90 Years Of Border Blasting: A Look At The Fascinating History Of Border Radio

By John Oncea, Editor

Mexican border radio, also known as border blasters, emerged in the 1930s and significantly shaped American and Mexican popular culture for decades.

Albert Brumley was born outside Spiro, OK in 1905. An inductee of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, Brumley wrote over 800 songs in his lifetime. One of his most well-known songs, written in 1938, was Turn Your Radio On. It begins:

Come and listen in to a radio station … where the mighty hosts of heaven sing;
Turn your radio on (turn your radio on), turn your radio on (turn your radio on).

Playing a large role in the song’s popularity was the fact it was a broadcast staple during the 1940s on radio station XEG located in Monterey, Mexico. XEG, one of dozens of border radio stations that first appeared in the early 1930s, is today a Class A clear channel radio station and is one of a handful of North American AM stations to broadcast at 100,000 watts around the clock.

XEG and other border radio stations, also known as border blasters, have seen it all since the format was created more than 90 years ago. This included the rise to fame of musicians like The Carter Family, Cowboy Slim Rinehart, and Jimmie Rodgers, to salvation granted by preachers like J. Charles Jessep, to lies and “cures” sold by any conman or hustler who could afford to buy broadcast time.

The Doors, ZZ Top, and Wall of Voodoo have all sung its praises, and the 2007 indie movie Border Radio took its name from the Blasters’ song Border Radio which was about, you guessed it, border radio.

From the 1930s through the mid-1980s radio stations on the Mexican side of the U.S-Mexico border – from Tampico to Tijuana – could be heard hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles away reaching large parts of the U.S. and Canada, and even as far as South America and parts of Europe depending on the station and atmospheric conditions.

The story behind these stations is more than music, preaching, and salesmanship. It also includes a “doctor” who performed goat testicle transplants for men with ED, laws enacted specifically to shut it down, and launched the career of Bob Smith, one of the most famous disk jockeys ever Of course, you may know him as Wolfman Jack.

Broadcast Radio In The 1920s

In the early 1920s, an unregulated radio broadcasting industry was rapidly growing in the U.S., peaking in 1927 with 732 stations operating on 89 channels, according to The Radio Historian. The only broadcasting law on the books at the time was S. 6412, more commonly known as The Radio Act of 1912, which was prompted by the Titanic disaster and required all radio operators to be federally licensed and all ships to maintain constant radio alert for distress signals.

As a result, according to Britannica, Herbert Hoover’s Department of Commerce had limited authority to regulate broadcasting, lacking the power to deny licenses or enforce frequency assignments. This resulted in a litany of problems, including:

• Frequency allocation issues: Initially, all stations operated on a single frequency (833 kHz), with additional frequencies added later. However, this was insufficient for the growing number of stations, leading to shared-time arrangements and interference problems.
• Ownership patterns: Profit-seeking companies like department stores and newspapers owned the majority of stations, while nonprofit groups such as churches and schools operated about a third.
• Limited content: Until about 1930, radio offered little drama, situation comedy, sports broadcasts, or regular newscasts and weather reports.
• Experimental nature: Many stations were auxiliaries to the owner’s primary business, such as retail stores, hotels, or record shops.
• Technical limitations: Equipment was largely hand-built, and most stations operated with less power than an ordinary reading lamp.
• Lack of advertising: On-air advertising was rare, making it difficult for many stations to sustain operations.

The lack of effective regulation and self-regulation among station operators led to increased interference and chaos in the airwaves, resulting in pressure on Congress to update radio legislation. This chaotic period culminated in 1926 when a court decision limited the Commerce Department’s regulatory power, leading to a flood of new stations and poor reception quality and setting the stage for the establishment of the Federal Radio.

The Radio Act Of 1927

The Radio Act of 1927 was a landmark piece of legislation signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on February 23, 1927, writes Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). This act superseded the Radio Act of 1912 and significantly expanded the federal government’s regulatory powers over radio communication in the U.S.

Among the outcomes of the Radio Act of 1927 was the creation of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), a regulatory body consisting of five commissioners appointed by the president, writes the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences. The act also expanded regulatory authority, granting the FRC the power to assign specific frequencies, deny license applications, and regulate various aspects of radio broadcasting.

Covering all forms of interstate and foreign radio transmissions and communications within the U.S., its territories, and possessions, the act introduced the requirement that radio stations must operate “in the public interest, convenience, or necessity” to receive a license. Other results include:

• Licensing system: The act established a system of temporary licenses for broadcasters, emphasizing that licenses did not confer ownership of radio channels.
• Content regulations: While prohibiting obscene, indecent, or profane language, the act explicitly prevented the FRC from censoring program content.
• Equal time provision: Section 18 of the act required stations to provide equal opportunities to political candidates, a precursor to the modern equal time rule.

The Radio Act of 1927 was a response to the chaotic state of radio broadcasting in the mid-1920s when interference and overcrowding of the airwaves had become significant problems. It laid the groundwork for more comprehensive broadcasting regulation, which was later expanded with the Communications Act of 1934 and the creation of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

It also was responsible for the creation of Border Radio.

The Unintended Consequences Of Regulation

Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. For instance, rocket launches. According to Space Center Houston, “At launch, hot exhaust gas is generated from fuel combustion in the rocket’s engines. This exhaust gas is pushed out of the rocket (the action), generating thrust (the reaction).”

Another example? The Radio Act of 1927 (the action) inadvertently contributed to the rise of Mexican border radio stations (the reaction).

According to MTSU, granting the FRC the ability to assign frequencies, deny licenses, and regulate various aspects of radio broadcasting led some broadcasters to seek alternatives outside U.S. authority. More controversial broadcasters looked even harder because the act’s requirement that radio stations operate “in the public interest, convenience, or necessity” made it difficult for them to sell their illegitimate goods.

Other motivations forcing broadcasters to seek alternatives included content restrictions (while the act prohibited censorship, it did forbid “obscene, indecent, or profane language”) and the FRC’s move to quickly consolidate radio licenses for major corporations, favoring large networks like NBC. As a result of this, many low-powered independent stations were eliminated, forcing them to seek alternatives.

“The first border station, XED, began broadcasting from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, in 1930,” writes the Texas State Historical Association. “Owned for a time by Houston theater owner and philanthropist Will Horwitz, XED hosted occasional performances by Horwitz’s friend Jimmie Rodgers. Horwitz, who dressed up as Santa Claus each year and distributed Christmas presents to Houston’s underprivileged children, was sent to prison by the U.S. government for broadcasting the Tamaulipas state lottery over XED.”

While XED was the first station, there is a more famous one that began broadcasting about a year later.

Goat Testicles, Dr. Fishbein, And John Romulus Brinkley

A year after the Radio Act of 1927 was enacted, “FRC commissioners ordered 164 stations to justify their existence or cease broadcasting,” writes The Radio Historian. “Among these, one of their chief targets was the popular station KFKB in Milford, KS, operated by the flamboyant but unscrupulous Doctor John Romulus Brinkley.”

Brinkley, who, incidentally, didn’t possess a valid medical degree, made his name and a small fortune by “grafting goat testicles into the genitalia of middle-aged men who yearned to rejuvenate their youthful sex lives.” He also used KFKB to air Medical Question Box, a show on which he would “advertise his goat-gland procedure throughout the Midwest” as well as dispense medical advice and prescribe his patent medicines over the air.

This caught the ear of Dr. Morris Fishbein, Brinkley’s lifelong adversary and the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA). Fishbein made a career of exposing medical fraud and targeted Brinkley, going so far as to publicly expose him as a “quack” on several occasions.

Fishbein had long desired to close down Brinkley’s operation and reported the questionable advice dispensed by Medical Question Box to the FRC which conducted a formal hearing in 1930, resulting in the cancellation of Brinkley’s license to operate KFKB. Brinkley’s appeal was overturned a year later, forcing him to sell KFKB to Farmers Bank for $900,000 in March of 1931.

Fishbein, not happy with costing Brinkley his radio station, also worked with the AMA to convince the Kansas State Medical Board to revoke Brinkley's medical license later that year.

Undeterred, Brinkley developed a strategy to bypass the efforts of the FRC and AMA to maintain his profitable radio and medical businesses. During a vacation in Mexico in 1931, he found the solution he was looking for.

The Rise Of XER

For several years, the Mexican government had been engaged in unproductive discussions with the U.S. about the unfair distribution of broadcasting frequencies. As an early adopter of radio broadcasting, the U.S. had claimed the majority of available frequencies for itself, allotting only a few to Canada and entirely ignoring Mexico.

By 1931, increasingly frustrated with U.S. obstinacy, Mexican authorities were eager to consider Brinkley’s proposal to build a powerful new radio station on the Mexican side of the border. Brinkley became a valuable asset in their negotiations and provided them a chance to “tweak the noses” of their adversaries.

Thus, the construction of XER, the continent’s most powerful radio station, began in Villa Acuña, in the state of Coahuila, during the summer of 1931. The towers were just a stone’s throw from the Rio Grande River. On the opposite side of the river was the city of Del Rio, TX, whose leaders were thrilled at the economic boost the station would bring during the Great Depression. Moreover, Texas authorities were willing to grant Brinkley a license to practice medicine and open a new hospital in Del Rio.

Brinkley hired Fort Worth, TX engineer Will Branch to build XER’s 50,000-watt transmitter which cost $175,000 to build, including $36,000 for the tubes. “Two 300-foot towers supported the flat-top wire antenna, oriented to maximize its signal across the border,” writes The Radio Historian.

Del Rio’s Roswell Hotel housed the studios with a broadcast-quality telephone line carrying the programs over the border to the transmitter. “Isaias Gallo, a former Mexican radio & telegraph inspector, became the titular chief engineer, but the job of keeping the giant transmitter running would fall to a young engineer named James O. Weldon,” Mexico News Daily writes.

XER took to the air on October 21, 1931, operating daily from sunset to sunrise to take advantage of nighttime atmospheric conditions. XER’s signal could be heard in every U.S. state, as well as 15 other countries. Its signal also interfered with Atlanta’s WSB and Chicago’s WGN leading the U.S. government to lodge complaints with Mexican authorities. As a result, Mexico increased XER’s power to 500,000 watts.

In 1933, the Mexican Health Department fined a radio station 350,000 pesos for broadcasting in English and for violation of program regulations. Brinkley ignored these fines leading to the seizure of the transmitter by federal troops on February 24, 1933.

XER remained off the air for twenty months during which Brinkley continued to broadcast by leasing airtime on other stations. He eventually dissolved his Villa Acuña Broadcasting Company, replacing it with a new company, Cia, which acquired another border blaster, XEAW in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

In December 1934, a judge ruled that the new owner was not liable for previous fines, allowing Brinkley’s station to return to the air in early 1935 under the new call sign XERA at 840 kHz. He resumed broadcasting with a powerful 180 kW signal in the fall of 1935.

The Rise Of XERA

After XERA resumed broadcasting, Weldon constructed a new powerful transmitter. It combined two 250 kW power amplifiers for a total output of 500,000 watts, utilizing eight Western Electric 320A high power vacuum tubes and the innovative Doherty amplifier design. The original XER transmitter became a driver for this new amplifier.

On September 20, 1938, XERA began regular nightly broadcasts at 520,000 watts. Weldon added a third tower and parasitic elements to focus the signal northward, effectively doubling the transmitter power to one million watts aimed at the U.S. XERA proudly claimed to be the world's most powerful broadcasting station.

XERA’s powerful signal covered the U.S. coast to coast nightly, establishing the successful formula for border radio programming. The station aired Brinkley’s medical programs and attracted various controversial broadcasters not permitted on U.S. stations. The schedule included astrologists, fortune tellers, and dubious financial schemes, generating significant revenue through mail-in payments.

The station also featured hillbilly and Mexican music programs. In 1938, the Consolidated Royal Chemical Corporation brought The Original Carter Family to Villa Acuña to broadcast daily radio shows, offering them substantial pay during economically challenging times.

Despite Brinkley’s success, his enemies never stopped fighting him.

The Communications Act of 1934 included a clause known as the Brinkley Act, which prohibited the transport of broadcast programs across international borders without FCC approval. This forced the closure of XERA’s program line between Del Rio and Villa Acuña. Undeterred, Brinkley continued broadcasting by recording his programs onto electrical transcription discs, which were smuggled across the border and played at the transmitter.

The 1937 Havana Treaty established the North American Radio Broadcast Agreement (NARBA), reorganizing the AM broadcast band and allocating clear channel frequencies to participating countries. This agreement was designed to eliminate border blaster stations like Brinkley’s XERA.

Following Mexico’s ratification of NARBA in 1939, XERA’s power was reduced to 180 kW. On June 19, 1941, Mexican President Manuel Ávila Camacho ordered XERA’s expropriation, citing “undue foreign influence” and inappropriate broadcasts. The transmitter was dismantled and moved to Mexico City.

Concurrently, Brinkley faced legal troubles in the U.S. He lost a libel lawsuit against Fishbein leading to numerous malpractice suits from former patients. The IRS pursued him for unpaid taxes, and the Postal Service investigated him for mail fraud. These challenges led to Brinkley’s bankruptcy in January 1941. His health deteriorated, resulting in a leg amputation, and he died of a heart attack on May 26, 1942.

I'm On A Mexican Radio

XERA wasn’t the only border station introducing Americans to new music genres, writes Mexico Daily News. XERF radio played a crucial role in bringing rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll, and blues to U.S. audiences.

Bob Smith, a young DJ who grew up listening to border radio in New York City, arrived in Del Rio, in 1963 with demo tapes, determined to work at a border station. He successfully joined XERF, eventually becoming the station manager and adopting the on-air persona of Wolfman Jack.

As the station manager, Wolfman Jack balanced product advertising and religious programming with late-night music shows. After midnight, he played jazz, rock and roll, soul, and rhythm and blues. His mysterious persona made him immensely popular with listeners.

In the conservative postwar 1950s, when strict moral standards prevailed in the U.S., Wolfman Jack’s broadcasts from Mexico allowed him to evade censorship. His thinly veiled sexual innuendos and promotion of new music genres appealed to audiences seeking something different from the mainstream American radio offerings of the time.

Wolfman Jack’s gravelly voice and unique style, combined with XERF’s powerful 250,000-watt transmitter, allowed his broadcasts to reach across much of the U.S. and helped introduce diverse musical genres to a broad audience, contributing significantly to the evolution of American popular music in the 1960s and beyond.

The End Of An Era

Mexican border radio stations played a significant role in shaping the musical and cultural landscape of both the U.S. and Mexico, leaving a lasting impact on the development of popular music and broadcasting practices.

The rise of border radio had a significant impact on American culture, influencing political campaigns, religious broadcasts, and musical tastes for several decades, writes Business Insider. It provided a platform for voices and music that were often marginalized in mainstream media, contributing to the popularization of country music and other genres.

But, like all good things, the heyday of border radio came to an end.

Oh, border stations still exist but their influence and prominence have diminished significantly since their glory days beginning in 1972 when the U.S. and Mexico signed an agreement regulating FM broadcasting. 

Border blasters continued to operate in a lesser capacity until “the border radio era effectively came to an end in 1986 when the U.S. and Mexico brokered an international broadcasting agreement that allowed Mexican and American broadcasters to use each other’s radio frequencies,” writes Business Insider. “The deal was a crippling blow to border stations, whose signals would be drowned out by local broadcasts.”

But, for 56 years or so border radio helped usher “in new ways of thinking about music and fresh expressions of creativity,” writes Mexico Daily News. “It took locally popular music out of regional isolation and jettisoned it into the mainstream, changing the culture of the U.S.”