Cuaderno En Frecuencia: December 24
The 2023 PABF revision; Guadalajara, Durango get Christmas gifts on their dials; Canal Catorce gets going in Tulancingo
The 2023 PABF Revision
The IFT on December 7 approved the modifications to the 2023 PABF, which hit the Diario Oficial de la Federación on Friday.
There is a lot to talk about in the addition of one commercial AM, 27 commercial FMs, 19 public FMs, and 5 social FMs on the radio side plus 2 commercial TV allotments, 5 more public TVs, and 8 social TVs.
- Two frequencies have been earmarked effectively for use by intercultural universities — at the request of the IFT based on desires expressed at workshops that the IFT administered there last month. These are FM stations for Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí (Universidad Intercultural de San Luis Potosí), and Tenango de Doria, Hidalgo (Universidad Intercultural del Estado de Hidalgo). Neither city has any university radio station at the present time, and in Tenango there are no legal radio stations whatsoever. The Universidad Autónoma Intercultural de Sinaloa, with XHMFS-FM in Mochicahui, is the only such institution with a radio station at the present time.
- It looks like Nuevo León will be getting some reborn concessions on FM. Anáhuac, Cerralvo, Sabinas Hidalgo, Galeana, and Montemorelos are all on the docket in the addition. To the Puebla continuity package was added Zacatlán. An FM in Torreón was added for continuity purposes, probably for XHUCT-FM, which will expire October 31, 2023.
- The requesters for a public FM in Los Mochis and public TVs in Monclova and Puerto Peñasco have Article 56 priority. There has never been national public TV service in Puerto Peñasco. Monclova is likely for an IPN transmitter.
- The public FMs to go in the first window, which includes all the federal requests: San Francisco de Campeche, Xpujil Camp., Las Margaritas Chis., Ocosingo, Palenque, Torreón, Victoria de Durango, Tlapa de Comonfort, El Duin Mich., the aforementioned Nuevo León set of 5, María Lombardo de Caso Oax., San Juan Guichicovi Oax., Santiago Jamiltepec Oax., the Puebla set of 5 (Acatlán/Libres/Tehuacán/Teziutlán/Zacatlán), Culiacán, Los Mochis, and Zacatecas. A mix of continuity cases, INPI cities, and probable Altavoz Radio expansions, as well as some head-scratchers. El Duin is 63 km southeast of Tecomán, Colima, in an area of southwestern Michoacán with no radio stations.
- To note on Puebla: the city of Puebla has no room for any new stations. It sure sounds like XHCOM-FM is about to face a Hidalgo-esque fate on November 13, 2024…
- Public TDTs were added to Torreón (UHF), Durango (UHF), Actopan (VHF-Low), Tepeapulco–Tulancingo (VHF), and Zacatecas (VHF).
- The public TDTs to go in the first window, which includes all the federal requests: Torreón, Hidalgo del Parral, Victoria de Durango, Actopan, Tepeapulco–Tulancingo, Autlán de Navarro, Apatzingán, Zitácuaro, Huajuapan de León, Salina Cruz–Matías Romero, Matehuala, Ríoverde, and Ciudad Mante. The second window will only have several assignments in Guerrero, Bucerías Nay., Culiacán and the new Zacatecas assignment; these are almost certainly for state governments or other agencies (that Zacatecas TV in particular must be for someone else).
- There is also a new “last call” window for public station allocations. If a public AM, FM, or TDT allocation receives no applications in its filing window, any interested and qualified party can apply for it from November 6 to 17. This last call window would seem most likely to benefit the SPR or IPN.
- One notable change called out by the IFT in its own press release is that new community and indigenous radio station applications will now be taken throughout the year on days when the IFT is open for business instead of at filing windows, which continue for public and “pure” social stations (two public windows and two social windows in 2023). This change will likely lower the barriers for applicants because travel to Mexico City is typically required to transact this business. Also, given the tailored nature of these applications, they rarely are mutually exclusive.
La Lupe in Guadalajara
Guadalajara’s getting an adult hits station as La Lupe entered the market this morning on XHKB-FM 99.9.
XHKB was supposed to be bought a year ago by Grupo Radio Digital which would have run it as pop “Soy Jalisco”, but no takeover ever materialized, and in January, it was confirmed that the GRC Planeta pop format would continue for the time being. However, on Thursday, Planeta said goodbye to its listeners — this time for good.
Multimedios previously had programmed XHGDA-FM 89.1 as Milenio Radio, which lasted from 2011 to 2017 before owner Grupo Audiorama resumed direct operations of that station. The company has never actually owned a station there, however.
Turns out that the La Lupe billboards that went up in Guadalajara three years ago, evidently intended for Torreón, were just premature:
Ke Buena’s Coming to Durango
XHCCAV-FM 94.9 in Durango, one of two new IFT-8 stations in the state capital, will be Ke Buena. This APGR Comunicaciones station is now on test with RDS information announcing the forthcoming launch, and social media accounts are up.
XHCCAV is one of five IFT-8ers from APGR Comunicaciones (AT 93.7 Canatlán, BZ 103.9 Ahome, CD 98.5 El Fuerte, CE 93.5 La Cruz). Canatlán will be Ke Buena, as a matching Facebook page for it exists.
And That’s Not All!
Another IFT-8er snuck onto the air last month. It’s XHCCCS-FM 93.3, the Tuukul Systems station for Celestún, Yucatán. They’re going by Kuxtal FM.
Tulancingo Gets National Public TV
The first national public TV transmitter in the state of Hidalgo has been built in Tulancingo. XHCPCR-TDT 10 went live on Wednesday to serve the Tulancingo area and an estimated 482,000 people with Canal Catorce programming.
It is the first SPR transmitter to be built off a concession awarded in the last two years at a site where neither the IPN nor the SPR nor another partner (such as the IMER in Ciudad Juárez) had existing facilities. (The SPR has built some of its oldest pending concessions, such as Acapulco and La Paz, as well as transmitters on IPN-owned towers in cities such as Saltillo and Ciudad Cuauhtémoc.)
