Radio stations from Acapulco, Guerrero

Acapulco is a city that has always lived out loud. The port's history as Mexico's most famous beach resort gave its radio dial a particular flavor: a mix of tropical rhythms for the tourists, grupera and banda for the locals, and news and talk that keeps a busy city informed. If you grew up in Guerrero or your family did, the stations below probably played at some family gathering, a taxi ride along the Costera, or a Sunday afternoon at home.

Our catalog currently lists 13 live stations from Acapulco, and you can stream all of them from the United States for free. Here is the story of how this dial came to be, which stations matter today, and how to fit them into your day north of the border.

The story of Acapulco radio, told through its stations

The first station in Guerrero: from XEKJ to 89.7 Vida

Radio in Guerrero begins with 89.7 Vida. The station's roots go back to XEKJ-AM, whose concession was granted in 1943, two years after it first went on air — making it the very first radio station in the state. It was owned by María del Refugio Acosta de Valdivieso and transmitted with 500 watts by day and 250 at night on 1400 kHz.

In 1947, Ramón Ortega Escobedo bought XEKJ, and in 1956 he sold it to Radio Mar, S.A. Over the years the station's power grew to 1,000 watts. Like so many Mexican AM stations, it eventually migrated to FM: in 2011 XEKJ was authorized to move to the FM band as XHKJ-FM 89.7, and in 2017 its tower was relocated to the Cerro de los Lirios, one of the hills that ring the bay. Today the station carries the adult hits format Vida, owned by Grupo Radiorama and originally operated by Grupo Audiorama Comunicaciones.

A concession from 1943 that is still on the air eight decades later is not common, and it makes Vida the closest thing Acapulco has to a founding station.

A busy decade of growth: the 1950s and 1960s

Acapulco's boom years as an international resort brought more frequencies to the dial. In 1959, La Ke Buena 98.5 received its first concession as XEKU, owned by Radio Paraíso, S.A. At some point in the seventies or eighties the callsign became XEMAR, and in 1994 the station became an AM/FM combo, which it remains today as XHMAR-FM/XEMAR-AM.

A decade later came 100.1 La Mejor. XHSE-FM received its concession on August 2, 1969, and it has belonged to MVS Radio ever since. For decades it carried Stereorey, MVS's national adult contemporary music format, until that format was retired nationwide in 2002 and replaced with Best FM. Between 2005 and 2006 the station was known as Aire 100.1, the year it adopted the grupero La Mejor FM format it still carries.

These two stations show the two paths Acapulco radio has taken: one that changed hands and formats many times, and one that stayed with a single national owner while the music around it evolved.

Radio Fiesta, W Radio and the birth of La Bestia Grupera

La Bestia Grupera 95.3 has one of the most winding histories on the dial. Its AM predecessor, XEVP-AM 1030, was granted its concession on March 4, 1987 and went on air four months later, on July 28, owned by Radio Universo, S.A., a subsidiary of Radiorama. It transmitted daytime only, with 1 kW, and in 1993 was authorized to broadcast at night as well with 500 watts.

For years XEVP carried a format called Radio Fiesta. In the mid-2000s it became an affiliate of W Radio, the national news and talk network, replacing Radio Fiesta for good. In November 2010 the station was authorized to move to FM as XHEVP-FM 95.3, and in 2013 it adopted the grupera format La Bestia Grupera, owned by Grupo Audiorama Comunicaciones. So the frequency that once brought fiesta music, then news and interviews, today brings banda and norteño — a full circle of sorts.

The format musical chairs of the 2000s and 2010s

The 1988 concession of 103.9 Buenisiima, granted on November 28 of that year, added another frequency to the market. Today XHPO-FM carries the tropical Buenísima format, owned by Grupo Radiorama and operated by Grupo Audiorama Comunicaciones — salsa, cumbia and merengue for a port city that dances.

But the most dramatic recent story belongs to 98.5 FM. XEMAR long carried the romantic Inolvidable format until it was rebranded as Amor in 2002. In mid-2014, Amor moved to XHAGS-FM 103.1, and the Digital pop format on 98.5 became Radio Disney. That lasted until December 25, 2019, when Disney and ACIR ended their relationship, which covered twelve Mexican cities. Ten stations across the country switched to the Match format, but XHMAR took a temporary brand, simply "98.5 FM."

Amor returned to XHMAR on August 4, 2020, after ACIR stopped airing its formats on the Guilbot family stations in Acapulco and Villahermosa. The final twist came on April 8, 2024, when Grupo ACIR pulled its formats from the local operator entirely. As of May 2, 2024, ACIR's three Acapulco stations — XHMAR, XHBB and XHAGE — were leased to Grupo Radio Cañón, and XHMAR/XEMAR adopted La Ke Buena, the national regional Mexican format from Radiópolis. Interestingly, La Ke Buena had already passed through Acapulco before, on XHPA-FM 93.7, XHPO-FM 103.9 and XHNS-FM 96.9, all Radiorama stations. Sometimes a format just keeps coming back to a city until it sticks.

The stations to know today

Out of the 13 stations in our Acapulco catalog, these are the ones our listeners tune into most:

• EXA FM 99.3 — the top-ranked station in our catalog, playing contemporary pop hits in Spanish
• W RADIO 101.5 — news, interviews and talk
• La Bestia Grupera 95.3 — grupera, banda and norteño
• 89.7 Vida — Spanish adult hits
• 103.9 Buenisiima — tropical: salsa, cumbia, merengue
• 100.1 La Mejor — the MVS grupero format
• La Ke Buena 98.5 — Televisa's regional Mexican powerhouse, new to this frequency since 2024

If you only have time for two, start with EXA FM for a modern pop fix and La Bestia Grupera for the sound of Guerrero's working-class pulse.

What you'll hear: genres on the Acapulco dial

The genre breakdown tells you a lot about the city:

• Pop Latino and hits: 7 stations
• Regional Mexicano: 6 stations
• News and talk: 5 stations
• Rock en Español: 4 stations
• Tropical: 2 stations
• Románticas and baladas: 2 stations
• Deportes: 2 stations
• Clásicos and retro: 2 stations

Notice the balance: pop and regional Mexican nearly tied at the top, with a strong news presence. That mix — música grupera, current pop, and serious talk radio — is very much a Guerrero signature. The tropical presence is smaller in station count but outsized in local life; Buenisiima's cumbias are party essentials.

How to listen from the US

Everything is simpler than it was a generation ago, when relatives would mail cassettes or you'd strain to catch an AM signal at night. Every station in our Acapulco catalog streams live online, and streaming works the same whether you're in Chicago, Houston or Los Angeles.

A few practical tips:

• No app needed. Every station page on Radio en Vivo has a built-in player. Open the page, press play.
• Check the time difference. Acapulco is in Central Time. If you're on the East Coast, you're an hour ahead of the station's clock; on the West Coast, two hours behind; in the Mountain zone, one hour behind. A morning show that runs 6 to 10 in Acapulco starts at 4 a.m. in Los Angeles and 7 a.m. in New York.
• Plan around Mexican radio habits. Talk and news shows concentrate in the morning and late afternoon. Music formats run around the clock, so they're the safest bet for late-night listening in US time zones.
• Use genre pages to browse. If you know you want banda but don't care which station, the regional Mexicano page shows all six Acapulco options in one place.

A good routine for the diaspora: W Radio with your morning coffee for news from home, La Bestia or La Ke Buena during the workday, and Buenisiima on Friday evening when the weekend mood starts.

Explore beyond Acapulco

Once Acapulco feels familiar again, the rest of our Mexican catalog is worth a wander. The full country listing is at Mexico, with hundreds of stations across every state.

Cities and regions with deep dials include:

• Ciudad de México — 350 stations, the largest market in the country
• Sinaloa — 67 stations and the home of banda
• Guadalajara, Jalisco — 59 stations from Mexico's second city
• Chihuahua — 54 stations
• Monterrey, Nuevo León — 52 stations from the northern industrial capital
• Veracruz — 44 stations, another port city with a tropical soul

If Acapulco's mix of grupera, tropical and talk appeals to you, Veracruz is the natural next stop: another Gulf and port tradition, with son and salsa woven through its dial.

Why this dial matters

Acapulco's radio history mirrors the city itself. A station founded in the 1940s as the first in Guerrero still plays today on FM. Frequencies born in the resort boom grew into national network affiliates. Formats have shuffled constantly — Radio Fiesta became W Radio became La Bestia Grupera; Inolvidable became Amor became Radio Disney became La Ke Buena — but the voices and the music never stopped.

For those of us far from the bay, that continuity is the point. Press play on any of the 13 live stations from Acapulco and you're not just hearing music; you're hearing the same signal your family hears on the Costera, right now, in real time.