Radio stations from Zacatecas, Zacatecas

If you grew up in Zacatecas or your parents did, the radio dial back home is a kind of family album. The city is small compared to Guadalajara or Monterrey, but its airwaves tell a long story: one of the oldest AM concessions in the region, a state-run cultural station, and a pop station that outlived an entire national network format. Today, all nine stations listed in our Zacatecas catalog stream live, which means that whether you are in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, or Raleigh, you can hear Zacatecas in real time.

This guide walks through the history of local radio as told by its two most storied stations, the current lineup worth knowing, the genres you will actually hear, and the practical details of listening from the United States, including the time difference.

A City Whose Radio Goes Back to 1939

Zacatecas is not usually the first city people think of when they think of Mexican radio history, but it should get more credit than it does. The story of local broadcasting here stretches back to the late 1930s, and you can trace almost the whole arc of Mexican radio, AM to FM, local ownership to state media, pop networks to streaming, through two stations.

XELK: The Station That Refused to Disappear

The oldest thread in the city's radio history belongs to what is today Digital 106.5, broadcasting as XHLK-FM. Its origins go back to XELK-AM 1080, which received its concession on December 3, 1939, a remarkably early date for a city of Zacatecas's size. The station launched as a modest 100-watt operation owned by Jesús Macías Guerrero and José Miguel Acevedo.

Like many Mexican AM stations of that era, XELK spent decades moving around the dial and changing hands. In 1961 it was sold to Victoria Graciela Alba de Llamas. The station transmitted on 1280 kHz with 500 watts into the 1960s, then turned up on 830 kHz by the 1980s, and by the 2000s its daytime signal had grown to 10,000 watts. In 2000, the station was purchased by Radio Publicidad Zacatecana.

The next big turn came in November 2010, when XELK migrated from AM to FM, becoming XHLK-FM 106.5. That migration was part of a nationwide shift of stations from the AM band to FM, and it gave the station a new lease on life. But the most interesting chapter is the most recent one.

As Digital 106.5, the station carried the "Digital" pop format from ACIR, one of Mexico's major radio groups. In 2013, ACIR converted its pop stations to the Radio Disney format, which means Zacatecas ended up with the very last Digital-format station in the entire ACIR family. When Grupo Radiofónico ZER's contract with ACIR expired in early 2017, the station kept going on its own. In 2018, the IFT, Mexico's federal telecommunications regulator, approved a power increase and a class change for XHLK-FM, strengthening its signal.

Think about that arc for a second: a 100-watt AM station licensed in 1939, passed between local owners, shuffled across the AM band, reborn on FM, and still on the air today as a pop station under Grupo ZER. That is resilience, and it is why Digital 106.5 remains one of the most-listened stations in our Zacatecas listings.

Radio Zacatecas 97.9: The State's Voice

The other key station in the city's story is Radio Zacatecas 97.9, XHZH-FM, which went on the air in April 1984. Unlike the commercially owned XELK lineage, this station has always belonged to the government of the state of Zacatecas, and its format is cultural: regional music, talk, local affairs, and programming that commercial stations in a market this size might not take a chance on.

A second defining moment came in February 2016, when the state television station XHZHZ-TDT began broadcasting. Radio Zacatecas was reorganized as part of the Sistema Zacatecano de Radio y Televisión, the state's combined public broadcasting system. For listeners, that made 97.9 part of a broader public media project, one that treats radio as a cultural service rather than a product.

The contrast between the two stations is worth appreciating. One is a survivor of nearly nine decades of commercial broadcasting; the other is a public station entering its fifth decade. Together they frame the whole spectrum of what radio in Zacatecas has been and still is.

The Stations to Know Today

Our catalog lists nine live stations from Zacatecas, Zacatecas. Here are the ones drawing the most listeners, and what each is good for:

• AMOR ES 99.3: The romantic and baladas option. If you want José José, Juan Gabriel, and heartfelt dedications, this is your frequency. Also available at the 99.3 Amor Es listing.
• Radio Zacatecas 97.9: The state cultural station described above. Best for regional music, local talk, and a genuine sense of place.
• Digital 106.5: Pop in Spanish and current hits, carrying the legacy of XELK into the streaming era.
• W Radio 104.9: News and talk, serving both Zacatecas and neighboring Guadalupe. This is where you go to find out what is happening in the state, in national politics, and in the world.

That is a useful quartet to start with: romance, culture, pop, and news cover most of what people actually want from radio.

What You'll Hear: Genres on the Zacatecas Dial

The nine stations in the catalog break down into a spread of genres that reflects both Mexican radio conventions and local character:

• Pop Latino and hits: 6 stations, the backbone of the dial
• Community and cultural: 3 stations, including the state broadcaster
• Romantic and baladas: 2 stations
• Rock en Español: 2 stations
• News and talk: 2 stations
• Electronic: 2 stations
• Sports: 2 stations
• Classics and retro: 1 station

A few observations for listeners choosing where to start:

Pop dominates, as it does almost everywhere in Mexico. With six of nine stations in the pop Latino and hits category, Zacatecas follows the national pattern. If you just want the current chart sound with local commercials and station IDs that sound like home, Digital 106.5 is the natural pick.

The cultural presence is unusually strong. Three community and cultural stations is a lot for a city this size, and it flows directly from the state's decision to keep Radio Zacatecas 97.9 alive and even fold it into a broader public media system in 2016. For expatriates and second-generation listeners, this is often the most valuable station of all: it is the one that sounds most unmistakably zacatecano.

Sports radio matters during Liga MX season. With two sports stations, you can usually find match commentary or sports talk, and if you follow a team, the local perspective is a different experience from national broadcasts.

The single classics station is a treasure. One station carrying classics and retro might be all you need. Hearing the music your parents played at home, framed by local announcers, is a specific and powerful kind of nostalgia.

How to Listen from the US

This is the part that matters most for the audience of Radio en Vivo: you do not need a radio, an app store purchase, or any technical skill. Every station in the Zacatecas catalog streams live over the internet, and you can listen from any phone, tablet, or computer.

A few practical tips:

• Go directly to the station page. Each station has its own page, like W Radio 104.9, with a live player. Bookmark the two or three you listen to most so you are one tap away.
• Use the genre pages to explore. If you know you want baladas tonight, open the romantic page and see which Zacatecas stations come up alongside options from other cities.
• Listening is free. These are live simulcasts of over-the-air stations, so you hear exactly what someone in Zacatecas hears, including local ads, traffic, weather, and time checks, which is half the charm.
• A stable connection is enough. Live radio streams are far lighter on data than video. Even a modest mobile plan can handle a morning commute of listening.
• Bluetooth in the car. Pair your phone to your car speakers and your drive to work in Dallas or Denver becomes a drive through Zacatecas.

The Time Difference: Planning Your Listening

Zacatecas observes Central Time in Mexico. In practice, this lines up closely with US Central Time, though the two countries do not always change to and from daylight saving time on the same dates, and Mexico stopped observing DST in most of the country in 2022 while most of the US still does. During the weeks when the US has switched and Mexico has not (or vice versa), the offset may briefly be one hour off from what you expect.

For most US listeners, the practical mapping is:

• Central Time (Chicago, Dallas, Houston): same time most of the year
• Eastern Time (New York, Miami): Zacatecas is one hour behind
• Mountain Time (Denver, Phoenix): Zacatecas is one hour ahead
• Pacific Time (Los Angeles, San Francisco): Zacatecas is two hours ahead

Why does this matter? Because live radio is scheduled. Morning shows, news blocks, and sports broadcasts happen at specific hours. If you are on the East Coast, the Zacatecas morning shows are starting while you are already at your desk, which makes them a great mid-morning companion. If you are in California, you can catch the local evening programming right after work. The news and talk stations are especially time-sensitive, since their value comes from being live.

One more note on sports: Liga MX matches generally kick off in the evening by Mexican clock time, which works out to prime time or slightly earlier across US zones, a rare case where the time difference works entirely in your favor.

Beyond Zacatecas: Nearby Regions to Explore

Zacatecas is a state with deep migration ties to the US, especially to California, Illinois, and Texas, so the odds are good that radio from neighboring regions will also feel like home. A few directions worth exploring in the catalog:

• Jalisco and Guadalajara: 59 stations in Guadalajara alone, plus 54 more across Jalisco. If you have family ties to western Mexico, this is the richest nearby region.
• Sinaloa: 67 stations, with banda and norteño programming that pairs naturally with Zacatecas's regional sound.
• Monterrey and Nuevo León: 52 stations in Monterrey and 41 across the state, a major northern market.
• Chihuahua: 54 stations from Mexico's largest state, another region with strong migration links to the US.
• Veracruz: 44 stations and a completely different musical tradition, son jarocho among them.
• Mexico City: the national reference point with 350 stations, useful for national news and big-network programming.

Why Local Radio Still Matters Here

There is something specific about hearing a station that broadcasts from a city you can picture. The weather report for the Cerro de la Bufa, the name of a neighborhood you walked through, an announcer whose accent matches your tía's. National platforms and algorithmic playlists are convenient, but they cannot tell you what is happening in Zacatecas this afternoon.

That is the quiet value of the two stations whose stories opened this article. Digital 106.5 carries more than eight decades of continuous broadcasting history on its back, and Radio Zacatecas 97.9 represents a public commitment to local culture that has now outlasted four decades. When you stream either one from your kitchen in the US, you are tapping into that continuity in real time.

Start with the four core stations, check the genre pages to wander, and if your family's roots spread across the region, keep the Jalisco and Sinaloa pages open as well. The dial back home is still on the air, and it is closer than it has ever been.