On pages 161 and 162 in On the Road, Dean, Sal, and company are driving through Clint, Texas. Dean tunes the radio to the Clint station, where "every fifteen minutes they played a record; the rest of the time it was commercials about a high-school correspondence course" (p. 161). Dean tells the car that they beam the station all over the West, and that everyone would write to the correspondence course. It gives people who pass the test the equivalent of a high school diploma. "All the young wranglers in the West, I don't care who, at one time or another write in for this; it's all they hear," Dean says. "They have a tremendous beam; they've got the whole land hogtied." (p. 162).
Clint, Texas is vital to On the Road because it gives a better sense of what Dean really wants for the country. Dean loves Clint, Texas, even though he thinks that the music they play is "absolutely the worst program in the entire history of the country" (p. 162). "You tune the radio in Sterling, Colorado, Lusk, Wyoming, I don't care where, you get Clint, Texas, Clint, Texas" (p. 162). You can get it anywhere, and it unites the country in a bizarre way. Nearly everyone has the ability to listen to this radio station, and many people take advantage of the course that's offered.
Clint, although it seems like a tiny, insignificant town, has made itself into a Mecca just by having a big radio transmitter and a mail correspondence class. In a twisted fashion, Clint is a town that is living the American dream. They are famous, nationally known, although merely because they have something really big and powerful. If Dean is telling the truth about everyone taking the Clint correspondence course, the town is fairly financially secure as well. Clint is seemingly successful and well known. What more could one ask for?.