edition 210 - DX Archive

MEDITM WAT<E NWS
VOLUME 29 NO. 7.
EDITION
210
JUNE 1983
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XERF
Ciudad AcuGa, Mexico Every day in a Mexican border studio just outside the FCC I s
reach, a disc jockey f l i p s a switch and launches the radio signal heard around the
continent. It's 0 0 st l i k e the years have not passed since l i s t e n e r s could hear
the legendary sign-on
most powerful commercial uperation in the e n t i r e world
today Station XEaE' in Ciudad ~ c G a ,Mexico
i s on the air coast to coast,
border t o border, whoever you are, wherever you m a y be. This i s Paul Kallinger,
your good neighbor along the way."
In -those days, truckers across the country could pick up Kallinger's country and
western drawl every night a t 1570 on t h e i r AM d i a l . Hot rodding teear-agars could
catch Wolfman Jack's rock'n roU. howl. kt the voicee went s i l e n t in the l a t e
1960s and became p a r t of radio history. The border blaster era was ending, and
XEiF was the most notable victim. Now, the famed station, long relegated to lower
power and solely religious pmgramming, is coming back to l i f e again a t its f u l l
250,000 Watt strength and with a mainstream appeal.
The station i s playing an e l e c t r i c mixture of pop and oldies tunes, country and
western music by veteran all-night trucker disc jockey Bill Mack, as w e l l as the
evangelical preachings, on a signal t h a t can be heard up to 6,000 miles 0 . w ~ . The
revfval was spurred t h i s year by' a 31-year-old electronics expert who managed to
repair XEEF"s mammoth RCA transmitter and by speculatian t h a t enough advertising
could be attracted to support the venture.
XERF' s renewal sent a charge through national radio circles. It quicWy caught the
i n t e r e s t of Mack, the nationally famous disc jockey who l e f t Fort Worth's WBAP
a f t e r a disagreement with management.
"I've always wanted t o work for XERF s a p e I used t o l i s t e n to it when I was in
high school in the Psnf;Yldlen said Mack. '?t was a proven o u t l e t years ago. I
think we need the f a c i l i t y and I ' d l i k e t o make it the most fmous country and
western station i n the country."
Should t h a t grand vision come true, it would add a f i t t i n g chapter to a phenasnenon
t h a t marked the mmories of a generation of radio-craw teenagers in the 1950s and
1960s. During the heyday, the station made household names of radio preachers l i k e
the Rev J.C. Bishop of Dallas and the Rev. Lester Roloff of Corpus Chrlsti and
generated millions of dollars in nationwide mail order sales of everything from
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2l i v e baby chicks t o record albums. tTolks, would you l i k e to have fryingsize chickens
i n j u s t a few weeks and pay only 3 cents a piece f o r 'emn Kdlanger would boom i n his
bass baritone i n t o t h e microphone. "And r m b e r
any chick l o s t i n t h e first 10
days w i l l be replaced f r e e of charge. Orders f o r the "Sunshine Chicks" and other
assorted paraphernalia came across t h e continent, drawn by the s t a t i o n ' s far-flung
signal.
The t a l e s of XERF1s staggering power, f i v e t i n e s g r e a t e r than t h e strongest US
s t a t i o n , a r e a popular p a r t of radio industry l o r e . '? remember when we first s e t
up t h e big transmittern s a i d Kallinger recently. "A fanner who l i v e d nearby s a i d
all he had t o do to g e t e l e c t r i c l i g h t was to s t i c k a wire i n t o t h e ground and it
would l i g h t up t h e bulbs i n h i s house.
The s t a t i o n ' s signal routinely reached Russia where Soviet spies reportedly tuned in
to polish t h e i r American b g l i s h , s a i d Arturo Gonzales, current XERF air-time
manager, quoting a book about t h e Russian KGB s e c u r i t y agency.
The behemoth transmitter broke down i n the l a t e 1960s about the time t h e s t a t i o n ' s
advertisers happened t o be defecting en masse to W. Since then, XERF has remained
on t h e a i r with its backup 50.000 Watt transmitter, broadcasting only night-time
evangelistic programming. The r i s i n g advertising dominance of television also
claimed t h e six other Ehglish language b l a s t e r s XERF's success has spawned. Those
s t a t i o n s , aligned in a s t r i n g along t h e 2,000 mile Mexican border, gradually
switched t o Spanish-language programs t o s t a y alive.
Gonzales s a i d XERF1s r e b i r t h began l a s t summer when Wolfman Jack, an XERF disc
jockey from 1962 t o 1964, ran i n t o acquaintance Mike Vendetti a t a benefit and
mentioned the long-idled transmitter. Vendetti, an electronics whiz and a radio
buff "since I was o l d enough t o turn a d i a l n , jumped a t the challenge to f i r e up
t h e u n i t agsin. "Everyone i n the business knew XERF had been operating on a back up
50.000 Watt transmitlter because n o b o a was able to make t h e big one work," Vendetti
said. "The RCA people had l o s t the manual years ago, but I was able t o g e t it up Co
full power without even a schematic drawing. I did it a l l from the top of my headn.
That f e a t l e d to a grander scheme.
opened up p o s s i b i l i t i e s f o r me of operating
t h e world's most powerful stationR, Vendetti said. Vendetti leased the vacant daytime 6am-9pm airtime from Gonzales, and l a s t summer p u t on '2ove 16" a blend of
s o f t rock, oldies, middle-of-the-road country and Big Band.
Mack began h i s on-theroad truckers show this month i n the 2 t o 6am time s l o t . Both
tape t h e i r programs in advance f o r play l a t e r a t the Ciudad Acuna s t a t i o n , but
Vendetti s a i d a microwave r e l a y w i l l be s e t u p t o the border transmitter i n t h e next
few months t o allow Mack to broadcast h i s program l i v e from a Fort Worth studio and
enable Love 16 to emanate l i v e from Del Rio.
Wolfman Jack s a i d he plans to do a s p e c i d broadcast f o r the station, but dll not
return t o a regular show. In between the new programming, t h e pulpit-pounding
evangelists w i l l continue t o tend t h e i r i n t e r c o n t i n e ~ t a lflocks 'We're s t i l l going
to have the preacher, but we've done away with the f a i t h s healing programs because
the Maxican government s a i d they had to gow, Gonzales said.
That p a r t i c u l a r concession ends one colorful ljnk XERF had with its s t o r i e d
ancestor, XER, the o r i g i n a l border b l a s t e r created by eccentric Kansas ndoctorn
John R. Rrinkley.&fnkley b u i l t up the s t a t i o n i n Ciudad ~ c u i i aa f t e r the then
Federal Radio Commission suspended his Milford, Kan., s t a t i o n ' s l i c e n s e because of
h i s extensive advertising f o r h i s c l i n i c , which specialized i n rejuvenating e l d e r l y
men by implanting glands i n the p a t i e n t t s scrotums. &inkley moved his c l i n i c t o
Del Fiio where h i s s t a t i o n ' s potrerful signal, outside the FCC's jurisdiction and
50.000 Watt l i m i t , drew thousands of cus txmers and mail t h a t i n one peak week h i t
27,000 pieces, s a i d Gonzales, 72, a s t u d m t of t h e s t a t i o n ' s history. The goatgland doctor's o eration eventually roved an embarrassment t o t h e Mexican Government, which conf scated t h e s t a t i o n
3939. Ihe s t a t i m renained s i l e n t u n t i l
19b7, when a group of Mexican -hvestor~;renamed it XERF and put it back on t h e a i r .
Twelve years l a t e r they ensurea i t s dcminance of North American airwaves by
i n s t a l l i n g the g i a n t 250.000 Watt transmitter, more than twice the power of t h e
previous equipment.
The s t a t i o n ' s enormous coverage area made i t a n a t u r a l f o r the public enquiry(mai1
order) business. Vhe advertisers paid the s t a t i o n 80 much p e r inquiry", s a i d disc
jockey Kallinger, who now runs a Del Rio f u r n i t u r e store. 'My gosh, I ' d g e t mail
from a l l over. We'd s e l l l i v e baby chicks, simulated diamond rings, 'Baby Blue
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-3Eyesf dolls, rosek.7hes.. you m e it, and we had sponsors i n Chicago, Los Angles,
Kansas City and St Louis. fl
Kallinger said l i s t e n e r s told hin! the station came i n nclear as a bell i n Canadan.
One night, he said, %hen I asked people to c a l l me, I got 80 phone c a l l s frcm 43
d i f f e r a t statesn. Wolfman Jack, those real name i s Bob %ith, attested to IU!J@"S
selling power during h i s s t i n t there, "The station was a r e a l money maker. I evm
sold l i f e s i z e pictures of myself that glowed in the dark, but what happened to t h a t
big banana happens to any good thing. The preachers and m a i l order went t o TV
becswe people could see the merchandise on televisionn, he said.
enriched radio l o r e with two now-fanous and much
Before It became dormant,
anbellished episodes. In Januarg 1962, during a dispute between station anployees
and the Mexican owners, the employees barricaded themselves in the station and a
shoot-out ensued. Gonzales said one person died i n that gunfight, and two were
killed in a similar b a t t l e in February 1964. 'Wo one was ever tried because no one
knew who shot whow, Gonzales a d d .
'Vmdetti no longer has to worry about gunplay, but working acmes the border s t i l l
presents i t s difficulties, such as a recent mimderstandhg w U h led a Mexican
engineer to mistakenly turn off the transmitter during a ehou in a flap involving
a government inspection. Tt's aggravating but I have t o tolerate those kind of
things Vendetti said. If11put up with it i f i t ' s the price I have to pay for
aperating the biggest radio etation i n the worldw.
v i a NRC.
AIR PIRATES A I D PROPAGANDISTS transcribed from Sunday Telegraph of 17.be 83.
Pirate radio stations, which have doubled i n number i n the paat year to about 15,
are being used by sane minority groups to broadcast p o l i t i c a l propaganda. "Crowbarw,
the roughly printed news-sheet of anarchist squatters based in Railton Road,
Rrixton, publishes a programme guide f o r the Thr Radion pirate station which broadcasts a bulletin of "squatter's newsn on Wednesdays a t 9 p.m.
A recent edition of "Crowbarn a c h prints anti-police material said: 'We musnft
rely on our State controlled media f o r our communication. We all know they spread
l i e s . We've got t o s t a r t our 0x1 communication network wing such things as p i r a t e
radio and TV, spray cans, l e a f l e t s and anything else we can think ofn.
The news sheet gives details of the FM frequency f o r "Our Radion and publishes a
guide of other programmes including %aywavesn and "Rebel Radiom. More than 30
pirate radio stations are understood to be operating i n London, many only a t weekends o r l a t e a t night. Radio interference inspectors raided 8 pranisee in Londcn
over mid-March t o mid-April. Last year 46 raids were made, ht there uere only 10
prosecutions. The Hone Office adnits that the number of p i r a t e radio stations is
increasing in s p i t e of the r i s e i n fines. During the week ending 16.4.83 the f b e s
went up from fwo t o s1m.
Setting up a station can coat l e s s than S g f o r a basic low range transmitter, tape
recorder and a e r i a l which can be constructed from a metal coat hanger. Equighuent i S
bought frwn specialist amateur radio erhops and adapted. Favourite broadcasting
points are tops of tower blocks, disused offices o r even living rooms. Invariably
locations are changed t o dodge the 300 radio interference officere employed by
ffritish Tolecan to track down pirate bmadcasters f o r the Home Office.
The Home Office says t h a t ~00-coanp18intsa week are being received from the ~ u b l i c
about radio interference, i n c l u d i n ~interference f m irate radio stations,
A NOTE FKM NICK HALL PATCH,W.VICTORIA, RC., CANADA. Relevant A-Indices
SCOTTISH are 23.9.82
21 (21.9-52, 22.9-lo!?), 21.1.83
6, 30.1.83
l4 and
24-3-83 8.
There has been v e r y . l i t t l e Trans-Atlantic action here this past seasan, but what
l i t t l e there was has been interesting. We s e t up a telephone network on the CanadaU.S.We8.t c o a a f h s t August to get early warning of TA reception tbaugh t o a number
of DXers. No doubt as a result, it was a very poor TA season1 Ilut a Dfler in the
on 1566 kHz on Septmber 23, 1982 (QMT); I heard
Seattle area did note a TA c&ar
it also. DXers in Oregon heard same weak TA audio on la36 and 1557 an t h i a date, due
t o information from the TA telqhone network. 1566 has becm noted since on Jan 21,
1983 (carriero on 1575 and 1593 also) and on March a t h , 1983. Fade-out time s e a s
t o point to Ttuiisia, hr t it was never more than an e r r ~ i i c a l l yfading carrier. What
makes this interesting i s t h a t all receptions were during unsettled conditions
(there's been virtually no quiet conditions this past season). The nearest t o
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