Luis Francisco Ojeda
Luis Francisco Ojeda (born
June 16,
1941) is a well known
Puerto Rican television reporter and host, noted for his aggressive, uncompromising questioning and commenting style.
Ojeda was born in
Jayuya, and is reportedly of
Spanish and
Dutch ancestry. He moved to
Ponce when he was still a youngster. While studying in
high school, he got his first opportunity to talk live in a daily show, becoming a newscaster for Ponce's
WPAB radio station.
Ojeda signed a contract with
WAPA Radio in
1960, and moved to
San Juan. He worked at WAPA-Radio as newscaster (and occasional disc jockey) until
1968, moving on that year to work for rival
WKAQ-Radio Reloj. While there, he had to cover the historic riots at the
University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras in
1971. In one of the incidents covered by Ojeda a shooting ensued, and Ojeda, in the middle of the shootout, rescued a police liutenant who had been shot. Despite his efforts, the policeman literally died from his gunshot wounds in the back of the remote unit truck while Ojeda was broadcasting his and his driver's frantic rush to the nearest emergency room live.
Ojeda was later offered a job as the news director and anchorman of
Telemundo Puerto Rico's
television news show. He decided, however, not to take the job, opting instead to join then governor
Rafael Hernandez Colon's staff, as a member of
Puerto Rico's Communications Office. Ojeda needed to work as a
journalist, however, and, by
1973, he decided to step in front of the television cameras for the first time, working at
channel 11's news show. Not long after Ojeda joined channel 11, the channel's owner had died and the station went bankrupt, so Ojeda signed on with
WAPA-TV to work as a field reporter at
Noticentro 4.
Ojeda spent most of his time at Noticentro 4 travelling across Puerto Rico, working as an on-the-field reporter, but he also sporadically got chances to host the show, usually filling in for a sick anchorman or
woman. He worked on various
tragedies, government scandals and other types of news while at Noticentro 4, essentially pioneering investigative reporting in Puerto Rican television.
In
1987, he was given his own television
talk show, "Ojeda, Sin Limites" ("Ojeda, Without Limits"). He became known for his strong questioning of participants of the show, and the show produced a number of classic moments of Puerto Rican television; such as the time that two of the three candidates for Puerto Rican commissioner in
Washington, D.C., the
PNP's
Carlos Romero Barcelo (former governor of Puerto Rico) and the
PPD's
Miguel Hernandez Agosto got into a shouting match, calling each other "liar" multiple times and almost physically assaulting each other.
After his show was cancelled, Ojeda spent about a decade off television, but he went on with "Ojeda, Sin Limites", only that it became a radio show, on WKAQ-Radio.
In
2000, he returned to television, with a show named "
Ojeda", once again, at WAPA-TV, which, by then, had the new name of Televicentro. Later on, he was offered a fifteen minute space on Televicentro's midday variety show, Medio Dia Puerto Rico, where he would accept calls from the public in a segment called "La Descarga".
Ojeda now collaborates on a new radio station show as well.
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List of famous Puerto Ricans
