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XEROK 800 is off the air
- Thread starter dlf1
- Start date
This appears to be permanent. Last year I heard that the station was reported off the air through the program "Glen Hauser's World Of Radio." On their website (calibre800.com), the programming moved to 1420 kHz and can be heard there. The website also hosts audio from 1240 kHz.
That big signal was only viable when people listened to radio at night... first in the era of block programming from the 30's to the 60's and then teen and youth targeted Top 40 into the 70's. But as FM came to nearly everywhere, having to listen to XEROK or KOMA or WKBW or WLS to get pop music ended and so did the viability of stations like XEROK that could not sustain the high operation cost in what was a tiny local market.
DXers reported that when Trans World Radio Bonaire came back on with a rebuilt site, 450 kw (TPO not ERP) at times pointed at Cuba, XEROK was covered up in Texas at night.
But by that time XEROK was running less that 30 kw. Back in the 90's they wanted to put 3 Harris 50 kw transmitters together, but by then the power grid was so overloaded that they could barely run one 50 kw rig. In later years, they reduced the power (although they never filed for lowered output) as there is really no population worth covering nearby, except, maybe, for Las Cruces, NM. And there has not been night time ad buying on AM stations for many decades.
Do the Mexico Radio Rules delete stations after one year off the air like the FCC does?
Personally, I think the FCC should have more orderly rules than deletion, both AM and FM, like easily moving the allotment (minor changes) so it serves more people, other local stations moving to better facilities than their present facilities, with more power, moving down the dial on AM for better ground wave service, lower NIF, etc., without re auctioning and such, and in many cases, just buying and taking over existing facilities that don't need or have to move.
Personally, I think the FCC should have more orderly rules than deletion, both AM and FM, like easily moving the allotment (minor changes) so it serves more people, other local stations moving to better facilities than their present facilities, with more power, moving down the dial on AM for better ground wave service, lower NIF, etc., without re auctioning and such, and in many cases, just buying and taking over existing facilities that don't need or have to move.
Back in the mid 1970s, there was talk of CKLW's parent company doing a purchase or lease of XEROK to blanket North America. It didn't come to pass, due to AM's days of being lucrative for this kind of programming being over, and probably for international hoops to jump through too.
Working for an AM station on 800 kHz back in the late 1980s, we were obligated to protect that frequency (and XEROK in particular) by powering down to flea power to protect the agreed Mexican Clear Channel status. With stations like this going dark, why continue to do that? It isn't as if Mexican AM's (and other AMs in the USA or Canada) that are disappearing off the air are returning.
Working for an AM station on 800 kHz back in the late 1980s, we were obligated to protect that frequency (and XEROK in particular) by powering down to flea power to protect the agreed Mexican Clear Channel status. With stations like this going dark, why continue to do that? It isn't as if Mexican AM's (and other AMs in the USA or Canada) that are disappearing off the air are returning.
Those frequencies are "permanently" assigned to each nation as a result of treaties and accords that date back to the 1930's. So, if you look at 1580, it is a shared clear channel "owned" by Canada and Mexico. Neither Hermosillo nor Chicoutimi are using the frequency today as they did in the past, but 1580 jointly belongs to those two nations and any US station on 1580 must protect the Canadian border and the Mexico border nonetheless.
While I suppose that the three nations could revise their accords, who would want to spend the money to open up a new agreement that might require other "quid pro quo" concessions at the same time? I know Mexico wants the border area rules changed to reduce the second adjacent FM separations to the standard they use everywhere else, but even that does not seem to warrant the time and trouble.
If they come up with a substitute frequency for a vacant or vacated frequency, they can sometimes accomplish that. But it's supposed to be equivalent in service, and I don't think there's any way to do it for the 150 kW Border Blaster on 800. When WYLL 1160 went to 50000 watts Night, with the signal beamed North from Lockport, IL with a 6 tower array, they substituted 1170 for 1160 in Thunder Bay, ON with equivalent facilities for the vacant channel. They also had to pay to upgrade WHBY 1150 Kimberly, WI to 25000 watts Night to have an equivalent NIF service area. First adjacent channels in Canada are not protected from skywave from US stations on first adjacent frequencies and vice versa under the Agreement (called that because it's not really a Treaty, but it is often called that for clarity). Similarly with Mexico. The Agreements are similar for Mexico and Canada. The Agreements use the old skywave model where a typical 50000 watt Class I/Class A station goes out "750 miles".
Those rules may be revisited anyway, as the landscape of radio continues to change.
I'm also thinking of US Clears such as KAAY. If there really is a plan to take it down to flea power at night, then why should other stations need to protect a signal that is no longer there? Especially the need for real estate for multiple towers to do so?
The issue here is whether investing in a new antenna system and transmitter and, usually, more land for an AM station is worth it today. In most cases, it is not.
Many stations with higher power at night but with directional antenna systems have opted for night flea-power and an FM translator. The AM is kept only to allow the operation of the FM translator. So I see very few licensees spending much money on AM power increases or antenna changes.
Once a former class A relinquishes their Class by downgrading to below 10 kw (or equivalent mV/m @ 1 mile), like WOWO or KGA, then they are no longer protected as a Class A. They become a class B. Below the magic "250 watts" (or equivalent mV/m @ 1 mile) they are a class D daytimer and have no night time protection.
*International agreement would still force foreign station to continue protecting the now defunct US Class A allocations.
*International agreement would still force foreign station to continue protecting the now defunct US Class A allocations.
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But in the case of allocations, such as the clear channels, those frequencies "belong" to individual nations even if they are not in use.
US stations have to protect the entire Mexican border for frequencies such as 540, 730, 800, 900, 1050, 1570, 1220, 1580 and 940. Some of those are shared with Canada, which also has to be protected.
From what I understand, in the last years XEROK was focusing on the Copper Canyon area of Mexico. It's very isolated for the people living there, and the strongest AM signal able to reach it. So, the programming was for that area, and not Juarez. Basically, being done as a public service.
They have to wait until the Class A station is licensed as a Class B or Class D before they can grant another interfering facility. They still have to protect WBAL 1090 as a Class A. Full time stations on 1090 and other frequencies with two Class As, they are usually sandwiched in between the two with circa 1/2 wave spacing DAs with a symmetrical broadside pattern component to protect both Class As. It will be difficult to protect just one Class A without expensive and extensive DA array modifications. And with all the existing Class B stations as well as WBAL, there is often little they can do. They also usually have a cardioid or end fire pattern component, so usually 6 to 9 towers total.
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Those various reports stated that XEROK has been off the air since March 2022.
Decades ago, when TWR was running 500kw on 800, there would often be a big clash in Texas, unless you had a ferrite rod antenna and were in a location where one or the other could be nulled out. The best time for hearing TWR in the eastern half of Texas was right around sunset, before skywave from Juarez started coming in. This also allowed reception of Radio Netherlands, which had a two hour block of programming on 800 from 2330 to 0130 UTC.
Years ago I had a colleague that had once worked at KDDD, a daytimer in Dumas, Texas on 800. He said that he could usually hear XELO/XEROK clashing with his own station on the studio air monitor during sunrise programming.
Same with where I worked. KREI Farmington, MO. When doing local sports during the night pattern, the play-by-play crew would often hear XEROK instead of us, especially for away games.
I was looking for the history of TWR PJB 800. It says it went to 500000 watts in 1963. I don't remember much interference to CKLW before about 1970 though. Probably it was because it was very dependent on conditions. CKLW has the equivalent of a typical Class A IDF to the East, but it was NEVER a skywave protected Class I/Class A Clear Channel. It was always Class II/Class B. CKLW did have a huge effect in rural areas on the East Coast without Top 40 local signals, along with WLS and WCFL, and of course WABC, WBZ, and WKBW, if far enough away from WCBS and WINS, etc. FM changed that increasingly throughout the 1970s.
800 kHz was a mess in Missouri, one of the states where I grew up. XEROK was usually strongest but it was by no means guaranteed. Some days it was good. Some days it wasn´t strong enough to overpower CKLW. In the early 1970s, I got much clearer reception from Mexico City's XEW (900) and XEX (730). I rarely heard PJB.
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