Radio stations from Sinaloa

Sinaloa has one of the richest radio traditions in northern Mexico. From the agricultural valleys around Los Mochis to the port of Mazatlán and the state capital of Culiacán, radio here has always been tied to local identity: banda music, romantic ballads, baseball broadcasts, and news that matters to the rancho and the city alike. Today our catalog lists 60 live stations from Sinaloa, and this guide walks you through the story of that dial — and how to hear it from anywhere in the United States.

The story of Sinaloa radio, told through its stations

The 1940s: radio arrives in Los Mochis and Culiacán

The oldest station in our catalog dates back to the very beginning of the 1940s. XECF-AM 1410 received its concession on February 28, 1940, and went on the air on April 11, 1941 — the first radio station in Los Mochis. Founded by Francisco Pérez H., it passed through several hands over the decades before becoming today's La Mexicana 93.3 FM Los Mochis, owned by Radiosistema del Noroeste (RSN).

Culiacán followed almost immediately. XESA-AM received its concession on June 6, 1941, broadcasting on 1360 kHz. After decades of ownership changes and power increases, it migrated to FM in 2011 and survives today as Exa FM Culiacán 101.7, the MVS pop franchise in the capital.

These two stations tell you something important about Sinaloa radio: it has always been a family business, and those families — the Pérez dynasty in Los Mochis above all — shaped the dial for generations.

The late 1950s to the 1960s: the boom years

Radio in Mexico expanded rapidly in the late 1950s, and Sinaloa was no exception. In Los Mochis, XEHS-AM 1280 received its concession on November 16, 1957, a 250-watt station that later moved to 540 kHz with much more power. Its AM signal still broadcasts today by legal obligation, serving more than 27,000 people in its coverage area who receive no other radio service — but the station listeners know now is La Mejor Los Mochis 90.9 FM, carrying MVS's regional Mexican format.

In Culiacán, XEWS-AM 1010 got its concession on November 15, 1957, founded by Modesto Roberto Pérez. After long stints with ACIR and Radiorama and several format changes, it is today La Bestia Grupera Culiacán 102.5 FM, owned by Grupo RSN and also carrying Javier Alatorre's national evening newscast.

Guasave joined in 1964, when XEORO-AM 680 — a 1,000-watt daytime station owned by Óscar Chávez Castro — received its concession on January 28 of that year. It migrated to FM in 2011 and is now La Mera Jefa 93.7 FM Guasave, one of the most-listened regional Mexican signals in the region.

1977–1984: FM comes to Sinaloa

The FM band arrived slowly in Sinaloa, and one station marks the milestone. XHMSL-FM in Los Mochis signed on July 1, 1984 — just two days after receiving its concession — becoming the city's first FM station. Its original concession holder, Sandra Luz Pérez Muñoz, was part of the same family behind RSN. After a 2015 family split that sold the station to the new Luz Network, it became Stereo Uno, a Spanish-and-English pop station that now broadcasts in HD Radio with multiple subchannels, including Vintage 101.3 HD2 Los Mochis for classic hits. Luz Network has since expanded Stereo Uno to Navolato/Culiacán and Mazatlán.

In Mazatlán, XEVU-AM 720 got its first concession in February 1977, running 1,000 watts by day and 500 by night. It became an AM/FM combo in 1994 and went through a long string of formats — La Poderosa, Ke Buena, Magia Digital, Éxtasis Digital — before the concession was transferred to Luz Network in 2023. Today it is La Morrita 97.1 Mazatlán, regional Mexican, one of several Luz stations in the state.

1979–1991: the last AM concessions

Several stations that define today's dial got their start in a burst of concessions around 1980. XHMAT-FM in Mazatlán received its concession on November 22, 1979. It would later become Radio Disney Mazatlán under ACIR, then Match when Disney and ACIR ended their national relationship in 2019, and finally, since June 2021, Vibra Radio 99.5 Mazatlán — now with a regional Mexican format.

In Culiacán, XHCNA-FM was concessioned on October 1, 1980, founded by Leonardo Julián López Saínz Puga and later absorbed by Grupo ACIR. After five years as Radio Disney, it became MATCH 100.1 — a "hot adult contemporary" pop station that remains one of the capital's most-streamed signals, alongside its sister Match Culiacán.

In Los Mochis, XEPNK-AM 880 received its concession on November 19, 1980 — a 5,000-watt daytime station that grew to 10,000 watts and migrated to FM in 2011. After stints as La Rancherita and Romántica, Grupo Radio Centro renamed it in 2019. That station is Radio Variedades 103.5 FM Los Mochis, one of the most beloved romantic stations in northern Sinaloa. (Its story also has a bittersweet chapter: in March 2021 the telecom regulator declined to renew the concession over an unpaid migration fee — a reminder of how fragile even beloved stations can be.)

Mazatlán's XHZS-FM, concessioned August 25, 1987, has perhaps the busiest résumé of all: Estéreo Vida, Planeta, Los 40 Principales, @FM, and Switch, before Luz Network took over in 2020. Today it carries Stereo Uno pop programming and HD subchannels such as Siempre 100.3 HD4 Mazatlán. And XHMZT-FM 93.1, concessioned October 10, 1991, spent most of its life with grupera formats La Jefa and La Única before flipping to English classics and then, in February 2023, relaunching Radio Disney as Studio 93.1 under Grupo Siete.

2006: the state enters the dial

Public radio arrived on October 6, 2006, when the Sinaloa state government launched Radio Sinaloa 94.5, 93.9 and 92.5, broadcasting in Culiacán, Los Mochis and Mazatlán. It remains the state's main public-radio voice, with local news, culture and civic programming that the commercial dial doesn't always cover.

The stations to know today

With 60 live stations, Sinaloa's catalog is one of the deepest for any Mexican state. If you're just getting reacquainted with the dial, these are the most-listened signals:

• Romántica Culiacán — ballads and romantic classics, a favorite for longtime listeners.
• La Comadre Culiacán and La Mejor Culiacán — two pillars of banda and regional Mexican in the capital.
• Radio Variedades 103.5 FM Los Mochis — romantic music for the northern part of the state.
• Radio Fórmula Culiacán and Radio Fórmula Mazatlán — news and talk for keeping up with events back home.
• MATCH 100.1 and Arroba FM Culiacán — contemporary pop, Spanish and English.
• Radio Cañón Mazatlán and La Más Buena Mazatlán — regional Mexican favorites on the coast.
• La Mexicana 92.3 FM Culiacán — more banda and norteño for the capital.
• Radio UAdeO Los Mochis — the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente's station, a good source of local culture and student programming.

A note on "sibling" stations: you'll see pairs like Vibra FM in Culiacán, Guamúchil and Mazatlán, or La Morrita and La Mera Jefa in different cities, because Sinaloa's groups — RSN, Luz Network, Radiorama, MegaRadio, ACIR — operate across the whole state. If one stream is down, its sister station often plays a similar format.

The genres that define the Sinaloa dial

No surprise: Sinaloa is banda country. But the full spread of genres is wider than you might expect. Here's how the 60 stations break down:

• Pop Latino and hits — 28 stations, the single largest group. Think Exa, Match, Stereo Uno, @FM.
• Regional Mexican — 24 stations: banda sinaloense, norteño, corridos.
• Banda — 23 stations dedicated specifically to the brass-heavy sound Sinaloa gave Mexico.
• Romantic and ballads — 11 stations, including Romántica and Radio Variedades.
• Classics and retro — 11 stations spinning decades of memories.
• News and talk — 8 stations, led by Radio Fórmula and Radio Sinaloa.
• Cumbia — 6 stations.
• Rock en Español — 5 stations.

A practical tip for tuning in: banda and regional stations tend to load their live shows with local dedication programs in the mornings and evenings, while pop and romantic stations run tighter music rotations around the clock. If you want the "flavor of home," the morning shows (roughly 6 to 10 a.m. Sinaloa time) are where local hosts, jokes and shout-outs live.

How to listen from the US

Every station listed above streams live through Radio en Vivo, so all you need is a browser or the site on your phone. A few things that make the experience better:

1. Search by city or station name. Going directly to a station page — like Vibra FM Culiacán — gives you the live player plus genre tags to find similar stations.
2. Use the genre pages as a shuffle button. If you just want banda, open the banda genre page and hop between the 23 Sinaloa stations until one hits right.
3. Save your favorites. If you split your listening between Culiacán and Mazatlán stations, keeping two or three tabs or bookmarks saves you re-searching every morning.
4. Check streams at different hours. Some stations prioritize live programming during local drive time and run automated music otherwise. If a stream sounds quiet at 3 a.m. Sinaloa time, try again in the morning.

The time difference

Sinaloa is in the Mountain zone of Mexico (the state has historically kept Mountain time, aligned with neighboring Sonora and Chihuahua on its west side). What that means in practice for US listeners:

• If you're on the US East Coast, Sinaloa is generally 2 hours behind you (sometimes 3, depending on when the US and Mexico change their clocks, which don't always happen on the same dates).
• If you're in Central time (Texas, Chicago), Sinaloa is about 1 hour behind.
• If you're in Mountain or Pacific zones, you're at or close to Sinaloa's local time — great for catching morning shows live.

The safest habit: when planning to catch a specific live show, check the station's own schedule and do the math generously, since daylight-saving mismatches in spring and fall can shift things by an hour for a few weeks.

Nearby states and cities to explore

Sinaloa's radio culture doesn't stop at the state line. Several stations in our catalog connect directly to neighboring regions — Switch 105.9, for example, broadcasts from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, with a sales office across the border in El Paso, Texas, showing how northern Mexican radio naturally reaches US audiences.

If you want to widen your listening:

• Sonora — 41 stations; Sinaloa's northwestern neighbor, and historically linked to it (Los Mochis's XEPNK was once traded for stations in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora).
• Chihuahua — 54 stations across the border state. (Use the correct path: Chihuahua.)
• Jalisco and Guadalajara — 54 and 59 stations respectively, if you want the biggest banda and regional scenes outside Sinaloa.
• Monterrey, Nuevo León — 52 stations from Mexico's northern business capital.
• Nuevo León — 41 stations statewide.
• Veracruz — 44 stations, and a completely different musical world of son jarocho and tropical cumbia.
• Mexico City — 350 stations, the deepest dial in the country, for when you want national news and every format imaginable.
• Or start from the full Mexico directory and browse by state.

A final listening suggestion

If you only have time for one ritual, try this: tomorrow morning, pour your coffee and open La Comadre Culiacán or La Mera Jefa for the morning banda shows, then switch to Radio Fórmula for the news from home, and close the evening with Romántica. That's a full day of Sinaloa radio — the same rhythm your family back home wakes up to, whether they're in Culiacán, Guasave, Guamúchil, Los Mochis or Mazatlán. Eighty-plus years after that first transmitter crackled to life in Los Mochis, the state's dial is still very much alive, and now it fits in your pocket.