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 '' chain of television stations. Some of the shows that WKBM-TV aired during these years included: • and with
Myrta Silva • with
José Miguel Class • with
Carmita Jiménez • , , , and with
Enrique Maluenda,
Lillian Hurst, and
Luz Odilia Font • : and with
Alfred D. Herger • and with
Ruth Fernández • with Vilma Carbia At the time, Perez Perry owned one of the most successful radio stations on the island,
WKVM (810 AM). 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 (with the
Telepictures division now part of
Warner Bros. Television) 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: "" ().
Warner Communications (now part of
Warner Bros. Discovery) 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 (channel 2) and
WAPA-TV (channel 4). This changed when
WNJX-TV (channel 22) 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 (channel 7); 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 (channel 5), which at that time had ended an affiliation agreement with WKAQ-TV. In turn, WKAQ-TV switched its affiliation agreement to
WOLE-TV (channel 12), 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: • , • • • • • • • • • • • • • • (a Spanish-language version of
NBA Inside Stuff) • 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: , (starring
Yolandita Monge), , and .
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 (channel 7), 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, , 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 (launched by founder, CEO, and ex-
Viacom CFO Wade Davis) 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 (and its repeaters) 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 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 . 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 , , and 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, , 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 and .
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 (
Puerto Rico Highway 14) 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. ==Programming==