XEL-AM is a radio station in Los Reyes Acaquilpan,

State of Mexico The State of Mexico, officially just Mexico, is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Colloquially known as Edomex (from , the abbreviation of , and ), to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is the mo ...

, serving

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. Broadcasting on 1260 kHz, XEL-AM is owned by

Grupo ACIR Grupo ACIR is a Mexican Mass media, media company that specializes in the operation of radio stations. It was established in 1965. The acronym ACIR stands for ''Asociación de Concesionarios Independientes de Radio'' (Association of Independent ...

and carries its La Comadre

Regional Mexican Regional Mexican music refers collectively to the regional subgenres of the country music of Mexico and its derivatives from the Southwestern United States. Each subgenre is representative of a certain region and its popularity also varies by ...

format.

History

The first concession for what would become XEL was actually for a station on 1140 kHz with the call sign XETA, made to Manuel Espinosa Tagle on August 16, 1932. The station spent the next 17 years under a revolving door of owners: Esperanza Romero González, Banco Capitalizador de Ahorros, Financiera de Inversiones, Ramón Ferreiro Rodriguez, Fidel Hernández Calderón, and finally stability under Radio Impulsora Hérdez, S.A. The station became XEL-AM in 1952 and moved to 1260 kHz in the 1960s. The station for most of its life carried the name "Radio Capital". In 1964, accountant Francisco Ibarra bought the station, making it

's first station in Mexico City. The format was changed to rock in English with the slogan ''Una buena costumbre de la gente joven'' ("A good habit of young people"). In 1989, the station became the general format "Radio ACIR", a format moved from XEVOZ-AM 1590; that station picked up the rock music format and Radio Capital name. On November 3, 2003, the station was relaunched as "La 12 60" with a focus on self-help, health and family affairs matters. On July 1, 2015, as part of larger changes at Grupo ACIR, the self-help format was jettisoned to make XEL the flagship station of ACIR's La Comadre regional Mexican format, returning the format to Mexico City. On July 31, 2021, XEL-AM changed its format to Radio La Guadalupana, affiliated with ESNE Radio and being its second station in Mexico, after XEBBB-AM in

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

. It was also the second Catholic station to broadcast in the Mexico City area, after Radio María leased out XEUR-AM 1530 in December 2020. ACIR attempted to sell the station to an ESNE affiliate, an act blocked by the

Federal Telecommunications Institute The Federal Telecommunications Institute (Spanish Language, Spanish: ''Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones''; abbreviated as IFT and incorrectly referred to as IFETEL, Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Snaul jtsob a’telelil Sk’asesojibal k’o ...

(IFT), which in its decision considered that the proposed controlling owner, ESNE Radio México, S.A. de C.V., acted like a religious organization and was thus barred from owning a broadcast station. After this event, ESNE Radio opted to stop operating the station on December 31, with ACIR resuming La Comadre programming on January 1, 2022.

References

External links

iheart Mexico City website
{{coord, 19.3610, N, 98.9926, W, source:wikidata, display=title Radio stations established in 1932 1932 establishments in Mexico Radio stations in Mexico City Radio stations in the State of Mexico Grupo ACIR