the day, one could hear it all over Austin's airwaves.
"When you have the drums and the keyboards, it's beautiful. It makes you want to get up and dance," he said.
Nowadays, it's confined to record stores. But even there, it's flying off the shelves.
"The CD sales are going up," 107.7 FM DJ Chris Tristan said.
Since Tristan's show is rated number one in its time slot, fans say that's proof Tejano music is thriving. It's estimated there are more than 200,000 Mexican-Americans living in Central Texas.
Radio executives say the programming change was just business. They say the growing number of immigrants want music from Mexico, not the Texas-bred Tejano.
But Tejano lovers say the sales figures speak for themselves.
"The majority of Hispanics in Texas are Tejanos. We've been here four, five, six generations," Gonzalo Barrientos, a former state senator who is now of the Austin Tejano Music Coalition said.
Barrientos' coalition is trying to bring more attention to the lack of Tejano music on Austin's radio stations, and to try to convince the stations to bring it back.
