Groundhog Day Might End in Rosarito
GLR Southern California wants to make XEWW speak English again
For the first time in 18 years, XEWW-AM in Rosarito, Baja California, could become an English-language station on a full-time basis. The Federal Communications Commission has accepted for filing an application for the Section 325(c) permit needed to supply programs from the United States to XEWW. The application requests expedited processing to provide the first real programs on this AM facility in more than three years and contained a filing seeking special temporary authority to begin supplying them as soon as June 15. (However, the application was not accepted for filing at the FCC until today, June 27.)
GLR Southern California, under the ownership of Vivian Huo, would contract with Radio Resources, Inc. for English-language syndicated news and talk programming. It would represent the first new programming on XEWW in three years; it has been airing a loop of programs to keep it on the air ever since political considerations and the involvement of Chinese state-owned Phoenix Television caused a plan to provide Phoenix programs on XEWW to collapse. The application notes that all business ties between GLR and Phoenix were severed in January.
This was possible because, as a legacy of John Brinkley’s border-blaster operations in the 1930s, the FCC must approve permits for this kind of service.
GLR attempted to “sell” the station in 2021.
Programming
The service will consist of English-language programs, per the application. Most of these will be national syndicated programs. No further detail is supplied other than the following:
Applicant, which is owned and controlled by U.S. citizens, will develop its own English language programming format to include news, talk shows, sports programs, and advertising. Applicant will acquire programming content, including embedded advertising, through a contract with third party radio product and service platform provider Radio Resources, Inc.
Applicant will retain Radio Resources to compile and deliver programming, at Applicant’s direction and subject to the ultimate control of the Applicant, to the Station’s studio in Tijuana, Mexico.
It notes that the only items supplied by a foreign government will be RTC and INE spots.
