XERF-Del Rio, TX
DSmith2381
250kw.....Studios in Del Rio, TX, Xmtr across river in Mexico.
I last heard this Xmtr back in the mid '60s......As I remember. May have been
earlier. Good signal strength in Eastern NC between 8 and Midnight ET........
Is it still operating? And at what power level?
Thanks for any responses.......
Don Smith
David Eduardo
"DSmith2381" <dsmit...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:t5nqdkp...@corp.supernews.com...
> Wondering if anyone remembers above station.......on 1570 khz operating
with
> 250kw.....Studios in Del Rio, TX, Xmtr across river in Mexico.
>
> I last heard this Xmtr back in the mid '60s......As I remember. May have
been
> earlier. Good signal strength in Eastern NC between 8 and Midnight
ET........
>
> Is it still operating? And at what power level?
XERF is now owned by IMER, the Mexican Institute of Radio, and is reportedly
running 10 kw days and, perhaps 50 at night. Transmitters in disrepair.
In the 60's, it was owned by the Mexican wife of Richard Eaton of United
Broadcasting. The GM at the time, Sergio Ballesteros, is a friend of mine
and now lives in Puerto Rico. There was, according to him, no Del Rio
studio, but just a mail drop. Almost all the shows came on phone lines or
were prerecorded and played a day later off tape.
In an interesting story, in about 1959 the partners who had been forced to
go along with the majority owner in selling to Eaton tried to capture the
station, and rode right into the lobby on horses carrying guns!
The local power grid could not handle the 250 kw transmitter (which ran only
at night) so they had to generate their own power and also provided street
lighting to the neighborhood.
I also recall the resurrection plant, the live baby chicks, the prayer table
cloth and the autographed pictures of Jesus (Perhaps it was just Jesús
González, one of the employees...). Another friend, now a radio talk host,
came from an upscale family on Miami Beach. She ordered baby chicks for all
of her mother's stuffy friends, all of whom received boxes of 25 chicks,
about half of which had expired in the mail.
XERF was a piece of radio history, alright.
Peter
>>
Is it still operating? And at what power level?
>>
Yes, but the 250 kW Tx never worked properly, and the station operated at 50 kW
until about 10 years ago.
The station has been operating at 10 kW for about the past 10 years.
The station has not applied for "grandfathered" status at 10 kW, and is still
"notified" at 250 kW even though it has no capability to do so.
It is presently operated by an educational institution.
David Eduardo
"Peter" <peter...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:t5pr0em...@corp.supernews.com...
>
> >>
> Is it still operating? And at what power level?
> >>
>
50 kW
> until about 10 years ago.
>
> The station has been operating at 10 kW for about the past 10 years.
>
> The station has not applied for "grandfathered" status at 10 kW, and is
still
> "notified" at 250 kW even though it has no capability to do so.
>
> It is presently operated by an educational institution.
Actually, IMER is a government bureau that is semi-autonomous and intended
to be profitable in most markets while providing either coverage of
underserved areas (rural or indigenous) or formats that are not preferred by
other commercial broadcasters (classical, traditional Mexican, etc.) It has
no educational stations.
The entity is typical of state-owned enterprises-for-profit... a bit less
than professional and overstaffed.
Fred Cantu
>"notified" at 250 kW even though it has no capability to do so.
>
>It is presently operated by an educational institution.
IMER-- the Mexican Radio Institute-- is an educational institution. But most
of its stations are commercial operations. In fact it operates a few
commercial pop FMs-- including one in Mexico City.
Fred Cantu
Austin, TX
Jim W
with
> 250kw.....Studios in Del Rio, TX, Xmtr across river in Mexico.
>
there was an engineer doing some maintenance. He told me the station
supplied street lighting for the neighborhood.
I had more than an idle interest in XERF. It was a contributor to my
continued health and well being. At the time I was a USAF Jet Basic flight
instructor at Laredo AFB, down the river from Del Rio.
We did a lot of night flying. In the early 60's our Lockheed T-33 jet
trainers had no VOR or DME navigational aids...just low frequency AM ADF
homing radios (and ILS). The T-33 had enough performance to get you away
from home port in a hurry and burned fuel rapidly enough to get you into
trouble equally fast if you did not maintain good "situational awareness."
Nights can be dark in southwest Texas with not too many ground-lights for
reference. The 1 kw low frequency navigational beacon at Laredo was puny at
best and easily obliterated by area thunderstorms.
That is where the big-watts of XERF were a confidence builder. Granted it
was well north of Laredo, but putting the ADF on XERF at least kept you
orientated generally into the quadrant where you were supposed to be, east
of Mexico and south of Del Rio.
I spent lots of dark nights above 30,000 feet watching for guidance an ADF
needle pointing toward Sister Rosetta Blankenship and the XERF Prisoner's
Bible Hour.
Cbo...@earthlink.net
>
> > Wondering if anyone remembers above station.......on 1570 khz operating
> with
> > 250kw.....Studios in Del Rio, TX, Xmtr across river in Mexico.
> >
> > I last heard this Xmtr back in the mid '60s......As I remember. May have
> been
> > earlier. Good signal strength in Eastern NC between 8 and Midnight
> ET........
> >
> > Is it still operating? And at what power level?
>
> XERF is now owned by IMER, the Mexican Institute of Radio, and is reportedly
> running 10 kw days and, perhaps 50 at night. Transmitters in disrepair.
>
> In the 60's, it was owned by the Mexican wife of Richard Eaton of United
> Broadcasting. The GM at the time, Sergio Ballesteros, is a friend of mine
> and now lives in Puerto Rico. There was, according to him, no Del Rio
> studio, but just a mail drop. Almost all the shows came on phone lines or
> were prerecorded and played a day later off tape.
Maybe he was thinking XERK, Juarez(X ROCK 80) on 800 kHz? that 250KW
blowtorch DID have studios in Texas...and would ship the tapes across
the border to the xmit site for a while (I think it was an hour behind
on the air?) THEN they finally got FCC/Mexican permission to put
a STL shot across the border and go live from Texas...
I understand it too is under a government arm now...I hated it when
they quit playing American style Top40 music in the 80s...Damn
they sounded good!
Chris
WB5ITT
Chief Engineer
KDMX / KEGL
Dallas
Peter
>>
Maybe he was thinking XERK, Juarez(X ROCK 80) on 800 kHz?
>>
That's XEROK (ex-XELO). 150 kW.
David Eduardo
>
> >>
> Maybe he was thinking XERK, Juarez(X ROCK 80) on 800 kHz?
> >>
>
Which is reported to be running 50 kw or less at the moment.
Peter
>>
> That's XEROK (ex-XELO). 150 kW.
Which is reported to be running 50 kw or less at the moment.
>>
Seems several of the old Border Blasters have been running at less than
"notified" power.
XEROK/800 (ex-XELO) "notified" at 150 kW, now believed to be running at 50 kW
(or less).
XERF/1570 (ex-XERA, exx-XER) "notified" at 250 kW, ran with 50 kW for decades,
has been running at 10 kW for about a decade.
XEDM/1580 formerly "notified" at 100 kW days, 50 kW nights, now believed to be
operating 50 kW.
I wonder what XEG/1050 is curently running. It is "notified" at 150 kW.
Drew A. Durigan
singing about in "Heard it on the X?"
My guess is XEROK, since they were Top 40 in the 70s when the song came out.
-Drew in Sunny Central Florida-
Jeffrey Adams
Dear Drew:
They referenced 1966 in the song. ZZ also make reference the preachers who were
on the air at the time. I don't think they were talking about rock (and roll)
radio.
I was never sure who, specifically, if any, they were singing about, either, but
we unofficially adopted the song when we signed 91X on in September 1978.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta
CA was in NJ
>Is this the station that Wolfman Jack was on for a while?
I seem to remember The Wolfman was on 2 different Mexican stations, but I
could easily be wrong. I do know he was on XERB "The Big X. Mighty 1090"
I have a sound clip of the Wolfman online at
http://cainnj.cjb.net/Wolfman_XERB.wav if anyone is interested.
--
*************
Note: Send replies to cainnj at mailandnews dot com
Jerry Trowbridge
>Is this the station that Wolfman Jack was on for a while?
The Wolfman was first on XERF, Villa Acuna, Coah., MX. He then moved
to XERB, Rosarita Beach (?) BC, MX.
-
Jerry Trowbridge
--at Flying Pig Ranch
Peter
>>
The Wolfman was first on XERF, Villa Acuna, Coah., MX. He then moved to XERB,
Rosarita Beach (?) BC, MX.
>>
XEPRS/1090 is indeed "notified" to Rosarita Beach BCN, MX.
XERTA/690 recently moved from its Tiajuana site to Rosarito ... just across the
street from XEPRs.
Peter
>>
The Wolfman was first on XERF, Villa Acuna, Coah., MX. He then moved to XERB,
Rosarita Beach (?) BC, MX.
>>
Wolfman also ran for governor of California (he lost to Ronald Reagan) and
registered as a trademark "XERB", thereby preventing the real XERB from using
that "mark" in commerce. XERB thereafter changed its call to XEPRS.
Before Wolfman was on XERF, he was on KWKH/1130, Shreveport, LA.
Drew A. Durigan
<jtl...@FlyingPigRanch.com> writes:
>The Wolfman was first on XERF, Villa Acuna, Coah., MX. He then moved
>to XERB, Rosarita Beach (?) BC, MX.
He also did "guest appearances" on at least one other border blaster. I have
tape of Wolf on the Catfish Prewitt show. Nights, XEROX, 1974. Great stuff!
David Eduardo
Rosarito's farm is actually home to three higher power AM stations....
XEPRS, XETRA and XEKAM-950, whose towers are between those of the other two
on the coastal highway to Ensenada.
Patrick Griffith
Wolfman Jack) mentions the Wolfman being on XERB, XERF, XEG, XELO, and
much later in his career on XETRA.
It seems to me that XELO is the station where I remember listening to
the Wolfman in the late 60s. I have a QSL card from them dated 02/19/68.
It can be seen on my web site at http://community.webtv.net/N0NNK/
Peter
>>
Rosarito's farm is actually home to three higher power AM stations ... XEPRS,
XETRA and XEKAM-950, whose towers are between those of the other two on the
coastal highway to Ensenada.
>>
Tiajuana's 950 being one of the very first Regionals to use more than 5 kW.
And that was several decades (four ?) before "Rio" formally approved operation
at more than 5 kW on such a channel.
David Eduardo
I recall the old XEGM being 10 kw from about 1972 on.
Someone had some pull in Mexico City, eh?
Fred Cantu
>registered as a trademark "XERB", thereby preventing the real XERB from using
>that "mark" in commerce. XERB thereafter changed its call to XEPRS.
The XERB calls now belong to an AM/FM combo in Cozumel.
Fred Cantu
Austin, TX
Peter
>>
I recall the old XEGM being 10 kw from about 1972 on.
Someone had some pull in Mexico City, eh?
>>
I guess more than one might imagine.
This operation was 10 kW days/5 kW nights from at least 1964, according to my
recollection, and probably earlier.
CA was in NJ
>The book Border Radio by Gene Fowler & Bill Crawford (with foreword by
>Wolfman Jack) mentions the Wolfman being on XERB, XERF, XEG, XELO, and
>much later in his career on XETRA.
Moving a little later......
I remember occasionally listening to the Wolfman on WNBC/New York after
Sportsnight during the mid 80's, but it's only a hazy recollection. Was
that syndicated or exclusive to WNBC?
Mark Howell
<REPLY-TO_cainnj-at-mail...@skywave.yi.org> wrote:
>I remember occasionally listening to the Wolfman on WNBC/New York after
>Sportsnight during the mid 80's, but it's only a hazy recollection. Was
>that syndicated or exclusive to WNBC?
It was exclusive to WNBC. You might check out Wolfman's autobiography
for more.
I lived and worked upstate at the time. The show was a great listen.
Mark Howell
News Director, KUZZ AM/FM, KCWR (FM)
Bakersfield, CA
Joel Hermann
> Patrick Griffith wrote:
>
> >The book Border Radio by Gene Fowler & Bill Crawford (with foreword by
> >Wolfman Jack) mentions the Wolfman being on XERB, XERF, XEG, XELO, and
> >much later in his career on XETRA.
>
> Moving a little later......
>
> I remember occasionally listening to the Wolfman on WNBC/New York after
> Sportsnight during the mid 80's, but it's only a hazy recollection. Was
> that syndicated or exclusive to WNBC?
>
I remember hearing this a few times (the local college put it up overnight
on their cable channel) It was a local WNBC show, apparently put up on a
satellite channel just as fill.
The times I heard it, there was a d.j. live at WNBC and all of the Wolfman
bits were taped. The Wolfman even took phone calls from listeners,
"talking" to the caller via taped bits. It sounded fairly convincing at
first, until you heard a few calls and realized they were using the same
taped bits over and over. But I'm sure the callers really thought they were
talking to the Wolfman!
Joel Hermann
DaVoice
had the very distinct pleasure of Publishing a Music Magazine in San Diego,
when he made his "TRIUMPHANT RETURN" to the airwaves in the late 80's...I
got to know him fairly well, and even had him writing a column called
"WolfTrax" for my publication. I also have one of the only known pictures of
he and his lovely wife together, which he allowed me to take while I was
shooting the cover shot for my mag. Not only was Wolf a pioneer in our
industry (border radio), he told me of having to SMUGGLE the records into
mexico when he was on XERF. It was illegal at the time to bring the records
across the border.
Another thing that most probably don't know if they haven't read his
biography, is that during the day He was BOB SMITH the SALES GUY for XERF in
the Del Rio, Tx area. I had the DISTINCT HONOR of knowing the man, and
being there when the first ever ACROSS THE BORDER FEED happened from the
studios of XTRA (now xtra sports 690, was 69 xtra gold). It was the first
time the FCC and the Mexican authorities let a signal originating in the
U.S. be broadcast from a Mexican licensed transmitter, which allowed him to
COMREX his show from his studio in his house (after the bugs were worked
out).
Hope I didn't bore you, but I actually cried when I heard of his passing
while I was driving home (at that time Mason City, Ia) so I could get an
hour of sleep before I did Wake-Ups that morning on KIAI (the Country
Moose). I will always miss him and also the good things he did through the
"Starlight Foundation"...Love ya Wolf
Rick Charles, aka Charlie Darren, aka Hugh Jass (long ago), aka Digby Welsh,
aka...well, you get the point