Google Books is offering a extensive preview of James Ellroy’s “Perfidia,” for those who may be curious about it. Amazon is also offering a preview.
I have to say I’m not reassured by the first lines, ostensibly a radio broadcast by Gerald L.K. Smith, who died in 1976 at Glendale Community Hospital:
As is known by everyone who ever listened to Wolfman Jack, the Mexican radio stations had call signs beginning with X as in XERF, which carried Wolfman Jack, and XERA, which carried Dr. J.R. Brinkley of “goat gland” fame.
ladailymirror.com 
As a longtime James Ellroy fan, after having read Clandestine in the early eighties, I read Perfidia, but was very disappointed, found it static, repetitive, it lacked the forcefulness and inventiveness of of his previous epics. Hopefully, later volumes will be better.
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Re: XERF. The Mexican stations were notorious for running at huge power levels. A buddy of mine grew up in Brownsville, TX, and as a kid they lit their treehouse with a flashlight bulb and six feet of wire. Good old XERF pumped enough RF to do the rest.
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Your story sounds somewhat suspect, but yes those clear-channel Mexican border stations were powerful. Then again, back in the heyday of AM radio, KOMA-AM, a clear-channel station in Oklahoma City, carried over many states and could be picked up in Arizona with nothing more than a car radio.
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Checking up, it was more likely XERA. US clear channel stations ran 50Kw; I used to listen to “America’s Popular Music” on KFI in the SF Bay area regularly. XERA ran 500kw in the 30’s and claimed 1Mw. That’s a *lot* of power.
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The AM stations used to talk about an ERP (effective radiated power) of XXX Watts.
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I distinctly remember listening to the Wolfman while living in SoCal back in ’63-’64 on XERB. It was out of Baja Calif somewhere.
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Wolfman Jack was on XERB.
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