WNJU
{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:
- Template:Infobox broadcasting network
- Template:Infobox television channel
- Template:Infobox television station
If an internal transclusion led you here, you may wish to change it to point directly to the intended page.
{{Template disambiguation}} should never be transcluded in the main namespace.
WNJU is the flagship station of the Spanish Telemundo television network. It is licensed to Linden, New Jersey; 13 miles south of New York City. Owned by NBC Universal, WNJU serves the New York City region from studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
History
On May 16, 1965 WNJU signed on as the first commercial UHF station in the New York City television market. Its initial schedule was a mix of English, Asian, Spanish and Italian shows. During the middle 1960s, the station broadcast a live teenage dance show in the New York maket called Discoteen, hosted by John Zacherle.
WNJU 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 ran English programming in the morning and Spanish programming the rest of the day.
In 1984, WNJU joined with several Spanish television stations not affiliated with Spanish International Network (now Univision) and formed NetSpan. In 1985, it purchased KVEA in Los Angeles, KSTS in San Jose/San Francisco and WSCV in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale. They would purchase WSNS in Chicago in 1988.
In 1987 Net Span added more affiliates, and changed its name to Telemundo. As time went on, the station dropped its English-language religious shows; they had all disappeared by the early 1990s.
Originally its offices and studios were located in of Symphony Hall in Newark, New Jersey but they moved out to their current location sometime in the late 1980s.
In 2001, NBC Universal purchased Telemundo. WNJU witnessed major overhauls, adopting similar opening graphics to those used at New York City's NBC affiliate WNBC, and adopting a tweaked version of its opening music sequence.