I DIAL IT IN FROM SOUTH OF THE BORDER
by RICH ARITHMETIC
Editor’s Note: This lightly edited piece originally appeared in the 1980’s Cassette Culture Blog on May 23, 2025.
As a 9-year-old kid in the days before FM radio, I used to scroll the dial of my little transistor radio, searching for “Cowboy Music” (which I defined as whatever my favorite movie and TV cowboys sang). Occasionally, I found myself landing on XERB, a station whose call letters strangely began with an “X” and not the “W” or “K” associated with all American radio stations, depending on whether they’re located East or West of the Mississippi River.
As I discovered, XERB was located just across the Rio Grande, in Mexico, and was known as a “Border Blaster,” that is, a station with a 150-thousand-watt signal, which is three times the limit allowed to U.S. stations. Blasting from the safe haven of Mexico and free of the FCC’s regulations, XERB’s signal blanketed the U.S. and large parts of Canada.
And what a world I discovered on Border Blasting Mexican Radio. With its FCC-free chaotic programming, on any given night — and in no particular thematic sequence — you might hear right-wing anti-Commie propaganda (or anti-JFK screeds); offers to sell motel franchises that would elevate the buyer into the Upper Class; crazed, fire-and-brimstone radio preachers threatening you with hell; and advertising of vials of sand from the Dead Sea or “prayer cloths” whose properties were purported to heal cancer.
And in between the programming chaos, you’d hear all kinds of music, including my beloved Cowboy Music as well as mariachi music, R&B, and, not least, rock ‘n’ roll.
Thus it was that through the means of Mexican Radio, one particular XERB deejay, Wolfman Jack, exposed and converted millions of U.S. teenagers to the joys of rock ‘n’ roll.