XEQ began operations in 1938. It was owned by Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta doing business as Radio Panamericana, S.A., and was a network affiliate of CBS Radio as part of the "Chain of the Americas."[6] It was Azcárraga's second station after XEW-AM. By the 1960s, XEQ was operating with 150,000 watts during the day and 50,000 at night. In the 1970s, it switched to 100,000 watts day and night.[7] It later reduced its power to 50,000 watts.
The XEQ call sign later appeared on other stations: XEQ-FM was licensed in the 1950s, and the original XEQ-TV, broadcasting to Puebla, signed on in 1952 to relay XEW-TV. (In 1985, a call sign swap led to a different XEQ-TV in Mexico City.)
In 2014 and 2015, XEQ was approved to lower its power from 50,000 to 30,000 watts.
Until 2019, the station was known as Ke Buena but carried a tropical version of the format, instead of the typical grupera version. On October 31, 2019, this ended and XEQ-AM began simulcasting XEQ-FM. On August 18, 2023, the simulcast ended and XEQ-AM was relaunched as "La Q" with a Spanish-language adult hits format, mostly consisting of tropical, regional Mexican, grupera and romantic music from the 1970s to the 2000s.
