Legendary Tejano music host Johnny Canales is reportedly ‘gravely sick’

SAN ANTONIO – Johnny Canales, a titan of Tejano music, is reportedly battling health problems.

The report was shared on social media by several Facebook pages with large followings, including the Corpus Christi Crónica and KXTQ-FM, a popular Tejano music station in Lubbock.

In response to the report, friends and fans shared their well wishes and prayers for Canales on social media.

Canales, 76, was born in Mexico before his family moved to Robstown, which is approximately 20 miles west of Corpus Christi. When he was old enough, Canales went to Germany to serve in the Army during the 1960s.

When Canales returned to the Coastal Bend, he earned a job as a disc jockey at a Spanish-language radio station while also starting his own band called “Johnny Canales y su Orchestra.”

Canales became the host of the eponymous “The Johnny Canales Show,” a half-hour Tejano music-centric television variety show that began airing on KRIS, a Corpus Christi TV station, in 1983. His friendly “You got it, take it away” morphed from a shorthand transition to an unforgettable catchphrase.

A combination of Canales’ personality, compelling Tejano artists and an appetite for live music on television sent the “The Johnny Canales Show” into the stratosphere.

Canales and the performers primarily spoke Spanish on the show, which broadened its appeal to music fans in more places. Half-hour episodes became hour-long episodes. The show soon became syndicated in more Texas markets like Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio before the show’s popularity stretched beyond Texas. Univision picked up “The Johnny Canales Show” in 1988, taking the show from its U.S. beginnings and making it international.

Tejano artists who graced the show’s stage include the Texas Tornados, Little Joe and La Mafia as well as a teenage Selena Quintanilla performing as Selena y Los Dinos in 1985.

The show continued airing on Univision before Canales decided to move the show to Telemundo in 1996. Its run on Telemundo stretched into the 21st century, but the network canceled the show in 2005.

Canales and his wife, Nora, launched another show called “El Nuevo Show de Johnny y Nora Canales” in 2010, according to a news release. Canales was later honored for his contributions to pop culture with a formal induction on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars in 2016.

On the “El Show de Johnny y Nora Canales” Facebook page, Johnny Canales has not appeared on the page since a March 24 Facebook Live with his wife.

While the extent of any new health problems was not made public, Canales’ wife said Canales had been dealing with complications connected to a stroke he suffered in 2008, the Corpus Christi Crónica said in its Facebook post.