Apologies if this is a "101" question, Raymie, but I've been following your excellent blog for some time now and I've never been able to work out the point of "social wolves". Why does a commercial radio company (in general, evidently not in this case) want to operate non-commercial radio stations if they can't take advertising?
Yes, I'd like a definition of "social wolves" which I have never quite understood.
Hey, thanks for the kind words!
This is a question I get somewhat frequently, so
I wrote a reference article on it. I guess I need to link this more when I use the term!
Between the mid-1990s and 2017, Mexico did not hold any auctions or award proceedings for new commercial radio stations!
(Well, they tried, but...) However, there was never a freeze on applications for permits—under pre-2014 Mexican law, a concession was always commercial, while what are today public and social broadcast stations were permits. I coined "social wolf" based on "wolf in sheep's clothing", the idea being that these stations don't always rise to the spirit of the social radio type. (There are TV social wolves, too!)
Permit stations served as something of an expansion strategy for commercial broadcasters. As the article mentions, two groups in particular — Grupo Radiofónico ZER of Zacatecas and Grupo Radio Digital which is based in Chiapas — own a lot of wolves. The ZER wolves are quite diverse, some of them in smaller towns that have no other stations but also Mexico City's 1650 AM which is not much more than automated instrumental music. Wolves have also allowed ZER to enter the Colima market. GRD got its first wolf in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where at the time it did not own any FMs. (AM-FM migration has since rendered that moot.) It also owned wolves in Veracruz and Tapachula, two cities where it would not have commercial stations for some time (it bought in Veracruz and won at auction in Tapachula).
In 2013, a group called Medios Radiofónicos de Michoacán obtained permit stations in three cities in the same state: Ciudad Hidalgo, Pátzcuaro, and Morelia. Citing financial difficulties, back in February, it opted to drop the first two, in cities where it had commercial outlets, but it retained the Morelia FM for two big reasons: it's the state capital and largest city, and they don't own any other broadcast holdings there. Also in Morelia is XHMICH-FM 103.3, which was created in the early 2010s probably because there was no other way for its principals to start a radio station until the IFT-4 auction (when they nabbed two stations).
Some social stations operate as lease agreements with their owners. Grupo Larsa is in what is probably a favorable lease for social wolves in Hermosillo and Guaymas—owned in actuality by another broadcaster—and it launched two new stations in LMA deals with an owner in Baja California Sur. There is a large "wolfpack" (commonly owned group) of social stations that is very nebulous,
but it has ties to US radio stations.
Sometimes, social stations are not owned in conjunction with a commercial broadcaster but operate like a commercial group. The Veracruz social wolfpack—a network of three stations that actually now holds seven concessions, of which five are known in operation and even then two seem to be under completely different operation—had notable ties to a financier and the press secretary of very corrupt former Veracruz governor Javier Duarte.
A few social wolves and other social stations actually rise to their aim: the recently expanded Espacio network in Coahuila is owned by a Monclova station group, actually is pretty culture-heavy. XHRMO 88.1 Hermosillo is a comprehensive, full-service, talk-heavy station. Also legally considered social stations are radio outlets owned by private educational institutions.
Another type of wolfery is an end-around of the country's prohibition of religious associations and licensed ministers owning stations, but it's not quite relevant to this discussion.
The demand for permit stations, including from some bulk filers with ties to commercial broadcasters, led to some applications languishing nearly 20 years at the IFT. It looks like they finally adjudicated them all, or nearly all of them. Seriously, in December the IFT finally adjudicated a station application made in April 2000, when Ernesto Zedillo was still president!
There are some ways social radio stations can raise revenues. You'll find that list in the article. Notably included are sponsorships. Commercials themselves are verboten, and there is actually a revocation case being contested in the courts on these grounds out of Tomatlán, Jalisco.
maybe its possible they didnt know it was non commercial? because in the us, that is a commercial frequency
Wouldn't doubt that as a potential cause.
Mexico historically had no reserved bands by station type. In Mexico City, for instance, there are commercial stations on 88.1, 88.9, 89.7, 90.5 and 91.3 but public stations on 94.5, 96.1, and 107.9 (among others).
Article 90 of the 2014 Ley Federal de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión established social community and indigenous radio stations *and* a reserved band for them, consisting of 106–108 MHz and the AM expanded band. The catch is that the IFT will not force a station to move if doing so would require a facility downgrade or if the room just does not exist, so many high-powered and major-metro FMs above 106 (including XHFG and XHRST) are grandfathered. Dozens are not—resulting in
a group of "Article 90 clears" that have vacated the band in the last several years and more likely as concessions come up for renewal.
Tijuana and Mexico City are the only places that had expanded-band AM radio pre-LFTR. I believe the Mexico City-area AMs will be relocated as migration and some big expirations have left room in the standard band for the relocation of the operating 1650 and 1670 outlets. In Tijuana, I doubt there is room to squeeze two stations below 1600, but XEPE was listed in a sheet I got from the IFT as "study pending" when I asked for a full list of other FMs ordered to move. (XEPE is the only commercial X-bander; XEPE is public and the two Mexico City stations are social. A third X-bander near Mexico City moved to 1130 in another type of proceeding.)
For every grandfathered FM, a frequency in 88–106 must be assigned for community/indigenous radio, a principle I call "Article 90 reciprocity".
In Ensenada, the 106.9 station was ordered to move to 104.1 (at the same technical parameters) at its renewal. A 107.9 community station has been assigned there, too.
XHLNC is technically not Tijuana's only social radio station, but in all honesty only on a technicality. XHITT, of the Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana, is owned by an affiliated foundation and was given a social concession.
