XEW-AM is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

, broadcasting on the AM frequency of 900 kHz; it is branded as ''W Radio''. XEW-AM serves as the originating station for other "W Radio" stations around Mexico that carry some of its programs. The programming on XEW-AM is also simulcast on Mexico City FM radio station 96.9 XEW-FM.

History

XEW began regular broadcasts at 20:00 CST on September 18, 1930. Broadcasting from a room (later to become a proper studio) at the Olympia Cinema on 16 September Street in Mexico City, it initially had only 5 kW of transmitter power, although this was increased to 50 kW by 1934. With the installation of new transmitters, the power became 250 kW by 1935 and remained there for more than 80 years, making XEW-AM the most powerful AM radio station in North America. On February 10, 2016, XEW-AM was approved to relocate its transmitter to a site in Los Reyes Acaquilpan, La Paz Municipality, in the State of Mexico and to reduce power to 100,000 watts. It was the first Mexico City station in

Emilio Azcarraga Vidaurreta Emilio may refer to: * Emilio Navaira, a Mexican-American singer often called "Emilio" * Emilio Piazza Memorial School, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State * Emilio (given name) * ''Emilio'' (film), a 2008 film by Kim Jorgensen See also * Emílio (dis ...

's ''Chain of the Americas,'' the forerunner to today's

Televisa Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...

whose radio unit still owns XEW-AM. XEW-AM originally was affiliated with the

NBC Radio Network The NBC, National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network it was ...

s (NBC and

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

); its future sister stations would take affiliation with rival networks, XEQ-AM with CBS and XEX-AM with Mutual. As radio in Mexico evolved with the country's growth and more radio stations signed on, XEW-AM became flagship to the country's largest radio network. Several radio and television stations have derived their call signs from XEW radio and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

, all of them affiliated at one time or another with Televisa. In the United States, the call letters for KXEW, a commercial AM radio station in Tucson, Arizona, owned by Pan American Radio Corporation, that went on the air May 10, 1963, were chosen by its president and CEO, J. Carlos McCormick, because of his admiration of Azcarraga, whom he had met as a teenager during a 1950 visit to Mexico City.

XEW-FM

The FM frequency, 96.9, received its concession on April 28, 1962; it was not launched until the 1970s, and by the end of that decade, it carried a

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric p ...

format. By 1981, it had changed to "Rock Stereo". On September 9, 1985, it was renamed "WFM" with an English rock and pop format, being the direct competition of

XHSON-FM XHSON-FM is a EDM radio station in Mexico City owned and operated by NRM Comunicaciones. Its 4 regular presenters and 31 resident DJs (alongside several additional guest DJs from time to time) host the station's 24-hour mix of electro-house, t ...

(then known as "Rock 101"). Among the DJs that conformed the station were

Alejandro González Iñárritu Alejandro González Iñárritu (; American Spanish: ; credited since 2016 as Alejandro G. Iñárritu; born 15 August 1963) is a Mexican filmmaker and screenwriter. He is primarily known for making modern psychological drama films about the hu ...

Martha Debayle Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא‎) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness t ...

and Charo Fernández. After 14 years, in 1999, the station changed its name and format to "W Radical", directed by the former head of "Rock 101", Luis Gerardo Salas, airing

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electro ...

and

eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

. By 2001, it returned to its former WFM format with the slogan "Frecuencia Adictiva", but in late 2002, after the association of Televisa Radio and PRISA, it was decided to simulcast the same programming on AM and FM, and thus XEW-FM became a news and talk outlet, albeit musical programming can still be heard on overnights and weekends when there are not sports scheduled.

Personalities

* Manuel "Maber" Bernal * Emilio Tuero * Juan Arvizu * Luis Arcaráz * Nicolás Urcelay *

Alfonso Ortiz Tirado Alfonso Ortiz Tirado ( Álamos, Sonora, 24 January 1893 – Mexico City, 7 September 1960) was an opera singer and medical doctor. His musical talent was apparently evident early in life, but he studied at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria and univ ...

Los Panchos Originally, Trio Los Panchos are a ''trío romántico'' formed in New York City in 1944 by Alfredo Gil, Chucho Navarro, and Hernando Avilés. The trio became one of the leading exponents of the bolero and the romantic ballad in Latin America. ...

* Juan García Esquivel * Mario Ruiz Armengol * Maria Luisa Landín * María Victoria * Mario Moreno Cantinflas * Germán Valdés "Tin-Tan" * José Sabre Marroquín * Agustín Lara * Toña la Negra *

Angelines Fernández María de los Ángeles Fernández Abad (30 July 1924 – 25 March 1994), known professionally as Angelines Fernández, was a Spanish-Mexican actress and comedian. She is best remembered for playing Doña Clotilde "La Bruja del 71" in the sitcom ...

* Carmen Rey * Pedro Infante * Jorge Negrete * Pedro Vargas *

Gustavo Adolfo Palma Gustavo Adolfo Palma (31 August 1920 – 1 December 2009) was a Guatemalan singer, actor, and lyric tenor between 1936 and 1970, nicknamed "the Tenor of Central America" by Guatemalan radio personality José Flamenco y Cotero. Early years Palm ...

from

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

* Fernando Fernández * Eulalio González "Piporro" *

Francisco Gabilondo Soler Francisco Gabilondo Soler (October 6, 1907, Orizaba, Veracruz Mexico – December 14, 1990, Texcoco, State of Mexico) was a Mexican composer and performer of children's songs. He recorded and performed those songs under the name of '' Cri-Cri: El ...

("Cri-Cri") * Hugo Avendaño,

Amparo Montes Amparo Meza Cruz (24 April 1920 – 12 January 2002), known by her stage name Amparo Montes, was a Mexican singer, famous for her renditions of popular boleros by Agustín Lara Ángel Agustín María Carlos Fausto Mariano Alfonso del Sagrado ...

* Héctor Martínez Serrano *

Antonio Aguilar José Pascual Antonio Aguilar Márquez Barraza (17 May 191919 June 2007) was a Mexican singer, actor, songwriter, equestrian, film producer, and screenwriter with a dominating career in music. He recorded over 150 albums, which sold 25 mill ...

Paco Stanley Francisco Jorge Stanley Albaitero (3 July 1942 – 7 June 1999), known by his stage name Paco Stanley, was a Mexican television entertainer who worked for Televisa and TV Azteca. Career In 1966, his first father-in-law paid for his radio ...

External links

XEW-AM, official page
* * *

References

{{Authority control Radio stations in Mexico City Radiópolis News and talk radio stations in Mexico Radio stations established in 1930 Clear-channel radio stations