Radio stations from Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco

Puerto Vallarta occupies a special place in the Mexican imagination. It is a beach town that became famous through film, grew into an international resort destination, and still keeps the feel of a mid-sized Jalisco city where locals greet each other by name. For the hundreds of thousands of Mexican expats and Mexican Americans who visited on vacation, married into a family from Bajío or the coast, or simply fell in love with the Malecón at sunset, the sound of Puerto Vallarta radio can bring that feeling back instantly.

Our Puerto Vallarta catalog currently lists 11 live stations from the city, and they cover a surprisingly wide range: chart pop, rock en español, classics, romance, banda, news, and sports. This article walks through the story of local radio as told by its stations, the ones to know today, the genres that dominate the dial, how to listen from the United States, and which nearby cities deserve your attention too.

The Story of Puerto Vallarta Radio, Told Through Its Stations

You can read the history of Mexican commercial radio through just three frequencies in Puerto Vallarta. Each one traces the industry's big shifts: from local family ownership, to the rise of national groups, to the modern era of brand affiliations that swap overnight.

The 1978 pioneer: XHME, today's Match 89.5

The oldest story in our catalog belongs to Match 89.5 FM (XHME-FM). The station received its concession on March 1, 1978, when it was owned by Manuel Ayala Estrada. By the 1990s, it had passed into the hands of Grupo ACIR, one of Mexico's largest radio groups. That trajectory, from an individual concessionaire to a national chain, mirrors what happened across the country as broadcasting consolidated through the late twentieth century.

XHME's most recent chapter is a distinctly modern one. On December 25, 2019, Disney and ACIR announced they were ending their relationship by mutual agreement, a split that covered twelve Mexican cities. Ten of those twelve Radio Disney stations, including XHME, switched to ACIR's replacement pop format, Match. So the station that a generation of Vallarta kids knew as Radio Disney now plays hot adult contemporary under the Match name, and it is also streamed as 89.5 Match for listeners who want the same signal under its plain identity.

The AM-era survivor: Mix 92.7

Mix 92.7 carries a combined identity: XHVAY-FM 92.7 and XEVAY-AM 740, an AM-FM pair. The AM side, XEVAY, received its first concession on December 29, 1986, under owner Nenette Semenow Canan. In 1994, the two signals became a combo, an arrangement that let stations of that era migrate their audiences gradually from AM to FM.

Today Mix 92.7 is owned by Grupo ACIR and runs the "Mix" format, an adult contemporary blend heavy on English-language hits. It is the station Vallarta listeners turn to when they want Maroon 5, Dua Lipa, or 2000s throwbacks rather than Latin chart music, a reflection of the city's long exposure to American and Canadian visitors.

The station that changed hands on the air: W Radio 90.3

The newest transformation on the dial is W RADIO 90.3 (XHPVA-FM). The station received its concession on March 20, 1992, and was owned by Julio Velarde y Achucarro, whose family still owns it today. That makes it one of the rare Mexican stations that has stayed in the founding family's hands for three decades.

What changed is the programming. For years, Grupo ACIR operated the station under its romantic "Amor" format. Then, on November 8, 2021, XHPVA ended its affiliation with ACIR. GlobalMedia took over operation of the station, carrying the W Radio brand from Radiópolis, one of Mexico's most recognized news and talk networks. Listeners who had grown up with ballads on 90.3 woke up to news, interviews, and conversation, a swap that happened literally overnight.

Taken together, these three stations tell a clean story: a 1978 local concession absorbed by a national group, a 1986 family station that paired AM with FM, and a 1992 concession that has cycled through two of Mexico's biggest programmers. Three frequencies, three eras, one city.

The Stations to Know Today

Beyond those three, Puerto Vallarta's dial is a healthy mix of national brands with local signals. These are the most-listened stations in our catalog:

• EXA FM 89.9 — youth-oriented pop, the place to catch current Latin chart hits.
• LOS40 Puerto Vallarta — the Spanish media giant's hit-music format, strong on reggaeton and pop latino.
• 96.7 VOX FM Radio Hits — also listed as VOX FM Radio Hits 96.7, a hits station with broad appeal.
• La Patrona FM — grupera and regional programming under a well-loved brand.
• 99.9 La Mejor, also carried as LA MEJOR FM 99.9 — MVS's regional Mexican flagship, banda-heavy.

A practical note: several of these stations appear under two listing names because they broadcast under slightly different stream identities. If one entry is temporarily down, try its twin. Both La Mejor entries and both VOX FM entries point to the same on-air signal.

What Genres Fill the Vallarta Dial

The genre breakdown in Puerto Vallarta says a lot about the city's identity. Here is how the 11 stations distribute:

• Pop Latino and hits lead with 8 stations — see our Pop Latino section. This is a resort town, and upbeat chart music fits the mood.
• Rock en español follows with 7 stations in the Rock en Español category, a reminder that Jalisco has always been a rock stronghold.
• 4 stations play Clásicos y Retro, serving the listeners who want José José and Soda Stereo over Bad Bunny.
• 2 stations each cover Románticas y Baladas, Regional Mexicano, Noticias y Hablada, and Banda.
• 1 station carries Deportes.

(The counts overlap because many stations mix formats, which is why the numbers add up to more than 11.)

For a listener in the US, the practical takeaway: if you want to feel like you're on the beach, start with the pop latino and hits stations. If you want to feel like you're at a family barbecue in Jalisco, head straight for La Mejor or La Patrona. And if you want to stay informed about Mexico, W Radio 90.3 is your news lifeline.

How to Listen from the United States

All 11 Puerto Vallarta stations in our directory stream live online, which means distance is no longer a barrier. A few tips to get the most out of it:

Match the station to your schedule. Mexican morning shows, known as "la matutina," typically run from early morning into mid-morning Mexico City time, and drive-time programming fills late afternoon. If you're on the US East Coast, Vallarta's local clock is two hours behind you; on Central time, one hour behind; on Mountain time, the same hour; and on the US West Coast, Vallarta is one hour ahead of you. Puerto Vallarta stays on Central Standard Time year-round; it does not observe US-style daylight saving changes, so the gap shifts by an hour during the weeks the US is on DST.

Use genre pages to browse, not search. If you know the vibe you want but not the call letters, our genre pages for Pop Latino or Banda show you every station in that category, so you can hop between cities.

Keep a backup entry. As mentioned, several stations here have dual listings. Bookmark both.

Listen for local flavor. Even national formats like EXA and LOS40 insert local weather, traffic on the Libramiento, and event announcements. That local texture is exactly what's missing from generic streaming playlists.

Nearby Cities Worth Exploring

Puerto Vallarta's radio identity sits within a bigger regional picture, and our catalog makes it easy to wander:

• Guadalajara, Jalisco's capital, has 59 stations and is the cultural engine of the state. If you love banda, mariachi-adjacent programming, and Guadalajara's famous talk radio, it's the natural next stop.
• The wider state of Jalisco lists 54 stations across its cities.
• Sinaloa, up the Pacific coast, has 67 stations and is home turf for banda and norteño, with a radio culture to match.
• Veracruz, on the Gulf coast, offers 44 stations and a completely different musical heritage, from son jarocho to tropical cumbia.

And if you want the national picture, Mexico as a whole is browseable, with Mexico City alone offering 350 stations, the densest radio market in the country.

A Small City with a Real Dial

What stands out about Puerto Vallarta is how complete its radio offering is for a city of its size. Eleven stations, a range from talk news to banda to English-language adult contemporary, and a history that touches every major era of Mexican broadcasting. Whether you left Vallarta last summer or your family left decades ago, the dial sounds more or less the way you remember it, and now it fits in your pocket.

Pick a station, check the hour difference, and let the Malecón come to you.