It's amazing that stations located on the US/Mexican border are required to play the national anthem at 5 a.m. and midnight local time, as well as carry the government's "Hora Nacional" on Sunday evening. I wonder if it also applies to stations on the US side of the border, or if it's only on the Mexican side.
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Border stations!
- Thread starter blackgold
- Start date
From:
http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/border index.html
"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 US side of the border, some target both.
Due to Mexican government regulations, these stations, like all radio stations in Mexico, must air the Mexican National Hour on Sunday evenings (usually 8 pm or 10 pm, depending on where the station is located) and the Mexican National Anthem at 12 midnight and 5 am each day. 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."
There is no such requirement for stations in the United States.
http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/border index.html
"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 US side of the border, some target both.
Due to Mexican government regulations, these stations, like all radio stations in Mexico, must air the Mexican National Hour on Sunday evenings (usually 8 pm or 10 pm, depending on where the station is located) and the Mexican National Anthem at 12 midnight and 5 am each day. 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."
There is no such requirement for stations in the United States.
I was working in a border town in radio back in the 1980s. At one point I handled the music and voiced some spots for a guy in the USA that leased a station in Mexico.
What I recall was the Mexican Government could make stations run PSAs in the quantity the Government determined. For example, a PSA might have to be played every hour for a few weeks. You couldn't refuse. If a station opted to sign off 5 or maybe it was 6 hours before the National program on Sundays they did not have to carry it. I think the national anthem thing was happening then too. I recall one station operator saying stations were supposed to play music created in Mexico. This was when Tejano was getting big and some border stations on the south side of the river played some Tejano. He implied he could get them in trouble. I didn't ask if that was a rule.
At one point, unless specifically allowed to do so, stations in Mexico had to broadcast in the Spanish language. Literally it was a bribe that got the exception. When the Mexico version of the FCC Field Examiner showed up, they got lunch at a nice restaurant and usually a nice shopping spree at the shopping mall on the US side. I am guessing some dollars exchanged hands because they field rep had to grease the palms of his superiors as well. Bribes are part of doing business in Mexico. One owner I knew told me it took about $50,000 to get the license and $30,000 to build plus a few greet and meet trips to accomplish it.
Mexico does not operate like the USA. For example, you go shopping in the border town and park on the street, you put change in the parking meter, then hunt down the local cop on the beat to offer a little cash (then $2-$3) if he'd watch your car and refill the meter in case you don't get back. If you skip this part, the cop might go turn off the meter after you are out of sight and have your car towed especially if the cop thinks you might have a little cash in your pocket. Police have low salaries there. In fact, during one inflationary time police were hocking their guns and radios to make ends meet.
In Mexico, it is the cash in your pocket and who you know that matters. Once a buddy and I were sent across to buy a case of Coronas. As we walk out and start to get in the car, three cars pull up with police and weapons drawn, telling us in proper English to put our hands on our heads. I tell the cop nearest me that my friend, gave his first and last name, needed to be contacted. My friend had said to mention him if I was ever stopped. He was the secretary to the Mayor. The cop asked the name again and then said they were sorry, we were not the people they were looking for. That took about 5 to 10 seconds. They got back in their cars and left. Shaken, scared and overwhelmed by it all, so did we.
Funny thing, at another station, the news director was across the river pulling out of a Pharmacy parking space when a cop blocked him in. The cop came up to his car window and asked if the news director had something for him. The news director said no, so the cop showed his gun. The news director said he had one of those too and it sure would be terrible if something happened to the cop. The cop got back in his car and left. The incident was the lead story on our station the next morning. That was a 'bride' that didn't happen.
What I recall was the Mexican Government could make stations run PSAs in the quantity the Government determined. For example, a PSA might have to be played every hour for a few weeks. You couldn't refuse. If a station opted to sign off 5 or maybe it was 6 hours before the National program on Sundays they did not have to carry it. I think the national anthem thing was happening then too. I recall one station operator saying stations were supposed to play music created in Mexico. This was when Tejano was getting big and some border stations on the south side of the river played some Tejano. He implied he could get them in trouble. I didn't ask if that was a rule.
At one point, unless specifically allowed to do so, stations in Mexico had to broadcast in the Spanish language. Literally it was a bribe that got the exception. When the Mexico version of the FCC Field Examiner showed up, they got lunch at a nice restaurant and usually a nice shopping spree at the shopping mall on the US side. I am guessing some dollars exchanged hands because they field rep had to grease the palms of his superiors as well. Bribes are part of doing business in Mexico. One owner I knew told me it took about $50,000 to get the license and $30,000 to build plus a few greet and meet trips to accomplish it.
Mexico does not operate like the USA. For example, you go shopping in the border town and park on the street, you put change in the parking meter, then hunt down the local cop on the beat to offer a little cash (then $2-$3) if he'd watch your car and refill the meter in case you don't get back. If you skip this part, the cop might go turn off the meter after you are out of sight and have your car towed especially if the cop thinks you might have a little cash in your pocket. Police have low salaries there. In fact, during one inflationary time police were hocking their guns and radios to make ends meet.
In Mexico, it is the cash in your pocket and who you know that matters. Once a buddy and I were sent across to buy a case of Coronas. As we walk out and start to get in the car, three cars pull up with police and weapons drawn, telling us in proper English to put our hands on our heads. I tell the cop nearest me that my friend, gave his first and last name, needed to be contacted. My friend had said to mention him if I was ever stopped. He was the secretary to the Mayor. The cop asked the name again and then said they were sorry, we were not the people they were looking for. That took about 5 to 10 seconds. They got back in their cars and left. Shaken, scared and overwhelmed by it all, so did we.
Funny thing, at another station, the news director was across the river pulling out of a Pharmacy parking space when a cop blocked him in. The cop came up to his car window and asked if the news director had something for him. The news director said no, so the cop showed his gun. The news director said he had one of those too and it sure would be terrible if something happened to the cop. The cop got back in his car and left. The incident was the lead story on our station the next morning. That was a 'bride' that didn't happen.
Under a previous licensing law of the SCOP and its related regulations, stations "exchanged" business income tax liability for public service announcements. So a fixed percentage of airtime each hour was given to government campaigns at the national level. Among those were the decades-long "the tourist is your friend and a friend of Mexico" campaign as well as various efforts to encourage smaller family size.
Since the standard ad in Mexican Radio is the 15" spot, with 30's at about the same level and nearly none being 60" second announcements, you can run a lot of short spots for the government without consuming a lot of time. Many of the campaigns I recall were 5" to 10" seconds long, too.
What made (and still makes) this possible is that all the campaigns are national, in part because Mexico is a far more centralized country than the US.
The comment about playing music from Mexico only is bogus. Even back to the early 50's when I worked in Mexico City radio there were many stations playing non-Mexican music, both in English and Spanish. In fact, there were stations that played only English language songs. Many played a mix of English and Spanish, and the CHR's in Spanish (XERC, XEDF, XEOY, XEFR and XEJP) back then played loads of songs by artists from Spain and Argentina, too.
If I recall what Xavier told me, the artist could be from anywhere but there had to be distribution via a Mexico-owned company.
I wondered if that was accurate because I used to listen to XEX in Mexico City to hear the hits before the Dallas Fort Worth stations added them in the mid-1970s. And I thought it was funny that XEX played the English version of Eres Tu by Mocedades while the local American stations played the Spanish version.
On the border where I was working at a station, a Spanish pop AM station had so many commercials they only managed to slip in about 6 songs an hour. And I was complaining about 8 breaks of 3 spots each at my station and a 5 minute network newscast! We still had fewer spots than any other station in those two border towns.
I wondered if that was accurate because I used to listen to XEX in Mexico City to hear the hits before the Dallas Fort Worth stations added them in the mid-1970s. And I thought it was funny that XEX played the English version of Eres Tu by Mocedades while the local American stations played the Spanish version.
On the border where I was working at a station, a Spanish pop AM station had so many commercials they only managed to slip in about 6 songs an hour. And I was complaining about 8 breaks of 3 spots each at my station and a 5 minute network newscast! We still had fewer spots than any other station in those two border towns.
I was consulting a group in Mexico City in the 70's, and never heard of a requirement to play only Mexican distributed music; in fact we had one station that played jazz, most of which was imported from the US as it was not locally produced.
In the 80's I did syndication of a "Latinized" Beautiful Music format and was in a number of Mexican markets like Saltillo, Nogales, Cd. Guzmán, etc., and nearly all the music was never released in Mexico and about 25% was custom music recorded in Europe and never released on commercial recordings.
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