XTRA-AM brought all-news format to L.A., from Tijuana

Before KNX-AM (1070) offered “all news, all the time,” and before KFWB-AM (980) promised to give you “the world” in 22 minutes, there was XTRA-AM (690).

XTRA made its debut May 6, 1961, when the Hollywood Reporter called it the nation’s first all-news radio operation. It was also one of the most unusual.

First, it wasn’t based in the United States; it was located in Tijuana, and occasionally the studio received surprise visits by farm animals and reptiles.

XTRA didn’t have a reporter in the U.S., let alone Southern California.

In fact, it didn’t employ any reporters or writers, only anchors who read news stories ripped from wire service Teletype machines.

Its slogan was “XTRA News Over Los Angeles.”

“ ‘Over’ — that’s the operative word,” recalled longtime newsman John North, an original XTRA anchor. “I’m sure a lot of people thought it was in L.A.”

XTRA could be heard in greater Los Angeles because it wasn’t limited to 50,000 watts, as U.S. stations are.

The all-news concept was hatched by Texas radio pioneer Gordon McLendon, who acquired the station’s programming and advertising rights. (As a foreigner, he couldn’t own XTRA.)

The station’s switch to an all-news format from top-40 station XEAK (“The Mighty 690”) was secretive. A few weeks before, North had answered a vague ad in a San Diego newspaper for an “Announcer/News.”

He auditioned in a hotel room on this side of the border, not knowing whom he was auditioning for.

“When they finally told us it was going to be an all-news station in Mexico, it just blew our minds,” he said. “We wondered: Who’s going to listen?”

But people did listen, and soon XTRA’s sales office on Wilshire Boulevard was finding sponsors.

The anchors worked in pairs, taking turns reading the news for an hour. Commercials, North said, were a blessing — “a break from reading, reading, reading.”

The operation was less than high-tech.

Ed Pyle, another anchor, remembered editing his wire copy with a pencil. “I don’t think I ever used a typewriter,” he said, “except to type headlines.”

XTRA’s first studio on the outskirts of Tijuana was “in an old, dilapidated Quonset hut in the desert,” North said.

It was so old its door wouldn’t stay shut.

“The caretaker who lived in a nearby house kept goats, chickens and quite a few dogs,” he said. “One time, one of the goats wandered into our studio. Fortunately, we were in a commercial cluster at the time, so we were able to chase him out.”

“On occasion, chickens would come inside. We had other visitors too, including snakes.”

Later, the station moved into a more populated area of Tijuana, near a bullring. Luckily, no toros stormed the studio.

Most of the anchors lived in the San Diego area, and the commute could be an adventure.

Pyle was once pulled over by a Mexican cop for allegedly failing to signal for a right turn and told he’d have to immediately go to the police station. He talked his way out of the trip by giving the officer all his change — 73 cents.

Just returning to the U.S. from work could be a chore.

“On holidays or weekends, you might sit in the damn line [at the border crossing] for hours,” Pyle said.

But, for all the challenges, the XTRA crew was proud of its work.

“We performed a service,” Pyle said.

For one thing, XTRA gave extensive coverage to an issue that was attracting more and more interest: the Vietnam War.

XTRA, in North’s words, also “proved that the public would accept this type of programming.”

Its competitors took notice. In early 1968, KFWB and KNX both went all-news.

“That put us out of business,” North said.

Before XTRA’s all-news format folded, management confided to Pyle and a couple of other anchors that the station was going to convert to music and that they were the only ones whose jobs would be spared. They were told not to say anything to their other colleagues.

Pyle felt bad but agreed to keep quiet. On the all-news station’s last day, every anchor, including Pyle, was fired.

“It seems sort of funny now but it wasn’t then,” he said.

After changing formats several times, XTRA is currently a Spanish-language news station.

North worked at several Los Angeles stations and now works freelance making documentaries for KCLU, a Santa Barbara/Ventura-area public radio station. At 75, he recently won two Edward R. Murrow Awards for a special about paroled sex offenders.

Pyle retired to Port St. Lucie, Fla., after working in L.A. radio for more than 30 years, including a stint as executive news producer at KNX.

He said he’s not sure whether it’s because of the way things ended at the Tijuana station or whether it’s the memory of the long lines at the border, but the day he left XTRA was the last day he ever set foot in Mexico.

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