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XEWW-AM
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XEWW-AM
XEWW-AM (690 kHz) is a radio station licensed to the Rosarito/Tijuana area of Baja California, Mexico. XEWW airs a Spanish language talk format.
XEWW is a high-powered Class A station, with its 77,000-watt daytime signal sometimes reaching as far as the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. It covers nearly all of Southern California and most of Baja California. XEWW operates with 50,000 watts at night as is required by the "Rio Treaty". This same treaty would normally allow XEWW to operate with a daytime signal of 100,000 watts. However, 77,000 watts was apparently selected as this power sends the equivalent of the station's former 50,000-watt daytime signal (from its original Tijuana site, since demolished) towards Los Angeles without also increasing its prohibited overlap with KIRN (670 AM) in Simi Valley and KSPN (710 AM) in Los Angeles (from its present Rosarito site).
At night it uses a five-tower array directional antenna, decreasing power to 50,000 watts to protect CBU Vancouver, British Columbia, and CKGM Montreal. Both are the dominant Class A stations on AM 690. Despite the directional antenna pattern, the signal can be heard in most of the Southwestern United States at night. While AM 690 is programmed for the U.S. side of the border, the present Rosarito transmitter facility strongly favors service to Baja California, with a signal that extends further south than north, due to protections to avoid interference with Canadian stations on 690.
XEAC began broadcasting from the Agua Caliente resort in Tijuana on January 7, 1934. It broadcast on 820 or 815 kilohertz. By 1936, the station was owned by Jorge Rivera. In 1938, it was listed as transmitting on 980 kHz with 5,000 watts.
NARBA prompted a major shuffling of radio station frequencies, and XEAC wound up on 690 kHz. More than 15 years later, this would play a vital role in changes at the station. In the early 1950s, XEAC spawned a television station, which was initially assigned the callsign XEAC-TV but changed to XETV before signing on.
In 1957, a new group known as California Broadcasters, Inc., with headquarters in the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, was formed by Rivera to manage U.S. sales and programming rights to the station, which changed its call letters that year from XEAC to XEAK. In 1958, the concession for XEAC was sold to Radiodifusora del Pacífico, S.A.
While XEAC had continued to operate with 5,000 watts, it was easy to upgrade it to 50,000, as protection of Canadian Class I-A CBF Montreal would be relatively straightforward—as happened in the change from XEAC to XEAK. Ultimately, the Tijuana-based AM 690 was assigned Class I-B status. XEAK was known as "The Mighty 690", a moniker that its XETRA-AM successor used in later years. The Mighty 690 was a Top 40 station, playing the biggest hits in the U.S.
In 1961, radio maverick Gordon McLendon obtained enough financial control of the U.S. subsidiary to assert control over the station's programming. McLendon, working with the concessionaire, had the transmitter moved closer to the beach at its present Rosarito site, improving its conductivity in Los Angeles. He also installed one of the first all-news radio formats in the United States. On May 6, 1961, XEAK yielded to XETRA (always written XTRA in the United States press and only announced as such in Spanish during station IDs), known as "X-TRA News" and describing itself as "everywhere over Los Angeles".
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XEWW-AM
XEWW-AM (690 kHz) is a radio station licensed to the Rosarito/Tijuana area of Baja California, Mexico. XEWW airs a Spanish language talk format.
XEWW is a high-powered Class A station, with its 77,000-watt daytime signal sometimes reaching as far as the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. It covers nearly all of Southern California and most of Baja California. XEWW operates with 50,000 watts at night as is required by the "Rio Treaty". This same treaty would normally allow XEWW to operate with a daytime signal of 100,000 watts. However, 77,000 watts was apparently selected as this power sends the equivalent of the station's former 50,000-watt daytime signal (from its original Tijuana site, since demolished) towards Los Angeles without also increasing its prohibited overlap with KIRN (670 AM) in Simi Valley and KSPN (710 AM) in Los Angeles (from its present Rosarito site).
At night it uses a five-tower array directional antenna, decreasing power to 50,000 watts to protect CBU Vancouver, British Columbia, and CKGM Montreal. Both are the dominant Class A stations on AM 690. Despite the directional antenna pattern, the signal can be heard in most of the Southwestern United States at night. While AM 690 is programmed for the U.S. side of the border, the present Rosarito transmitter facility strongly favors service to Baja California, with a signal that extends further south than north, due to protections to avoid interference with Canadian stations on 690.
XEAC began broadcasting from the Agua Caliente resort in Tijuana on January 7, 1934. It broadcast on 820 or 815 kilohertz. By 1936, the station was owned by Jorge Rivera. In 1938, it was listed as transmitting on 980 kHz with 5,000 watts.
NARBA prompted a major shuffling of radio station frequencies, and XEAC wound up on 690 kHz. More than 15 years later, this would play a vital role in changes at the station. In the early 1950s, XEAC spawned a television station, which was initially assigned the callsign XEAC-TV but changed to XETV before signing on.
In 1957, a new group known as California Broadcasters, Inc., with headquarters in the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, was formed by Rivera to manage U.S. sales and programming rights to the station, which changed its call letters that year from XEAC to XEAK. In 1958, the concession for XEAC was sold to Radiodifusora del Pacífico, S.A.
While XEAC had continued to operate with 5,000 watts, it was easy to upgrade it to 50,000, as protection of Canadian Class I-A CBF Montreal would be relatively straightforward—as happened in the change from XEAC to XEAK. Ultimately, the Tijuana-based AM 690 was assigned Class I-B status. XEAK was known as "The Mighty 690", a moniker that its XETRA-AM successor used in later years. The Mighty 690 was a Top 40 station, playing the biggest hits in the U.S.
In 1961, radio maverick Gordon McLendon obtained enough financial control of the U.S. subsidiary to assert control over the station's programming. McLendon, working with the concessionaire, had the transmitter moved closer to the beach at its present Rosarito site, improving its conductivity in Los Angeles. He also installed one of the first all-news radio formats in the United States. On May 6, 1961, XEAK yielded to XETRA (always written XTRA in the United States press and only announced as such in Spanish during station IDs), known as "X-TRA News" and describing itself as "everywhere over Los Angeles".