MEDITM WAT<E NWS VOLUME 29 NO. 7. EDITION------.--------------..---------------.-----w----"--------------------L--------- 210 JUNE 1983 ALL IUIL RELATED TO INN SIIOULD GO TO KEN BROWNLESS, 7 The Avenue, YORK YO3 6AS. VERIFICATION SECTION - Info im BARRY DAVIES, 3 EAVES BROW W)AD, CROFT. WARRINGTON, WA3 7LE SECRETARIAL HF;LP is from NOEL GREEN, 14 Marsden Road, BLACKPOOL FY4 3BZ. MAILING is handled 'try 14ALCOLM DICJSINSON, 'Xeswickrt, Castletom Road, PORT ERIN, I, 0~~~~.(OD3 XJR) . -----------o-w-~---.-.------------------~----o.--.w----.-------------------*-- Bfr LOG Rcrporting Fonns, the we of which is appreciated, are available from PAT DO3I;BS, 129 Westbury Road, IlRfSTOL BS9 3AN. Please enclose 9 x & SASE. om---- -----.--------.--...-------o---------.----.-.-w----o-----------o------------- PUEB-IISHED BY THE ME19IUM WAVE CIRCLE ww-----.--------~--~w~-----~-~-~~~~~U-~~----..--..~----~-...-...~~--U------------ C(3PYRIGHT MWC 1983 - All Clubs which share Exchange RiLletin sohanes wlth us are welcome to dse copy. Also those who have written permission to use copy. .----------.-.--1-----.I.I-----------d--I-------o--.----.-.------o---------------- SUBSCRIPTION RATES - Home E2.00, Overseas $2.50, Overseas/Air Mail - outside Europe S4.00 - 8 issues per year. Novmber thru' April, June and Septmber. w------------I--------.I.--.----.---..)..)..)------------------------------------.----- DEAILINE DATE for our next issue is MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st. As from then we shall hold the CODY men ALL the deadline day so if thclre are any late flashes - one or two stations - preferably GOODIES - th& they can be 'phoned through for inclusion on the evening of deadline day from 1800 on 0904 24705. Whenever we can we like to try to get the copy away for duplication on the day following Deadline or the day after. SUBSCRETION RATES will remain as shown in the heading section above. We hope to keep the rate steady for the next year's series of issues. -XERF Ciudad AcuGa, Mexico - Every day in a Mexican border studio just outside the FCC Is reach, a disc jockey flips a switch and launches the radio signal heard around the continent. It's 00st like the years have not passed since listeners could hear the legendary sign-on most powerful commercial uperation in the entire world today - Station XEaE' in Ciudad ~cGa,Mexico - is on the air - coast to coast, border to border, whoever you are, wherever you may be. This is Paul Kallinger, your good neighbor along the way." In -those days, truckers across the country could pick up Kallinger's country and western drawl every night at 1570 on their AM dial. Hot rodding teear-agars could catch Wolfman Jack's rock'n roU. howl. kt the voicee went silent in the late 1960s and became part of radio history. The border blaster era was ending, and XEiF was the most notable victim. Now, the famed station, long relegated to lower power and solely religious pmgramming, is coming back to life again at its full 250,000 Watt strength and with a mainstream appeal. The station is playing an electric mixture of pop and oldies tunes, country and western music by veteran all-night trucker disc jockey Bill Mack, as well as the evangelical preachings, on a signal that can be heard up to 6,000 miles 0.w~.The revfval was spurred this year by' a 31-year-old electronics expert who managed to repair XEEF"s mammoth RCA transmitter and by speculatian that enough advertising could be attracted to support the venture. XERF' s renewal sent a charge through national radio circles. It quicWy caught the interest of Mack, the nationally famous disc jockey who left Fort Worth's WBAP after a disagreement with management. "I've always wanted to work for XERF sape I used to listen to it when I was in high school in the Psnf;Yldlen said Mack. '?t was a proven outlet years ago. I think we need the facility and I'd like to make it the most fmous country and western station in the country." Should that grand vision come true, it would add a fitting chapter to a phenasnenon that marked the mmories of a generation of radio-craw teenagers in the 1950s and 1960s. During the heyday, the station made household names of radio preachers like the Rev J.C. Bishop of Dallas and the Rev. Lester Roloff of Corpus Chrlsti and generated millions of dollars in nationwide mail order sales of everything from - 2- live baby chicks to record albums. tTolks, would you like to have fryingsize chickens in just a few weeks and pay only 3 cents a piece for 'emn Kdlanger would boom in his bass baritone into the microphone. "And rmber - any chick lost in the first 10 days will be replaced free of charge. Orders for the "Sunshine Chicks" and other assorted paraphernalia came across the continent, drawn by the station's far-flung signal. The tales of XERF1s staggering power, five tines greater than the strongest US station, are a popular part of radio industry lore. '? remember when we first set up the big transmittern said Kallinger recently. "A fanner who lived nearby said all he had to do to get electric light was to stick a wire into the ground and it would light up the bulbs in his house. " The station's signal routinely reached Russia where Soviet spies reportedly tuned in to polish their American bglish, said Arturo Gonzales, current XERF air-time manager, quoting a book about the Russian KGB security agency. The behemoth transmitter broke down in the late 1960s about the time the station's advertisers happened to be defecting en masse to W. Since then, XERF has remained on the air with its backup 50.000 Watt transmitter, broadcasting only night-time evangelistic programming. The rising advertising dominance of television also claimed the six other Ehglish language blasters XERF's success has spawned. Those stations, aligned in a string along the 2,000 mile Mexican border, gradually switched to Spanish-language programs to stay alive. Gonzales said XERF1s rebirth began last summer when Wolfman Jack, an XERF disc jockey from 1962 to 1964, ran into acquaintance Mike Vendetti at a benefit and mentioned the long-idled transmitter. Vendetti, an electronics whiz and a radio buff "since I was old enough to turn a dialn, jumped at the challenge to fire up the unit agsin. "Everyone in the business knew XERF had been operating on a back up 50.000 Watt transmitlter because noboa was able to make the big one work," Vendetti said. "The RCA people had lost the manual years ago, but I was able to get it up Co full power without even a schematic drawing. I did it all from the top of my headn. That feat led to a grander scheme. opened up possibilities for me of operating the world's most powerful stationR, Vendetti said. Vendetti leased the vacant day- time 6am-9pm airtime from Gonzales, and last summer put on '2ove 16" a blend of soft rock, oldies, middle-of-the-road country and Big Band. Mack began his on-theroad truckers show this month in the 2 to 6am time slot. Both tape their programs in advance for play later at the Ciudad Acuna station, but Vendetti said a microwave relay will be setup to the border transmitter in the next few months to allow Mack to broadcast his program live from a Fort Worth studio and enable Love 16 to emanate live from Del Rio. Wolfman Jack said he plans to do a specid broadcast for the station, but dll not return to a regular show. In between the new programming, the pulpit-pounding evangelists will continue to tend their intercontine~talflocks 'We're still going to have the preacher, but we've done away with the faiths healing programs because the Maxican government said they had to gow, Gonzales said. That particular concession ends one colorful ljnk XERF had with its storied ancestor, XER, the original border blaster created by eccentric Kansas ndoctorn John R. Rrinkley.&fnkley built up the station in Ciudad ~cuiiaafter the then - Federal Radio Commission suspended his Milford, Kan., station's license because of his extensive advertising for his clinic, which specialized in rejuvenating elderly men by implanting glands in the patientts scrotums. &inkley moved his clinic to Del Fiio where his station's potrerful signal, outside the FCC's jurisdiction and 50.000 Watt limit, drew thousands of cus txmers and mail that in one peak week hit 27,000 pieces, said Gonzales, 72, a studmt of the station's history. The goat- gland doctor's o eration eventually roved an embarrassment to the Mexican Govern- ment, which conf 4scated the station & 3939. Ihe statim renained silent until 19b7, when a group of Mexican -hvestor~;renamed it XERF and put it back on the air. Twelve years later they ensurea its dcminance of North American airwaves by installing the giant 250.000 Watt transmitter, more than twice the power of the previous equipment. The station's enormous coverage area made it a natural for the public enquiry(mai1 order) business. Vhe advertisers paid the station 80 much per inquiry", said disc jockey Kallinger, who now runs a Del Rio furniture store. 'My gosh, I'd get mail from all over. We'd sell live baby chicks, simulated diamond rings, 'Baby Blue -3- Eyesf dolls, rosek.7hes.. you meit, and we had sponsors in Chicago, Los Angles, Kansas City and St Louis. fl Kallinger said listeners told hin! the station came in nclear as a bell in Canadan. One night, he said, %hen I asked people to call me, I got 80 phone calls frcm 43 differat statesn. Wolfman Jack, those real name is Bob %ith, attested to IU!J@"S selling power during his stint there, "The station was a real money maker.