Sinaloa's radio dial is dominated by banda, the state's own brass-and-tambora dance music born in the late 19th century. Vintage 101.3 HD2 takes the opposite approach, running a Spanish and English pop format spanning the 1970s through the 2000s as a digital subchannel of Los Mochis's oldest FM station, giving the city a dedicated home for retro pop hits alongside its regional soundtrack.
The First FM Signal in Los Mochis
The parent signal at 101.3 MHz, XHMSL-FM, holds a real distinction: it went on air on July 1, 1984, just two days after receiving its concession, making it the first FM station the city ever had. It launched under Sandra Luz Pérez Muñoz and the Pérez Muñoz family's Radiosistema del Noroeste before a 2015 family business split sent the station to a new operator, Luz Network, which rebranded the main signal as Stereo Uno.
Four Stations on One Frequency
Since June 2018, Mexico's Federal Telecommunications Institute has authorized XHMSL-FM to broadcast three HD subchannels alongside its main pop signal: Vintage on HD2, Siempre on HD3, and La Morrita, a simulcast from sister station XHPFRT-FM in nearby El Fuerte, on HD4. That structure lets a single 45,000-watt transmitter effectively run four different stations, with Vintage carved out specifically for listeners chasing decades-spanning nostalgia rather than current hits.
A Counterpoint to Sinaloa's Banda Sound
Sinaloa's musical identity runs through banda sinaloense, a genre built in the 1880s from European brass instruments, tubas, trombones, clarinets, and the tambora drum, fused with Mexican rancheras and corridos into the state's signature party music. Vintage 101.3 HD2 does not compete with that tradition so much as sit beside it, offering a different kind of nostalgia, 70s through 2000s pop, for listeners who grew up on Whitney Houston or Timbiriche rather than the tambora beat that dominates Sinaloan weddings and quinceañeras.
Why Tune In
For a retro pop fix in a region built around banda, Vintage 101.3 HD2 fills a specific gap, decades of hits from a Los Mochis station whose main frequency has been on air since before most of its own listeners were born. It is a small but distinct piece of a broadcaster that has kept adapting since 1984.