Radio stations from Saltillo, Coahuila

Radio in Saltillo, Coahuila: the story of local radio told through its stations

Saltillo doesn't always get the attention that Monterrey or Guadalajara get when people talk about Mexican radio, but the capital of Coahuila has a broadcasting story worth knowing. It's a story you can actually hear in the dial itself: an old AM news station that became a newspaper's voice, an FM pop station that marked the arrival of a major broadcasting group, a frequency that traveled across state lines before settling in Saltillo, and a regional Mexican station that has changed hands and formats more times than almost any other.

If you grew up in Saltillo, in Ramos Arizpe, or anywhere in the Comarca Lagunera corridor, or if your family did, this guide walks you through that history and tells you what you can hear today. And yes, every station we mention here streams live, so you can listen from anywhere in the US.

A city that talks to itself on the radio

Saltillo has 12 stations in our live directory, and the balance between talk and music tells you something about the city. Five of those stations carry news and talk programming, tied with pop Latino as the most common format. That's unusual. In many Mexican cities, music dominates the dial almost completely. In Saltillo, the presence of the local press and a strong tradition of debate programming means radio is still a place where the city discusses itself.

That tradition goes back decades, and the best way to understand it is to follow the histories of four stations in chronological order.

The histories: four stations, sixty years of Saltillo radio

1962: XEAJ-AM and the newspaper that wanted a voice

The oldest story on today's dial belongs to La Primera 88.9. It began as XEAJ-AM on 1330 kHz, going on air on July 16, 1962. The station was founded by Carlos G. Cirilo Treviño and quickly sold to Radio Bonita, S.A., but from early on it was operated by the Jaubert family, a name long associated with media in northern Mexico.

The turning point came in 2000, when Compañía Periodística Criterios, the owner of the newspaper El Diario de Coahuila, bought XEAJ. A newspaper buying a radio station might sound like a business detail, but it changed the station's character: the newsroom's journalism started flowing into the audio signal. In 2011, the station migrated from AM to FM and became La Primera 88.9 (XHAJ-FM), a news and debate format that it still carries today.

For listeners in the US, La Primera is probably the single best way to stay connected to daily life in Coahuila. When something happens in Saltillo — a political scandal, a water issue, a Saraperos game — this is the station talking about it, in real time, with local voices.

1985: Stereo Saltillo and the arrival of Multimedios

The second chapter is Stereo Saltillo 93.5. XHQC-FM received its first concession on July 15, 1985, which made it the second FM station in Saltillo and the first new FM station since 1968. In other words, FM radio in Saltillo was nearly dormant for almost two decades, and Stereo Saltillo is the station that broke that silence.

The concession was held in Jorge Campo Rodríguez's name until 2000, but in practice the station was Saltillo's first operated by Multimedios Radio, the broadcasting arm of the Monterrey-based group better known for its television network and newspaper. That matters because Multimedios connected Saltillo's radio to the broader media ecosystem of the Monterrey metropolitan area, just down the highway.

Today Stereo Saltillo carries a pop format similar to the Hits FM stations in the same group. If you want the melodic, mainstream pop sound that has defined Mexican FM for a generation, this is your station — and it's one of the most listened-to in our Saltillo directory.

1990: Digital 106.5, the station that moved from Zacatecas

Some of the best radio stories involve frequencies that wander, and Digital 106.5 is a perfect example. XHZCN-FM received its first concession on June 5, 1990 — but not in Saltillo. It was originally licensed in Concepción del Oro, Zacatecas, and belonged to Juan Francisco Águilar González.

The station soon moved to Saltillo, and in 1997 it was sold to Grupo ACIR, one of Mexico's largest radio operators. Under ACIR, using the corporate name Radio XHZZN, S.A. de C.V., the station carried the grupero format La Comadre. After that, it passed through several owners, including Radiorama and Voler, S.A. de C.V. (Capital Media), before landing with Grupo RCG, which gave it the pop format it broadcasts today as Digital 106.5.

It's a reminder that a radio dial isn't fixed. Frequencies get sold, moved, and rebranded, and each owner leaves a mark on the sound.

1993 to today: the many lives of 102.5

If any Saltillo station embodies the churn of Mexican radio, it's 102.5 Coahuila Hoy Radio. Its roots go back to XESHT-AM on 1430 kHz, which received its concession on April 29, 1993. It was a 500-watt daytime transmitter owned by Radio Servicio Social, S.A., a Radiorama subsidiary, and it later moved to 930 kHz before getting approval in 2011 to migrate to FM.

The modern history is a carousel of operators and formats. For much of the 2010s, Multimedios Radio operated the station, first as La Más Buena and later as La Lupe, playing Spanish-language adult hits. On August 1, 2020, Multimedios stepped away from this station and XHSAC-FM 99.3, and both went to RCG Media under the La Comadre brand until December 2021. Radiorama's Fiesta Mexicana format briefly took over, then moved to 99.3 to make room for the launch of MVS Radio's La Mejor franchise, which debuted January 31, 2022.

On September 30, 2025, XHSHT dropped La Mejor. Just days later, on October 4, Grupo M Radio took over operations, launching Coahuila Hoy Radio with a mix of regional Mexican music and news. So the station you hear today on Coahuila Hoy Radio 102.5 is barely a few years old as a brand, sitting on more than thirty years of history.

Notice a pattern? The same names keep coming back: Multimedios, Radiorama, ACIR, RCG. Radio in Saltillo, like radio across Mexico, is a small world where frequencies circulate among a handful of groups. That's why a station's format can change overnight while its frequency stays familiar.

What to listen to today

With 12 live stations from Saltillo in the catalog, here's a quick orientation by what you're in the mood for:

• News and connection to home: La Primera 88.9 for news and debate backed by El Diario de Coahuila's newsroom, and Coahuila Hoy Radio 102.5 for regional Mexican music mixed with local information. Together with the other talk stations in town, they make Noticias a five-station genre in Saltillo.
• Pop Latino and éxitos: The biggest genre in the city, also with five stations. Stereo Saltillo 93.5 and Digital 106.5 are the flagship pop sounds — the latter also listed as 106.5 Digital.
• Talk and current affairs: ADN 92.1, also findable as 92.1 ADN, is one of the most listened-to stations in our Saltillo directory and rounds out the news offerings.
• Something local and distinctive: Radio Sarape is worth a listen for a sound tied to Saltillo's identity — the sarape, after all, is the city's most famous craft.
• Community and public radio: Coahuila Radio 89.7, also listed as 89.7 Coahuila Radio, serves the state's public broadcasting audience.

The genre map of Saltillo

Here's how the 12 stations break down by format:

• Pop Latino y Éxitos — 5 stations
• Noticias y Hablada — 5 stations
• Rock en Español — 4 stations
• Regional Mexicano — 2 stations
• Reggaetón y Urbano — 2 stations
• Electrónica — 2 stations
• Románticas y Baladas — 1 station
• Clásicos y Retro — 1 station

(Note that stations can appear in more than one genre, which is why the counts add up to more than 12.) Rock en Español having four stations is a nice surprise — Saltillo's rock audience punches above its weight for a city its size. And regional Mexican being comparatively modest on the dial is partly the story we told above: the format has shuffled between stations and owners, landing most recently at Coahuila Hoy Radio.

How to listen from the US

Everything in the Saltillo directory streams live over the internet, which means distance is no longer the issue it was for previous generations of migrants. A few practical tips:

1. Mind the time difference. Coahuila lies in central Mexico, which observes daylight saving changes differently than the US. Since 2022, most of Mexico — including Coahuila — no longer changes its clocks, while most of the US still does. For most of the year, Saltillo matches US Central Time. But for a few weeks in spring and fall, when the US has switched and Mexico hasn't, Saltillo will be one hour behind Chicago or Dallas. If you're tuning in for a morning show or an evening newscast, double-check the local Saltillo time before you set expectations.
2. Match your listening to your day. Morning shows and newscasts run early, Saltillo time, which works well for listeners in Central and Eastern time zones — you can catch live news over breakfast. Evening programming in Saltillo lands in the afternoon and early evening on the West Coast.
3. Use the genre pages. If you just want background music while working, the Pop Latino or Rock en Español pages let you flip between Saltillo stations quickly instead of searching one by one.
4. Save your favorites. Once you've found your station — whether it's La Primera for news or Stereo Saltillo for pop — bookmark it so it's one tap away.

Beyond Saltillo: nearby cities to explore

Saltillo sits at the edge of several radio regions, and part of the fun is wandering outward. Monterrey is less than an hour down the highway, and its media influence shows up all over Saltillo's dial — Multimedios most famously. If you want to hear where that sound comes from, the Monterrey page has 52 stations, and the wider state of Nuevo León offers 41 more.

Other regions worth exploring:

• The full Mexico directory for everything in the catalog
• Mexico City, with 350 stations — the country's biggest radio market by far
• Guadalajara and Jalisco, for the sound of the west (59 and 54 stations respectively)
• Sinaloa, 67 stations of banda country
• Chihuahua, 54 stations from the neighboring north
• Veracruz, 44 stations with a completely different musical flavor from the Gulf coast

Why local radio still matters for saltillocos abroad

There's a specific feeling to local radio that national streaming playlists can't reproduce: the traffic report on Boulevard Venustiano Carranza, the weather in the desert, the host arguing about the governor's latest announcement, the sponsor jingle you've heard since childhood. For second-generation listeners, it's also a low-pressure way to keep your Spanish current and connected to a real place, not a generic "Mexican" broadcast.

Saltillo's dial tells the story of the city: a newspaper that bought a radio station and kept it talking, a Monterrey group that brought pop to FM, a Zacatecan frequency that found a new home, and a station that has reinvented itself half a dozen times and is still going. Press play on any of them, and you're not just hearing music or news — you're hearing sixty years of local history, still broadcasting.