Broadcasting beyond Borders: Music Radio in Northern Mexico, 1930–50

This paper examines how the Mexican government observed and opposed international radio regulations between 1930 and 1950.  It focuses on radio stations created after 1930 in what are today the Mexican states of Baja California, Chihuahua, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. 

Historians and media scholars have argued that radio stations in northern Mexico were created to sustain commercial links with the United States.  The problem with this interpretation is that it does not take into account the millions of Mexicans who migrated to the United States during the first half of the twentieth century.  For this group, listening to Mexican music radio was a way to stay connected to their homeland. 

Regional media agreements, such as the North American Radio Conference of 1933, banned Mexican stations from broadcasting directly into the United States.  In response, Mexican radio station owners and artistic directors increased the amount of music in their programming and, when possible, sent artists to tour abroad.  In the eyes of the Mexican government and media, when musicians, singers, or radio personalities were on an artistic tour they acted as cultural ambassadors of the Mexican revolution because they spread messages of nationalism and strengthened cultural ties with the local Mexican population of the United States. 

By assessing the prevalence of Mexican music in U.S. radio stations and the responses of radio station owners to radio regulations, I demonstrate that during the expansion of commercial radio Mexican music played an important role in securing communication between Mexico and Mexican-American communities in the United States.