Logjam on the Airwaves
By: Raymie Humbert
Tags: Puebla, Mexico, Radio, Pirate Radio

Logjam on the Airwaves

It’s the type of story that seems to be a constant not only from this specialty outlet but from mainstream news sources.

El Sol de Puebla twice in the last several years has published a tally and investigative reporting on pirate radio stations in Puebla.

Puebla’s broadcasters have been loudly peeved by everything from politicians being interviewed on pirates…

…while one community station claims it is being jammed.

The last El Sol count tabulated 95 pirates to just 63 authorized radio stations.

More recently, En Frecuencia received a list of pirates compiled by Grupo Oro — the same one mentioned in this El Economista piece from Sunday. This was incorporated into a project I am part of that is keeping a list of unauthorized stations in all 32 states. The list went from 82 entries for Puebla to a whopping 146.

It’s impossible to tabulate that number with total precision since some stations will inevitably have no web presence. For instance, the national list gained an entry in Macuspana, Tabasco…only when a DXer from Nevada received double-hop e-skip from there and caught a 96.1 belonging to a Christian ministry with a whopping one mention on Facebook. But when multiple stations have the same or similar names — San Salvador El Seco has “La Poderosa Radio Cantera” and “La Imponente Radio Cantera”, while there are two “La Mera Mera” stations in Zacatlán — you know things are getting wild.

Comparatively few are religious stations, too. This is not San Cristóbal de las Casas.

Community?

These are all the pending community applications in Puebla from 2018 to 2020; there were no such filings in the May 2021 window.

Colectivo Tajtolmej Taltipak, A.C. — Tenextatiloyan, Yahuitlalpan, Chilapa, Tlamancam Contla, Texocuixpan, Sta. Ma. Soteltepec, El Mirador, Temex, Mazapa, Xilotepec, Manzanilla, La Gloria and La Cañada

Asociación Mexicana Cultural de Radiodifusión, A.C. — San Andrés and San Pedro Cholula

Red Nacional de Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil Hagamos Mas por México, A.C. — Cuacnopalan and Palmar de Bravo

Xicotepec Comunicando, A.C. — Xicotepec de Juárez, Villa Ávila Camacho, Tlaxcalantongo y San Agustín Atlihuacán

Victor Manuel Malvaez Rosas Enlace Tehuacán — Tehuacán (would be religious)

Rescate y Asistencia Médica Hospitalaria, A.C. — Tlatlauquitepec

San Juan Atzingo — San Gabriel Chilac (indigenous)

Federacion Malaquías, A.C. — Cholula

Grupo Juvenil Crea, Ayuda y Transforma, A.C. — Acajete (Radio Acajete 99.9)

Proyectos Sustentables Sin Fronteras, A.C. — Tepeaca

Grupo de Comunicación del Valle de Sedán, A.C. [sic] — Chalchicomula de Sesma (Ciudad Serdán)

That’s not a lot for the volume of pirates. Just one pirate has a known application on file to go legal. That’s Radio Acajete at 99.9 on the dial in that town.

Hermanos Serdán says it has filed, but no application matches their statement. With this many pirates, why aren’t there more community filings to legalize these stations?

That’s the same question that Miguel Cruz Chao of Grupo Oro asks:

Algunas de esas estaciones tienen buenos programas, buenos locutores y hasta buenos anunciantes. Todo eso debería ser una reflexión para el gobierno, de que si existe este fenómeno, legalicemos.

(He also notes that some probably want to go commercial and not become legal but noncommercial outlets.)

Adjacent-Channel Woes

The El Economista story also mentions that one of the pirates, Enlace 94.7 in Huejotzingo, had been a real pain to Grupo Oro because it is impairing reception of first-adjacent XHORO-FM 94.9. It apparently has only recently come off the air — and not due to federal action.

Legal commercial stations are also losing out to pirates in other ways. XHLU-FM in Ciudad Serdán lost its airstaff to a pirate that could pay more, according to Cruz Chao.

Ultimately, though, he notes that the problem is the legality and the lack of action from federal authorities, not the fact that they exist and clearly provide a service that people want to listen to: