Телеканал WLII DT TeleOnce в Пуэрто-Рико: История и Возрождение

Television station in Caguas, Puerto Rico

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. TeleOnce operates two satellite stations: WSUR DT (channel 9) in Ponce and WOLE DT (channel 12) in Aguadilla.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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. On January 19, 2021, Liberman Media Group named Winter Horton as the new general manager for the station. 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. On March 2, 2021, WLII's second digital subchannel launched as a UniMás affiliate, branded as UniMás Puerto Rico. On July 2, 2021, Liberman Media Group and TeleOnce entered a distribution agreement with SBS operated stations WACX DT11 in Orlando, Florida, 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. 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. 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.

WSUR TV was founded on February 20, 1958, by American Colonial Broadcasting. 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.

Las Noticias Teleonce is the flagship news program for WLII and its repeater stations, it is currently anchored by Celimar Adames Casalduc during its day editions and by Ricardo Curras 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.

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 cancelled. The show's revival finally arrived in 2023 after Liberman Media Group's purchase of WLII from Univision. The new version of the show will now be called En La Mañana and it premiered on October 30, 2023.

In March 2018, the network announced plans to restore a news program with the creation of Edición Puerto Rico. The program is a 30 minute no anchor, voiceover, videotaped newscast which, in addition to being broadcast in Puerto Rico, is shown on many Univision affiliate stations owned by Entravision (such as Boston, Orlando, and Tampa) and Unimás owned and operated stations in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Raleigh, and Atlanta. It airs on weekday mornings, except in Puerto Rico, where it airs weeknights at 11 p. m. (the first local themed newscast at that timeslot since the news department shutdown in 2014). On March 8, 2021, the newscast returned as Edición Puerto Rico, and aired weekdays at 5:30 p. m. (25 minutes) and 10 p. m. (60 minutes). The final newscast produced at the studios of WOLE DT in Aguadilla aired on July 9, 2021.

After more than five years without newscasts, WLII DT aired a 60 minute local news program called Edición Digital Puerto Rico, similar to WKAQ TV and WAPA TV's news offerings. This newscast was produced at the studios of sister station WOLE DT in Aguadilla, and started on April 22, 2019, and ended on March 5, 2021. The newscast focused on events happening in and around Puerto Rico and the United States, and interacted with viewers through social media platforms. The program also aired on WOLE, Facebook Live, and Univision Puerto Rico's mobile app and website.

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. WSUR switched to digital only broadcasts on January 23, 2009, broadcasting on VHF channel 9 (or virtual channel 9.1).