ALTERNATIVE ROCK · INDIE · TIJUANA · BAJA CALIFORNIA · MEXICO
91X is San Diego's legendary alternative rock station, on the air with its "Original" sound since 1983 and serving the San Diego–Tijuana area at 91.1 FM.
📻 History: On November 20, 1968, Radiodifusora del Pacífico, owner of AM 690 XETRA, received a concession for a new FM station, XETRA-FM, on 91.3 MHz, which first broadcast with 3,000 watts from the AM transmitter site in Playas de Rosarito. In 1978 the San Diego-based Noble Broadcast Group bought its programming and sales rights, and on September 5, 1978 the station moved to 91.1 MHz with 100,000 watts from a new transmitter atop Mount San Antonio in Tijuana, aiming its signal squarely at the San Diego market with an album-oriented rock format.
On January 11, 1983, at 6 p.m., it flipped to "Rock of the 80s" modern rock with KROQ's Rick Carroll as consultant, starting the alternative sound that became 91X; by the late 1980s it carried the tagline "The Cutting Edge of Rock." After Noble's owner Ed Noble died in 1985, John Lynch bought the company, and under his management 91X became one of the most influential alternative stations in the United States. Jacor Communications acquired Noble in 1996, Clear Channel took over in 1999, and a 2005 FCC rule change forced Clear Channel to spin off the station's operations; the concession passed to Comunicación XERSA and Finest City Broadcasting ran it until 2009.
In January 2010 Local Media of America bought the cluster in a foreclosure sale, with Lynch as CEO, and it later became Local Media San Diego, which still operates 91X. In 2019 it adopted the slogan "Local. Independent. Alternative.", and in February 2022, after an "A to XYZ" marathon of its biggest hits, it shifted to a classic alternative focus on the 1980s and 1990s as "The Original." Its studios are in San Diego, while its 100,000-watt signal from Tijuana covers most of San Diego County and part of southwestern Riverside County.
📞 +1 858 888 7000 · 📍 6160 Cornerstone Court East, Suite 150, San Diego, CA 92121, United States
