City Mexico City Branding Radio Educación | Broadcast area Greater Mexico City Frequency 1060 kHz | |
Slogan La radio cultural de México First air date 30 November 1924 (original)
30 November 1968 (current) | ||
XEEP-AM (branded as Radio Educación) is a radio station based in Mexico City and airing Spanish language educational programming on 1060 kHz, a North American clear-channel frequency. XEEP shares Class A status with KYW (AM) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The station is owned by the Main Directorate of Radio Education (Spanish: Dirección General de Radio Educación), a unit of the Ministry of Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública, SEP), in cooperation with the National Council for Culture and Arts.
XEEP traces its origin to station CZE, launched November 30, 1924, as the first non-profit radio station in Mexico to broadcast cultural programming.
History
In 1922, the Mexican Secretariat of Public Education asked for permission to enter radio; this was granted in 1924. The station used the callsign CYE for several days before switching to CZE. It started at 560 kHz with 500 watts of power.
In 1928, the Dirección General de Telégrafos modified the station's permit, changing the callsign to XFX and its frequency to 910 kHz. With the new frequency, XFX was capable of covering most of Mexico, as well as into other countries. In the late 1930s, this first radio station was shut down.
After World War II, the station returned to the air in 1946 with the name "Radio Educación" on two frequencies: XEOF as the "Cultural Voice of Mexico" (Spanish: Vocero Cultural de México) on longwave and XEEP on shortwave. However, in 1947, Mexican president Miguel Alemán Valdés decided that the stations should be given to the Secretaría de Gobernación.
Finally, in 1967–1968, the Recording Unit (Spanish: Unidad de Grabación) of the Education Ministry (SEP) became the Dirección General de Educación Audiovisual and gained control of XEEP on 1060 kHz.
In 2014, XEEP picked up its first ever repeater outside of Mexico City when XHYRE-FM in Mérida began operations.