Puerto Peñasco sits on the Sea of Cortez close enough to the US border that Phoenix and Tucson locals call it "Arizona's beach," and La Bestia Grupera broadcasts the regional Mexican soundtrack for the fishing town underneath all that tourism.
A Frequency With a Long History Before the Format Arrived
The 93.5 FM signal now carrying La Bestia Grupera has been on air since 1994, when it received its original broadcast concession as XHPPO-FM. The station spent years as Sol FM and later Los 40 before Grupo Radiorama picked it up in the late 2000s. It only became a grupera station in a 2019 format swap with sister frequency XHITA-FM, the same year it also moved its dial position to 93.5 MHz to help free up spectrum for community and indigenous broadcasters elsewhere on the band.
Part of a Larger Regional Mexican Network
La Bestia Grupera is not unique to Puerto Peñasco. It runs as a shared format across Grupo Audiorama Comunicaciones stations in multiple Mexican states, all built around banda, norteño, cumbia and mariachi. The Puerto Peñasco frequency plugs a fishing and tourism town of roughly 60,000 people into that same national playlist, giving it access to a bigger, more consistent rotation of grupera hits than a fully independent local station could manage on its own.
A Fishing Town That Became a Border Getaway
The station's home city has its own layered backstory. Puerto Peñasco started as a seasonal stop for fishermen from Guaymas and Bahía Kino chasing totoaba, and only became a permanent settlement once a rail line connecting Baja California to mainland Mexico ran through it in the 1930s and 1940s, according to a history of the town. Its proximity to Arizona, barely 100 kilometers from the border, has since turned it into a weekend beach destination for Phoenix and Tucson residents, a dynamic that shapes who actually tunes in to a station like La Bestia Grupera on any given day.
Tune In
For a real sense of the music that fills Puerto Peñasco's streets and beach bars between tourist seasons, La Bestia Grupera is the frequency locals already have on. Stream it on Radio Shuffle and hear the banda and norteño sounds that outlast the summer crowds.