WORO-DT

{{Infobox television station

| callsign = WORO-DT

| country = US

| city = Fajardo, Puerto Rico

| branding = {{ubl|TeleOro Canal 13 (general) {{lang|es|Noticias 13}} (newscasts)|EWTN Español (on DT2)|Shabum TV (on DT3)}}

| digital = {{ubl|13 (VHF)|Virtual: 13}}

| subchannels = {{ubl|13.1:–13.4: Independent|13.2: EWTN Español|13.3: Shabum TV}}

| affiliations = Religious Independent (1995–present)

| founded = 1984

| airdate = {{Start date and age|1984|11|01}}

| location = Fajardo–San Juan, Puerto Rico

| callsign_meaning = Oro = Spanish for gold

| former_callsigns = {{Plainlist|

WPRV-TV (1984–2006)
WORO-TV (2006–2009)

}}

| former_channel_numbers = {{ubl|Analog:|13 (VHF, 1984–2009)|Digital:|33 (UHF, 2004–2009)}}

| owner = Grupo RTC

| licensee = Tele Oro Canal 13 - WORO-DT Trust

| sister_stations = WORO, WKVM

| former_affiliations = {{Plainlist|

ABC (1984–1989)
Fox (1989-1992)
Silent (1992–1995)
Deportes 13 (2002-2007)

}}

| erp = 30 kW

| haat = {{convert|355|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}

| facility_id = 73901

| coordinates = {{coord|18|18|28|N|65|47|41|W|type:landmark_scale:2000}}

| licensing_authority = FCC

| website = {{URL|http://www.canal13pr.tv/}}
{{URL|http://www.shabum.tv/}}

}}

WORO-DT (channel 13), branded on-air as TeleOro Canal 13, is an educational–religious independent television station licensed to Fajardo, Puerto Rico. United States. The station is owned by Grupo RTC under Puerto Rico's Roman Catholic Church - San Juan Archdiocese, WORO-DT's studios are located on Ave. Iturregui in Carolina, and its transmitter is located in the El Yunque National Forest.

History

=A 25-year legal fight=

On July 16, 1958, Continental Broadcasting Corporation, owner of radio station WHOA in San Juan,{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1958/1958-07-21-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=July 21, 1958|access-date=July 12, 2020|page=93|title=New TV Stations|archive-date=July 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713064516/https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1958/1958-07-21-BC.pdf|url-status=live}} was awarded a construction permit to build channel 13 in Fajardo, the first television station to be licensed there. The new station, which took the call letters WSTE (unrelated to the current WSTE on channel 7), proposed a transmitter in the Sardinera neighborhood of Fajardo.{{Cite web|url= https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=86834 |title= History Cards for WORO-DT|publisher=Federal Communications Commission}} (Guide to reading History Cards) — covering much of the pre-sign-on legal maneuvering Continental's primary stakeholder, Carmina Méndez de Miller, sold the construction permit three years later to WSTE-TV, Inc., receiving 20 percent of the new company's stock; the new company was owned by the Griffin-Leake group.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1961/1961-10-02-BC.pdf|access-date=July 12, 2020|date=October 2, 1961|page=56|work=Broadcasting|title=Changing hands|archive-date=July 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713122701/https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1961/1961-10-02-BC.pdf|url-status=live}}

Under Griffin-Leake control, WSTE set its sights on more powerful facilities. On November 10, 1961, just days after consummating its purchase, WSTE-TV, Inc., filed to move the tower to El Yunque, from which it would put a signal into San Juan. The Federal Communications Commission initially awarded the grant in May 1962, but a group of objectors soon emerged to appeal the grant in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This group consisted of San Juan television stations WAPA-TV and WKAQ-TV, a consortium of mobile radio users, and San Juan's only UHF outlet, WTSJ-TV (channel 18), alleging potentially harmful interference, misrepresentations with the FCC, and potential harm to the development of UHF broadcasting. Two more site change amendments were made by WSTE in response to interference concerns to radar and aviation systems. However, these were not sufficient to cure the deficiencies, and in February 1968, the FCC rescinded the grant and designated WSTE's transmitter site application for hearing.{{cite book|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc306609/m1/1047/?q=WSTE|date=February 28, 1968|title=Memorandum Opinion & Order, WSTE-TV, Inc., et al. (11 FCC 2d 1013)|work=FCC Reports, Second Series|author=Federal Communications Commission|access-date=July 12, 2020|archive-date=July 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713061845/https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc306609/m1/1047/?q=WSTE|url-status=live}}

In 1972, the FCC denied the revised application, this time on technical grounds, because the proposed station would not have provided a city-grade signal to 100 percent of Fajardo, the city of license. WSTE-TV appealed to the court of appeals, proposing to add a UHF translator on channel 56 in order to fill in gaps in coverage in Fajardo. The FCC had found in a 1971 case that the island's rugged terrain had merited tempering of the application of its rules. After the court found in WSTE's favor in 1977 in large part due to the translator application,{{cite web|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/566/333/400233/|date=October 21, 1977|title=WSTE-TV v. Federal Communications Commission, 566 F.2d 333 (D.C. Cir. 1977)|author=United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|access-date=July 12, 2020|archive-date=July 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715195438/https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/566/333/400233/|url-status=live}} the FCC granted the application in 1979 and denied a petition for reconsideration by WAPA in 1980.{{cite book|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc770888/m1/367/?q=WSTE|title=WSTE-TV, Inc. (79 FCC 2d 349)|date=July 1, 1980|access-date=July 12, 2020|work=FCC Reports, Second Series|author=Federal Communications Commission|archive-date=July 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713154944/https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc770888/m1/367/?q=WSTE|url-status=live}}

=As an English-language station=

On November 1, 1984, channel 13 finally appeared in Puerto Rico, under the new call letters WPRV-TV.{{cite web|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1986/1986-BC-YB.pdf|work=Broadcasting Yearbook|date=1986|title=WPRV-TV|page=C-72 (590)|access-date=July 12, 2020|archive-date=July 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713061848/https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1986/1986-BC-YB.pdf|url-status=live}} The station, with facilities in Fajardo and the Río Piedras area of San Juan, was primarily an English-language outlet, affiliated with ABC and in the late 1980s and early 1990s with Fox (WUJA was the island's original Fox affiliate from 1986 to 1989).

WPRV-TV struggled financially throughout its history. In December 1987, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; the case was converted to Chapter 7 in 1989.{{cite news|url=https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-94-224A1.pdf|title=Memorandum Opinion & Order (9 FCC Rcd No. 20)|date=August 29, 1994|author=Federal Communications Commission|work=FCC Record|access-date=July 12, 2020|archive-date=July 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717052209/https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-94-224A1.pdf|url-status=live}} The largest creditor of the television station, Ponce Federal Bank, was bypassed in favor of an attempt to sell channel 13 to Puerto Rico Family Channel, Inc. (PRFC).{{cite web|url=https://casetext.com/case/in-re-wprv-tv-inc|title=In re WPRV-TV, Inc. (983 F.2d 336 (1st Cir. 1993))|date=January 6, 1993|work=United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit|access-date=July 12, 2020|archive-date=July 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715195438/https://casetext.com/case/in-re-wprv-tv-inc|url-status=live}} Problems soon emerged with the proposed buyer. The trustee appointed to manage the television station could not identify the principals of the buyer, and questions arose about its financial capacity; further, one of the representatives of the company, Norman González Chacón, was facing felony criminal charges that the court feared could jeopardize the license transfer.{{cite web|url=https://cite.case.law/br/165/1/|author=United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico|title=In re WPRV-TV, Inc., 165 B.R. 1 (1992)|date=February 4, 1992|access-date=July 12, 2020|archive-date=April 2, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230402022207/https://cite.case.law/br/165/1/|url-status=live}} Amid the proceedings, channel 13 went silent on September 22, 1992.{{r|fcc94224}}

=Archdiocesan ownership=

In March 1994, WPRV-TV was sold to the Archdiocese of San Juan, which was allowed to own the failing TV station alongside its AM and FM outlets.{{r|fcc94224}} Channel 13 returned to the air on October 11, 1995, as "Teleoro", a Catholic television station under the management of Cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez. The call letters were changed to WORO-TV in 2006 to match the archdiocese's WORO (92.5 FM) serving San Juan.

In 2002, WORO-TV leased its prime time hours to local producer Angelo Medina for his sport programming block branded as "Deportes 13". During these hours, Deportes 13 transmit sport-related programming and events such as MLB, National Basketball Association (NBA), Liga de Voleibol Superior Masculino among others. The format was discontinued on May 13, 2007.

Singer, writer and producer Silverio Pérez had a variety show called Buenas Noches con Silverio (Good Night with Silverio).

In August 2008, TeleOro announced that the station would develop a news program titled "Hora Informativa". The program's goal is to cover local news as well as material that other channels consider "soft". Segments were led by Luis Penchi and José Ángel Cordero and covered controversial themes that might not be covered otherwise due to the station's religious focus.{{cite news|url=http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/tv/espectaculos_asi/con_nuevo_noticiario/217133 |title=Con nuevo noticiario |author=Karol Joselyn Sepúlveda |newspaper=Primera Hora |language=es |date=August 6, 2008 |access-date=August 10, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141209055036/http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/tv/espectaculos_asi/con_nuevo_noticiario/217133 |archive-date=December 9, 2014 }} Today, WORO produces local news (branded as Noticias 13) weeknights at 6:00 and 11:00, as well as Saturday nights at 5:00 and Sunday afternoons at 4:00 p.m.

On September 20, 2017, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, WORO-DT was forced to go off the air, suffering damage to the station's building, transmitter and equipment. The station then broadcast as a subchannel of Hector Marcano's WWXY-LD on channel 38.3 until August 1, 2018. The station returned to the air on August 27, 2018, from a provisional antenna. On February 5, 2019, WORO-DT resumed full-power broadcasts from its new and powerful transmitter from the top of El Yunque, that covers the entire island. Repairs to the old transmitter equipment were made by the engineering department.

Digital television

=Digital channels=

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

class="wikitable" \|+ Subchannels of WORO-DT{{Cite web \|url=http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WORO-DT#station \|title=RabbitEars TV Query for WORO-DT \|access-date=January 24, 2017 \|archive-date=February 2, 2017 \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202022014/http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WORO-DT#station \|url-status=live }} ! Channel ! Video ! Aspect ! Short name ! Programming
13.1	1080i	rowspan=4\| 16:9	WORO-HD	Main WORO-DT programming
13.2	rowspan=3\| 480i	EWTN	EWTN Español
13.3	SHABUM	Shabum TV (Kids Programming)
13.4	WORO-SD	Main WORO-DT1 Programming / TeleOro