Tomás Domingo Muñiz Souffront (August 4, 1900 – September 9, 1963) was a well known Puerto Rican

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

and

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

producer. He is sometimes respectfully called by the general public in

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

as ''Don Tomás'' Muñiz, to differentiate him from his namesake and son,

Tommy Muñiz Lucas Tomás Muñiz Ramírez (4 February 1922 – 15 January 2009), better known as Tommy Muñiz, was a Puerto Rican comedy and drama actor, media producer, businessman and network owner. He is considered to be one of the pioneering figures of ...

As a young man, Tomás Muñiz worked as a real estate agent, and later as an advertising copy writer -and later executive- of the ''West Indies Advertising Company (WIAC)''. He later produced radio shows and administered the agency's

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

, WIAC-AM in San Juan. He was one of the first persons to give José Miguel Agrelot work. He also worked with a large number of other entertainers. His son, Lucas Tomás Muñiz, or Tommy Jr., later became the owner of Teleluz, a major competitor of

WAPA-TV WAPA-TV (channel 4) is a Spanish-language independent television station in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is the flagship and namesake station of Guaynabo-based WAPA Media Group. WAPA-TV maintains studio facilities on Luis Vigoreaux Avenue ...

and Canal 2. Tomás Muñiz was the patriarch of a

show business Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945), is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989) From the business side (including managers, agents, produce ...

family: one of his seven children,

Tommy Tommy may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tommy (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army * Tommy Giacomelli (born 1974), Brazilian fo ...

, is a media legend in Puerto Rico, and his grandson Rafo Muñiz, is also an actor, television producer and music promoter. Yet another grandson, Pedro Muñiz, starred as the father in the 1989 highly acclaimed television sitcom Maripili which he also produced (521 episodes); he is also a film producer. Son Tommy Muñiz Jr. also produced and starred in the only Puerto Rican film ever to be nominated for an Oscar, a 1989 film titled Lo que le Pasó a Santiago ("What happened to Santiago").

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muniz, Tomas 1900 births 1965 deaths People from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican radio producers Puerto Rican television producers 20th-century American businesspeople

See also

References