WSTE-DT

WSTE-DT (channel 7), branded on air as Teleisla, is a

The station first signed on as WRIK-TV on February 2, 1958, after receiving the FCC permit to go on the air on channel 7.^[3] It was the first television station in Ponce, and the fourth in Puerto Rico, after WKAQ-TV, WAPA-TV (both were established four years earlier), and WORA-TV (established three years earlier). It was owned by Alfredo Ramírez de Arellano. Its news director was Manuel Morales-Flores, with Felix Suria as production manager and Edmund Reid as its chief engineer. The station maintained a transmitter—originally located at El Vigía^[4]—and studios at the Edificio Darlington—the first high-rise building in Ponce,^[b] completed in 1952.^[5] Two years later,^[4] the transmitter was relocated to the Hotel Ponce Intercontinental.^[6]

WRIK-TV operated as a

In 1978, two pro-independence activists attempted to blow up the WRIK-TV transmitter tower at Cerro Maravilla in an effort to call attention to their cause. Their plan was discovered by police and the two young men were ambushed by police at the peak during their operation. They were arrested and then murdered by the police while still in their custody at the peak.^[12]

Teleluz (1979–1987)

In 1979, WRIK-TV was acquired by Puerto Rican producer Tommy Muñiz, owner of AM radio station WLUZ (or Radio Luz); its callsign was subsequently changed to WLUZ-TV (branded as "Teleluz") on March 28, 1979.^[4]

Programs shown during this era included a continuation of Sandra Zaiter's children's show and live, low-budgeted

Financial troubles forced Muñiz to sell the station to Malrite Communications Group for $1.3 million in 1985.^[13] In 1987, the station was rebranded as SuperSiete,^[3] and on February 18, 1987, the station changed its call letters to WSTE.

The station experienced limited success at the time using colorful motion graphics and a new logo as well as major advertising in newspapers, and televising popular American

In 1991, Malrite bought WLII-TV and WSUR-TV and sold WSTE to Siete Grande Television, Inc., owned by Florida entrepreneur Jerry Hartman. WSTE was then branded as "El Nuevo SuperSiete" ("The New SuperSeven"). During the 1990s, WSTE was rebranded as "Tele-Isla" during prime time hours. Due to the failure of the new programming, and the lack of full island coverage by WLII at the time, WSTE began re-broadcasting WLII's prime time programming mainly for the western and central areas of Puerto Rico.

In 1995, WLII entered into an affiliation agreement with WORA-TV. This created a conflict with the FCC, as WLII's programming was being rebroadcast by two different stations across the island; WLII and WSTE in the north,

The channel's SuperSiete "ident" animation, logo, and name survived for over 25 years, dating back to 1987. A new logo with the Teleisla branding was introduced a few months before the FCC-mandated digital transition date of June 12, 2009. On January 2, 2012, WSTE-DT introduced a new logo in the form of a four-color clover (orange representing morning, green representing afternoon, violet representing weekend, and blue representing nightly programming). The station also expanded its broadcast day to 1:00 a.m. On November 1, 2012, Dish Network began carrying WSTE-DT on channel 12. In early 2016, WSTE-DT expanded its broadcast schedule to 24 hours a day, and adding the health program Hablando de Salud from 1:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WSTE shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, at noon 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 VHF channel 8 to channel 7 for its post-transition operations.^[16]

Transmitter facilities

To effectively cover all of Puerto Rico, WSTE used booster-type translator facilities across the island prior to the analog shutdown. In order for this booster system to work without any interference, WSTE's main transmitter had to be kept silent. The Ponce area was thus served from an auxiliary station transmitting at 100 kW. WSTE now uses a five-site, digital distributed transmission system to cover the island as the booster system had done before it.

Notes