All but a few Mexican AMs moving to FM

[radioman148]

Well, now we apparently know why XERF hasn't bothered to restore full authorized power.

Remember, in its day (50's well into the 80's) XERF only operated from sunset to sunrise.

The business model depended on mail order and donations. When most people moved to FM for music, and religious programs became more available on local AMs, the business model failed.

XERF went broke. The owner could not pay its taxes, and the Mexican government seized it and gave it to the official IMER organization to run. The first decision was to remake the skywave giant that had been selling prayer table cloths and resurrection plants to rural America. The new XERF was a local Ciudad Acuña area station.

Originally, they put a 100 kw transmitter in, thinking they would serve vast areas of Coahuila state. The bureaucrats, of course, did not know that 100 kw in the near-desert areas of northern Coahuila did not go very far on high-band 1570. And with Mexican television penetration virtually total, nobody listened at night.

So they turned the transmitter down. And now they are going to be a nice, local FM. As they should have been all along.

Still waiting for my crate of baby chicks that I ordered from The Wolfman ;D

 

[Lopaka]

It never even occurred to me that XERF or anybody else would operate only at night, but it makes sense. Interesting!

 

[cyberdad]

I never did get in on the baby chicks, Garner Ted Armstrongs books or magazines, nor did I send money to the preacher who claimed LBJ was an alien....

....But I did once come close to taking up Wolfman on it, when he told me I'd like the next song he was about to play ("Chain of Fools") so much that I'd run out and bang my head into a tree!

 

[davideduardo]

It never even occurred to me that XERF or anybody else would operate only at night, but it makes sense. Interesting!

TWR 800 in Bonaire was another that had, at least, periods of time when it only operated at night. Even with 500 kw, the daytime coverage was mostly water, so it definitely did not make sense.

 

[davideduardo]

Still waiting for my crate of baby chicks that I ordered from The Wolfman ;D

Ancecdote time:

First one: there was a preacher on XERF who had discovered the power of 25 Hz tones. He would build up to his pitch for donations by saying, "Put your hands on your radio and feel the power of the Lord" and play the tone. People would feel their radio vibrate. The preacher would then say that if you felt the power, to send money to keep it coming. The only problem was that the tone would occasionally knock XERF off the air, which the preacher would spin into a higher form of power.

Second anecdote: XERF general manager during the 60's Sergio Ballesteros told me of an innocent question he asked of one of the radio preachers on XERF. The preacher offered $5 dollar blessings, $10 dollar blessings and $25 dollar blessings... just send the money. When asked the difference between a $5 dollar blessing and a $25 dollar one, the preacher said, straight faced, "Twenty dollars."

Final one. A friend, who is a radio talk host, ordered the baby chicks for her mom... a retired resident of a nice condo in North Miami Beach who always had similar retired women at her apartment for tea and refreshments every afternoon. She imagined the "fun" that 100 chicks would produce among her mom's Brooklyn-raised friends... but reality was even better: about half the chicks were ready for the poultry coroner, and the others, covered in chicken s--t, ran all over the room chirping or whatever chicks do.

 

[trusty]

...there was a preacher on XERF who had discovered the power of 25 Hz tones. He would build up to his pitch for donations by saying, "Put your hands on your radio and feel the power of the Lord" and play the tone. People would feel their radio vibrate. The preacher would then say that if you felt the power, to send money to keep it coming. The only problem was that the tone would occasionally knock XERF off the air, which the preacher would spin into a higher form of power.

I have a recording (around here somewhere) of Wolfman coming on after the preaching and saying, "PUT yo' HANDS on the radio and FEEL ME."

 

[cyberdad]

Re: David/trusty....

;D!!!

 

[Lopaka]

David...would you consider doing a book?