XET-AM, nicknamed La T Grande, is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

on 990

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one h ...

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is ancho ...

Nuevo León Nuevo León () is a state in the northeast region of Mexico. The state was named after the New Kingdom of León, an administrative territory from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, itself was named after the historic Spanish Kingdom of León. With ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

. It is part of

Multimedios Radio Multimedios Radio is the radio division of Grupo Multimedios, operating 31 radio stations in northern and central Mexico. Multimedios traces its history to the founding of XEAW-AM in the late 1930s. Stations Monterrey, Nuevo León Multim ...

's Monterrey station cluster. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

is located in

San Nicolás de los Garza San Nicolás de los Garza, sometimes known only as San Nicolás, is a city and coextensive municipality in the Mexican state of Nuevo León that is part of the Monterrey metropolitan area. It has become primarily a city for residences and family h ...

, near Monterrey.

History

XET went on the air in March 1930 as Monterrey's second radio station after XEH. It was founded by

Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta (2 March 1895, Tampico, Tamaulipas – 23 September 1972, Mexico City) was a Mexican businessman who built an entertainment conglomerate. The son of Basque immigrants Mariano Azcárraga and Emilia Vidaurreta, ...

. and eventually became a

border blaster A border blaster is a broadcast station that, though not licensed as an external service, is, in practice, used to target another country. The term "border blaster" is of North American origin, and usually associated with Mexican AM station ...

targeting the United States in English with a 50,000 watt signal. Studios were located at Galeana and Hidalgo streets. In the 2000s, it reduced its power to 20,000 watts. Azcárraga later sold the station to Cervecería Cuauhtémoc. The

Carter Family Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. ...

worked at the station in its early years, performing their

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

and

bluegrass music Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Like mainstream country music, it la ...

. As the station could be heard at night in the parts of the United States, XET helped the Carter Family's music became well-known. In February 1939, over the air live,

Sara Carter Sara Elizabeth Carter (née Dougherty, later Bayes; July 21, 1898 – January 8, 1979) was an American country music musician, singer, and songwriter. Remembered mostly for her deep, distinctive, mature singing voice, she was the lead singer on ...

dedicated the song ''

I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" is the title of a country/ folk song by A. P. Carter. A. P. Carter was a collector of old songs and lyrics. ''I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes'' is one of these old songs he discovered and it is said to ...

'' to her long-lost boyfriend Coy Bayes. On February 20, 1939, Sara Carter and Coy Bayes married at

Brackettville, Texas Brackettville is a city in Kinney County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,688 at the 2010 census, down from 1,876 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Kinney County. History Founded in 1852 as "Las Moras" (the name of a nearby ...

. In the 1970s, Grupo Estrellas de Oro, the predecessor to Multimedios Radio, acquired XET.

References

Radio stations established in 1930 Multimedios Radio Radio stations in Nuevo León {{Nuevo León-radio-station-stub

History

Further reading

References