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WAPA-TV

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WAPA-TV, channel 4, (branded as WAPA Televisíon) is an independent television station located in San Juan, Puerto Rico, owned by InterMedia Partners. WAPA-TV maintains studios at Avenue Luis Vigoreaux in Guaynabo, and its transmitter is located near the Bosque Estatal de Carite mountain reserve.

The station's signal is relayed throughout Puerto Rico through two full-power satellite stations: WTIN-TV (channel 14) in Ponce and WNJX-TV (channel 22) in Mayagüez.

History

WAPA-TV was the second television station to be licensed to Puerto Rico and began broadcasting on May 1, 1954. Its call letters are a partial abbreviation of the station's original owners, the now-defunct Asociación de Productores de Azúcar, or Puerto Rico Sugar Grower's Association. During its earliest years, the station was affiliated with NBC, ABC, DuMont, and the CMQ Television Network.[1]

The station was the first to transition to color unceremoniously in 1966 on NTSC, followed by WKAQ-TV in 1968. Popularly known in Puerto Rico by its assigned channel number, Canal Cuatro, the station was also known by its animated cartoon mascot during the 1970s and 1980s, a bongo-playing cat (known commonly as el gato de WAPA in Spanish) and therefore its rhyming slogan is, Por el cuatro como el gato (colloquially "on four (legs) like the cat"), which rhymes in Spanish. Similarly, another TV spot used the phrase, Hasta el gato, te-ve el cuatro and the cat itself was alternately known as el Gato de Cuatro.

WAPA-TV's "Open 4" logo in a 1980 newspaper advertisement for Decision '80. The "Open 4" logo in this ad was used from 1968 to 1986, and again from 1996 to 1998.

Like other mascots, El Gato was seen in different situations in different TV spots. Besides playing the bongos, he would also play the drums and was seen in one station ID as a matador. Another spot had him interacting with a cat seen in a Telemundo ad. El Gato would also sometimes be accompanied by his wife and children (one boy and one girl), where they appeared flying in a helicopter shaped like the channel's "4" logo and celebrated the holidays while playing musical instruments.

WAPA-TV's competitors include WKAQ-TV (Telemundo), WLII (Univision Puerto Rico), and WIPR-TV (Puerto Rico TV). WAPA-TV and WKAQ-TV have battled for the title of Puerto Rico's most-viewed station since the 1950s, with WLII entering the battle in the mid-1980s.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, the station was very successful by mixing American shows translated to Spanish with locally produced sitcoms such as "Cuqui", "Cara o Cruz", "Entrando por la Cocina", "Carmelo y Punto" and "Barrio Cuatro Calles". But it was still trailing behind WKAQ-TV as the second major Puerto Rican station. In the early 1990s, WAPA rebranded itself with the slogans "WAPA'lla!" (a catchy slang variation of "Vamos pa'lla" - Let's go!) and "WAPA, aqui con la gente" (WAPA, here with the people). These slogans were accompanied by a catchy score and vivid, colorful graphics depicting the channel's logo. In 1994, WAPA was the first television station in Puerto Rico to use high-end graphic animations to animate a new logo, created and animated by Pixel Light Studios in New York. This gave the channel a very "American" look. The logo, although graphically pleasing, was slowly dropped in favor of the classical number 4 logo. High end graphics were later altogether dropped for cheaper, in-house graphics.

In 1997, under the helm of Miguel Banojian an Ex-Univision executive, WAPA-TV achieved the biggest rating increases in its History. During Mr. Banojian's tenure, the network was producing more local programming than ever, more local news production, several sporting events were produced by its Spots Division,including, Beisbol exclusive "Serie Del Caribe" [Caribe edition of the U.S Beisbol "World Series], World Boxing championship events in partnership with Don King and many others.

In 1998, WAPA again rebranded itself with a new name and logo; "Televicentro" (used previously during the 1970s and 1980s). It has also regained its position as a major Puerto Rican TV station, mainly due to its new focus on locally produced programming. Its new slogan, "Como tú, boricua" highlights the fact that it is the only local commercial station left, with no foreign influence. Albeit the new name, locals still called it either "el cuatro" or simply "WAPA".

In September 2004, WAPA-TV became the first Puerto Rican station, and the seventh TV station in the U.S. (including territories) to become a satellite-distributed superstation. WAPA America can be seen in the mainland U.S. through DirecTV, and on various cable television providers including Comcast, RCN, Qwest Communications, and Cablevision.

On October 19, 2006. LIN TV announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell its Puerto Rico television operations to InterMedia Partners for $130 million in cash.[1] The sale was completed on March 30, 2007.

WAPA (2007–present)

On December 17, 2007, the station changed its branding from Televicentro to wapa, in lowercase letters. Following the rename, the channel began a developing a new format, changing the jingle and recreating their website.[2][3] WAPA-TV signed a contract with Miss Puerto Rico Universe to transmit a reality show titled "Por la corona", beginning on August 15, 2008. The public will select via text messaging, with five of the participants classifying directly to the pageant's semifinal.[4]

On January 23, 2013, InterMedia Partners announced that it would merge WAPA-TV and WAPA America, along with its stake in Cinelatino, with the shell corporation Azteca Acquisition Corporation (which is not associated with the Mexican-based Azteca group or the Azteca América network) to form Hemisphere Media Group. 73% of the new company will be owned by InterMedia.[5]

Programming

WAPA-TV for years has shown boxing, BSN basketball, telenovelas, movies, comedies, sitcoms (both American and domestic), baseball, NFL football, both World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Puerto Rican (WWC) professional wrestling, human interest shows and its news show, Noticentro.

Current weekday programs:

Weekend programs:

Noticentro

Noticentro is the name of WAPA-TV's news division. The news operation began in 1967 with Cuban-born Evelio Otero as the sole anchorman at the 10 p.m. newscast. Soon thereafter Carlos Ruben Ortiz joined the news staff with the 6 p.m. broadcast. Evelio Otero remained by himself on camera until his departure from WAPA in 1980 to take the senior editor position at the Voice of America in Washington. Carlos Ruben Ortiz shared the anchor slot at 6 p.m. with then newcomer Guillermo José Torres, a former radio announcer born in Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico who has since become the longest standing news announcer in the island, with a career spanning more than 36 years. The format predated the NewsCenter format which become popular in NBC owned stations in the 1970s.

In its beginnings, Noticentro 4 lasted only fifteen minutes in the afternoon, with a 30 minute edition at 10 in the evening. There was also a weekend edition. Gradually, the program's on-the-air time was increased to a full hour.

After Otero's departure, New York City-born William "Bill" Pérez became WAPA's news director (Torres held the post for a while but eventually asked to be left as an anchorperson only) In the late 1970s, Enrique Cruz Díaz, Luz Nereida Vélez, Sylvia Gómez, Luis Rigual, Cyd Marie Fleming, José Esteves, Luis Francisco Ojeda and others joined.

In 1980, Noticentro 4 inaugurated a new studio. In 1981, Pedro Rosa Nales joined the team. In 1982, Enrique Cruz Díaz, also known as Kike Cruz, substituted Torres as show director. In 1983, Rigual died, being substituted as main sports anchor man by Rafael Bracero. Bobby Angleró joined the team of reporters as Bracero's main helper in 1984, year in which the Coquí Satellite was inaugurated by the station. Coquí Satellite helped the network deliver breaking news quicker, and it helped deliver the news on occasions such as the Challenger explosion, when Torres interrupted Angela Meyer on her Chanita Gobernadora comedy section to break the news to the public only minutes after it had happened.

In the early 2000s, WAPA-TV inaugurated the SuperCóptero (SuperChopper), the Noticentro 4 helicopter. The SuperCóptero is mostly used to report on traffic conditions in the metropolitan area on the 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. editions of Noticentro 4. WAPA-TV is the only local station to have a helicopter in the air, but soon they discontinued the SuperCóptero due to budget cuts, WAPA only uses the helicopter in special events such as elections and emergencies.

Noticentro runs a local cable channel, Wapa Tiempo . The channel broadcasts weather forecasts for Puerto Rico 24 hours a day. El Canal del Tiempo can be seen on all three cable companies serving Puerto Rico and on WAPA-TV digital subchannel, WAPA-DT 27.3/4.3. The channel is now called Wapa Tiempo instead of El Canal del Tiempo to avoid confusion with The Weather Channel from NBCUniversal.

WAPA-TV uses it same logo for Noticentro (formerly Noticentro 4), changing the word WAPA to Noticentro, but with the same red strips at the right. The previous music package Noticentro 4 used is called News Authority by 615 Music and has been used since 2004. In the past they've used Newswatch 24, News One, Impact among others. Noticentro now uses the same music for all its sections and bumpers except for its news résumé En Una Semana (In One Week) which used the Noticentro 4 graphics and music package from 1999, but now uses the current graphics and music package.

Wapa Tiempo for a time used the old Noticentro 4 graphics and logo, but recently the channel received new graphics and logo to go with the "New WAPA" upbringing. Noticentro currently airs about forty hours of local news coverage a week. In the next months to come, Noticentro will receive new graphics and studio redesign along with the "New WAPA" initiative.

News/Station presentation

Newscast titles

  • El Observador Kresto Denia (1954–1963)
  • El Noticiero (The Newsroom) (1963–1978)
  • Noticentro 4 (NewsCenter 4) (1978–1995, 1996–1998, 2002–2007)
  • Noticentro (1995–1996, 1998–2002, 2007–present)

Station slogans

Broadcasting

Digital television

This station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect Programming
4.1 1080p 16:9 Main WAPA-TV programming
4.2 WAPA 2 Deportes HD

WAPA-TV Channel 4.3 was discontinued on September 1st, 2012 due to the MLB postseason games in HD On Channel 4.2.

Satellite stations

WAPA-TV can be seen across Puerto Rico on the following stations:

Station City of license Channels
(TV / DT) 		First air date ERP HAAT Transmitter Coordinates Facility ID Public license
information
WTIN-TV Ponce 14 (PSIP)
15 (UHF) 		1985 380.2 kW 839 m 18°10′3″N 66°34′35″W / 18.16750°N 66.57639°W / 18.16750; -66.57639 (WTIN-TV) 26681 Profile
Template:TVQ
WNJX-TV Mayagüez 22 (PSIP)
23 (UHF) 		April 27, 1986 400 kW 693 m 18°8′52″N 66°58′59″W / 18.14778°N 66.98306°W / 18.14778; -66.98306 (WNJX-TV) 73336 Profile
Template:TVQ

References

  1. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook, 1955. p. 333
  2. ^ "Pegajosa canción como"jingle"" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. 2008-07-17. Retrieved 2008-07-22. [dead link]
  3. ^ "Con nuevo formato en la internet" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. 2008-07-21. Retrieved 2008-07-22. [dead link]
  4. ^ "El público elegirá a la nueva reina" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. 2008-08-08. Retrieved 2008-08-11. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help) [dead link]
  5. ^ Farrell, Mike (January 23, 2013). "InterMedia, Azteca Form Hemisphere Media Group". Multichannel News. Retrieved January 23, 2013.

External links and sources

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