XHOF-FM, also known as Reactor 105.7, is a radio station in
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 ...
that plays alternative
rock music
Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...
, and
hip hop
Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
mainly in English and Spanish. Its broadcast frequency is
105.7 MHz. The transmitter site is located in Ajusco south of the city.
XHOF-FM used to broadcast in
HD., but the digital signal became silent in early 2020 due to operating costs.
History
Radio Departamento
The Department of the
Federal District
A federal district is a specific administrative division in one of various federations. These districts may be under the direct jurisdiction of a federation's national government, as in the case of federal territory (e.g., India, Malaysia), or the ...
(DDF) solicited a permit for a radio station in 1967.
[Laura Islas Reyes]
"La estación maldita"
Etcétera 1 March 2007 However, the station seemed cursed from the beginning. The Department had a hard time procuring the permit; one month after it was issued, the government was still evaluating the technical parameters. Additionally, the original callsign of XEDO-FM had to be changed (in April 1968) when it was discovered that a Michoacán radio station had been using that unique identifier since 1961.
In March 1969, the
SCT informed the DDF that the latter still had not complied with the requirements for the construction of the station. "Radio Departamento", however, soon got on track to launch May 1, 1969, from the top floor of the Departamento del Distrito Federal building, with of floor space to work with.
To IMER
In 1983, the
Instituto Mexicano de la Radio was created. IMER included all of the stations operated by the executive branch of the federal government, XHOF included. However, it took the SCT until 2005 to transfer the permit of XHOF to IMER, on the fourth request by the latter. From 1992 to 1994, XHOF was operated by Radio S.A. (RASA) under contract.
Meanwhile, the station went through various names and formats: Radio Cosmos, Estéreo Joven, Láser FM, Conexión Acústica and Órbita 105.7. In 2005, the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District asked then-mayor
Andrés Manuel López Obrador to take action to "recover" control of the station from IMER, but López Obrador, like his predecessors, did not take any action.
The current Reactor format was formed after the closure of
Radioactivo 98.5 and the old Órbita 105.7 format. Some of the most popular and relevant radio hosts of the former stations are now working for Reactor. Because of the official nature of the radio station there is a strong tendency to promote Spanish-speaking or Mexican bands, a situation that has defined the personality of the project as the only opportunity for the independent market of alternative or out-of-the-mainstream bands in Mexico.
In 2019, the
SPR's XHSPRM-FM 103.5 in
Mazatlán
Mazatlán () is a city in the Mexican list of states of Mexico, state of Sinaloa. The city serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding , known as the Mazatlán Municipality. It is located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast across from th ...
flipped from simulcasting
Radio México Internacional to simulcasting Reactor.
References
External links
*
XHOF-FM— official page
{{Mexico City Radio, HOF-FM
Radio stations established in 1969
Radio stations in Mexico City
1969 establishments in Mexico