WKAQ-TV (channel 2) is a television station in San Juan, Puerto Rico, serving as the U.S. territory's dual Telemundo and NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the Telemundo Station Group subsidiary of NBCUniversal. WKAQ-TV's studios are located on Franklin Roosevelt Avenue in San Juan near Hiram Bithorn Stadium, and its transmitter is located on Cerro la Santa in Cayey near the Carite State Forest.
WTIN-TV (channel 2.11) in Ponce and WNJX-TV (channel 2.12) in Mayagüez, branded on-air as Telemundo West, operate as full-time satellites of WKAQ-TV, which rebroadcast the station's programming to the southern and western regions of Puerto Rico under an affiliation agreement with Hemisphere Media Group (owner of parent station WAPA-TV, channel 4). WKAQ-TV formerly operated WOLE-TV (channel 12) in Aguadilla and WORA-TV (channel 5) in Mayagüez as satellite stations. WKAQ-TV also has three low-power translator facilities: W09AT-D in Fajardo, W28EH-D in Adjuntas and W28EQ-D in Utuado. WKAQ-TV also simulcasts the signal of New York City sister station WNBC with the branding of NBC Puerto Rico.
History
WKAQ-TV, the first television station in Puerto Rico, was founded by Ángel Ramos on March 28, 1954.[1] Ramos was also the owner of the newspaper El Mundo and Puerto Rico's first licensed radio station, WKAQ (580 AM).[2] Initially affiliated with CBS until 1967, WKAQ-TV battled fiercely with WAPA-TV to become the highest-rated station in Puerto Rico.[3] During the 1970s and 1980s, WKAQ-TV was a major producer of Puerto Rican Spanish soap operas and was known for its "fingers" logo. Since its spin-off in 1987, the station has branded itself as "Telemundo Puerto Rico", becoming one of Telemundo's flagship stations. Despite criticism that the station traded locally produced programming for foreign Spanish programming, it aired the first Puerto Rican written and produced telenovela in 15 years in 2006. In 2005, WKAQ-TV became a superstation when NBC Universal reformatted Telemundo Internacional into Telemundo Puerto Rico. WKAQ-TV began airing its programming in high definition on April 23, 2009. The station entered into an agreement with Hemisphere Media Group to broadcast Telemundo Puerto Rico's programming on WAPA-TV on June 28, 2019.[4]
News operation
WKAQ-TV has been producing local news shows under the brand name Telenoticias since 1954. The first edition of Telenoticias was created by Evelio Otero, who proposed the name to Ángel Ramos and was approved immediately. In the 1960s, a renewed edition of Telenoticias began with different anchors.
For more than twenty years, Telenoticias had only two editions: an early evening newscast at 5 p.m. and a late evening newscast at 11 p.m. In 2002, a weekend edition was introduced, which aired at 5 and 11 p.m. like its weekday counterparts. In 2003, the station launched a weekday morning newscast called Telemundo por la Mañana with Charito Fraticelli, Silverio Pérez, Lourdes Collazo, Miguel Ramos, and panel experts.
Telenoticias used "Telemundo 1992 News Theme" in the 1990s as the main theme music for its newscasts. This was replaced later by "Telemundo News Theme". In 2005, the newscasts began to use the production theme "Raw Power" from Network Music.
In 2006, the station laid off 60 to 80 staffers, including some Telenoticias anchors and reporters, as part of the "NBC Universal 2.0" restructuring. As a result, the morning, midday, and weekend editions of Telenoticias were canceled. However, on January 8, 2007, Telenoticias debuted a new set, new graphics, and new music.
In 2011, NBC Universal announced that it would relaunch the 11 a.m. and weekend evening editions of Telenoticias in early 2012, as a condition by the FCC to approve the sale of a controlling stake in the company to Philadelphia-based cable provider and telecommunications company Comcast, requiring NBC Universal's NBC and Telemundo owned-and-operated stations to increase the amount of locally produced programming. In 2014, WKAQ-TV brought back the weekend newscast, which premiered on May 31 under the name Telenoticias Fin de semana.
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is multiplexed: {{legend|#E6FFF7|Simulcast of subchannels of another station}}
Analog-to-digital conversion
WKAQ-TV shut down its VHF 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 28,[24] using virtual channel 2.
Translators
WKAQ-TV can be seen across Puerto Rico on the following stations:
Liberty–NBCU carriage dispute
On April 4, 2019, at 6 pm, NBCUniversal became involved in a retransmission consent dispute with Liberty, resulting in the removal of WKAQ-TV and NBCUniversal's cable networks from Liberty's Puerto Rico channel lineup. WKAQ and the NBCU cable networks were restored on April 7, after the two sides reached a new agreement.[25]
External links
References
- FCC History Cards for WKAQ-TV. Federal Communications Commission.^
- Corporate Information Telemundo.com, retrieved February 3, 2009^
- Broadcasting Yearbook, 1967 p. 100 retrieved July 28, 2020^