The Federal Communications Commission has long been one of the most totalitarian
of US federal agencies. I'm one patriotic American who would argue that it is
none of the FCC's business who broadcasts beyond the Mexican boundary. I hope
Clear Channel takes the FCC to court, and I wish the company every success.
In some remote parts of Texas, if it wasn't for Mexican television stations,
there wouldn't be any TV at all. Mexican radio and TV stations along the border
typically serve their entire international communities. I have heard paid
political advertising by Texas politicians in English on Mexican radio stations
along the border. Why? Because that's the only local radio in the market!
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "hilversum96" <hilversum96@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 8:16 PM
Subject: [BoundaryPoint] San Diego / Tijuana border radio story
> http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-radio12jul12,1,720816.story
>
> The Los Angeles Times site requires registration, but it's free.
>
> To sum up the story: Clear Channel, owner of over a thousand US radio
> stations, had avoided the limits on the number of broadcast
> properties one company may control in a single market by leasing the
> entire broadcast day on five Tijuana BC stations. Under the old
> Federal Communications Commission rules, the San Diego radio market
> ended at the US-MX border. Under new rules adopted this month, SD and
> Tijuana are considered all one entity for radio audience measurement,
> and group ownership, purposes.
>
> The San Diego situation has always been unique among US cities: a big
> city next to another big city across an international border, where
> English is not the official language, but where there's always been a
> handful of stations beaming their programming to a foreign country.
>
> The tradition of MX-US cross border listening goes back to the days
> of high-powered stations within sight of the Rio Grande, whose mix of
> country and hillbilly music, preachers, and ads for patent medicines,
> was beamed exclusively to US listeners. Then came Wolfman
> jack,"infomercials" selling oldies albums by mail order, and XETRA-
> FM, a pioneer modern rock station.
>
> XEPRS, the Wolfman's old home, is now all Spanish, but XETRA's AM
> sister station has aired a variety of English formats for over forty
> years, and XHRM is the "jammin' oldies" station for San Diego. The
> only clue that the stations are in Mexico is the Spanish legal ID
> given once an hour. (Which was always part of the mystique of
> listening to Mexican radio on the US side of the border: like the
> kids in "American Graffiti," you never knew exactly where it was
> coming from.)
>
>
>
>
>
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