Bill Arhos, a frustrated guitarist whose long-running television show, “Austin City Limits,” introduced much of America to the sound of redneck rock and progressive country and prompted Austin, Tex., to proclaim itself the “Live Music Capital of the World,” died on April 11 in suburban Austin. He was 80.

His death, of heart disease, was announced by KLRU, the public television station in Austin, his hometown, which originated the show.

Armed with a pilot featuring Willie Nelson that he produced for $7,000, Mr. Arhos (pronounced AR-hoes) convinced public broadcasting stations in 1975 that the rest of the nation was ready for the emerging home-brewed regional mix of rock and counterculture lyrics by country singer-songwriters, a marked contrast to mainstream Nashville music.

By 2010, “Austin City Limits” had become the longest-running live musical concert show on television, surpassing the Boston Pops’s 34-year record on WGBH. “Bill got it launched as a series, Bill kept it going as a series for 25 or more years,” said Terry Lickona, the show’s current producer and Mr. Arhos’s former colleague. “That was an important part of Bill’s legacy.”