On November 21, 1922, Vasconcelos's deputy secretary, Francisco Figueroa, asked President Álvaro Obregón for permission to invest in a 250-watt transmitter and 50 receivers.

[1]: 29  The federal government initially denied the SEP because it was trying to work with radiotelephone operators, but interest in Mexican radio grew.

[1]: 30 On November 30, 1924, the SEP station began formal operations under the callsign CYE, which was changed within a matter of days to CZE.

In 1928, the Dirección General de Telégrafos modified the station's permit, changing the callsign to XFX and its frequency to 910 kHz.

In 1929, the SEP obtained control of station XFC, which was operated by the state government of Veracruz in Xalapa and broadcast on 860 kHz with 350 watts.

XFX, with programming including long Chamber of Deputies debates and other official acts, simply could not guarantee advertisers continued regular exposure.

[2] It was under Yáñez that the station went through some of its best periods, offering more public educational programming, musical concerts, and courses for rural schools.

In 1936, Radio Educación, which had briefly carried the callsign XEXM, was transferred to the Autonomous Department of Press and Propaganda (DAPP), which would operate it as a governmental station.

Two years later, the DAPP was dissolved, with XEDP and its shortwave counterpart XEXA becoming "Radio Gobernación", with a decidedly political tone.

When Gustavo Díaz Ordaz became president, he named Agustín Yáñez as head of the SEP. During this time period, a 500-watt transmitter was acquired and installed.

It was not until 1968 that the facility was rebuilt with a 25 m (82 ft) tower, and using temporary power of 150 watts, Radio Educación returned to the air for good on November 23.

In 1980, Granados Chapa, a journalist by trade, opted to leave his government job, being replaced by José Antonio Álvarez Lima.

When Álvarez Lima left to seek (and later win) election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1982, he was replaced ultimately by Héctor Murillo Cruz, who sought to increase the connection between Radio Educación and other institutional outlets, such as Notimex, programming from the new Instituto Mexicano de la Radio (IMER) and other state institutions, and even commercial advertising for the state-owned airline Aeroméxico,[1]: 223  something normally proscribed for noncommercial permit stations.

By the time the eighties were drawing to a close, Radio Educación had lost musical audiences to new FM stations, such as Rock 101 and WFM, been edged out in news and discussion programming by José Gutiérrez Vivó's Monitor on XERED and XHRED, one of Mexico's first longform newscasts, and seen its once-unique style be adopted by other cultural stations thanks to Radio Educación's remit to train other noncommercial broadcasters.

[1]: 228  In 1991, after three years under Alejandro Montaño, Luis Ernesto Pi Orozco became the new director of Radio Educación, beginning the longest tenure in the station's history, reemphasizing a balance between talk and music programming, with new entertainment- and information-oriented shows.

In December 2015, XHYRE-FM 107.9, now known as Radio Educación Señal Kukulkán, began operations,[10] with full independent programming coming in 2017.