XERB

The history of notorious "border blaster" XERB is the stuff that legends are made of. Born in a sleepy seaside village in the 1930s, XERB grew up to be one of the most famous radio stations in the world, with a blowtorch signal that sent the voice of the fabled Wolfman Jack (aka Bob Smith) to all corners of the globe.

In the mid 1960s, the Wolfman crossed the border to Mexico and joined the 250,000-watt powerhouse XERF-AM. Thanks to XERF and later XERB-AM, the Wolfman reached most of the southwestern United States while selling everything from coffins to inspirational literature and baby chickens.

After Wolfman Jack temporarily left XERF 1570-AM he moved to XERB "The Big- 1090" and was DJ and station manager from 1966-1971. The station was actually licensed to Bob Smith aka Wolfman Jack for the Tijuana / Rosarito area of Baja California, Mexico.

Art Hoehn aka “Fat Daddy Washington” played the Wolfman’s sidekick at XERB. A year later, Hoehn returned to his alma mater to join Kling in operating what became MPR’s flagship station. Hoehn was inducted into the Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2010.

Paul Anthony (Ralph Hull) Says he got fired at KDWB for playing the blues. Went to XERB in Mexico with Wolfman Jack in 1966. Other aliases were The Nazz, Les Moore, Ivan Goetz, Ref Snaborgadavitch, Captain Cash, the PJDJ, and Captain Rosta. In 2007-11 he ran a sushi restaurant in Sooke, British Columbia.

Early XERB program schedules show that there were only three other radio shows besides Wolfman's 9:00 pm to 3:00 am show that broadcast from the station. They were, "Fat Daddy" Washington from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm, The Nazz from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm, and Ol' Joe Soul who took over after Wolfman's show, in the early morning hours of 3:00 am to 6:00 am. The fate of these DJs at XERB was not good. After a year or so, they either left or were fired. For example, program director, Ralph (The Nazz) Hull was fired in 1967 over programming conflicts with Wolfman. Around the same time Fat Daddy Washington (aka Art Hoehn) returned to Minnesota to work for MPR.

Around 1970, the only real radio show at the station was Wolfman's show. He was on during the day from 3:00 to 6:00, and then again at night from around 10:00 pm to 1:00 am. The remainder of it was sold block programming. The time was sold to a lot of preachers and a company called Turfcraft who would buy horse racing results from across the country and recreate certain races for broadcast.

XERB was immortalized along with Wolfman Jack in the George Lucas movie American Graffiti. Wolfman was able to make the station turn a huge profit by selling programming to radio proselytizers in 15-30 minute blocks. Because they had such a large following and made so much money, the radio evangelists were never too hesitant about paying huge fees for airtime. As if being on one border blaster wasn't enough, Wolfman began broadcasting pre-recorded shows on three different Mexican stations at different times of the day, XERB, XERF, & XEG 1050-AM in Monterey, Mexico.

"Mucho dinero!"

According to his biography, by 1971 Wolfman was making a profit of almost $50,000 a month. The Mexican company executives that leased XERB noticed this and got greedy. They wanted to throw him out and make all the money themselves.

So, the owners bribed Mexican officials into politically squeezing Wolfman off the air. The Mexican government did this by passing a law that stated there could be no more Pentecostal or religious programming on Mexican airwaves.

A typical music chart survey dated October 7, 1967.

Since XERB made most of its profits from airtime sold to the prayer-cloth preachers there was no way Wolfman could continue to make payments to the owners each month. “That was it." Wolfman remembers, "In one stroke they cleaned out 80 percent of all the money we were expecting to make." So, he and business partner Mo Burton had to turn control of the station back over to the Mexican owners.

With Wolfman out of the way, the station owners tried to duplicate his successful formula. Since Wolfman owned the call letters, XERB, they changed the letters to XPRS and programmed soul music, calling the station “The Soul Express.” Wolf still broadcast for over a year while under the new ownership, but left soon afterwards. April 4, 1972 was the last day Wolfman ever held sway over the Mexican border airwaves.

Four months later George Lucas and crew would film Wolfman on location at station KRE/AM in Berkeley, CA playing himself for the film, American Graffiti. Although the movie shows him broadcasting live from California, the Brinkley Act made this impossible. Artistic license was taken with the subject material for the sake of the script.

Soon afterwards, the Mexican government repealed their own law and put the preachers back on the air. But, without the Wolfman howling over the airwaves, the station never even remotely saw the success that Wolfman Jack had achieved.

It didn't take long for listener's to notice the booming voice of the Wolfman echoing across the Mexican border. Here he is in year one of his run at XERB on December 3, 1966. [ LISTEN ] (42:36)

This recording is from Wolfman Jack’s second year at XERB, sometime in 1967. [ LISTEN ] (46:59) April, 1967. [ LISTEN ] (44:53) October 17, 1967.
[ LISTEN ] Wolfman in the summer of 1968. [ LISTEN ] September, 1969.
[ LISTEN ] April 12, 1970. Part [ 1 ] and Part [ 2 ] March 15, 1971. [ LISTEN ] (1:09:46) March 30, 1971. [ LISTEN ] (1:09:46)

Wolfman's Last Night on Soul Express XEPRS April 14, 1972. Part [ 1 ] (1:09:46) and Part [ 2 ] (1:09:45)

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: XERB tribute page. No copyright infringement is intended.