WOLE-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, serving Mayagüez and the western part of the island as an affiliate of Univision and UniMás. It is a full-time satelliteofSan Juan–based WLII-DT (channel 11, licensed to Caguas), owned by Liberman Media Group. WOLE-DT's sales office is located in the Westernbank Building in downtown Mayagüez, and its transmitter is located at Monte del Estado in Maricao. Its parent station maintains studios on Calle Carazo in Guaynabo and has additional studios in Barrio Palmar in Aguadilla.
WOLE-DT operates a translator, W21CX-D (channel 21), licensed to Mayagüez.
WOLE-TV started broadcasting on May 10, 1960, as the second television station on Puerto Rico's west coast. The station was owned by Western Broadcasting Corporation of Puerto Rico, and served as a repeater for WAPA-TV from 1960 to 1979 and again from 1984 to 1994. During its early years, the station produced its own programming, but its schedule eventually shifted toward infomercials, possibly due to the lack of interest from local businesses in advertising on television. In 1979, the station entered a new affiliation agreement with WKAQ-TV (Telemundo) until 1984 and again from January 1, 1995, until December 31, 2014.
On October 15, 2014, Univision Communications announced that WOLE-DT would become a semi-satellite of then Univision station WLII-DT (now Teleonce). The programming change occurred on January 1, 2015. With the move, WOLE dropped all programming from WKAQ-TV and Telemundo, which quickly entered into negotiations with WLII's existing western Puerto Rico satellite, WORA-TV (channel 5).[4]
On July 22, 2018, Univision Communications announced that it had purchased retransmission partner WOLE-DT from Western Broadcasting Corp. of Puerto Rico for $3,666,666.64, solidifying its Puerto Rico station line up. The sale was completed on December 5, 2018.[5]
On February 25, 2020, investment firms ForgeLight (launched by founder & CEO & 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 (which also operates WNJX-TV, a repeater in the same area WOLE-DT operates). Because of this, Univision was required to divest WLII and its satellite stations (including WOLE-DT) in order to comply with ownership limits.[6][7][8][9]
On August 27, 2020, Univision announced that WLII and its satellite stations (WOLE-DT and WSUR-DT) would be acquired by Liberman Media Group for $1 million each.[10] 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.[11] On January 19, 2021, Liberman Media Group named Winter Horton as the new general manager for the station.[12] 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.
WOLE-DT formerly produced a local news operation called Edición Puerto Rico, similar to WKAQ-TV and WAPA-TV's news offerings. Aired weekdays at 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., the newscast concentrates on events happening in and around Puerto Rico, and interacts with others through social media platforms. The program was also aired on WLII, Facebook Live and the station's website. Currently, WOLE-DT produces news segments for Las Noticias TeleOnce, titled Las Noticias en el Oeste and seen across Puerto Rico.
