Joe Pollaro & Shelley McBride 

Joe Pollaro and Shelley McBride were honored at Denison’s July 4th Fireworks show on July 4, 2025, for decades of impact on the local and national music scene.  

Joe Pollaro started the Pollaro Media Group in Downtown Denison in the 1970’s. Shelley McBride was playing music at the time, but he slowed down with the gigs and joined Pollaro Media Group (PMG). Both had a musical background growing up in Denison. With PMG, they created commercials, music videos, and shows. They produced the Cruising Club on Electric Avenue right here in Downtown Denison—a dance show similar to American Bandstand.   

Joe and Shelley both wrote jingles for their customers that sounded more like a song than a jingle with Shelley singing many of them. Joe’s brother had accumulated a fleet of vehicles that they used in videos that allowed them to stand out. Joe devised a way to create unique sounds using a microphone.  

Joe sent Shelley to Nashville to attempt to get into the music business. Shelley stayed a month and during that time met the President of Atlantic Records. Returning with one business card, on a whim Joe called Rick Blackburn at Atlantic. Thinking it was his secretary, Rick accidentally answered and Joe talked their way into CMT with Inside Music City. The next day, Joe was on a plane to Nashville. Inside Music City was a news capsule featuring artists in the very early days of CMT. Joe and Shelley went on to produce 35 early country music videos in the 1980’s here in Downtown Denison, in Grayson County, and from their studio at 400 W. Main.  

This ingenuity led them to success as they created RadioVision, a cutting-edge, high-energy advertising agency specializing in full-service marketing nationwide. They were innovators before technology gained momentum.