the border presented a grim panorama. On the American side, a new international radio agreement would diminish the coverage area of Mexican clear-channel stations by allowing American stations to set up shop on those frequencies; meanwhile, Mexico proposed changes to its broadcast law that would allow for operators to own their stations for 10 years, at which time the government would have the right to purchase a station for the depreciated value of its assets. XERF under IMER However, one Mexican group was highly interested in taking control of XERF for itself. In , the federal government created the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio (IMER, ), which initially owned all of the radio stations which the government had come into owning through other agencies. Given XERF's geographic location, transmitter power, and status on a clear channel, the Mexican government considered XERF of strategic importance to acquire. On , IMER purchased the assets of Compañía Radiodifusora de Coahuila, S.A. and immediately took over operations of XERF. Five days later, in a special shareholders' meeting, Compañía Radiodifusora de Coahuila voted to dissolve itself. The concession was formally transferred to IMER on . However, once IMER acquired XERF, it was left with the old, broken transmitter, for which there were no parts, and a second, transmitter, which was also having problems, and XERF operated with only . In , IMER began a modernization project nationwide. Special attention was paid to XERF, where IMER launched "Proyecto Ciudad Acuña" to improve the station's technical facilities and strengthen its vision for XERF. With the acquisition of a new transmitter, XERF raised its power to in . On , President Vicente Fox formally dedicated XERF's new facilities. The goal of XERF under IMER is to provide a broadcast service that links migrating Mexicans to their original communities. The station's programming consists of news/talk programs and Mexican popular music. AMFM migration As part of the Mexican government plan to move as many AM stations as possible to the FM band, XHRF-FM signed on . The station, however, could not turn off its AM transmitter because doing so would leave a total of 404 people in 37 localities without any radio service whatsoever, resulting in the declaration of a continuity obligation that remains until some other radio service is provided to those 404 people. HD Radio broadcast and programming XHRF began broadcasts in HD Radio on October 28, 2012.