WLII-DT


WLII-DT, branded italic=no, is a Spanish-language independent television station licensed to Caguas, Puerto Rico, serving the U.S. territory. Owned by Liberman Media Group, the station maintains studio facilities on Calle Carazo in Guaynabo. Its transmitter is located near the Bosque Estatal de Carite mountain reserve.
TeleOnce operates two satellite stations: WSUR-DT in Ponce and WOLE-DT in Aguadilla.

History

Telecadena Perez-Perry (1960–1981)

In 1960, Rafael Perez Perry received authorization from the government to start WKBM-TV on May 23, broadcasting on channel 11, as part of his new 'italic=no' chain of television stations. Some of the shows that WKBM-TV aired during these years included:
At the time, Perez Perry owned one of the most successful radio stations on the island, WKVM. Perez Perry died of a heart attack of unknown cause while he was working on the transmitter 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.

TeleOnce (1986–2002)

In 1985, production company Lorimar-Telepictures acquired the station from bankruptcy court. The callsign became WLII-TV on December 12, and was branded as 'TeleOnce' on April 27, 1986, with a new slogan: "TeleOnce... Vívelo!".
Warner Communications gained 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 and WAPA-TV. This changed when WNJX-TV in Mayagüez signed an affiliation agreement with the station in the late 1980s. WLII was subsequently sold to Malrite Communications Group in 1991 after it sold WSTE-TV ; Malrite merged with Raycom Media in 1998.
On January 1, 1995, at midnight, TeleOnce entered into its first marketing agreement with a television station in western Puerto Rico, WORA-TV, which at that time had ended an affiliation agreement with WKAQ-TV. In turn, WKAQ-TV switched its affiliation agreement to WOLE-TV, 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 during this time included:
  • En Un Día, R con R
  • El Show de Awilda
  • Dime la Verdad
  • Ellas al Mediodía
  • La Noche es Nuestra
  • Fiesta
  • A Fuego
  • Pulso Preciso
  • Lio
  • El Super Show
  • Que Suerte que es Domingo
  • Anda Pa'l Cará
  • Entrando por la Cocina
  • NBA Jam
  • Atácate
  • El Kiosko Budweiser
In addition, the station aired live boxing fights during the weekends—some of which were hosted and promoted by Ivonne Class, the first Puerto Rican woman to become a boxing promoter.
In the late 1980s, actresses Ángela Meyer and Camille Carrión founded Empresas Meca, a production company, which produced some of the last telenovelas shot in Puerto Rico: La Isla, Ave de Paso, Yara Prohibida, and La Otra.

Univision Puerto Rico (2002–2021)

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, 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 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.

Liberman purchase and the return of TeleOnce (2021–present)

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 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.
On December 16, 2025, it was announced that TelevisaUnivision would be ending their affiliation agreement with WLII after 23 years, this would leave WLII without any imported programming from Univision or UniMas, a move that forced them to stop broadcasting out of the 11.2 subchannel. Although the change was to take effect on January 1, 2026, it actually began on December 30, 2025, when all TelevisaUnivision programming moved to their owned-and-operated station WSTE-DT. WLII plans on covering the hours left without programming by expanding the run time of shows such as Las Noticias and En La Mañana.

TeleOnce América

On July 28, 2025, Liberman Media announced the launch of TeleOnce América, a FAST channel that will bring the network's programming to viewers in the mainland United States. The channel broadcasts 24 hours of content with simulcasts of every original show that airs on WLII from 7 a.m. to midnight.
TeleOnce América is set to launch on August 4, 2025, and will be available on Plex, Amazon Freevee, FlixLatino, BeondTV and WISPTV with more services expected to carry it in the near future.

WSUR-TV history (1958–present)

WSUR-TV was founded on February 20, 1958, by American Colonial Broadcasting. In 1963, the station was located on Avenida Tito Castro 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. The station transmitted its analog signal over VHF channel 9.
Currently, WSUR originates no local programming of its own. Its tower is now located at Cerro Jayuya in the border between the municipality of Ponce with Jayuya.

Programming

Current programming

Currently TeleOnce produces 14 hours of original programming on weekedays featuring an array of shows such as La Bóveda de Teleonce, Jugando Pelota Dura, P.R. En Vivo, among others.
Programming blocks are bookended by Las Noticias Teleonce which airs its morning edition at 6 a.m. and Última Edición at 10 p.m.
All of TeleOnce's original programming is broadcast live from the station's studios in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, with the exception of the morning program En La Mañana which has its own studio in the Paseo Caribe Complex in Old San Juan and La Bóveda de Teleonce which also has its own studio at the Alejandro Jr. Cruz Fine Arts Center in Guaynabo.