Really Big Pie Slice
IFT approves power hike, statutory coverage area increase for Radio UAEM to remain in Jojutla
Lost alongside Hidalgo’s big smoking crater of lost radio stations, but attributable to the same cause and announced the same day, was the loss of XHJJM-FM 91.9 in Jojutla, Morelos, one of three transmitters owned by the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos.
XHJJM went off in October, and mentions of the frequency were scrubbed from the website. However, on November 23, the IFT approved a technical modification that points the way to a return to Jojutla.
The IFT did so by approving a class increase from AA to B1. However, the statutory coverage area is only being extended from a 28 to a 45-kilometer radius on azimuths from 80° to 220°. This is common in television, where many stations have statutory coverage areas that are directional in nature, but not so much in radio. The ERP will be 10 kW. The nature of the terrain around Cuernavaca, and the existence of XHCDMX-FM in Mexico City, prevent much expansion of the signal in that area.
Also worth noting is that there is a second + crosshair over Jojutla (toward the bottom). The CPCREL updated on November 24 and lists the upgraded facility, including conversion of the former XHJJM-FM into a shadow of XHUAEM-FM at a new ERP of 150 watts (instead of 500). There is no effective coverage loss, comparing the Longley-Rice plots.
This would likely indicate that, by incorporating Jojutla into the statutory coverage area, the former XHJJM-FM physical plant could be reused as a shadow of XHUAEM-FM, much like with Canal Once in or a common-concession state network.
For that matter, Cuautla’s XHCUM-FM could be converted now in the same manner, so that’s something to watch. (Doing so would fill in some of the gaps north and west of Cuautla that XHCUM-FM reaches but not XHUAEM.) XHCUM, however, is legally safe: its concession expires on October 25, 2032.
It’s unusual to see these types of tactics deployed for a radio station. Television conversions of main transmitters into shadows, even on other frequencies, of another station are not as rare as they used to be, and they have been deployed to keep stations in service (the two Canal Once examples Jocotitlán–Mexico City or Guamúchil–Los Mochis, CORTV Oaxaca, etc.) and to reduce the paperwork and administrative load associated with constellations of concessions.
