FM Globo streams Spanish-language adult contemporary and romantic ballads live from Tijuana, Mexico, part of a national network owned by MVS Radio. You can stream it free right now on Radio Shuffle, wherever you are in the world.
A Frequency That Changed Names Six Times
The signal carrying FM Globo in Tijuana today, 99.3 FM, has a history almost as varied as the romantic ballads it now plays. It first went on air June 5, 1975 as XHKY-FM, then became the Regional Mexican station Fiesta Mexicana in 1985, before a 1995 frequency swap and power increase turned it into X99, according to Wikipedia's history of the station. By 1998 it had become Hot Country Radio under the callsign XHHCR-FM, a format that stuck around even after Clear Channel Communications bought the station in 2002 and rebranded it Country Music Bob.
Forced Out by a US Ownership Ruling
Clear Channel's run in Tijuana didn't last. A 2003 FCC ruling counted the company's Mexican station holdings against its US ownership caps, forcing Clear Channel to sell off its Mexican properties. The Tijuana frequency, renamed XHOCL-FM, passed to MVS Radio, which spent the following decade and a half cycling the station through Spanish oldies as La Preciosa, grupera as La Mejor, and Spanish adult hits as Diego 99.3 before finally bringing its flagship romantic brand to the city on January 21, 2019.
A Brand Rooted in Mexico's Earliest FM Concessions
FM Globo itself traces back to Frecuencia Modulada Mexicana, also known as Stereorey, one of the broadcasting groups that won early FM concessions in Mexico and built the Globo name decades before it reached Tijuana. MVS Radio, the division of MVS Comunicaciones that now runs the brand, has carried FM Globo through format pauses and relaunches across its station lineup, giving the romantic adult contemporary format a long institutional memory behind it.
Replacing Diego, Not Competing With It
The 2019 switch wasn't a new station arriving in Tijuana, it was MVS retiring one of its own formats in favor of another. Diego 99.3 had run Spanish adult hits on the frequency since 2011, while sister signal XHTIM-FM 90.7 carried the grupera format the station had dropped. Folding the Tijuana signal into the FM Globo network let MVS consolidate its romantic programming onto a frequency that had already spent nearly a decade building a Spanish-language adult audience.
Tune In
From Fiesta Mexicana to Hot Country to a Clear Channel country format forced off the air by a US regulatory ruling, Tijuana's 99.3 frequency has carried almost every format Mexican commercial radio offers before settling into FM Globo. Stream it free on Radio Shuffle to hear it live.