XECL La Rocola 990 & XED La Gran D 1050 Mexicali Have Ceased Operations

Two Mexicali Stations are no more! XECL La Rocola 990 and XED La Gran D 1050, both owned by RadioRama in Mexicali have ceased operations as of midnight Sunday night June 2nd(into Monday). The reason for the closure is unclear but when the concessions came up for renewal, RadioRama apparently didn’t renew these two but did renew XESU and XHSU.

info courtesy Glenn Hauser and Raymie Humbert

This definitely was a shocker from Radiorama — when I first heard it I had to double-check that I wasn't just hearing a bad rumor. But it was real.

Who knows what's next...

DavidEduardo said:

Was there a regulatory fee issue there? Or is it the gradual death of AM coupled with the somewhat depressed economy of Mexicali? It's a very over-radioed market without the advantage of a large "matching" US side city such as Brownsville, Laredo, El Paso or San Diego. Calexico is, well, a pretty depressing place.

Or is there some issue with the Radiorama group. I don't think they are doing as well nationally as when "Los Tupamaros" were actively managing it (Pereda and Pérez de Anda).

https://www.milenio.com/opinion/jesus-rangel/estira-afloja/tecnoradio-huele-a-prestanombres

Click to expand...

Radiorama mystifies me and I probably know more about its structure than almost anyone with a last name that doesn't include Pérez, Pereda or Sanabria.

It's been in a slow-motion fracture into different family companies (Audiorama for the Pérez family, Radiorama/Pergom/maybe Radio Resultados now? for the Peredas, and Grupo AS/Corporativo ASG from the Sanabria family), plus there's Organización Radiofónica Mexicana and some of the regional components (Larsa, Radiovisa, Respuesta Radiofónica, now the ISA pair in Obregón). Some of the concessions it owns are run by Radio Centro. In some places, Mexicali included, different RR families compete against each other with different clusters.

It's sad to see stations go. I liked the music played on La Rocola XECL. Was always fun to hear whenever the signal would make its way up the coast.

I always thought 1050 XED was a great station. That 10,000 watt signal could be heard over much of So. Cal. before San Diego had a station on 1040. The format reminded me of the old WABC. XED played a happy, uptempo Regional Mexican song, followed by the same jingle every time. "Equis Ey Dey. La GRAAAAANNNNDDD Dey." Then the DJ would talk followed by a few commercials. Then another song. (OK, not "WABC, Ding!" but still fun to listen to.)

The last time I heard it, it didn't stick to these formatics. Maybe they were dated by now. I guess it's hard to run an AM station that relies on music, whether in the U.S. or Mexico. I suppose XED was still playing some of the same songs all these decades later for an older audience who might still tune in an AM station. In Los Angeles, 980 KFWB La Mira Mira, sounds like it's making money playing Classic Regional Mexican, sticking to good formatics, despite being an AM station playing music.

But I suppose the economics were just not working anymore for XED, as David tells us, in struggling Mexicali-Calexico. I believe the station was originally a daytimer, 10,000 watts, then signing off at sunset. Now I see it's 10,000 watts by day, but only 200 watts at night. Again, that's not going to make it in 2019 when FM stations are on the air around the clock.