595 Applications, 39 Frequencies, 0 Concessions
For the First Time, A Look at the Applications for the Ghost Stations of 2000
This story was originally published on the WTFDA Forums on November 18, 2019.
April 10, 2000, was a historic day in Mexican broadcasting history.
However, it’s become historic for all the wrong reasons.
That day, in the Diario Oficial de la Federación, the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, for the final time under longstanding procedure, made available for commercial bidders broadcast stations by direct assignment. They invited potential bidders to apply for one of 39 frequencies — the largest single call for bids at that time in Mexican radio history. The bidders submitted their applications from June 5 through June 7, just like they had so many times in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
However, not a single one of those 39 frequencies ever turned into a radio station. The likely reason why feels self-evident: Vicente Fox was elected president and the whole thing was cast aside. Eventually, the SCT lost its powers in the world of broadcasting, by constitutional controversy, to the Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones, which was supplanted by today’s IFT in 2013.
We are at nearly 20 years since that first call for bids for what I’ve called “ghost stations” — radio stations that are on the books, whose callsigns were even protected during AM-FM migration, all for naught.
However, there have been a couple of crumbs lingering from this abortive process, and they trace back to one man: José Pérez Ramírez. The Promomedios head applied for two stations: XHSJN-FM 106.3 in San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, and XHDGM 98.9 in Playa del Carmen.
(If the XHDGM call letters seem a little more familiar than they should, I have covered XHDGM on several occasions because Pérez Ramírez has not rested in his fight to have his application approved. He has fought the IFT and won in multiple court cases. I’ve been following developments in this case and also have, coming at some point when I know more about the current state of the process, a longer Spanish-language piece to post.)
I wondered who else had tried to bid on one of these 39 radio stations — there couldn’t possibly be just one applicant — so in September I asked the SCT to turn over a list of the applications received. The SCT informed me that they no longer held any broadcasting records and advised me to ask the IFT instead. So when I filed my annual request for the list of PABF applicants, I also asked the IFT for a list of any applications that had been filed in 2000 for these stations.
I did not expect to receive a list of nearly 600 entries.
Many Familiar Names — And A Few That Aren’t
The IFT sent back a spreadsheet containing 595 entries, all filed in that three-day window. 224 unique parties made the applications, with at least two for every single station. (By the way, IFT-4 had 166 unique parties to the auction.) It’s worth noting that some of the 224 are siblings or related. There are three Bonilla Gómez filers, two Bravo Ortiz family members, a pair of Grajales, six Peredas, and three Sanabrias, among others. Besides famous radio families, CIRT Premio Antena winners and other industry notables dot the list: Francisco Ibarra y López, Sergio Rojano Sahab (and two siblings), Gastón Alegre López, the now-departed Gonzalo Castellot y Madrazo, and 2019 Premio Antena winner Sergio Fajardo y Ortiz.
Some parties to this process came back to IFT-4 17 years later. There’s Edilberto Huesca Perrotín, who made 7 applications in 2000 and holds a pair of IFT-4 stations for Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche that have yet to sign on. Arturo Emilio Zorrilla Ibarra is here, as is his mother, Alejandra Verónica Isabel Ibarra Cravioto. Others participated through new corporate vehicles. José de Jesús Navarro Franco, who now owns an unbuilt social station in Capilla de Guadalupe, Jalisco, teamed up with Ernesto Reyes Ramírez to apply for XHZCP at Zacatlán, Puebla. Elías Navarro Páramo is here; his GlobalMedia won stations in the IFT-4 and IFT-6 auctions. Luis Felipe García de León is here with applications for La Paz, Cabo San Lucas, and Etchojoa, Sonora.
The most applications filed were 18 from Desarrollo en Radio, S.A. de C.V. (Radio Fórmula, apparently.) Three parties filed for 15 of the 39 allotments: Francisco Antonio González Sánchez (read: Multimedios), México Radio, S.A. (ABC Radio), and Unimira, S.A. de C.V. 14 applications came from Alejandro Vargas Guajardo (MVS). Jorge Belmonte Rosales (XHKW-FM owners CB Michoacán, notably the recent winner of a social TV station in Morelia) made 11. A pre-GEA Imagen Telecomunicaciones, S.A. de C.V., filed for 10, as did Multimundo’s Emilio Nassar Rodríguez.
Some names show up as notables in or near the areas for which they filed. XHPAR-FM 105.3 Paraíso Tab. received an application from Televisión de Tabasco, S.A., the concessionaire of XHLL-TDT and a subsidiary of Grupo Pazos. Rommel Arvizu Rashid (Grupo Uvizra), with his station base in Baja California, filed for two frequencies apiece in Los Cabos and La Paz, and he was joined by Mario Enrique Mayans Concha of Cadena Baja California. The Encuentro group, under familiar concessionaires like Complejo Satelital and Humberto López Lena himself, filed for stations in Oaxaca. Editorial Mac, S.A. de C.V. — the Maccise family, whose media holdings today go by Capital Media — sought to expand in the State of Mexico, making a push for both Valle de Bravo assignments and XHVGM 94.1 at Villa Guerrero. The late Arturo Iglesias y Villalobos, who co-founded Mérida’s XHMYL-FM 92.1, sought to add a 104.7 in Ticul to his portfolio. Mastretta Guzmán Comunicación, S.A. de C.V., at the time owners of Puebla’s XHOLA-FM 105.1, bid on all four available frequencies in Tlaxcala and the 92.1 for Zacatlán. The two stations at Ramos Arizpe (Saltillo), Coahuila, attracted interest from Radio Estelar 920, S.A. de C.V. (Grupo Industrial Kamar, XHGIK-FM) and Armando Sergio Fuentes Aguirre (social XHAAL-FM).
I have to spotlight something here that is just overly rich. In IFT-4, La Mera en Playa, S.A. de C.V., turned up as the original winner for stations in Playa del Carmen and Tulum but did not pay. It turns out that this was the second time that La Mera en Playa had pushed for Playa del Carmen. A listing for “La Mera en La Playa, S.A. de C.V.” is in the spreadsheet for 2000. The only station it tried to obtain was XHCPQ 100.7. I suspect the “La” is trivial, because IFT records from the auction show that La Mera en Playa was incorporated on May 24, 2000 — right in time to participate in the 2000 process. (Earlier this year, I reported that La Mera en (La) Playa was owned by Rafael Aguirre, brother of Grupo Radio Centro’s Francisco Aguirre.)
Similarly, Sistema CV Siete, S.A. de C.V., a subsidiary of Grupo Siete, bid on XHLAP-FM 102.3 La Paz — and Grupo Siete would make another run at BCS in the auction.
There are less familiar names throughout, too. Corporación Iberoamericana de Comunicación Moderna turns out to be XHTIX-FM in Cuernavaca: it owns the trademark to “Factor 100.1 Radiológico” and lists XHTIX’s address as its own. Unimira is the business of Rafael de Haro, whose close ties with Televisa led him to run the Televisa Querétaro local operation known as TVQ in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Most Popular and Least Popular
The universe of 595 applications for 39 frequencies means that each of them received on average 15 bids. People had the most interest in XHTXT-FM 102.7 Tlaxcala; it received an impressive 33 applications. Six other frequencies pulled more than 25 aspiring operators, including XHCSL Cabo San Lucas (31), XHQUI Tequisquiapan (29), XHSLU Cabo San Lucas (27), and XHCPQ and XHDGM Playa del Carmen (25 apiece) and La Paz’s XHBCS (also 25). Unusually, XHXCA-FM 103.9 Tlaxcala, identical technically to XHTXT, only pulled 23 applications.
Conversely, it was hard to get people interested in some rural allotments. XHTAR-FM Altar, Sonora, to air at 101.5, got two applicants: María Alejandra Palacios Ortiz (the Caborca-based Radio Palacios group) and Gustavo Enrique Rafael Astiazarán Rosas (Uniradio). A further 11 stations received fewer than 10 applications, including allotments at Tekax, Yucatán, and Miguel Auza, Zacatecas.
