What happened to Califormula Radio Group?What is the history of XHLTN 104.5?

[Radiomusik]

More then 10 years ago Califormula owned Jammin z90, Radio Latina, Hot Country 99.3 and XLNC 1 Ive been researching everywhere on what happened to it? It seems that Califormula callapsed and passed on the radio station to other broadcasters? ??? Anyone know what happened?

I also remembered Califormula first broadcasted XHLTN-Radio Latina 104.5 FM back in the 1970's then added the other stations. Also what is the history behind of XHLTN Radio Latina 104.5 wikipedia doesnt have the infromation more extracted on the frequency? Was XHLTN broadcasted in Tijuana first then moved to National City in San Diego?


Here an old website from wayback: http://web.archive.org/web/20000817230051/http://www.calradio.com/

 

[johndavis]

The executive summary:

Califormula Broadcasting was Victor Diaz. When Victor passed away, so did Califormula.

 

[davideduardo]

Was XHLTN broadcasted in Tijuana first then moved to National City in San Diego?

XHLTN is and always has been a Tijuana station. Its transmitter is in Mexico, and it is a licensed Mexican radio station, not a US station.

Whether it had studios in National City or not is irrelevant to this fact.

 

[Gregg]

I remember 25 years ago when XHLTN was the top Spanish-language FM radio station in the San Diego market. Yes, there were XETRA-FM and XHRM broadcasting in English. But if walking into stores near the Mexican border were any indication, everyone seemed to have XHLTN on, including the Safeway in San Ysidro, which had a van ferrying customers between the supermarket's door and the border crossing.

At the time XHLTN broadcast a Spanish Easy Listening format. Mostly instrumentals, just like an English Easy station would air, but with four Spanish ballads each hour, one every quarter hour, by Julio Iglesias, Gloria Estefan, etc. This was the time when KJQY 103.7 was also one of the top San Diego stations, broadcasting English-language Easy Listening.

XHLTN had the best FM signal among the Spanish language Mexican stations. And there were no U.S. stations licensed to San Diego broadcasting in Spanish at the time. 102.9 was Hot AC KSDO-FM and 106.5 was Album Rock KPRI, before another rock station claimed those call letters for 102.1.

If you were Spanish-speaking and in San Diego, you might have trouble picking up any other Spanish FM from Tijuana. The other FM stations didn't think to go for enough power or antenna height to get well into San Diego and its surrounding suburbs. I suppose all their clients were on the Mexican side of the border. There were AM stations that got into San Diego and even up to LA, such as 1090 XEPRS, but they had lots of talk and commercials. XHLTN was run very professionally, with only four commercial breaks an hour and very deep-voiced DJs doing only a few sentences of weather, news or chatter between music sets. While my Spanish is only so-so, I could tell that XHLTN had roughly equal numbers of sponsors on both sides of the border.

I guess over time XHLTN lost its edge, as other Mexican FMs got power or height increases, as the Easy Listening format faded and as San Diego got two U.S.-licensed FM stations broadcasting in Spanish.


Gregg
[email protected]

 

[Radiomusik]

The executive summary:

Califormula Broadcasting was Victor Diaz. When Victor passed away, so did Califormula.

Hmm, this seems a bit more informational never knew about this.

 

[Radiomusik]

Was XHLTN broadcasted in Tijuana first then moved to National City in San Diego?

XHLTN is and always has been a Tijuana station. Its transmitter is in Mexico, and it is a licensed Mexican radio station, not a US station.

Whether it had studios in National City or not is irrelevant to this fact.

Currently I just found out there broadcasting in San Diego Check it out: http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=d8e9ad06-8968-4cca-b113-2a1d72d972c4

 

[Radiomusik]

I remember 25 years ago when XHLTN was the top Spanish-language FM radio station in the San Diego market. Yes, there were XETRA-FM and XHRM broadcasting in English. But if walking into stores near the Mexican border were any indication, everyone seemed to have XHLTN on, including the Safeway in San Ysidro, which had a van ferrying customers between the supermarket's door and the border crossing.

At the time XHLTN broadcast a Spanish Easy Listening format. Mostly instrumentals, just like an English Easy station would air, but with four Spanish ballads each hour, one every quarter hour, by Julio Iglesias, Gloria Estefan, etc. This was the time when KJQY 103.7 was also one of the top San Diego stations, broadcasting English-language Easy Listening.

XHLTN had the best FM signal among the Spanish language Mexican stations. And there were no U.S. stations licensed to San Diego broadcasting in Spanish at the time. 102.9 was Hot AC KSDO-FM and 106.5 was Album Rock KPRI, before another rock station claimed those call letters for 102.1.

If you were Spanish-speaking and in San Diego, you might have trouble picking up any other Spanish FM from Tijuana. The other FM stations didn't think to go for enough power or antenna height to get well into San Diego and its surrounding suburbs. I suppose all their clients were on the Mexican side of the border. There were AM stations that got into San Diego and even up to LA, such as 1090 XEPRS, but they had lots of talk and commercials. XHLTN was run very professionally, with only four commercial breaks an hour and very deep-voiced DJs doing only a few sentences of weather, news or chatter between music sets. While my Spanish is only so-so, I could tell that XHLTN had roughly equal numbers of sponsors on both sides of the border.

I guess over time XHLTN lost its edge, as other Mexican FMs got power or height increases, as the Easy Listening format faded and as San Diego got two U.S.-licensed FM stations broadcasting in Spanish.


Gregg
[email protected]

I also noticed that XHLTN has fallen over the years when Califormula was broadcasting Radio Latina they played much more variety and had better Radio Talks but once Grupo Imagen took over the station callapsed a bit. I guess Tijuana has lots of competition over radio now.

 

[davideduardo]

I remember 25 years ago when XHLTN was the top Spanish-language FM radio station in the San Diego market. Yes, there were XETRA-FM and XHRM broadcasting in English.

Looking at the Arbitron data at http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Duncan-American-Radio-Issue-Guide.htm I see many books in the mid-80s where no Spanish station made significant numbers.

In fact, looking just at the Spring books, I don't find any Spanish station with any shares until around around Fall of '87 where XHLTN had a 1.2 and XEMO had a 0.4.

By around 1988, the battle for US-side Spanish language listening was split between XEMO and XHLTN, with each winning on occasion... and both in the 0.6 to 1.2 broad range. In the early 90's, XEMO tended to be the winner, too. By the mid 90's, XEMO seemed dominant, with KURS and XHLTN lagging behind them.

XEPRS did occasionally get small numbers, but it was targeted at LA with studios on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Of course, in those years 25 years ago, the sampling of Hispanics was very poor, and San Diego had a much smaller percentage of Hispanics than it does today.

Víctor Díaz was a member of the Díaz Romo family which founded Radios Comerciales, S.A., in Guadalajara, and which had at its peak about a dozen stations in one of the most beautiful radio buildings I have ever seen. They expanded into Sinaloa and other states, and Víctor moved into B.C.N. when heirs to Radios Comerciales engaged in near-lethal warfare over the estate of Díaz Romo.

 

[davideduardo]

I also noticed that XHLTN has fallen over the years when Califormula was broadcasting Radio Latina they played much more variety and had better Radio Talks but once Grupo Imagen took over the station callapsed a bit. I guess Tijuana has lots of competition over radio now.

Actually, Radio Latina is close to its best performance ever in recent PPM years, consistently scoring #3 among all Spanish language stations. The good programming of Libia Sauza, who has been there for more than a decade, and the Selector and research experience of her husband Horacio Gonzalez (who was a successful programmer in a market of 17 million) have resulted in good numbers as they tightened the playlist and adapted to the PPM.

 

[davideduardo]

Currently I just found out there(sic) broadcasting in San Diego Check it out: http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=d8e9ad06-8968-4cca-b113-2a1d72d972c4

They have an office at 2403 Hoover Ave in National City. They are still a Mexican station licensed to Tijuana, BCN, Mexico with its transmitter on the hills around Colonia México in Tijuana.

I believe that the Hoover office is principally a sales office, although I think they still have an FCC license to relay programming across the border.

 

[radio-darn]

I was a Vice President for Califormula, and a newscaster on their English language Jammin Z-90, over the course of about 10 years.

At it's peak it was Radio Latina and Fiesta Mexicana (which later became Hot Country 99.3) in Spanish, Jammin Z-90 in English, and "XLNC" classical with mostly English announcements. It also included Califormula Publishing (we did two books and worked on a few others that never came to fruition).

The main offices were in Chula Vista, with transmitters in Tijuana. Most of the ad sales were in the US and overall the operation was very profitable for Victor and his wife: somebody left a floppy disk in a computer I was working on and it had some numbers

When Jacor (later Clear Channel) came to town, the always eccentric Victor got very paranoid and even suspected they'd sabotaged his car. He spent a lot of time (and money) on his dislike of that company (Victor shelled out lots and lots of money to consultants for such projects).

Eventually though something made him decide to sell: Clear Channel got the programming rights to all but XLNC and they found a new Mexican owner for the transmitters. As best I could learn, the Diaz family got somewhere around $40-60 million. Based on numbers I had seen, they were making well over $4 million a year in after-tax profit in the 90's.

Victor died in 2004 at age 62. The family kept XLNC Classical going - Victor started that (first as an online station) because he loved classical music and hated San Diego's then classical station. They also kept the Califormula building just west of I-5 along San Diego Bay at the Main Street exit in Chula Vista. The building also houses Victor extensive color photography collection under the banner of the International Institute of Photographic Authors (many of us Califormula employees spent as much time on that as we did on the radio business).

Califormula also included various websites Victor wanted, including FECHA, the First Electronic Church of America, unchanged since perhaps 1996: http://fecha.org/ (I wrote many of the bios on there).

Victor was a big proponent of technology and we had internal computer networks, and later websites, long before most San Diego broadcasters.

Califormula still exists with XLNC and the Chula Vista building, stuck in a time warp really since 2002.

 

[Radiomusik]

I was a Vice President for Califormula, and a newscaster on their English language Jammin Z-90, over the course of about 10 years.

At it's peak it was Radio Latina and Fiesta Mexicana (which later became Hot Country 99.3) in Spanish, Jammin Z-90 in English, and "XLNC" classical with mostly English announcements. It also included Califormula Publishing (we did two books and worked on a few others that never came to fruition).

The main offices were in Chula Vista, with transmitters in Tijuana. Most of the ad sales were in the US and overall the operation was very profitable for Victor and his wife: somebody left a floppy disk in a computer I was working on and it had some numbers

When Jacor (later Clear Channel) came to town, the always eccentric Victor got very paranoid and even suspected they'd sabotaged his car. He spent a lot of time (and money) on his dislike of that company (Victor shelled out lots and lots of money to consultants for such projects).

Eventually though something made him decide to sell: Clear Channel got the programming rights to all but XLNC and they found a new Mexican owner for the transmitters. As best I could learn, the Diaz family got somewhere around $40-60 million. Based on numbers I had seen, they were making well over $4 million a year in after-tax profit in the 90's.

Victor died in 2004 at age 62. The family kept XLNC Classical going - Victor started that (first as an online station) because he loved classical music and hated San Diego's then classical station. They also kept the Califormula building just west of I-5 along San Diego Bay at the Main Street exit in Chula Vista. The building also houses Victor extensive color photography collection under the banner of the International Institute of Photographic Authors (many of us Califormula employees spent as much time on that as we did on the radio business).

Califormula also included various websites Victor wanted, including FECHA, the First Electronic Church of America, unchanged since perhaps 1996: http://fecha.org/ (I wrote many of the bios on there).

Victor was a big proponent of technology and we had internal computer networks, and later websites, long before most San Diego broadcasters.

Califormula still exists with XLNC and the Chula Vista building, stuck in a time warp really since 2002.

WOW this seems a lot useful I guess Victor had some background with his Broadcasting career. Califormula is a bit confusing I believe were missing some other stations before they also owned EXA FM and La Mejor, check this part http://web.archive.org/web/20000620144705/http://calradio.com/

X99 which was 99.3 was the Fiesta Mexicana?

 

[Radiomusik]

I was a Vice President for Califormula, and a newscaster on their English language Jammin Z-90, over the course of about 10 years.

At it's peak it was Radio Latina and Fiesta Mexicana (which later became Hot Country 99.3) in Spanish, Jammin Z-90 in English, and "XLNC" classical with mostly English announcements. It also included Califormula Publishing (we did two books and worked on a few others that never came to fruition).

The main offices were in Chula Vista, with transmitters in Tijuana. Most of the ad sales were in the US and overall the operation was very profitable for Victor and his wife: somebody left a floppy disk in a computer I was working on and it had some numbers

When Jacor (later Clear Channel) came to town, the always eccentric Victor got very paranoid and even suspected they'd sabotaged his car. He spent a lot of time (and money) on his dislike of that company (Victor shelled out lots and lots of money to consultants for such projects).

Eventually though something made him decide to sell: Clear Channel got the programming rights to all but XLNC and they found a new Mexican owner for the transmitters. As best I could learn, the Diaz family got somewhere around $40-60 million. Based on numbers I had seen, they were making well over $4 million a year in after-tax profit in the 90's.

Victor died in 2004 at age 62. The family kept XLNC Classical going - Victor started that (first as an online station) because he loved classical music and hated San Diego's then classical station. They also kept the Califormula building just west of I-5 along San Diego Bay at the Main Street exit in Chula Vista. The building also houses Victor extensive color photography collection under the banner of the International Institute of Photographic Authors (many of us Califormula employees spent as much time on that as we did on the radio business).

Califormula also included various websites Victor wanted, including FECHA, the First Electronic Church of America, unchanged since perhaps 1996: http://fecha.org/ (I wrote many of the bios on there).

Victor was a big proponent of technology and we had internal computer networks, and later websites, long before most San Diego broadcasters.

Califormula still exists with XLNC and the Chula Vista building, stuck in a time warp really since 2002.

WOW this seems a lot useful I guess Victor had some background with his Broadcasting career. Califormula is a bit confusing I believe were missing some other stations before they also owned EXA FM and La Mejor, check this part http://web.archive.org/web/20000620144705/http://calradio.com/

X99 which was 99.3 was the Fiesta Mexicana?

Forgot to mention how did Grupo Imagen took over XHLTN 104.5?

 

[radio-darn]

before they also owned EXA FM and La Mejor, check this part http://web.archive.org/web/20000620144705/http://calradio.com/

X99 which was 99.3 was the Fiesta Mexicana?

Gee, I did that web page, but i can't remember what the deal was with EXA and La Mejor: I think they might have just been doing sales for them.

X99 was Fiesta Mexicana. It was originally at 95.7 until Victor engineered a deal no one thought could be done and moved it 99.3, which allowed what is now KOGO-FM (then KUSS) to increase power (something that increased its value considerably for then owner Jeff Chandler).

 

[Radiomusik]

before they also owned EXA FM and La Mejor, check this part http://web.archive.org/web/20000620144705/http://calradio.com/

X99 which was 99.3 was the Fiesta Mexicana?

Gee, I did that web page, but i can't remember what the deal was with EXA and La Mejor: I think they might have just been doing sales for them.

X99 was Fiesta Mexicana. It was originally at 95.7 until Victor engineered a deal no one thought could be done and moved it 99.3, which allowed what is now KOGO-FM (then KUSS) to increase power (something that increased its value considerably for then owner Jeff Chandler).

Actually 99.3 was Stereo Hits is was broadcasted by Grupo Multimedios and then Stereo moved to XHRST 107.7 FM which is now Los 40 Principales.

Heres some of the previous stations that XHRST served: Stereo Hits, La Comadre, Spazio, Digital Solo Exitos and now 40 Principales

 

[davideduardo]

Forgot to mention how did Grupo Imagen took over XHLTN 104.5?

They bought it from the family trust of Víctor Díaz when the for-profit stations were sold off, as Radio-darn has already explained.

 

[davideduardo]

Califormula is a bit confusing I believe were missing some other stations before they also owned EXA FM and La Mejor, check this part http://web.archive.org/web/20000620144705/http://calradio.com/

Exa and La Mejor are brands of MVS, the second or third largest communications company in Mexico.

 

[Radiomusik]

Forgot to mention how did Grupo Imagen took over XHLTN 104.5?

They bought it from the family trust of Víctor Díaz when the for-profit stations were sold off.

Thank you for the information DavidEduardo, radio-darn, Gregg and johndavis fully appreciate it!

 

[radio-darn]

Actually 99.3 was Stereo Hits is was broadcasted by Grupo Multimedios and then Stereo moved to XHRST 107.7 FM which is now Los 40 Principales.

Tijuana's 99.3 was Califormula's Fiesta Mexicana until Victor turned it into Hot Country in 1999. I don't know what happened after Califormula got rid of its stations.

 

[Radiomusik]

Actually 99.3 was Stereo Hits is was broadcasted by Grupo Multimedios and then Stereo moved to XHRST 107.7 FM which is now Los 40 Principales.

Tijuana's 99.3 was Califormula's Fiesta Mexicana until Victor turned it into Hot Country in 1999. I don't know what happened after Califormula got rid of its stations.

Well when Hot Country went off air Clear Channel took over as La Preciosa 99.3 was launched and later La Mejor took over the 99.3 and moved to 90.7 frequency and today Diego 99.3, all owned by MVS Radio which DavidEduardo explained.