zumahans said:
1. "XETRA is a classic border blaster." WRONG. Look it up anywhere, a classic border blaster was (a) in English, (b) selling products (many of them illegal or questionable), to (c) audiences all across the continent, relying on (d) direct response advertising. XETRA dates from, what, 1961?, and came after the border blaster era had petered out. XETRA has always been aimed at the SD and LA markets, having sales offices and occasional ratings (back in its all-news 60s, and briefly with Jim Rome) up in LA.
A border blaster is any Mexican station of significant power that directs its programming at more than a border "city pair."
XEAK and then XETRA were engineered to put very little power over Mexico and to send most of the RF towards Los Angeles and Sothern California.
The border blaster era did not "peter out" prior to 1961. The "goat gland" stuff did, but not the programming directed at the US, whether in English or Spanish. In fact, XERF put a new RCA 250 kw AM rig on in about 1959 under GM Sergio Ballesteros and ran religious and gospel and such programming (including The Wolfman) well into the 80's. XEG from Monterrey ran Spanish in daylight hours, and English at night into the 80's. XERB tried to serve LA and even Bakersfield etc., well into the 70's in English and in Spanish through the early 2000's from studios in Hollywood.
XELO, and later, XEROK 800 ran 150 kw from Juarez at the Southwest until the early 80's.
XETRA, even today, thinks it is serving LA, not San Diego and not the Tijuana market. Heck, it has studios in Burbank and does LA traffic reports.
The reason few still program at the US is that AM has declined so, especially in night time listening.
2. "Border blasters" like what you describe are far different from the Tijuana stations that serve the San Diego market 24/7, David. The old XEMO, XER, XERF, XEG etc. blowtorches used nighttime skywave AM propogation during the period from the 1930s through the 1950s to reach AM audiences all across North America. They included such colorful characters as Wolfman Jack, Rev. Ike, "Dr." J.R. Brinkley, and Pappy O'Daniel. Perhaps you should consult the excellent book "Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves" by Bill Bradford. Totally-incorrect conclusion.
XEMO-860 was never a border blaster, with 5 kw on 860.
XERF is the continuation of XER, with a new 250 kw transmitter installed in 1959! You forgot XELO, XEROK, XERB, XEAK, XETRA, XEPRS among the border blasters that continued on into the 60's and 70's and 80's.
I am shocked you do not know the true history of border blasters, which were AM stations that programmed shows (many of them for illegal, quack cures) for U.S. audiences at night. This is far different from an AM, FM or TV station providing conventional commercial programming 24/7 for just the one local market, San Diego.
XETRA today perfectly fits the definiton of a border blaster: using a huge signal to serve other than the local maket. XEPRS has a signal listenable in Anchorage, but they choose to use it as a local staiton. It is still a border blaster as it sends its signal towards the US, not its home country.
Sergio Ballesteros of XERF is a long-time friend of mine, now living in Puerto Rico. He managed XERF for Richard Eaton, who owned it in part via his Mexican wife.
3. I was making fun of Grupo Prisa, which is headquarters in MADRID. And I capitalize it because it is a proper noun, which in English is capitalized. This conversation is in English, and if that makes you squirm then perhaps we can switch over to German. Supercilious, fatuous correction.
Nah, you just don't know anything about PRISA.
And you know about as much about border blasters as you do about what the definiton of a market is, what the definiton of a rimshot is and about how "Tijuana" is not part of the San Diego market...
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