XEROK-800

[CAVEMANager]

Border blaster XEROK appears to be off the air. They are allowed up to 150,000 watts but in recent years haven't run anything approaching that much power. They would blanket the El Paso market. Does anyone know how long they've been off or why? That's a lot of wasted spectrum that could be put to some use.

 

[davideduardo]

Border blaster XEROK appears to be off the air. They are allowed up to 150,000 watts but in recent years haven't run anything approaching that much power. They would blanket the El Paso market. Does anyone know how long they've been off or why? That's a lot of wasted spectrum that could be put to some use.

The frequency "belongs" to Mexico. If not used any longer in Cd. Juárez, it can be redeployed elsewhere in the country or, like some Canadian clear channels, just not used at all. In any event, no US station can benefit.

For about two decades they had been running 50 kw. They tried to put two 50's into a combiner and found that the power distribution in that part of the city had so deteriorated that it could not take the load so they backed off and ran just one of the rigs as reduced power.

Anything at about 5 kw covers the combined market more than adequately. Back in the X-Rock days, they only ran the 150 kw operation at night, using much lower power in the daytime.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Back in the X-Rock days, they only ran the 150 kw operation at night, using much lower power in the daytime.

However that might not have been the case during the even earlier XELO incarnation of the station. I recall traveling in the area in the late 1960s and the XELO day signal was a blowtorch 100+ miles from Ciudad Juarez.

In those days XELO did not stay on all night, allowing clear reception of the Trans World Radio Bonaire station during early morning hours.

 

[Kent]

I'm too young to remember it, but my family lived in Albuquerque briefly in the mid-70's. My dad said, after dark, he usually listened to KOMA 1520, but he also mentioned, "some station from El Paso," that he thought was pretty good. I'm guessing it was X-Rock 80, though Dad never mentioned its name. He only remembered KOMA because he grew up mostly in Oklahoma, and my mother lived in Oklahoma her whole life until Dad got deployed in the military.

 

[davideduardo]

However that might not have been the case during the even earlier XELO incarnation of the station. I recall traveling in the area in the late 1960s and the XELO day signal was a blowtorch 100+ miles from Ciudad Juarez.

In those days XELO did not stay on all night, allowing clear reception of the Trans World Radio Bonaire station during early morning hours.

When XELO was managed by McVeigh (sp?) and was essentially a local Spanish language stations up till they went and bought what became KAMA 1060, they ran as a pure local El Paso Spanish language station and used the power "angle" to show advertisers that they would bring in clients from Las Cruces and other areas as well.

If I recall correctly, there was a period in time when stations in Mexico got government subsidies for power, making the 150 kw operation not quite as expensive.

 

[Mediafrog+]

When XELO was managed by McVeigh (sp?) and was essentially a local Spanish language stations up till they went and bought what became KAMA 1060, they ran as a pure local El Paso Spanish language station and used the power "angle" to show advertisers that they would bring in clients from Las Cruces and other areas as well.

In the late 60's/early 70's XELO had brokered English language religion from 7pm Mountain Time til past midnight, then signed off for a few hours. I do remember hearing the 1941 custom built transmitter in those days. I can't remember if the English programming lasted until the XEROK flip around 1973.

It was the daytime Spanish language format that went to 1060, IIRC.

Yikes, half a century ago.

 

[dlf1]

In the late 60's/early 70's XELO had brokered English language religion from 7pm Mountain Time til past midnight, then signed off for a few hours. I do remember hearing the 1941 custom built transmitter in those days. I can't remember if the English programming lasted until the XEROK flip around 1973.

It was the daytime Spanish language format that went to 1060, IIRC.

Yikes, half a century ago.

I heard an air check from late 1972 and the XEROK calls were in place. The music was Top 40, but the air talent utilized both English and Spanish.

Speaking of yikes, one of the songs that was highlighted as “new” was “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder.

 

[Mediafrog+]

I heard an air check from late 1972 and the XEROK calls were in place. The music was Top 40, but the air talent utilized both English and Spanish.

I don’t recall much, if any Spanish being used on X-Rock.

The presentation was pretty slick, similar to the Top40/CHR formatics used on FM in the 1970’s. Listened to X-Rock quite a lot at night as my car at the time only had AM radio.

 

[davideduardo]

In the late 60's/early 70's XELO had brokered English language religion from 7pm Mountain Time til past midnight, then signed off for a few hours. I do remember hearing the 1941 custom built transmitter in those days. I can't remember if the English programming lasted until the XEROK flip around 1973.

It was the daytime Spanish language format that went to 1060, IIRC.

Yikes, half a century ago.

There is a bunch of alarming history behind that station. Without using names, the story is that the American partner and the major Mexican owner had disagreements. The owner was also the engineer, and one night when doing maintenance the walk-in transmitter "turned itself on" and the engineer was killed.

However, negotiations with the widow failed, and the aftermath was the moving of the non-informerical format hours to the daytimer on 1060 that was licensed in that era.

Most of the high power Mexican stations in that era and earlier times were built on-site by a few very talented engineers from both sides of the border.

I don’t recall much, if any Spanish being used on X-Rock.

I don't recall any Spanish, other than the legal ID.

 

[CAVEMANager]

In its final years of operation XEROK was entirely in Spanish and most likely was programming to listeners in Mexico. Only recently did I notice it was off the air. I'm still curious as to why it went silent and when. Maybe they got authorization to move to FM but no FM station has that kind of coverage.

 

[davideduardo]

In its final years of operation XEROK was entirely in Spanish and most likely was programming to listeners in Mexico. Only recently did I notice it was off the air. I'm still curious as to why it went silent and when. Maybe they got authorization to move to FM but no FM station has that kind of coverage.

The licensee has been in regulatory problems with the IFT. In recent years, it had paid programming. Before that, it spent several decades as "Radio Cañon" with a regional Mexican format.

This site has complete and interesting reports on Mexican media:

En Frecuencia

Mexico’s broadcasting blog, con toda la información en radiodifusión.

medium.com

 

[The Rimshot]

I was driving to LA from SA and I was able to pick up XEROK at night all the way in Van Horn, clear as a bell. It was the only station I could get in Van Horn. Van Horn is about 120 miles from Ciudad Juarez, so groundwave and skywave should have cancelled each other out at this distance, but it didn't, so that was super impressive.

This was probably about ten years ago.

 

[CAVEMANager]

Though I'm not absolutely certain of this, I think that XEROK is back on the air. The station on 800 that I'm hearing has an all night program that constantly mentions "Labratorios Comacho". The commercial usually includes the names of American cities, mostly in California. Labratorios Comacho appears to make dietary supplements but they could be snake oil. If the station I'm hearing is XEROK they can't be running more than about 5,000 watts as they are not very strong in SE Arizona. Maybe someone in the El Paso area can confirm or deny this.

 

[davideduardo]

Though I'm not absolutely certain of this, I think that XEROK is back on the air. The station on 800 that I'm hearing has an all night program that constantly mentions "Labratorios Comacho". The commercial usually includes the names of American cities, mostly in California. Labratorios Comacho appears to make dietary supplements but they could be snake oil. If the station I'm hearing is XEROK they can't be running more than about 5,000 watts as they are not very strong in SE Arizona. Maybe someone in the El Paso area can confirm or deny this.

Laboratorios Camacho has been on both border Mexican and US Spanish language stations for the last 40 years or so. They sell over-the-counter vitamins and remedies and are legal to sell in the US.

They go back to the times when people could order C.O.D. and have the item sent by the Post Office. They produce their own infomercials out of North Hollywood, CA, and have five or 6 retail locations in the LA, Fresno and El Paso areas.

Mostly vitamins and some tropical fruit extracts commonly used as remedies or supplements in Mexico.

That said, what you heard could be on any station on 800, but given the time of day it does sound like it would be XEROK.

 

[dlf1]

Was just in El Paso on business and XEROK is definitely broadcasting. I pulled in the signal by day to just east of Fort Stockton. XEROK and KROD had the best signals from El Paso to the east.