[IRCA] XETRA! XETRA!

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

** MEXICO. 690, Rosarita, XERA 2/13 0200 [EST]. Good signal on car radio in
Anaheim CA with nice ID in EE on the hour. "This is XERA 690 AM, Rosarito, Baja
California", then ID in Spanish "ésta es equis eh erre ah, seis novente ah
emme, Rosarita, Baja California Meh hee co". Call change ex XETRA. Those were
good call letters while they lasted! (Robert Wien, CA, IRCA Soft DX Monitor Feb
18 via DXLD)

End of an ERA, so to speak. Axually, XETRA used to be printed as X-TRA with the
hyphen, if you looked closely, a tiny capital E. So XERA might be equally
unofficial. I sure thought those calls applied somewhere else in Mexico, but
maybe not at the moment, or there has been a quick shuffle. Oh, oh, as I
suspected, it is now billed as XTRA, not XERA, as on its website
http://www.wradiousa.com/ linked from Fred Cantú`s Baja page
http://www.mexicoradiotv.com/listbaja.htm

As for the location, I just had a look at my Rand McNally atlas, which has a
crummy undetailed map of Mexico all on one page, just like New Mexico and many
other single US states which get one page (some get two-page spreads or even
more), and the only Rosarito shown in BCN is way down next to the BCS border,
the first town north of it some 35 km, or is that miles? Surely way too far
from the San Diego market. So is there another Rosarito up near Tijuana, or is
it really Rosarita --- Robert has the latter spelling 2 to 1. It won`t do any
good to consult the WRTH 2006, which only mentions Tijuana for the 690 station,
and of course all the lower-frequency Mexicans are missing from the Mex/Central
America/Caribe MW frequency list, and has not been rectified on the website.
Cantú also just puts it in Tijuana/Los Ángeles (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST) 

Rosarito is about 15 miles south of Tijuana along the Highway 1-D Toll Road.
FCC and Industry Canada's database shows XERA on 760 kHz in San Cristóbal,
Chiapas. Unless there was a call sign swap, I would think that the
Tijuana/Rosarito station is still XETRA. I see no logical reason why W would
change the call to XERA anyway. Which brings up an interesting question. How
often do Mexican call signs change in areas not along the US border? It's sad
to see XETRA in English go away. This is a station that I grew up on when I
lived in So. Cal. and it was "The Mighty 6-90" (Rich Eyre, REC Networks, Tempe
AZ, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

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