WMEI, virtual and UHF digital channel 14, branded on-air as WMEI 14 and TeleMar, was a

Retro TV Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through t ...

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The station was owned by Corporate Media Consultants Group, of which 51% is owned by Power Television International and 49% is owned by Max Media. WMEI's studios were located in Puerta del Condado in San Juan, with an additional studio in

Yauco Yauco () is a town and municipality in southern Puerto Rico. Although the downtown is inland, the municipality stretches to a southern coast facing the Caribbean Sea. Yauco is located south of Maricao, Lares and Adjuntas; east of Sabana G ...

. The station's transmitter was located at

Cerro Maravilla Cerro Maravilla is Puerto Rico's fourth highest peak at . It is located on the northern edge Barrio Anón in Ponce, close to the border with the municipality Jayuya, and is part of the Cordillera Central (Central Mountain Range). It is known a ...

in Ponce. WMEI signed off the air on August 31, 2017 at midnight.

History

WMEI was founded on February 28, 1990 by locally owned Arecibo Broadcasting Systems, managed by Hector Negroni Cartagena. On December 28, 1994, WMEI launched

WWKQ-LP WMEI, virtual channel, virtual and ultra high frequency, UHF digital terrestrial television, digital channel 14, branded on-air as WMEI 14 and TeleMar, was a Retro Television Network, Retro TV/Luken Communications, Action Channel-network affiliat ...

(channel 26), a low-power TV station in Quebradillas owned by Signal Broadcasting. WMEI signed on as a test signal on Channel 60 in 1997 operated by Signal Broadcasting and transmitted programming from

Telefe Internacional Telefe Internacional is the international signal of Argentine television channel Telefe. It broadcasts television programs produced by Telefe, mostly consisting of telenovelas, series, comedies, teen and children's series, etc. It is available in ...

and infomercials. WMEI also began operations for WQQZ-CA (channel 33), another channel owned by Signal Broadcasting, in Ponce on February 12, 1999. WMEI began its regular programming in November 2006 as an affiliate of Telefe Internacional branded as Mi 60. It remained a Telefe affiliate from 2006 to 2007, showing informercials from 4 p.m. to midnight. WMEI officially launched as an independent station on March 20, 2007 at 6:25 a.m. It was branded as TeleMar Puerto Rico from 2007 to 2009, from 2011 to 2013, and since May 11, 2014. In March 2007, WMEI launched its digital

satellite station A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

WOST WOST (channel 14) is a ShopHQ- affiliated television station licensed to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. The station is owned by HC2 Holdings. WOST maintains its studios in Puerta del Condado in San Juan, with additional studios in Yauco. The transmitte ...

(channel 16), in Mayagüez. On November 23, 2009, WMEI switched its affiliation to

Spanish Broadcasting System Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. (SBS) is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States. SBS is also invested in television and internet properties, deriving the majority of its income from advertising through i ...

's Mega TV. Prior to this, WMEI had carried a

Spanish-language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

version of

The Local AccuWeather Channel AccuWeather Inc. is an American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services worldwide. AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Pennsylvania State University graduate student working on a master's degree ...

. WMEI, along with its satellite stations, went off the air for several months in early 2009 due to their shutting down analog signals in January 2009 in preparation for the nationwide

digital transition Digital transition refers to the process of moving an existing analog system to a digital format. Used without further qualifiers, the term normally refers to the move from analog television to digital television, the digital television transition. ...

. However, due to the transition date being delayed until June 12, 2009 (from its original February 17 date) and WTIN and

WNJX-TV WNJX-TV (channel 4) is a Spanish language in the United States, Spanish-language Independent station (North America), independent television station city of license, licensed to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. It is a full-time broadcast relay station# ...

opting to retain their analog signals on WMEI and WOST's post transition channels until June, WMEI and WOST could not begin digital broadcasts until WTIN and WNJX terminated their analog signals in June 2009. WMEI became an affiliate once again in February 2013, this time with TeLe-Romántica, whose programming included

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...

s, movies, series and

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

. TeLe-Romántica resumed operations in August 2014 due to the station's website failure and moved its programming to WSJU-TV channel 31.2. In November 2013, Power Television International acquired the non-license assets of WMEI and its satellite stations from Corporate Media Consultants Group for $18 million. WMEI was affiliated with PBJ from 2014 to 2016. On May 13, 2015, WQQZ-CA changed its call letters to WQQZ-CD after switching from analog to digital operation. On January 12, 2016, WMEI, WOST and its satellite stations sold their spectrum and participated in the 2016 FCC Spectrum auction (originally scheduled for sometime in 2015, then pushed back a year). The executive officers said that once the auction was complete, the station would either go off the air or move to another channel. On April 1, 2016, WMEI changed its branding to reflect the station's digital channel number. It was now known as WMEI 14. The station switched its affiliation to

Retro Television Network Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through t ...

and broadcast daily from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. No programming changes were expected, and WMEI remained a

Tuff TV Tuff TV was an American digital broadcast television network targeted at men owned by the Tuff TV, Inc. division of Seals Entertainment Corporation. Tuff TV launched on June 30, 2009, and ceased operations August 26, 2018. Tuff TV carried a m ...

affiliate. The station also affiliated with Gun TV upon that network's launch the same day. Gun TV broadcast from 12AM to 5AM daily. WMEI was most recently a dual affiliate of

and The Family Channel, while WOST remained an affiliate of the Spanish version of The Local AccuWeather Channel. On October 18, 2016, WOST went off the air. Station engineers had determined that one of the station's power amplifiers had been damaged during a

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...

. The station was awaiting the delivery of parts to complete the repair to the power supply. It was expected that it might be another couple of weeks before the repairs were to be completed. The licensee requested Special Temporary Authority pursuant to FCC Rule 73.1635(a)(4), as the circumstances of the storm were beyond the control of the licensee and it was acting diligently to repair the station and restore operations but had to wait on vendors to deliver equipment. The licensee also requested a one-day waiver of the 30-day filing deadline to request silent authority. The 30th day for filing the silent STA request was miscalculated. The LMS form would not allow the proper date to be checked that the station went off the air. On November 11, 2016, licensed as a digital operation, WWKQ-LP changed its callsign to WWKQ-LD. On December 5, 2016, WQQZ-CD went off the air because of a malfunction with its Ktech receiver. It was repaired over the next few weeks. On December 8, 2016, WQQZ-CD returned to the air broadcasting the full Retro TV and Action Channel programming. In April 2017, WMEI announced that it would shut down on August 31 following the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC)'s

incentive auction The 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction, officially known as Auction 1001, allocated approximately 100 MHz of the United States Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spectrum formerly allocated to UHF television in the 600 MHz band. The spe ...

. The station sold its spectrum for $9,696,619. Also, WOST would move their channel positions to channel 20, and WQQZ-CD to channel 16. On May 2, 2017, WOST resumed broadcasting operations with a reduced power of 2 kW. Due to the passage of

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...

across Puerto Rico, the license for WMEI was cancelled on September 12, 2017. The WMEI unit was moved to WOST and satellite stations. They have been affiliated with

Azteca América Azteca América (, sometimes shortened to Azteca) is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by INNOVATE Corp., which acquired the network from the Azteca International Corporation subsidiary of TV Azteca. Headquartere ...

since August 1, 2018.

Digital channels

The station's digital signal was

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

Satellite stations

WMEI was rebroadcast on the following stations:

References

{{Puerto Rico TV, state=collapsed Arecibo, Puerto Rico Television channels and stations established in 1997 1997 establishments in Puerto Rico Television channels and stations disestablished in 2017 2017 disestablishments in Puerto Rico MEI MEI Defunct television stations in the United States