| Border-blaster |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT BORDER BLASTER | |
| mexican radio | |
| american radio | |
| united states communications regulation | |
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On November 9 , 1972 in Washington, D.C., the United States and Mexico signed an "Agreement concerning Frequency Modulation Broadcasting in the 87.5 to 108 MHz Band". Since then, in the FM Band power levels and frequency assignments have been set by mutual agreement. AM Radio border-blasters still exist, though they are largely ignored due to the decline of AM radio overall in the U.S. The term is also used to refer to Pirate Radio stations based in the Republic Of Ireland (which historically had a high tolerance of pirates) broadcasting in to Northern Ireland (which does not). BACKGROUND In contrast to Pirate Radio stations, border blasters are licensed by the government upon whose soil they are located. Pirate radio stations are freebooters from offshore, outside the Territorial Waters of the nation they are trying to serve, or ones that are illegally operating in defiance of national law within its sovereign territory. A similar situation developed in Europe, beginning with from Saarland , Germany to begin legally broadcasting signals across international borders. In Mexico and the United States, while the federal government of the United States did not particularly like them, the stations were allowed to flourish. A Texas governor would even use the stations as a part of his election campaign. The U.S., unlike the UK, has never required a license to listen to broadcast radio or television, and the only restriction placed upon border-blasters was a law which prohibited studios in the U.S. from linking by telephone to border-blaster transmitters in Mexico. This law, part of the Brinkley Act , was introduced in the wake of John R. Brinkley 's romance with Fascism prior to World War II on XERA . The Brinkley Act is still on the books in the U.S., but licenses under that act are now routinely granted as long as the station follows applicable U.S. and Mexican regulations. The British government created a similar measure after World War II, the state-owned telephone monopoly prevented studios in Britain from linking by telephone to the transmitters of Radio Luxembourg. These restrictions were mostly lifted following the privatisation and demonopolisation of the UK telephone system. Signals of many U.S. and Canadian radio, and to a lesser extent television, stations cross over into neighboring territory. These stations are usually not considered "border blasters" as the programming is not primarily targeted at listeners and viewers on the other side of the border. U.S. and Canadian stations have always adhered to similar maximum power levels and the overspill is regarded as unintentional and largely unavoidable. One possible exception to that overall rule was CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit. While licensed as a normal Class I-B station, its 50,000 watt directional signal blanketed Michigan and northern Ohio east to Cleveland. American-owned until 1970, it functioned as a Detroit-market station during the 1960s and 1970s. Its Motown-flavored personality top 40 format made it one of the most highly-rated stations in the Midwestern US. The decline of AM radio as a music source in the 70s, combined with new Canadian government rules imposing minimum domestic music content, made it difficult for CKLW to continue to compete for listeners with American FM music stations which offered clean stereo sound and faced no program content restrictions. So CKLW abandoned top-40 and largely abandoned its efforts to compete in the Detroit market in the 80s and today is a news/talk station aimed specifically at an Ontario audience. The mythology surrounding the history of the border blaster stations in Mexico is extensive and many conflicting reports have been written about them. The following geographical list shows where these stations are or were located. Where possible, multiple sourced references have been consulted, and will be cited in order to eliminate conflicting and error-driven reports. PROGRAMMING Most border blaster stations today program Spanish-language programming targeted at the Mexican side of the border. Some of the Spanish language border blasters target the US side of the border, some target both. As was the case between the 1930s and the 1970s, some border blaster stations in areas near larger American border cities such as San Diego are leased out by American broadcasting companies and air English-language programming targeting American audiences. The American side leases the station from the Mexican station owners/licence holders and feeds programming from their American studios to the Mexican transmitters via satellite. Due to Mexican government regulations, these stations, like all radio stations in Mexico, must air '''' a/k/a '' The Mexican National Hour '' on Sunday evenings (usually 8pm or 10pm, depending on where the station is located) and " Himno Nacional Mexicano " (The Mexican National Anthem) at 12 midnight and 5am. In addition, they must also give station identification in Spanish. This is usually done softly or during commercial breaks so the listeners on the American side won't usually notice it. GEOGRAPHICAL LIST OF BORDER BLASTERS Baja California Tijuana / Rosarito
Sonora Nogales
Chihuahua Ciudad Juárez Coahuila Ciudad Acuña
Piedras Negras Nuevo León Monterrey
Tamaulipas Nuevo Laredo
XENT-AM moved to La Paz, Baja California Sur power adjusted to 5kW Day / 750W Night. XEXO-AM moved to Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas power adjusted to 5kW Day / 500W Night. Reynosa
Tampico TRIVIA Border blasters were celebrated in the song "Heard it on the X" from the album " Fandango! " by Texas blues rock band ZZ Top and in the song " Mexican Radio " by Wall Of Voodoo . SEE ALSO
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