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WLII-DT
Television station in Caguas, Puerto Rico From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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WLII-DT (channel 11), branded on-air as TeleOnce, is a television station licensed to Caguas, Puerto Rico, serving the U.S. territory as an affiliate of Univision and UniMás. Owned by Liberman Media Group, the station maintains studio facilities on Calle Carazo in Guaynabo, with additional studios at The Mall of San Juan. Its transmitter is located near the Bosque Estatal de Carite mountain reserve.
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TeleOnce operates two satellite stations: WSUR-DT (channel 9) in Ponce and WOLE-DT (channel 12) in Aguadilla.
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History
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Telecadena Perez-Perry (1960–1981)
In 1960, Rafael Perez Perry received authorization from the government to start WKBM-TV on May 23, broadcasting on channel 11, as part of his new 'Telecadena Perez-Perry' chain of television stations. Some of the shows that WKBM-TV aired during these years included:
- Una Hora Contigo and Tira y Tapate with Myrta Silva
- Yo Soy el Gallo with José Miguel Class
- El Show de Carmita with Carmita Jiménez
- El Show de Lissette, El Show de Iris Chacón, El Hit del Momento, and El Super Show Goya with Enrique Maluenda, Lillian Hurst, and Luz Odilia Font
- Una Chica llamada: Ivonne Coll and Cambia Cambia with Alfred D. Herger
- Almorzando and Del Brazo with Ruth Fernández
- Mediodia Circular with Vilma Carbia
At the time, Perez Perry owned one of the most successful radio stations on the island, WKVM (810 AM). Perez Perry died of a heart attack of unknown cause while he was working on the transmitter in the late 1970s; his death eventually resulted in WKBM-TV declaring bankruptcy in 1981. The station went silent that year. Its former competition benefited from WKBM's demise—not only from a reduction in competition itself, but also from the availability of many of the stations' former hosts and talent.
TeleOnce (1986–2002)
In 1985, production company Lorimar-Telepictures (with the Telepictures division now part of Warner Bros. Television) acquired the station from bankruptcy court. The callsign became WLII-TV on December 12, and was branded as 'TeleOnce' on April 27, 1986, with a new slogan: "TeleOnce... Vívelo!" (lit. 'TeleOnce... Live it!').
Warner Communications (now part of Warner Bros. Discovery) gained indirect ownership of the stations after it bought Lorimar-Telepictures in 1988. The station became a success around this time by airing popular American programs translated in Spanish, especially The Simpsons. However, its lack of a repeater or rebroadcaster on the western portion of the island continued to put it behind the competition, WKAQ-TV (channel 2) and WAPA-TV (channel 4). This changed when WNJX-TV (channel 22) in Mayagüez signed an affiliation agreement with the station in the late 1980s. WLII was subsequently sold to Malrite Communications Group in 1991 after it sold WSTE-TV (channel 7); Malrite merged with Raycom Media in 1998.
On January 1, 1995, at midnight, TeleOnce entered into its first marketing agreement with a television station in western Puerto Rico, WORA-TV (channel 5), which at that time had ended an affiliation agreement with WKAQ-TV. In turn, WKAQ-TV switched its affiliation agreement to WOLE-TV (channel 12), which was WAPA-TV's repeater station at the time; this left WAPA-TV out of the western Puerto Rico television market for the first time in 30 years.
Some of the shows that aired on WLII during this time included:
- En Un Día, R con R
- El Show de Awilda
- Dime la Verdad
- Ellas al Mediodía
- La Noche es Nuestra
- Fiesta
- A Fuego
- Pulso Preciso
- Lio
- El Super Show
- Que Suerte que es Domingo
- Anda Pa'l Cará
- Entrando por la Cocina
- NBA Jam
- Atácate (a Spanish-language version of NBA Inside Stuff)
- El Kiosko Budweiser
In addition, the station aired live boxing fights during the weekends—some of which were hosted and promoted by Ivonne Class, the first Puerto Rican woman to become a boxing promoter.[3]
In the late 1980s, actresses Ángela Meyer and Camille Carrión founded Empresas Meca, a production company, which produced some of the last telenovelas shot in Puerto Rico: La Isla, Ave de Paso (starring Yolandita Monge), Yara Prohibida, and La Otra.
Univision Puerto Rico (2002–2021)
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In 2002, Univision entered into a local marketing agreement with Raycom Media to operate WLII and WSUR-TV. At the time, WLII had a longtime local marketing agreement with another Puerto Rican station, WSTE (channel 7), which Univision honored. Both WLII and WSUR-TV were sold to Univision Communications in 2005; Univision bought WSTE at the end of 2007. Although Univision operated a second network, UniMás, in the mainland United States, WSTE remained an independent station. In 2005, WLII relocated from its studios in the Puerta de Tierra area of San Juan to a new facility in Guaynabo.[4][5][6]
On October 17, 2014, WLII-DT laid off 109 staffers and canceled most of its local programming, becoming a repeater of Univision network programming with minimal local content. With the move, the station's daily talk show, Ruben & Co., became the only local program still produced by WLII. In addition, WLII shared a general manager with Univision's Puerto Rico radio stations.[7]
On February 25, 2020, investment firms ForgeLight (launched by founder, CEO, and ex-Viacom CFO Wade Davis) and Searchlight Capital agreed to acquire the 64% controlling stake of Univision Communications which owned WLII-DT, while minority owner Televisa continued to hold its 36% stake with the company. However, both Searchlight and ForgeLight had a stake in Hemisphere Media Group, which owns WAPA-TV in San Juan. Univision was required to divest WLII and its satellite stations in order to comply with ownership limits.[8][9][10][11]
Liberman purchase and the return of TeleOnce (2021–present)
On August 27, 2020, Univision announced that WLII and its satellite stations would be acquired by Liberman Media Group, a company owned by Estrella Media founder Lenard Liberman, for $1 million each.[12] The sale was completed on December 10, 2020. Univision retained WSTE-DT, WKAQ-AM, and WKAQ-FM. It was also reported that WLII would bring back the TeleOnce branding, which the station used for 15 years from 1986 to 2002.[13] On January 19, 2021, Liberman Media Group named Winter Horton as the new general manager for the station.[14]
WLII-DT (and its repeaters) aired as Univision Puerto Rico until February 18, 2021, when the on-screen branding switched to TeleOnce at 8 p.m. The station held a press conference unveiling the new station logo and a new slate of programming, which included the return of local newscasts after more than six years since the dissolution of the original news department. Longtime WAPA-TV news director José Enrique Cruz was named as an adviser for the newly established news department. The debut of new shows, like Ahora Es que Es and a new season of La Comay, brought high ratings for the revamped network.[15][16][17]
On March 2, 2021, WLII's second digital subchannel launched as a UniMás affiliate, branded as UniMás Puerto Rico.[18]
On July 2, 2021, Liberman Media Group and TeleOnce entered a distribution agreement with SBS operated stations WACX-DT11 in Orlando, Florida,[b] and WGCT-LD in Tampa, Florida, to show TeleOnce programming on their stations. Local programs La Comay, Jugando Pelota Dura, and Ahora Es que Es began airing on Mega TV stations either live or on the same day they originally aired in Puerto Rico.[19] This agreement marked the first time that local Puerto Rican programming was exported to the mainland United States since the launch of WAPA America in 2004.[citation needed]
On December 8, 2021, WLII-DT unveiled their new studio facility at The Mall of San Juan. The facility, which occupies one of the empty anchor spaces at the shopping center, was unveiled during the station's upfront presentation which was held at the site. The station's new game show, La Boveda de Mr. Cash, was the first to broadcast live from the new studios when it premiered on March 1, 2022.[20]
TeleOnce América
On July 28, 2025, Liberman Media announced the launch of TeleOnce América, a FAST channel that will bring the network's programming to viewers in the mainland United States. The channel broadcasts 24 hours of content with simulcasts of every original show that airs on WLII from 7 a.m. to midnight.[21][22]
TeleOnce América is set to launch on August 4, 2025, and will be available on Plex, Amazon Freevee, FlixLatino, BeondTV and WISPTV with more services expected to carry it in the near future.[23]
WSUR-TV history (1958–present)
WSUR-TV was founded on February 20, 1958, by American Colonial Broadcasting.[24] In 1963, the station was located on Avenida Tito Castro (Puerto Rico Highway 14) in the La Rambla sector of Barrio Machuelo Abajo; its transmitter tower was located within the municipality of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, and it was an affiliate of WAPA-TV, but carried two local programs from Ponce.[24] The station transmitted its analog signal over VHF channel 9.[24]
Currently, WSUR originates no local programming of its own. Its tower is now located at Cerro Jayuya in the border between the municipality of Ponce with Jayuya.[25]
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Programming
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Current Programming
Currently TeleOnce produces 14 hours of original programming on weekedays featuring an array of shows of like La Bóveda de Teleonce, Jugando Pelota Dura, P.R. En Vivo, among others.
Programming blocks are bookended by Las Noticias de Teleonce (TeleOnce News) which airs its morning edition at 6:00 a.m. and Última Edición at 10:00 p.m.
All of TeleOnce's original programming is broadcast live from the station's studios in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico with the exception of the morning program En La Mañana which has its own studio in the Paseo Caribe Complex in Old San Juan and La Bóveda de Teleonce which also has its own studio at the Alejandro Jr. Cruz Fine Arts Center in Guaynabo.
Las Noticias (1986–2014, 2021–present)
Las Noticias Teleonce is the flagship news program for WLII and its repeater stations, it is currently anchored by Celimar Adames Casalduc during its afternoon editions and Shirlyan Odette during its night edition.
The news program originated in 1986 and ran four editions weekdays and two on weekends until its abrupt cancellation in 2014 by Univision who decided to close the station's news department. In 2020, Univision sold TeleOnce to Liberman Media Group and the new ownership quickly reopened the station's news department and revived Las Noticias.[26][27][28][29][30][31]
Tu Mañana/En La Mañana (1991–2014, 2023–present)
On March 11, 1991, a weekday morning news program, Tu Mañana, made its debut; the program was anchored by Carlos Ochoteco and Cyd Marie Fleming and featured segments such as panels of experts on different topics. Over the course of its history the program was hosted by Burni Torres and Felipe Gomez, Nuria Sebazco and Elwood Cruz, and finally, Grisell Mamery and Gredmarie Colón. After the closure of the station's news department, Tu Mañana was canceled. The show's revival finally arrived in 2023 after Liberman Media Group's purchase of WLII from Univision. The new version of the show is called En La Mañana and it premiered on October 30, 2023.
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Technical information
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Subchannels
The stations' signals are multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WLII shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 56 to VHF channel 11, which was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.[34] WSUR switched to digital-only broadcasts on January 23, 2009, broadcasting on VHF channel 9 (or virtual channel 9.1).
Satellite, repeater, and translator stations
WLII programming can be seen across Puerto Rico on the following stations:
Notes
References
External links
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