Radio stations from Boca del Río, Veracruz

Boca del Río sits at the edge of the Veracruz metro area, right where the Jamapa River meets the Gulf. For radio purposes, it belongs to the same broadcast market as the city of Veracruz itself, which means listeners here have always enjoyed one of the richest dials on Mexico's Gulf coast. The catalog currently lists 9 live stations from Boca del Río and the immediate area, and several of them carry stories that go back fifty years or more.

If you grew up here, or your parents did, this guide walks through that history station by station, then covers what's on the air today, which genres dominate the city, and how to listen live from the US without missing your favorite show.

A Dial Built Over Decades

XEWB: the AM giant (1956)

The oldest story in the bunch belongs to what is today 98.9 LOS40. Its roots go back to XEWB-AM, which received its concession in January 1956 and originally broadcast on 760 kHz with 5 kW by day and 1 kW by night, under Radio Golfo, S.A.

By the 1960s, XEWB had moved to 900 AM and become something bigger: a full repeater of XEW-AM in Mexico City, "the Voice of Latin America from Mexico," using 50,000 watts during the day. It shared this relay role with the two XEWA-AM stations on 540 kHz serving Monterrey and San Luis Potosí. For decades, tuning to 900 AM in Boca del Río meant hearing the same programming millions of Mexicans heard in the capital.

When AM-to-FM migration came, XEWB had to be reinvented. Its enormous coverage area gave way to a local FM station focused on the central Veracruz market, and it adopted the Los 40 Principales format. The AM transmitter has since been shut down and dismantled. Today the signal lives on as LOS40 at 98.9 FM, owned by Radiópolis.

XHPR: a frequency that kept changing its mind (1965)

Soy 101.7 — XHPR — received its concession in 1965 and began broadcasting on 101.3 MHz, founded by Emmy Pinto Reyes, who also held the original concession of XHEM-FM in Ciudad Juárez. In 1999 it moved to 101.7 to avoid interference with other stations (formally authorized in 2005), and that same year it became Vox FM, borrowing the name and imaging that XEX-FM in Mexico City was using at the time.

It repeated that trick in 2004 by flipping to Los 40 Principales. Then, in September 2011, XHWB-FM 98.9 took over the Los 40 brand in the market, and XHPR became Soy FM. In 2016, a sale to Grupo Radio Digital briefly turned it into Ke Buena — a format that had previously aired on XHRN-FM 96.5 — but that lasted only seven months before it went back to pop. Since then the station has cycled through La Romántica, Oye 101, Vox FM again, Los 40 again, Soy FM, Ke Buena, Pop FM, Soy Pop FM, La Nueva Soy, and finally Soy 101.7. If you ever feel like the radio in Veracruz changes names constantly, this station is the proof.

MAR FM: the FM pioneer (1970)

MAR FM 99.7 — XHPB-FM — is the station with the clearest claim to a historic first. Félix Malpica Mimendi and his son Félix Malpica Valverde received the concession on March 10, 1970, making it the first FM station in the Veracruz/Boca del Río zone and the first main FM service in the state (XEOM-FM in Coatzacoalcos had received its own concession earlier, but XHPB was the pioneer in this market).

It launched as PB Stereo, later became Estéreo Mar, and finally settled on Mar FM. It's owned by Grupo FM and remains one of the most-listened-to stations in the catalog from this city — a remarkable run for a family-founded FM in a market that was, in 1970, almost entirely AM.

XHVE: from Stereorey to La Mejor (1975)

100.5 La Mejor — XHVE-FM — is licensed to Boca del Río itself and owned by MVS Radio. Its original concession dates to 1975, when it operated on 102.1 MHz with Stereorey, an English-language contemporary music format that was a staple of the MVS network nationwide. In 2002 the Stereorey stations flipped to Best FM, focused on English hits from the '80s through the 2000s. Then in 2005 it switched to La Mejor FM, the grupero and regional Mexican format it still carries today.

XHPS: the Exa FM era (1977)

93.3 Exa FM — XHPS-FM — received its concession on November 9, 1977, founded by Alberto Pérez Alfaro. In 1986 an MVS concessionaire bought the station. Under MVS it first carried the romantic FM Globo format, then became Pulsar FM with pop music in 1999, and finally adopted the Exa FM name in 2000, which it keeps today as one of the market's main pop outlets.

Put these five stories side by side and you can see the whole arc of the market: a powerful AM relay of Mexico City, family-founded FM pioneers in the early 1970s, the arrival of national networks like MVS and Radiópolis, and decades of format juggling as groups competed for the Veracruz listener.

The Stations to Know Today

The catalog lists 9 live stations from Boca del Río and the surrounding Veracruz market. Beyond the five with deep histories above, these complete the picture:

• 90.9 Bella Música
• 99.7 Mar FM
• 101.7 Soy
• LA MEJOR FM 100.5

Between them, they cover most of what the market listens to. MAR FM remains the most-streamed station from the city in our directory, followed closely by La Mejor — a sign that regional Mexican music and the classic local FM sound still lead the pack for listeners both in Veracruz and abroad.

What You'll Hear: Genres in Boca del Río

The genre mix reflects the port-city character of the region — tropical rhythms alongside national pop and grupero formats. Here's how the stations break down:

• Pop Latino and hits — 4 stations, the largest group, including Exa FM and LOS40
• News and talk — 3 stations, if you want to stay connected to local events
• Tropical — 2 stations
• Salsa — 2 stations, fitting for a Gulf coast city with strong Caribbean ties
• Rock en Español — 2 stations
• Regional Mexican — 2 stations, led by La Mejor
• Clásicos and retro — 2 stations
• Banda — 2 stations

You can browse each category directly: Pop Latino, Noticias, Tropical, Salsa, Rock en Español, Regional Mexicano, Clásicos, and Banda.

A suggested listening day

• Morning: Start with a news/talk station while you have coffee, then switch to MAR FM 99.7 for music and local personality.
• Midday: 100.5 La Mejor for grupero and banda while you work or cook.
• Afternoon: 93.3 Exa FM or 98.9 LOS40 for current pop hits in Spanish.
• Evening: Salsa or tropical stations pair perfectly with dinner — the sounds of the malecón even from far away.
• Late night: Soy 101.7 for pop, or a clásicos station if you want the songs your parents played at home.

How to Listen from the US

Everything in the catalog streams live over the internet, so distance doesn't matter — you just need a connection. A few practical tips:

• Search by city, not just by station name. Stations in this market appear under both "Veracruz" and "Boca del Río," and some have near-duplicate listings (La Mejor and Mar FM each appear two ways). Try both spellings of a station name if your first search comes up empty.
• Check the schedule against local time. Veracruz is on Central Time — the same as Chicago, Dallas, and Mexico City. If you're on the US East Coast, live shows air one hour earlier for you than the advertised time; on the Pacific coast, two hours earlier. Morning drive in Veracruz starts around 6 AM Central, which is 8 AM Eastern — convenient for East Coast commuters and early risers.
• Save your favorites. Once you've found your station, bookmark its page so you're one tap away from the live stream.
• Note that Mexico no longer observes daylight saving time, but the US does. For a few weeks each spring and fall, the offset shifts by an hour. During those gaps, Veracruz lines up with Mountain Time instead of Central.

Explore Beyond Boca del Río

If you want to widen your dial, the natural next step is the rest of the state: Veracruz state has 44 stations in the catalog, covering Xalapa, Coatzacoalcos, Poza Rica, and the port itself.

Or go national:

• Ciudad de México — 350 stations, the biggest selection of any city in the catalog
• Sinaloa — 67 stations, home of banda
• Guadalajara — 59 stations, for mariachi and regional sounds
• Chihuahua — 54 stations
• Jalisco — 54 stations
• Monterrey — 52 stations, norteño country
• Nuevo León — 41 stations

Or browse the whole country at México.

Why It Still Matters

There's something specific about Gulf coast radio. The port of Veracruz has always been a doorway — for music from the Caribbean, for news from the interior, for the back-and-forth of people who leave and come back. The stations in Boca del Río carry that mixture: salsa and cumbia next to grupero, national pop networks next to a family-founded FM that's been on the air since 1970.

For listeners in the US, pressing play on MAR FM or La Mejor isn't just about music. It's the same dial your family grew up with, still broadcasting, still live — just a tap instead of a dial turn away.