Luis Francisco Ojeda
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Luis Francisco Ojeda (born June 16, 1941) is a well known Puerto Rican television reporter and host, noted for his aggressive, uncompromising questioning and commenting style.
Ojeda was born in Jayuya, and is reportedly of Spanish and Dutch ancestry. He moved to Ponce when he was still a youngster. While studying in high school, he got his first opportunity to talk live in a daily show, becoming a newscaster for Ponce's WPAB radio station.
Ojeda signed a contract with WAPA Radio in 1960, and moved to San Juan. He worked at WAPA-Radio as newscaster (and occasional disc jockey) until 1968, moving on that year to work for rival WKAQ-Radio Reloj. While there, he had to cover the historic riots at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras in 1971. In one of the incidents covered by Ojeda a shooting ensued, and Ojeda, in the middle of the shootout, rescued a police lieutenant who had been shot. Despite his efforts, the policeman literally died from his gunshot wounds in the back of the remote unit truck while Ojeda was broadcasting his and his driver's frantic rush to the nearest emergency room live.
Ojeda was later offered a job as the news director and anchorman of Telemundo Puerto Rico's television news show. He decided, however, not to take the job, opting instead to join then governor Rafael Hernandez Colon's staff, as a member of Puerto Rico's Communications Office. Ojeda needed to work as a journalist, however, and, by 1973, he decided to step in front of the television cameras for the first time, working at channel 11's news show. Not long after Ojeda joined channel 11, the channel's owner had died and the station went bankrupt, so Ojeda signed on with WAPA-TV to work as a field reporter at Noticentro 4.
Ojeda spent most of his time at Noticentro 4 travelling across Puerto Rico, working as an on-the-field reporter, but he also sporadically got chances to host the show, usually filling in for a sick anchorman or woman. He worked on various tragedies, government scandals and other types of news while at Noticentro 4, essentially pioneering investigative reporting in Puerto Rican television.
In 1987, he was given his own television talk show, Ojeda, Sin Limites (Ojeda, Without Limits). He became known for his strong questioning of participants of the show, and the show produced a number of classic moments of Puerto Rican television; such as the time that two of the three candidates for Puerto Rican commissioner in Washington, D.C., the PNP's Carlos Romero Barcelo (former governor of Puerto Rico) and the PPD's Miguel Hernandez Agosto got into a shouting match, calling each other "liar" multiple times and almost physically assaulting each other.
After his show was cancelled, Ojeda spent about a decade off television, but he went on with Ojeda, Sin Limites, only that it became a radio show, on WKAQ-Radio.
In 2000, he returned to television, with a show named Ojeda once again, at WAPA-TV, which, by then, had the new name of Televicentro. Later on, he was offered a fifteen minute space on Televicentro's midday variety show, Medio Dia Puerto Rico, where he would accept calls from the public in a segment called "La Descarga".
Ojeda now collaborates on a new radio station show as well.
