Border blaster
Encyclopedia
A border blaster is a licensed commercial radio station
that transmits at very high power from one nation to another. Border blasters should not be confused with international broadcast stations. (However this term does not only apply to licensed stations, though that may be where the phrase originates: For example in Ireland, during the 1990s and 2000s border busters/blasters was a phrase used to refer to pirate FM stations setting up on high ground in the Irish Republic
with medium powered transmitters (100 W+) to enable them to transmit into Northern Ireland
where the UK governing body (OfCom
) has jurisdiction. The laws in the Republic at the time were more relaxed than in Northern Ireland.)
The term is perhaps most widely used in the United States of America to describe radio stations broadcasting from various Mexican
cities near the border.
With broadcasting signals far more powerful than U.S. stations, the Mexican border blasters could be heard over large areas of the U.S. from the 1940s to the 1970s, often to the great irritation of American radio stations, whose signals could be overpowered by their Mexican counterparts. These are also sometimes referred to as X Stations for their call letters: Mexican stations are assigned callsigns beginning with XE or XH, whereas American stations begin with the letters W or K and Canadian stations with C, or VO (in Newfoundland and Labrador
only.)
On November 9, 1972 in Washington, D.C., the United States and Mexico signed an "Agreement Concerning Frequency Modulation Broadcasting in the 87.5 to 108 MHz Band". Since then, in the FM band power levels and frequency assignments have been set by mutual agreement between the two countries. AM radio
border blasters still exist, though they are largely ignored due to the decline of AM radio in the U.S. There are several such stations licensed by Mexico's Secretary of Communications and Transport using transmitters with an effective radiated power
similar to those of major licensed commercial stations located within the USA.
In 1973 the border blaster XERB became world famous when George Lucas
featured the station as the source for the musical soundtrack of his motion picture American Graffiti
.
stations which broadcast illegally, border blasters are licensed by the government upon whose soil they are located. Pirate radio stations are freebooters from offshore, outside the territorial waters
of the nation they serve, or ones that are illegally operating in defiance of national law within its sovereign territory.
A similar situation developed in Europe, beginning with Radio Luxembourg
after World War II. The British
government identified these stations as pirates because the Sunday broadcast was reserved for British listeners (deliberately coinciding with the BBC Sundays of religious programmes). The broadcasts were considered illegal on British soil as these stations were breaking the monopoly of the non-commercial BBC
. Listening to the broadcasts was technically a violation of UK radio-license laws of the day. The same radio périphérique, or "peripheric radio", phenomenon existed in France
from the 1930s until the legalization of private broadcasting in the early 1980s, which allowed Radio Luxembourg
from Luxembourg
, Radio Andorre and Sud Radio from Andorra
, Radio Monte Carlo from Monaco
, and Europe 1 from Saarland
, Germany
to begin legally broadcasting signals across international borders.
In Mexico and the US, while the federal government of the US did not particularly like them, the stations were allowed to flourish. W. Lee O'Daniel
used a border blaster in his successful campaign for governor. The US, unlike the UK, has never required a license to listen to broadcast radio or television. The only restriction placed upon border-blasters was a law which prohibited studios in the US from linking by telephone to border-blaster transmitters in Mexico. This law, part of the Brinkley Act
, was introduced in the wake of John R. Brinkley
's flirtation with fascism
prior to WWII on XERA. The Brinkley Act remains on the books in the US, but licenses under that act are now routinely granted as long as the station follows applicable US and Mexican regulations.
The British government created a similar measure after WWII, the state-owned telephone monopoly prevented studios in Britain from linking by telephone to the transmitters of Radio Luxembourg. These restrictions were mostly lifted following the privatisation and demonopolisation of the UK telephone system.
Signals of many US and Canadian radio, and to a lesser extent television, stations cross over into neighboring territory. These stations are usually not considered "border blasters" as the programming is not primarily targeted at listeners and viewers on the other side of the border. US and Canadian stations have always adhered to similar maximum power levels and the overspill is regarded as unintentional and largely unavoidable. One possible exception to that overall rule was CKLW
in Windsor, Ontario
, across the river from Detroit. While licensed as a normal Class II-B station and always operating in full compliance with the technical specifications and operating rules of its CRTC license, CKLW's 50,000 watt directional signal blanketed much of Michigan
and northern Ohio
east to Cleveland. American-owned until 1970 as part of the RKO General
chain (along with such other top 40 powerhouses as KHJ
in Los Angeles
and KFRC
in San Francisco) it functioned essentially as a Detroit-market station during the 1960s and 1970s. Its Motown-flavored personality top 40 format made it one of the most highly-rated stations in the Midwestern US. The decline of AM radio as a music source in the 1970s, combined with new Canadian government rules imposing minimum domestic music content
, made it difficult for CKLW to continue to compete for listeners with Detroit-based, US-licensed FM music stations which offered clean stereo sound and faced no program content or music playlist restrictions. So CKLW abandoned top-40 and largely abandoned its efforts to compete in the Detroit market in the 80s, and today is a news/talk station aimed specifically at an Ontario audience, though still containing a significant amount of American syndicated talk. According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the regulatory body for Canadian broadcasting, it is illegal to operate a station licensed in Canada from studios in the US; CKEY-FM
in Fort Erie, Ontario
learned this when it attempted to offshore its operations to American-based Citadel Broadcasting
's studios across the Niagara River
in Buffalo, New York
, and almost had its license revoked because of it. CKEY remains on the air, targeting solely the Niagara Region and no longer targeting Western New York
.
The mythology surrounding the history of the border blaster stations in Mexico is extensive with examples being the 1975 ZZ Top
song "Heard It on the X
", "Mexican Radio
" by Wall of Voodoo
, and "Border Radio
" by The Blasters
.
As was the case between the 1930s and the 1970s, some border blaster stations in areas near larger American border cities such as San Diego are leased out by American broadcasting companies and air English-language programming targeting American audiences, although the AM stations have sometimes been supplanted by FM signals just over the border and able to reach major American cities like San Diego or El Paso with city-grade signals. During those decades border radio was used by preachers who solicited donations, and advertisers who sold products of dubious value. The American side leases the station from the Mexican station owners/license holders and feeds programming from their American studios to the Mexican transmitters via satellite.
Due to Mexican government regulations, these stations, like all radio stations in Mexico, must air La Hora Nacional a/k/a The Mexican National Hour on Sunday evenings (usually 8pm or 10pm, depending on where the station is located) and "Himno Nacional Mexicano
" (The Mexican National Anthem) at midnight and 5am. In addition, they must also give station identification in Spanish. This is usually done softly or during commercial breaks so the listeners on the American side won't usually notice it.
Tijuana
Nogales
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Acuña
Piedras Negras
Monterrey
Nuevo Laredo
XEXO-AM moved to Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas power adjusted to 5 kW Day/500W Night
Reynosa
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
that transmits at very high power from one nation to another. Border blasters should not be confused with international broadcast stations. (However this term does not only apply to licensed stations, though that may be where the phrase originates: For example in Ireland, during the 1990s and 2000s border busters/blasters was a phrase used to refer to pirate FM stations setting up on high ground in the Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
with medium powered transmitters (100 W+) to enable them to transmit into Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
where the UK governing body (OfCom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
) has jurisdiction. The laws in the Republic at the time were more relaxed than in Northern Ireland.)
The term is perhaps most widely used in the United States of America to describe radio stations broadcasting from various Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
cities near the border.
With broadcasting signals far more powerful than U.S. stations, the Mexican border blasters could be heard over large areas of the U.S. from the 1940s to the 1970s, often to the great irritation of American radio stations, whose signals could be overpowered by their Mexican counterparts. These are also sometimes referred to as X Stations for their call letters: Mexican stations are assigned callsigns beginning with XE or XH, whereas American stations begin with the letters W or K and Canadian stations with C, or VO (in Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
only.)
On November 9, 1972 in Washington, D.C., the United States and Mexico signed an "Agreement Concerning Frequency Modulation Broadcasting in the 87.5 to 108 MHz Band". Since then, in the FM band power levels and frequency assignments have been set by mutual agreement between the two countries. AM radio
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
border blasters still exist, though they are largely ignored due to the decline of AM radio in the U.S. There are several such stations licensed by Mexico's Secretary of Communications and Transport using transmitters with an effective radiated power
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...
similar to those of major licensed commercial stations located within the USA.
In 1973 the border blaster XERB became world famous when George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
featured the station as the source for the musical soundtrack of his motion picture American Graffiti
American Graffiti
American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
.
Background
In contrast to pirate radioPirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
stations which broadcast illegally, border blasters are licensed by the government upon whose soil they are located. Pirate radio stations are freebooters from offshore, outside the territorial waters
Territorial waters
Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...
of the nation they serve, or ones that are illegally operating in defiance of national law within its sovereign territory.
A similar situation developed in Europe, beginning with Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (English)
Radio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
after World War II. The British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
government identified these stations as pirates because the Sunday broadcast was reserved for British listeners (deliberately coinciding with the BBC Sundays of religious programmes). The broadcasts were considered illegal on British soil as these stations were breaking the monopoly of the non-commercial BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. Listening to the broadcasts was technically a violation of UK radio-license laws of the day. The same radio périphérique, or "peripheric radio", phenomenon existed in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
from the 1930s until the legalization of private broadcasting in the early 1980s, which allowed Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (French)
Radio Luxembourg - 1933-1939 and 1951- is the name of a Long Wave commercial radio station that began broadcasting from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 1933 as a daytime and evening service in the French language from Monday to Saturday and until 12 Noon on Sundays.The station closed down at the...
from Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, Radio Andorre and Sud Radio from Andorra
Andorra
Andorra , officially the Principality of Andorra , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, , is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of...
, Radio Monte Carlo from Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
, and Europe 1 from Saarland
Saarland
Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to begin legally broadcasting signals across international borders.
In Mexico and the US, while the federal government of the US did not particularly like them, the stations were allowed to flourish. W. Lee O'Daniel
W. Lee O'Daniel
Wilbert Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, , was a conservative Democratic Party politician from Texas, who came to prominence by hosting a popular radio program. Known for his populist appeal, Pappy O'Daniel was the governor of Texas and later its junior U.S. Senator. He is also the only person ever to have...
used a border blaster in his successful campaign for governor. The US, unlike the UK, has never required a license to listen to broadcast radio or television. The only restriction placed upon border-blasters was a law which prohibited studios in the US from linking by telephone to border-blaster transmitters in Mexico. This law, part of the Brinkley Act
Brinkley Act
The Brinkley Act is the popular name given to . This provision was enacted by the United States Congress to prohibit broadcasting studios in the U.S. from being connected by live telephone line or other means to a transmitter located in Mexico.Prior to World War II, Dr. John R...
, was introduced in the wake of John R. Brinkley
John R. Brinkley
John Romulus Brinkley was a controversial American medical doctor who experimented with xenotransplantation of goat glands into humans as a means of curing male impotence in clinics across several states, and an advertising and radio pioneer who began the era of Mexican border blaster radio...
's flirtation with fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
prior to WWII on XERA. The Brinkley Act remains on the books in the US, but licenses under that act are now routinely granted as long as the station follows applicable US and Mexican regulations.
The British government created a similar measure after WWII, the state-owned telephone monopoly prevented studios in Britain from linking by telephone to the transmitters of Radio Luxembourg. These restrictions were mostly lifted following the privatisation and demonopolisation of the UK telephone system.
Signals of many US and Canadian radio, and to a lesser extent television, stations cross over into neighboring territory. These stations are usually not considered "border blasters" as the programming is not primarily targeted at listeners and viewers on the other side of the border. US and Canadian stations have always adhered to similar maximum power levels and the overspill is regarded as unintentional and largely unavoidable. One possible exception to that overall rule was CKLW
CKLW
CKLW is a 50,000 watt AM radio station broadcasting on 800 kHz and located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and serving Windsor and Detroit. Additionally, its signal can be heard as far west as Belding, Michigan; as far east as Batavia, New York; as far south as Edgewood, Kentucky; and as far...
in Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
, across the river from Detroit. While licensed as a normal Class II-B station and always operating in full compliance with the technical specifications and operating rules of its CRTC license, CKLW's 50,000 watt directional signal blanketed much of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
and northern Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
east to Cleveland. American-owned until 1970 as part of the RKO General
RKO General
RKO General was the main holding company through 1991 for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganization in the 1980s, GenCorp. The business was based around the consolidation of its parent company's broadcasting interests, dating to 1943, and...
chain (along with such other top 40 powerhouses as KHJ
KHJ (AM)
KHJ Radio in Los Angeles, California broadcasts Spanish-language entertainment programming as La Ranchera. It was also one of America's most formidable Top 40 radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s as 93 KHJ before changing its format in 1980....
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and KFRC
KFRC
KFRC may refer to:* KFRC-FM, a radio station carrying a simulcast of KCBS and licensed to San Francisco, California, United States* KZDG, a radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, which used the call sign KFRC from January 2009 to August 2011* KFRC , a radio station ...
in San Francisco) it functioned essentially as a Detroit-market station during the 1960s and 1970s. Its Motown-flavored personality top 40 format made it one of the most highly-rated stations in the Midwestern US. The decline of AM radio as a music source in the 1970s, combined with new Canadian government rules imposing minimum domestic music content
Canadian content
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
, made it difficult for CKLW to continue to compete for listeners with Detroit-based, US-licensed FM music stations which offered clean stereo sound and faced no program content or music playlist restrictions. So CKLW abandoned top-40 and largely abandoned its efforts to compete in the Detroit market in the 80s, and today is a news/talk station aimed specifically at an Ontario audience, though still containing a significant amount of American syndicated talk. According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the regulatory body for Canadian broadcasting, it is illegal to operate a station licensed in Canada from studios in the US; CKEY-FM
CKEY-FM
This article is about the FM station in Fort Erie, ON. For the former Toronto AM station see CHKT.CKEY-FM is a Canadian radio station that serves the Buffalo Area, broadcasting at 101.1 FM in Fort Erie, Ontario. The station broadcasts a Contemporary Hit Radio format under branding Z101...
in Fort Erie, Ontario
Fort Erie, Ontario
Fort Erie is a town on the Niagara River in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly across the river from Buffalo, New York....
learned this when it attempted to offshore its operations to American-based Citadel Broadcasting
Citadel Broadcasting
Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was a Las Vegas, Nevada-based broadcast holding company. Citadel owned 243 radio stations across the United States and was the third-largest radio station owner in the country...
's studios across the Niagara River
Niagara River
The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada and New York State in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the river...
in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, and almost had its license revoked because of it. CKEY remains on the air, targeting solely the Niagara Region and no longer targeting Western New York
Western New York
Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. Some historians, scholars and others...
.
The mythology surrounding the history of the border blaster stations in Mexico is extensive with examples being the 1975 ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...
song "Heard It on the X
Fandango!
Fandango! is the fourth album by American blues rock band ZZ Top, released in 1975. Half the cuts are selections from live shows, the other half are new songs from the studio...
", "Mexican Radio
Mexican Radio
"Mexican Radio" is a song written and performed by the band Wall of Voodoo, and produced by Richard Mazda. The track was initially made commercially available on their 1983 album Call of the West. The song peaked at #58 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S...
" by Wall of Voodoo
Wall of Voodoo
Wall of Voodoo was an American New Wave group from Los Angeles best known for the 1983 hit "Mexican Radio". The band had a sound that was a fusion of synthesizer-based New Wave music with the spaghetti western soundtrack style of Ennio Morricone.-Formation:...
, and "Border Radio
Border Radio
Border Radio is a 1987 independent film directed by Allison Anders, Dean Lent and Kurt Voss, in which two musicians and a roadie who haven't been paid rob money from a club and one flees to Mexico leaving his wife and daughter behind...
" by The Blasters
The Blasters
The Blasters are a rock and roll music group formed in 1979 in Downey, California, by brothers Phil Alvin and Dave Alvin , with bass guitarist John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman. Phil Alvin explained the origin of the band's name: "I thought Joe Turner’s backup band on Atlantic records – I had...
.
Programming
Most border blaster stations today program Spanish-language programming targeted at the Mexican side of the border. Some of the Spanish language border blasters target the growing Latino audience living in the southwestern US. Some target both.As was the case between the 1930s and the 1970s, some border blaster stations in areas near larger American border cities such as San Diego are leased out by American broadcasting companies and air English-language programming targeting American audiences, although the AM stations have sometimes been supplanted by FM signals just over the border and able to reach major American cities like San Diego or El Paso with city-grade signals. During those decades border radio was used by preachers who solicited donations, and advertisers who sold products of dubious value. The American side leases the station from the Mexican station owners/license holders and feeds programming from their American studios to the Mexican transmitters via satellite.
Due to Mexican government regulations, these stations, like all radio stations in Mexico, must air La Hora Nacional a/k/a The Mexican National Hour on Sunday evenings (usually 8pm or 10pm, depending on where the station is located) and "Himno Nacional Mexicano
Himno Nacional Mexicano
The National Anthem of Mexico started being used in 1854, although it was not officially adopted by law until 1943. The lyrics of the national anthem, which allude to Mexican victories in the heat of battle and cries of defending the homeland, were composed by poet Francisco González Bocanegra in...
" (The Mexican National Anthem) at midnight and 5am. In addition, they must also give station identification in Spanish. This is usually done softly or during commercial breaks so the listeners on the American side won't usually notice it.
TijuanaTijuanaTijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...
/ Rosarito
- XEPRS-AM: This is the radio station, formerly known as XERB, featured in the George LucasGeorge LucasGeorge Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
movie American GraffitiAmerican GraffitiAmerican Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
starring Wolfman JackWolfman JackRobert Weston Smith, known commonly as Wolfman Jack was a gravelly voiced US disc jockey who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early career:...
as the disc jockeyDisc jockeyA disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
. He moved to this station following his work on XERF.
- XHPRS-FMXHPRS-FMXHPRS-FM or 105.7 The Walrus is a commercial oldies radio station in Tecate, Baja California, broadcasting to the Tijuana-San Diego metropolitan area on 105.7 FM....
: This is the FM counterpart to XEPRS-AM. - XETRA-FMXETRA-FMXETRA-FM — branded 91X, and sometimes identified as XTRA-FM — is an English language, Mexican-owned modern rock music station broadcasting from Tijuana, Baja California on 91.1 MHz. The studios are located in the Mira Mesa area of San Diego...
- XETRA-AMXEWW-AMXEWW-AM are the call letters of a border-blaster radio station licensed to the Tijuana / Rosarito area of Baja California, Mexico, with additional studio facilities in Burbank, California, United States. They are a high-power station, with their 77,500 watt signal sometimes reaching as far as the...
- XEBC-AM
- XEAK-AMXEWW-AMXEWW-AM are the call letters of a border-blaster radio station licensed to the Tijuana / Rosarito area of Baja California, Mexico, with additional studio facilities in Burbank, California, United States. They are a high-power station, with their 77,500 watt signal sometimes reaching as far as the...
- XELO-AM
- XHITZ-FMXHITZ-FMXHITZ-FM is a Contemporary Hit Radio station in San Diego-Tijuana broadcasting on 90.3 MHz. The station is owned by Local Media of America and...
- XHMORE-FMXHMORE-FMXHMORE-FM , or MORE FM 98.9 is a Rock En Español station serving the Tijuana-San Diego radio market. The station, whose city of license is Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico and broadcasts at 98.9 MHz with an ERP of 50,000 watts....
- XHOCL-FMXHOCL-FMXHOCL-FM is a Mexico-based radio station, currently programmed by MVS Radio. From January 5, 2004 until August 31, 2005, the format was Oldies known as KOOL 99.3. At 6 a.m., September 1, 2005, the format flipped to Spanish language oldies known as La Preciosa...
- XHRM-FMXHRM-FMXHRM-FM is an Urban Adult Contemporary radio format licensed in the Mexican state of Baja California, broadcasting at 92.5 MHz...
- XETV-TV
NogalesNogales, SonoraHeroica Nogales , more commonly known as Nogales, is a city and its surrounding municipality on the northern border of the Mexican State of Sonora. The municipality covers an area of 1,675 km², and borders to the north the city of Nogales, Arizona, United States, across the U.S.-Mexico border...
- XELO-AM
- XHSN-FM A top 40/ reggaeton mix station that features songs in both English and Spanish. The signal can be picked up as far away as TucsonTucson, ArizonaTucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
.
Ciudad JuárezCiudad JuárezCiudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...
- XEROK-AM
- XEJ-AM
- XHGU-FMXHGU-FMXHGU-FM is a Spanish Contemporary radio station serving the border towns of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, USA . It is owned by MegaRadio Mexico. The station is known on-air as Románce 105.9.-External Links:*...
- XHH-FMXHH-FMXHH-FM is a Regional Mexican radio station serving the border towns of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, USA . It is owned by MegaRadio Mexico. The station is known on-air as Magia 100.7.-External Links:*...
- XHPX-FMXHPXXHPX is a Spanish & English Top 40 station at 98.3 FM in El Paso, Texas, United States. The station is very popular with Mexican American teens. EXA station is located on Mesa St. and was previously located in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, before a transition to El Paso in 2005. The station's...
- XHUAR-FMXHUAR-FMXHUAR-FM is a Rock En Español and News radio station licensed to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, owned by IMER , Mexico's public radio network. Like the Public Radio stations in the United States, IMER presents a variety of discussion and music programs.- External links :**...
Ciudad AcuñaCiudad AcuñaCiudad Acuña, also known simply as Acuña, is a city located in the Mexican state of Coahuila, at and a mean height above sea level of 271 meters...
- XER: "Sunshine Station between the Nations" broadcasting on AMAmplitude modulationAmplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent...
at 735kHz. This was the original station licensed to Dr. John R. BrinkleyJohn R. BrinkleyJohn Romulus Brinkley was a controversial American medical doctor who experimented with xenotransplantation of goat glands into humans as a means of curing male impotence in clinics across several states, and an advertising and radio pioneer who began the era of Mexican border blaster radio...
in MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
as the Villa Acuña Broadcasting Company. It first signed on August 18, 1932 with a 50 kW transmitter and claimed 75kW ERP via an omnidirectional antenna. The engineering was by Will Branch of Fort Worth who had engineered WBAP for Amon Carter, owner of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It was shut down by the Mexican authorities on February 24, 1933 and the Villa Acuña Broadcasting Company was dissolved. - XERA: In September 1935 Dr. Brinkley gained a new license for Villa Acuña from the Government of Mexico with new call letters of XERA. His new operating company was Cia Mexicana Radiofusori Fronteriza and the station came on the air from the same location as the old XER but with a directional antenna. His new transmitter power was 500 kW, but with his new antenna he claimed an output of 1MW. XERA called itself "the world's most powerful broadcasting station" and VarietyVariety (magazine)Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine claimed that it could be heard in New York City. Following the signing of various treaties, the Government of Mexico revoked the license of XERA in the closing days of 1939. - XERF-AM: from 1947. The station that made Wolfman JackWolfman JackRobert Weston Smith, known commonly as Wolfman Jack was a gravelly voiced US disc jockey who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early career:...
world famous for his disc jockeyDisc jockeyA disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
and sales presentations between 1962 and 1964. This station came on the air long after the era of both XERA and Dr. Brinkley, but it initially used his old facilities although the powerful transmitter of XERA had been dismantled and shipped elsewhere. The station later moved to a new building where a 250kW RCARCARCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
main transmitter was installed.
Piedras NegrasPiedras Negras, Coahuila-Natural Resources:This region generates a large amount of the national production of coal, one of the most economically important non-metallic minerals in the state.-Tourism:Piedras Negras' main tourist attractions are:...
- XEPN-AM was sister station to XER/XERA, and was also controlled by Dr. John Brinkley.
- XELO-AM
MonterreyMonterreyMonterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...
- XEG-AM: In 1950 the advertising time of this station came under the control of Harold Schwartz of ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, who also came to represent XERB near Tijuana/Rosarito (the station made famous in the movie American GraffitiAmerican GraffitiAmerican Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
.) - XET-AM
Nuevo LaredoNuevo LaredoNuevo Laredo is a city located in the Municipality of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The city lies on the banks of the Río Grande, across from the United States city of Laredo, Texas. The 2010 census population of the city was 373,725. Nuevo Laredo is part of the Laredo-Nuevo...
- XENT-AMXENT-AMXENT-AM is the callsign of a radio station in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico.-History of the XENT call sign:XENT-AM were the call letters of a border-blaster radio station licensed to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas....
: Operated by Norman G. Baker from 1933 until forced off the air in 1940; "The Calliaphone Station" (for an air-operated calliopeCalliope (music)A calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles, originally locomotive whistles....
invented by Baker) promoted a cancer-cure clinic of Baker's, essentially continuing his former station KTNT ("Know The Naked Truth") of Muscatine, IowaIowaIowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, as was itself forced off the air in 1931. Brochures for the clinic urged patients to "phone 666 upon arrival in Laredo," attracting many complaints to the American Medical Association as invoked reference to Revelation 13:18, citing 666 as the Mark of the Beast. XENT-AM later moved to La Paz, Baja California SurLa Paz, Baja California SurLa Paz is the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur and an important regional commercial center. The city had a 2010 census population of 215,178 persons, but its metropolitan population is somewhat larger because of surrounding towns like el Centenario, el Zacatal and San Pedro...
, power adjusted to 5kW Day / 750W Night.
- XEXO-AM
XEXO-AM moved to Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas power adjusted to 5 kW Day/500W Night
ReynosaReynosaReynosa is a border city in the northern part of Tamaulipas, in the country of Mexico. It is located on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from McAllen, Texas in the United States. As of 2010, the city of Reynosa counts with a population of 607,532...
- XED-AM: The first radio station in Mexico to be considered a border-blaster. XED was originally located at Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and was under the advertising sales management of the International Broadcasting Company. Located across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas, the station broadcast with a power of 10 kilowatts that was the most powerful transmitter in Mexico at that time.
- XEAW-AM: Another station that came under the management control of Dr. John R. BrinkleyJohn R. BrinkleyJohn Romulus Brinkley was a controversial American medical doctor who experimented with xenotransplantation of goat glands into humans as a means of curing male impotence in clinics across several states, and an advertising and radio pioneer who began the era of Mexican border blaster radio...
. (See XER and XERA.)
See also
- Atlantic 252Atlantic 252Atlantic 252 was a long wave radio station broadcasting to Ireland and the United Kingdom on 252 kHz from its 1988 purpose built transmission site Clarkstown radio transmitter, which provided service to Atlantic 252 from 1989 until 2002. The station's studios were located just 12 km away in...
- City of licenseCity of licenseA city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator....
- List of international radio broadcasters
- List of international television broadcasters
- List of international religious radio broadcasters
- Pirate radioPirate radioPirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
- RimshotRimshot (broadcasting)A rimshot is a radio and television broadcasting term for a station that attempts to reach a larger media market from a distant suburban, exurban, or even rural location. The term is primarily used with FM stations, and mainly in North America...
External links
- Dedication of the Wolfman Jack Memorial in Del Rio, Texas
- Official Ciudad Acuña municipal website – (in Spanish)
- Investigation of radio operations in Tijuana, BC, conducted by broadcast engineer Donald Mussell