"Mexican Radio" is a song by American rock band Wall of Voodoo. The track was initially released on their 1982 album Call of the West. The video for the single was regularly featured on MTV in the United States, contributing to the song's popularity. The song peaked in the US at No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also reached No. 18 in Canada, No. 21 in New Zealand, No.33 in Australia and No. 64 in the UK. Composition The song's lyrics describe listening to the broadcasts of high-wattage unregulated Mexican radio stations, known as border blasters, whose AM broadcasts are strong enough to be picked-up by radio receivers in the US. The song was inspired by car trips taken by Wall of Voodoo frontman Stan Ridgway and guitarist Marc Moreland on their way to rehearsals, when they would listen to Mexican broadcasts, preferring their programming to mainstream Los Angeles radio. During one of the band's sessions, Moreland played them a demo tape that he had recorded of himself repeatedly singing the line "I'm on a Mexican radio" over a guitar riff and that sound clip became the starting point of the single. Writing and recording The lyrics for "Mexican Radio" were written by Ridgway and Moreland; the music was written by Moreland. Producer Richard Mazda and recording engineer Jess Sutcliffe, both from England, were invited to Los Angeles to record with Wall of Voodoo by Miles Copeland, founder of I.R.S. Records. The songs "Mexican Radio" and "Suburban Lawns", from Wall of Voodoo's album Call of the West, were recorded with Mazda and Sutcliffe over the course of a weekend at Hit City West studios in Los Angeles. In order to emulate the sounds of AM radio, many of the song's instruments, including the synthesizers, were played through amplifiers, rather than being recorded directly through the microphones to the mixing console. They recorded some of Moreland's guitar through an amplifier placed in the restroom at the back of the studio and Ridgway sang some of the vocals through a handmade bullhorn. The song also includes soundbites recorded by Ridgway during a trip to Mexico, including the broadcast of a dog race that was playing over a radio in a bar that he visited. The song was recorded using a Soundcraft mixing console and one 24-track recorder along with Shure and AKG microphones. The synthesizer parts were played on