Unlike XENET, which remained on-air until May 23, 2008 when the STIRT, whose members were angry about unpaid wages,[4] raised its red and black flags at Radio Monitor, XEINFO suspended its programming on the day of the attempted sale and was off the air for nearly three years.
On May 15, 2017, coinciding with a major reshuffle of Grupo Radio Centro's AM radio stations, the format of XEEST-AM 1440, operated by Grupo Siete under contract to GRC, was moved to 1560 kHz, marking its first regular broadcasts in more than nine years; the station returned to XEEST on October 2 of that year and XEINFO went off the air again.
The new station could have a maximum effective radiated power of 3,000 watts and must broadcast in HD Radio as one of the conditions of second-wave migration.
The selection of XEINFO triggered some dissatisfaction from the other AM-only commercial radio broadcasters, who had expected to go into a random drawing as provided for by the rules for second-wave migration.
José Álvarez, who gained fame as the program director of the legendary Radioactivo in the 1990s and early 2000s, was hired to run the new station.
[6][8] On June 21, 2018, the IFT approved the final technical parameters for the station, including a transmitter location in the Atlazolpa area of Mexico City with an effective radiated power of 2,000 watts.
In August 2020, La Prensa reported that the IFT and the Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera (Financial Intelligence Unit) were investigating Aire Libre for concessionaire Henkel's connections to Radio Centro in light of the second-wave migration process, in addition to a challenge being mounted by Capital Media.
[12] According to Raymundo Riva Palacio, Capital had considered mounting an earlier challenge, but the Maccise family, politically connected to the Institutional Revolutionary Party and close to then-president Enrique Peña Nieto, was instructed by Peña Nieto to hold back to avoid a dispute with his then-wife, Angélica Rivera.
The San Pedro de los Pinos site was authorized as an auxiliary facility, with the main transmitter to be moved to the World Trade Center Mexico City.
Darío Celis of El Financiero noted that Pérez was associated with Adrián Pereda López of Radiorama and that funding from the Green Party was involved as part of a "political project".