The XEAW-AM callsign first appeared on a border-blaster radio station located in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, across the Rio Grande (Río Bravo) from McAllen, Texas, USA.
In 1939, XEAW was purchased from Brinkley by Carr Collins, Sr., in a deal that was quietly assisted by then–Texas governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel.
[2] The station was used by Carr's brother Hal to sell his company's "Crazy Water Crystals," a product that was deemed fraudulent by the FTC in 1940.
[2] In exchange for safe passage of his radio equipment out of the country, Carr Collins gifted a Mexican general with a transformer he needed for his factory.
[2] Meanwhile, in Monterrey, XEX-AM on 1310 kHz started up in 1934; in 1937, Jesús Dionisio González (El Heraldo del Comercio, S.A.) bought the station from Don Federico Zertuche.