NotiCentro (a Spanish translation of NewsCenter) is the name of WAPA-TV's news division; the station presently broadcasts 44 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with eight hours each weekday and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). The news operation began in 1967 with Cuban-born
Evelio Otero as the sole anchorman for the 6 p.m. newscast. Soon after, Carlos Ruben Ortiz joined the news staff for the 6 p.m. broadcast. Otero remained alone on camera, until his departure from WAPA in 1980 to take the senior editor position at the
Voice of America in Washington. Ortiz shared the anchor slot at 6 p.m. with then newcomer
Guillermo José Torres, a former radio announcer born in
Juana Diaz who has since become the longest standing news anchor on the island, with a career spanning 43 years (Torres retired on August 5, 2013). The format predated the
NewsCenter format which became popular on NBC affiliates in the 1970s. In its beginnings, ran for only fifteen minutes in the afternoon, with a half-hour edition at 10 p.m.; there was also a weekend edition. Eventually, the program's running 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 serve only as a news anchor). In the late 1970s, Enrique Cruz,
Luz Nereida Vélez,
Sylvia Gómez, Luis Rigual,
Cyd Marie Fleming,
José Ésteves,
Luis Francisco Ojeda and others joined the news department. In 1980, inaugurated a new studio. In 1981,
Pedro Rosa Nales joined the team. In 1982, Enrique Cruz, also known as "
Kike Cruz", replaced Torres as show director. In 1983, Rigual died, and was replaced as main sports anchor by
Rafael Bracero. Bobby Angleró joined the team of reporters as Bracero's main helper in 1983, the same year that the
Coquí Satellite was inaugurated by the station.
Coquí Satellite helped the station deliver breaking news quicker, and helped deliver the news on occasions such as the
Challenger explosion, when Torres interrupted
Ángela 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 began using a
helicopter for newsgathering called ("SuperChopper"). The had mostly been used to report on traffic conditions in the metropolitan area on the 4 and 5 p.m. newscasts. WAPA-TV was the only local station to have a helicopter, but regular use of the
SuperCóptero was soon discontinued due to budget cuts; WAPA now only uses the helicopter for special events such as elections and breaking news coverage. ran a local cable channel, WAPA Tiempo, which featured weather forecasts for Puerto Rico 24 hours a day. Originally named (its name changed to avoid confusion with
The Weather Channel cable network), it could be seen on all three cable companies then serving Puerto Rico at the time (OneLink Communications, Choice Cable TV, and
Liberty Puerto Rico; all of them now merged as the latter); it was also broadcast on WAPA-TV
digital subchannel 4.3. WAPA Tiempo was discontinued on September 1, 2012, due to WAPA Deportes (subchannel 4.2) upgrading to Full HD resolution to broadcast MLB postseason games; the channel was also dropped from Liberty cable. WAPA-TV uses the same logo for (formerly ), only changing the word WAPA to . The music package previously used for the newscast was "News Authority" by 615 Music and has been used since 2004. In the past, the station used "WNDU 1986 News Theme", "Turn to News", "Newswatch 24", "News One" and "Impact" among others. now uses the same music for all its segments and bumpers except for its news résumé ("In One Week"), which used the
NotiCentro 4 graphics and music package from 1999 but now uses the current graphics and music package. Since 2012, WAPA-TV uses the "Truth" music package by 615 Music with "Truth V1" from 2012 to 2017, and "Truth V2" since 2017 for all newscasts. On May 20, 2019, expanded to hours beginning at 4 p.m., renaming itself as , with Normando Valentín serving as an anchor for the early evening newscast. Valentín has been with the station since 2003, and was morning anchor from 2008 to 2019. On February 3, 2020, Katiria Soto returns to WAPA-TV after five years working at
WXTV-DT in New York, this time as a co-anchor of the 4 p.m. newscast.
Notable current on-air news staff •
Juan Dalmau – political analyst •
Jay Fonseca – general assignment reporter/analyst •
Pedro Rosa Nales – anchor and reporter •
Ángel Rosa – political analyst •
Luz Nereida Vélez – health reporter
Local program hosts •
Junior Abrams – (Host at with
Eleuterio Quiñones) •
Angelique Burgos – •
Melwin Cedeño – •
Jailene Cintrón – •
Alba Nydia Díaz – •
Rafael José – •
Sunshine Logroño – , (producer) •
Jaime Mayol – •
Marian Pabón – •
José Vega Santana Remi – Collaborator at
Notable former on-air staff •
Raymond Arrieta •
Efren Arroyo – investigative reporter and historian •
Rafael Bracero – sports anchor •
Josue Carrion •
Gredmarie Colón •
Sonya Cortes •
Carlos Díaz Olivo – political analyst •
Cyd Marie Fleming – anchor/reporter •
Roque Gallart •
Juan Manuel García Passalacqua – investigative reporter •
Sylvia Gómez – anchor/reporter •
Keylla Hernández – anchor and reporter •
Carmen Jovet – reporter •
Zoe Laboy – political analyst •
Topy Mamery •
Hector Marcano – producer and host at •
Luis Francisco Ojeda – investigative reporter •
Ivonne Orsini •
Tommy Ramos •
Gary Rodríguez •
Johnny Ray Rodriguez – comedian •
Rubén Sánchez •
Kobbo Santarrosa •
Guillermo José Torres – anchorman •
Hector Travieso •
Jennifer Wolff – anchor/reporter ==Technical information==