XHATE 95.3 Jacks Up Prescence in San Diego (April 24, 2004)

XHATE moved to 95.3 in c. 1994, still low-power but reaching some portions of East County, due to a complicated frequency shift involving four radio station frequencies between the U.S. and Mexico. Before the complicated switch, let's go back to 1991, XHATE was to be on 99.3 just a few years after the El Cajon booster to 94.9 FM, playing lite A/C at the time, went off the air permanently (or was it related to the signal exchange?) in 1989.

Broadcasting on 95.7 FM was a Mexican station, XHKY, in Tijuana. XHATE was to be on 99.3FM shortly. Next door was 95.9 KKOS in Carlsbad, which sought to move over to the 95.7 frequency and boost its power, which it did in 1995 as KUPR, but XHKY had to move to another open frequency in order to make that happen. XHKY first moved over to 95.5 MHz in 1992, which caused co-channel interference with reception of KLOS Los Angeles in San Diego, and around that time, XHATE signed on in Tecate on 99.3, taking the frequency 94.9 gave up to repeat its signal to East County in the late 80's.

So whatever happened in 1993-94, XHATE moved over to 95.3, letting XHKY to move over to 99.3 in Tijuana, rebranding itself from X96 to X99. The U.S. let Mexico have the 95.9 frequency to Mexico when KKOS signed off in September 1995 as it officially relaunched as KUPR 95.7. Mexico reassigned the 95.9 frequency to Ensenada; another tradeoff: Anaheim's 95.9 KEZY could be received in North County for the first time.

XHATE was received in Claremont Mesa, Fletcher Hills, the hill just west of Patrick Henry High School, and other high places in San Diego county, but where it was broadcasting from, it didn't reach San Diego county from 60 miles to the east.

Just Wednesday, XHATE beefed up its prescence, and we're not sure if they boosted their power, or moved their transmitter west, or did both simultaneously, but reception for 95.3 is as good as that for the other strong Mexican radio stations from Tijuana.

This is the third Tecate-based radio station to change frequencies or boost power in four years. In 2000, XEKT moved from 1380 to 1390 and boosted its power so much that it causes co-channel interference with KLTX from Long Beach and San Diegans can't get either station with all the crosstalk. Why didn't the FCC investigate this problem back then? Last November, XEPE moved from AM 1600, which was so low that it didn't cause reception problems with a Los Angeles-based AM 1600, to 550, which caused problems with 540 nearby, then moved to 560, which is causing problems all over most of California and Arizona.

No word whether there are any interfernece problems with a stronger 95.3 FM, but if the station is coming in too strong and causes alternate-channel interference, expect the owners of Jefferson-Pilot 94.9 and Clear Channel's 95.7 to let the FCC know about it.

sdradio.net has finally revealed that it as AM 560 that was going to be a secondary Padres broadcast affilliate since The Mighty 1090 still had reception problems in the East County. A better alternative is to fix the problem with the eastern contour of 1090 by getting another frequency to put the Mighty 1090 on so that all of its programs would be heard in that part of the county. Why put the Padres on what is essentially a competetor in the first place?