Cuaderno En Frecuencia: August 2
Monte María isn’t filling up XEPRS airtime; Imagen, RTG team up for new Acapulco TV tower; Tlax. university station powers down awaiting reauthorization
Music between the Monte
XEPRS-AM is in its finding God era. As of Thursday, it began airing 15 to 16 hours a day of Monte María Catholic programs (9am–noon, 7pm–7am weekdays; 3pm–7am weekends) and Spanish oldies music in other time slots.
And Scott Kaplan, the man most associated with XEPRS as a sports radio station under several incarnations, spent a chunk of his Wednesday show talking about it.
“I knew that in August of 2025, the lease was gonna end, and I kinda figured that’s when we would be off the air at 1090,” Kaplan noted. He emphasized that, while he and his program had been forced to prepare for a digital distribution future, the specialty fishing show with a 70-year-old host hadn’t.
Perhaps more revelatory is the section at 2:02:00 in the video, after the actual program wrapped. Kaplan notes that deals to bring the syndicated shows of Rich Eisen and Jim Rome — in which he had had a hand — ended without Kaplan being told by Mightier 1090 programmer Bill Hagen. He noted to his co-hosts, “There was no attempt to hire local talent; there was no attempt to put money into the station; there was no attempt to become more involved in the community. It was just a clearing house [for ESPN Radio], and we were the only thing on that was local.”
Preparations for New Tower in Acapulco
Grupo Imagen and Radio y Televisión de Guerrero are collaborating on a new television tower to serve the Acapulco area, according to Elías Noriega García, director of the state network, who announced that site studies had begun Thursday. The tower will replace the RTG digital television mast which was blown down by Hurricane Otis in 2023 and presumably provide Imagen Televisión service. Imagen was also on Cerro de los Lirios. RTG radio radiated from a separate tower, also festooned with old VHF TV elements from the analog service, that was one of two left standing after Otis.
Corrected August 3, 2024, to remove a claim that XHCTAC was on Cerro de la Mira.
That’s Not Transmitter Maintenance
XHUTX-FM, Tlaxcala’s university station, left the air (but not its streams) effective today for what it says is transmitter maintenance on its 22-year-old installation.
En Frecuencia readers know better than to accept this excuse! August 1 was the expiration date for XHUTX-FM’s concession, and while continuity is assured by the inclusion of the frequency in the 2024 PABF, the application for the replacement has not yet been approved, as far as we know (it may have happened in early July, for which IFT Pleno meeting summaries remain unavailable). The IFT should have received it in the April public station filing window (April 1–12). The return to air of XHUTX-FM depends on this concession receiving federal approval.
August 3, 2024: Full story:
NRM After Edilberto?
In his Thursday column in El Heraldo de México, Darío Celis talks a bit about what’s next for NRM after the death of Edilberto Huesca Perrotín.
According to Celis, the Bichara family sold its stake months earlier, leaving NRM owned 60 percent by the Huesca family and another 40 percent by Javier Pérez de Anda (of Audiorama). Only one of Edilberto’s three children — Germán Huesca Bustamante — works at the company, the other two having departed. It’s funny that one of them is Mauricio, who married — wait for it — Lorena Margarita Pérez Toscano, one of Javier’s three daughters.
