XHRF-FM

XHRF-FM and XERF-AM are radio stations in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico. Originally only on the AM band, XERF is a Mexican Class A clear-channel station transmitting with of power. Now branded as La Poderosa, XHRF-FM and XERF-AM simulcast their programming and are owned by the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio, a Mexican public broadcaster.
In earlier times, XERF was operated under the laws of Mexico by Ramón D. Bósquez and Arturo González, transmitting as a border blaster, featuring famed disc jockey Wolfman Jack. XERF received its concession on, and commenced operations, using the old facilities of John R. Brinkley's XERA, which ceased broadcasting in. XERF was not a continuation of XERA.

Cross-national operation (19491986)

The facilities of the old border blaster XERA, which had been created by John R. Brinkley, were confiscated by the Mexican government in, and Villa Acuña did not have another high-power station until, when the Compañía Radiodifusora de Coahuila, S.A., headed by Ramón D. Bósquez and Arturo González, signed XERF-AM on the air on. The station used XERA's old transmission site, with a power of ; its first day of broadcasting included a formal opening featuring programs from the chambers of commerce of both Villa Acuña and Del Rio, Texas and the presence of the Bishop of Saltillo. For many years, the station made money by selling its time after nightfall to American evangelists who broadcast in English to the United States.

The border blaster

Prior to, XERF retained the Wilson and Howard Radio Advertising Agency to handle its United States ad sales. In that year, Bósquez and González formed a Texas corporation called Inter-American Radio Advertising, Inc. which was located on Pecan Street in Del Rio, Texas. While XERF's concession remained with Compañía Radiodifusora de Coahuila, the actual control of the airtime and the management of the facilities in Ciudad Acuña were under the control of Inter-American Radio Advertising.
The Texas company purchased a RCA transmitter to broadcast an omni-directional clear channel signal on AM 1570, which originated some distance from the old XERA facilities within three new prefabricated concrete buildings with flat roofs. The sales brochure for XERF offered this explanation about the operation of the station :

There is, of course, one BIG difference between U.S. and Mexican Stations, and that is a matter of POWER; American Stations are limited a maximum ... a limitation that does not exist under Mexican regulation. X.E.R.F. for example, is licensed to operate on power, and the Department of Communication and Public Works of the Mexican Government has authorized a power increase to. Such power could result in serious interference if wave lengths were not strictly maintained, but the equipment with which X.E.R.F., operates assures its signal to stay "right on the beam." This is something constantly checked by FCC monitor stations, a degree of regulation by the U.S. Government alike that is imposed upon U.S. Stations. Operating on a clear channel, X.E.R.F. is heard nightly in all parts of the fifty States in the United States, Canada and Latin-America.

Although reference was made to a power increase, the station only had an RCA transmitter.

Paul Kallinger

The booming bass voice of Paul Kallinger was used to sell many of the products on XERF. At night, his recorded spots between the different sponsored shows served as a jingle break. Kallinger remained on the Texas side of the border and recorded his spots at a studio in Del Rio, because he did not want to become embroiled with the lawlessness that swirled around the XERF studio and transmitter on the other side of the border. In between the different religious programs, Kallinger would tell XERF listeners in various versions that:

It’s always good to know that we have some fine people out there listening to the most powerful commercial voice in the world... From alongside the beautiful Rio Grande, this is XERF, Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico. Our mailing address is Del Rio, Texas. This is Paul Kallinger.

As Mexican law required stations to identify in Spanish, the portion identifying the station's call letters and the station's location in Mexico, was then repeated in that language.
Kallinger, along with fellow XERF alumni Bill Mack, were inducted into the Texas Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in in recognition of their influence on the development of country music.

Wolfman Jack (19621964)

With the birth of rock and roll and its promotion by disc jockeys such as Alan Freed, a new interest was taken in the unrestricted superpower airwaves that were available in Mexico. Alan Freed had originally called himself the Moondog after hearing the name used by an experimental street musician in New York City. Freed not only adopted the name but used the recording of a howl to give his early broadcasts a unique character since he was featuring African-American music that was getting a great reception from America's White teenagers.
One of Freed's fans was Bob Smith, a disc jockey who also adopted the Moondog theme by calling himself Wolfman Jack and adding his own sound effects. Smith took his act to Inter-American Radio Advertising, who sent him to the studio and transmitter site of XERF. It was here that Wolfman Jack invented his own style of border blasting by turning the airwaves into one long infomercial featuring music and off-the-wall products.
Wolfman Jack gained a huge audience which brought in enough money to not only pay the bills, but to cause bandits and corrupt officials to also take enough interest in taking over his promotions for themselves. As a result, Smith began to pay his own security force to protect him, because although he lived in Del Rio, Texas, because of the Brinkley Act he had to actually broadcast from the station itself in Ciudad Acuña in Mexico.

Lawlessness and death

In, XERF returned to the headlines when armed men seized the station. Mexican authorities intervened, stationing federal troops to guard the station. In testimony, employees said they were chased, and that one armed man threatened Kallinger with a.45 pistol. After a legal dispute, a judge found in favor of Saúl Montes, the station's administrator, who put the station back on the air. In, a gun battle at the station left a 50-year-old man dead; his body was found on an adjoining ranch. Station personnel broadcast panicked pleas for help, prompting local residents to notify the authorities.
After the second gun battle, Bob Smith decided to leave for XERB, a border blaster in Tijuana and listenable in Los Angeles, California. It was this station that George Lucas featured in the movie American Graffiti.
Meanwhile, XERF reverted to selling time according to the old format devised by Dr. Brinkley. It featured paid programming, most of it from American fringe evangelists, right-wing political groups and Black Nationalist messages from the Nation of Islam. In, a pastor sued the station for removing him from its air, alleging that the contract he had signed was for the duration of its broadcast concession. In the early, the station faced another lawsuit over contracts for airtime on XERF.
In early, station employees who had been seeking back wages for 13 years, since the gunfight, won a victory in Mexican court, and Montes was appointed the sole administrator of XERF.
With the advent of FM stereo radio broadcasting, interest in the static-prone mono AM signals of XERF began to wane and its signal was switched from the RCA transmitter, which was never paid for and which consistently kept breaking down, to a new transmitter. Its program schedule consisted of primarily religious shows, and it did not broadcast during the day.

Brief rebirth in the

In, Bob Smith ran into a radio engineer friend named Mike Venditti, and he told Venditti that no one had been able to get XERF back on full power with its old RCA transmitter, because RCA did not have any manuals relating to the equipment. Venditti then approached González with a business proposition.

Love 16

In exchange for restoring the main RCA transmitter to active duty, Venditti asked González to lease him the daytime hours from to. Because the station was only operating on a fraction of power from the transmitter, XERF was not on the air during the day. At night, XERF reverted to its sponsored format of mainly American religious programs.
Venditti succeeded in getting the old transmitter to work, and at first, his new station Love 16 broadcast an English language format composed of a mixture of soft rock, oldies, middle-of-the-road, country, and Big Band music, along with hourly ABC News newscasts. This format did not sell and soon Love 16 was programming a modern Christian music format. That did not work either.
Michael Venditti was a member of The Word Outreach Center, a Non-Denominational Church in Del Rio during this time. The church was pastored by Michael Kyle, a native of Del Rio and longtime broadcaster himself, having worked in both local radio stations and with Paul Kallinger. Michael Kyle worked an air shift at the station in Mexico when the format went to all music.
Before Venditti pulled the plug on Love 16, it attracted a lot of publicity in the Texas press concerning the rebirth of XERF as a real border blaster.

Texas Night Train

Another group from the Dallas and Fort Worth area then replaced Bill Mack with a nightly taped program called the Texas Night Train. Because the marathon shows which featured every type of popular music and comedy were taped, there was no problem with a lack of live landline connections. Weekend editions were also heard on some U.S. radio stations in Texas, including KXOL, an AM station in Fort Worth.
The show took telephone requests which were then mixed into the following-night program tape. Its big feature was the voice of the DJ, who was identified as the "Night Hawk", but who some mistook as a voice clone of Wolfman Jack. He was heralded over the sound effects of a massive steam train which gave the impression the Texas Night Train was chugging its way across Texas.