XETRA (AM)

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For other meanings of XETRA, see XETRA

XETRA are the call letters of a border-blaster radio station licensed to the Tijuana / Rosarito area of Baja California, Mexico, with additional studio facilities in San Diego, California. They are a high-power station, with their 77,500 watt signal sometimes reaching as far as the middle of the San Joaquin Valley, but otherwise covering nearly all of Southern California. It operates with 50,000 watts at night.

It began its life as XEAK ("the Mighty 690", a moniker that its XETRA successor would use in later years), playing the hits of its time. It signed off briefly in 1961, and shortly after made Southern California broadcast history as they became "Extra News", the first 24-hour all-news station in Southern California.

In succeeding decades, XTRA (without the "E", as U.S. listeners would otherwise refer to) would switch formats numerous times. During most of the 1970s and 1980s, it was a Beautiful Music station, competing with K-JOY on the FM dial. During its Beautiful Music years, XETRA became one of the first AM stations in the San Diego area to broadcast in stereo.

When interest in the Beautiful Music format died down in the mid-1980s, XETRA switched formats to Top 40/adult contemporary music, once again billing itself as "the Mighty 690". When low ratings dictated the format didn't work, they switched to an oldies format, and XETRA called themselves "69 XTRA Gold".

Shortly after, XETRA became an all-sports station, and was billed as "XTRA Sports", affiliating themselves with ESPN Radio. For a number of years, the station was the broadcast home of the San Diego Chargers National Football League team. In the latter part of the 1990s and most of the 2000s, they decided to simulcast with Los Angeles station KXTA in order to better serve the Los Angeles area.

The station's best-known sportscaster in the sports format is Lee Hacksaw Hamilton, who hosted a nightly sports talk program from 1987 until 2005, and was also the play-by-play voice of the Chargers from 1987 to 1996. Hacksaw is famous (and infamous) for his "best 15 minutes in radio" with "Hacksaw's Headlines" and using such phrases as "I am bleeping brilliant!"

In 2005, Clear Channel Communications chose to drop the station's all-sports format and replace it with pop standards (carried over from Los Angeles' KLAC), and that's how XETRA functions today.

Spanish News and Talk is expected to take over the station by the end of 2005, according to published reports in radio trade magazines. Then Clear Channel Communications will move the operation over to the new company out of Spain. The station was sold for $1.3 Billion United States Dollars in a combined deal with other media interests.

Another San Diego radio station, on the FM dial, also bills itself as XETRA (see XETRA-FM for details).

References

Border Radio by Fowler, Gene and Crawford, Bill. Texas Monthly Press, Austin. 1987 ISBN 0-87719-066-6
Mass Media Moments in the United Kingdom, the USSR and the USA, by Gilder, Eric. - "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu Press, Romania. 2003 ISBN 973-651-596-6