WNJU
WNJU is the
Telemundo flagship station for the
New York City area. Owned by
NBC Universal, WNJU broadcasts the
Spanish language
television network Telemundo to the New York City region from studios in
Fort Lee, New Jersey. Their initial programming was a mix of
English,
Italian,
Spanish and
Asian shows.
On
May 16,
1965 WNJU began broadcast operations as the first commercial
UHF station in the New York City
television market. During the middle 1960s, the station broadcast as live
teenage dance show in the New York maket called
Disc-O-Teen hosted by
John Zacherle.
WNJU began programming many foreign languages at different times of the day in the 1960s. It was involved in some controversy when it aired bullfights, which some critics believed was too violent. It maintained an English-speaking audience a few hours a week during the 1970s when it was the only New York broadcast outlet for the
World Wide Wrestling Federation.
By the late 1970s WNJU had mostly Spanish programming along with some weekend ethnic brokered programming. During the week WNJU ran English speaking religious programming until Noon. From 12:00 on they ran Spanish programming. On Sundays they also ran English Speaking religious shows in the mornings. In the 1980s the other foreign language programs disappeared and WNJU evolved to a Spanish format except in the early mornings. By 1984 WNJU worked with several Spanish Independent television stations not affiliated with Spanish International Network (now
Univision) and formed Net Span. In 1985, they purchased
KVEA in
Los Angeles,
WSNS in
Chicago,
KSTS in
San Jose/
San Francisco and
WSCV in
Miami/
Ft. Lauderdale.
In 1987 Net Span added more affiliates and acquired more stations in Spanish markets. The name of the network would be changed to Telemundo. As time went on, the English-speaking religious shows would leave WNJU and by the early 1990s, they had all disappeared. In 2001 NBC would buy Telemundo making them owners of WNJU.
Originally its offices and studios were located inside of Symphony Hall in
Newark, New Jersey but they moved out to their current location sometime in the late 1980s in nearby
Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
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