WLII-DT

WLII-DT

Caguas / San Juan, Puerto Rico
City	Caguas, Puerto Rico
Branding	Univision Puerto Rico
Slogan	La que nos Une (The one that unites us)
Channels	Digital: 11 (VHF) Virtual: 11 (PSIP)
Subchannels	11.1 Univision
Translators	WOLE-DT 12.1 Aguadilla WSUR-DT 9.1 Ponce
Affiliations	Univision (2002-present)
Owner	Univision Communications (WLII/WSUR License Partnership, G.P.)
Founded	April 27, 1986
First air date	1960[1]
Call letters' meaning	Lorimar-Telepictures (former owner) II = two "I"'s representing the number "11"
Sister station(s)	WSTE-DT WKAQ (AM) WKAQ-FM
Former callsigns	WKBM-TV (1960–1985) WLII (1985–2009)
Former affiliations	Independent (1960–1981 and 1986–2002) Silent (1981–1986)
Transmitter power	48 kW
Height	355 m
Facility ID	19777
Transmitter coordinates	18°16′54″N 66°6′46″W / 18.28167°N 66.11278°W / 18.28167; -66.11278
Website	www.univisionpr.com

WLII-DT, channel 11, is a Univision owned-and-operated television station that is licensed to Caguas, Puerto Rico. The station is owned by Univision Communications, and is sister to independent station WSTE-DT (channel 7) and radio stations WKAQ (580 AM) and WKAQ-FM (104.7). WLII's studios and transmitter are located in Guaynabo.

WLII operates a satellite station, WSUR-DT (channel 9), in Ponce. Locally owned WOLE-DT (channel 12) in Aguadilla repeats over 95% of WLII's programming under an affiliation agreement.

History

Telecadena Perez-Perry

In 1960, Rafael Perez Perry received authorization from the government to start WKBM-TV, broadcasting on channel 11, as part of his new Telecadena Perez-Perry chain of television stations. Some of the shows that WKBM-TV aired throughout those 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 Odilea Font, Una Chica llamada: Ivonne Coll, Cambia Cambia con Alfred D. Herger, Almorzando and Del Brazo with Ruth Fernández, and Mediodia Circular with Vilma Carbia. At the time, Perez Perry owned one of the most successful radio stations on the island, WKVM (810 AM). Unfortunately, Perez-Perry died of unknown causes 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.

Tele-Once

In 1986, production company Lorimar-Telepictures (with the Telepictures division now part of Warner Bros. Television) acquired the station from bankruptcy court. The new WLII-TV was branded as "Tele Once" with a new slogan: "Tele Once… Vívelo!" ("Tele Once…Live it!"). Warner Communications (now part of Time Warner) would gain 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). That all 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; Malrite merged with Raycom Media in 1998.

On January 1, 1995 at 12 a.m., Tele Once 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 throughout the Tele Once years included En Un Dia, R con R, El Show de Awilda, Dime la Verdad, Ellas al Mediodía, La Noche es Nuestra, Fiesta, A Fuego, Lio, El Super Show, Que Suerte que es Domingo, Anda Pa'l Cará, Entrando por la Cocina, Atácate and El Kiosko Budweiser.

In the late 1980s, actresses Ángela Meyer and Camille Carrión founded a production company named Empresas Meca, which produced some of the last telenovelas in Puerto Rico: La Isla, Ave De Paso (starring Yolandita Monge), Yara Prohibida and La Otra.

Univision

WLII's logo from 2002 to December 31, 2012.

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 operates a second network, UniMás, in the mainland United States, WSTE remains an independent station. In 2005, WLII relocated from its studios in the Puerta de Tierra borough of San Juan to a new facility in Guaynabo.

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 now shares a general manager with Univision's Puerto Rico radio stations.^[2]

WSUR-TV history

WSUR-TV was founded on February 20, 1958 by American Colonial Broadcasting.^[3] 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.^[3] Currently, WSUR originates no local programming of its own. The station transmitted its analog signal over VHF channel 9.^[3] Its tower is now located at Cerro Maravilla in the border between the municipality of Ponce with Jayuya.^[4]

Digital television

Digital channel

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WLII shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009, the official date in 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.^[6] WSUR switched to digital-only broadcasts on January 23, 2009, broadcasting on VHF channel 9 (or virtual channel 9.1).

Programming

Las Noticias Univision

News programming on WLII began in 1986, with Ramón Enrique Torres and Jennifer Wolff as anchors of the 5:00 p.m. newscast. In 1990, a noon newscast premiered with Torres and Margarita Aponte as its anchors, followed after by the 10:30 p.m. newscast with Torres. 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 panel experts on different topics.

Over the years, many people worked on Tu Mañana and Las Noticias. Reporters such as Carmen Dominicci, Elwood Cruz, Susan Soltero, Bruni Torres, Nuria Sebazco, Rommy Segarra, Felipe Gómez, Ada Monzón, Liza Lugo and many others have been featured.

In 1996, a monthly investigative/tabloid newsmagazine began airing called Las Noticias Xtra, which offered reports considered to be shocking by many. Taboo themes in Puerto Rican society such as homosexuality were featured. Las Noticias Xtra eventually was reduced to a weekly segment seen during the 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. newscasts.

During WLII's Tele Once years, the station's slogan was "Tele Once: 24 horas el canal de Las Noticias" ("Tele Once, the 24-hour news channel"), paralleling the 24 Hour News Source trend in the United States at this time. WLII began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition in 2010. Due to budget cuts that imposed by Univision in Miami, WLII reduced its news department by between 20-50 employees, and Las Noticias a las 6 was reduced from one hour to 30 minutes. The station discontinued its weekend newscasts on January 5, 2014;^[7] following this reducing its news operation from 35 1/2 to 32 1/2 hours each week and caused the firing of 19 employees.

On October 17, 2014, Univision announced that Jaime Bauzá was ascending his position to senior vice-president and general manager of all of the network's operations in Puerto Rico. The first change he made was the firing of nearby 105 through 109 employees. This caused the closing of the entire news department, including reporters, anchors, cameramen, etc. On that day, the morning show "Tu Mañana" was shown normally, but after that, the midday show "Tu Mediodia" wasn't shown. Instead, they showed a Mexican drama. Everybody thought it was some technical difficulties.

During that time of mid-morning, reporter Daisy Sánchez published on her Twitter account the announcing of the news department's closing.

With the announcement published by Sanchez and other former Univision employees, and, when during the afternoon, where originally they show the news briefs, there weren't any shown; everybody had noticed that "Las Noticias" went off air.

The roundtable talk show "Rubén & Co." replaced the 5:00 pm spot left by "Las Noticias". The program was originally a half hour program shown weeknights at 10:30pm. Since the closing of the news department, the show filled the 5pm spot and was extended from half-hour to an hour.

Ratings

From 1986 to 2003, channel 11 went #1 at most of its timeslots, surprasing rivals WKAQ and WAPA. In the early 1990s, longtime news leader WKAQ was surprassed by Channel 11.

But, between 2005 and 2008, WLII had made some firings, causing its fall from first to last place.

In 2008, WAPA took the lead in all of its newscasts, except in mornings (WLII was #1 at mornings).

Between 2010 and 2014, a serious group of changes caused even more ratings loss: canceling its longtime 6pm newscast in favor of the returning of a 5pm newscast, the cancelation of its 4 weekend newscasts, and the evolution of its noon newscast as a talk show. During that time, the station made serious anchor shake-ups, like moving main anchor Ramon Enrique Torres from evenings to mornings (its time at mornings went for only a couple of months, until its return to weeknights). The other move was moving longtime 11pm newscast anchor Carlos Weber to weekends and longtime weekend anchors Felipe Gomez and Mariliana Torres to Weber's spot at 11pm. Neither of this changes went successful for ratings, and rival WAPA dominated all of its newscasts (sometimes, including mornings).

In January 2014, they cancelled there weekend newscasts, and Weber went drafted as reporter. Later, in March of that year, Mariliana Torres and Felipe Gomez went also drafted to reporters, making the 5pm news team of Ramon Enrique Torres and Cyd Marie Fleming to fill the spot left by Torres and Gomez.

WLII went to last place due to those major changes. With Jaime Bauza's hiring as the station's general manager, he thought that the network's lower ratings were due to its newscasts, so he decided to restructure the station programming, by canceling all of its newscasts, and fire all the news team. Even with its hardest hit, and new local programming, the station is still in last place, and is in the ratings basement since then.

Broadcasting

Satellite, repeater and translator stations

WLII programming can be seen across Puerto Rico on the following stations:

References

External links

• Univision Puerto Rico
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WLII-DT
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WSUR-DT
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WLII-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WSUR-TV