City | Tijuana, Baja California |
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Broadcast area | San Diego-Tijuana |
Branding | 91X |
Slogan | Everything Alternative |
Frequency | 91.1 (MHz) |
First air date | 1978 |
Format | Alternative Rock |
Language(s) | English |
Audience share | 1.7 (Holiday 2016, Nielsen Audio[1]) |
ERP | 100,000 watts |
HAAT | 146 meters |
Class | C |
Callsign meaning | E(X)TRA |
Owner | Comunicación XERSA, S.A. de C.V. |
Sister stations | XHITZ-FM, XHRM-FM |
Webcast | Flash Player, PLS |
Website | 91X |
XETRA-FM (91.1 FM) — branded 91X, and sometimes identified as XTRA-FM — is an English language, Mexican-owned (border blaster) Alternative Rock music station broadcasting from Tijuana, Baja California on 91.1 MHz. The studios are in San Diego's Mira Mesa area. The station is one of three outlets programmed by Local Media San Diego LLC, who took over the operations of XETRA-FM from Broadcast Company of the Americas in 2010.
On November 20, 1968, Radiodifusora del Pacífico, S.A. de C.V., then-owner of XETRA-AM, received a concession for a new FM station with the same callsign, XETRA-FM on 91.3 MHz. By the time the station signed on in 1978, carrying an AOR format, it had moved to 91.1. 91X's broadcast studios were located at the 91X transmitter site on Mount San Antonio in Tijuana. Initially, programming was recorded at the San Diego Studios in the Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich building downtown and driven to the transmitter site several times a day. That proved to be uncompetitive. [2]. Disc jockeys then commuted from San Diego to Tijuana each shift. 91X was notorious for having DJs with no personality; they would simply announce the previous song, and the next song. On January 11, 1983, at 6 PM, 91X followed in the footsteps of KROQ-FM in Los Angeles and switched formats to "rock of the 80s" (modern rock). 91X played "Stairway to Heaven" (Led Zeppelin) as the final song of the AOR format. Immediately afterward, then-Executive Vice President and General Manager John Lynch made the announcement of the format change and disc jockey Todd Ralston went right into "Sex (I'm A...)" by Berlin. Former 91X on-air personality Jim LaMarca recounts the transition: