El Observador () was the

Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

newscast News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or tele ...

Radio Caracas Televisión Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV and sometimes referred to as the Canal de Bárcenas) is a Venezuelan over-the-top streaming service and formerly a free-to-air television network headquartered in the Caracas neighborhood of Quinta Crespo and ow ...

(RCTV). It was one of the first television news programs in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

History

''El Observador'' is one of the first television news programs in Venezuela. It has aired almost continuously since November 1953 and was originally known as ''El Observador Creole''. Its final broadcast was April 24, 2012.

''El Observador Creole''

Presented by the

Creole Petroleum Corporation The Creole Petroleum Corporation was an American oil company. It was formed in 1920 to produce fields on Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. The company was acquired by Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1928. Until 1951 Creole Petroleum was the world's number ...

(a subsidiary of

Standard Oil of New Jersey Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was formed ...

), ''El Observador Creole'' was Venezuela's first regular news program. The face and voice of Francisco Amado Pernía animated the newscasts from Monday to Saturday and Sunday the newscast corresponded to Cristóbal Rodríquez Pantoja. Seeing that the majority of the personnel that created RCTV originally came from Radio Caracas (later known as

Radio Caracas Radio Radio Caracas Radio was a Venezuelan radio station. Founded in 1930, it was Venezuela's oldest radio station. It was last owned by Empresas 1BC, a Venezuelan private media corporation. The station was shut down in 2023 by the Nicolás Maduro ...

to differentiate it from Radio Caracas Televisión), it was clear that radio personalities such as Amable Espina, Carlos Quintana Negrón, Marco Antonio de Lacavalerie, and Pedro José Fajardo participated in the contest run by The Creole Oil Company to select their pair of hosts for their news program. According to some sources, ''El Observador Creole'' first went on the air on 16 November 1953, one day after the inauguration of Radio Caracas Televisión, but José Luis Sarzalejo, manager of the telefilm department of the network at the time, claimed that the first newscast aired on 15 November at 8:00 pm. Every day, 300 national and international news stories were processed as so were a significant number of photographs and material in 35mm. This consumed an average of 240 feet of film (which was about seven minutes in playtime). The first technical team of the program were Juan Zabala (first technical director), Mario Corro (operator of the video control), Alejandro Wessolowski (coordinator), Alcides Longa (cinematographic editor), Ramiro Vegas (cinematographic coordinator), and Antonio Di Mola (studio photographer). In 1971, RCTV decided to eliminate sole sponsors. The Creole Petroleum Corporation moved to Cadena de Venezolana de Televisión (CVTV) on 3 January 1972, and remained there for the rest of the time that the company remained in Venezuela, which was a little less than two years, until nationalization of oil industry.

El Observador Venezolano

When The Creole Oil Company moved to CVTV, they took two very important things from RCTV: one was ''El Observador Creole'' and the other was its host Francisco Amado Pernía. This loss obligated the directors of the network to search for a new presenter and

Eladio Lárez Eladio José Lárez Villamizar (born 8 June 1941) is a Venezuelan businessperson and Television presenter, TV Presenter. He is the President (corporate title), President of RCTV, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), which until its removal from the ...

, current president of RCTV, was selected to be the conductor of ''El Observador Venezolano'', a variation of the original newscast. Other presenters of ''El Observador Venezolano'' included Guillermo Vilchez, Antonio José Marcano, and Inés Sancho. In 1975,

Marcel Granier Marcel Granier Haydon (born July 4, 1941) is a Venezuelan businessperson. He is the president and CEO of Empresas 1BC and the general director of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), which until becoming a cable TV-channel on May 27, 2007, was the ...

proposed to Luis García Mora, who at that time was the Director of Information of RCTV, to come up with a newscast with the same credibility of a daily newspaper such as El Nacional. The result was the introduction of the figure of the news

reporter A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

; the first of these were Marietta Santana and Darcy Alvarado. In the early 1980s, ''El Observador Venezolano'' became known simply as ''El Observador''.

El Observador

Over the years, ''El Observador'' had been hosted by a number of people including Franklin Villasmil, Tinedo Guia (now retired), Unai Amenábar (now at

Venevisión Venevisión () is a Venezuelan free-to-air television channel and one of Venezuela's largest television networks, owned by the Cisneros Media division of Grupo Cisneros. It was founded in 1961 by Diego Cisneros. It is one of the major telenove ...

), Alba Cecilia Mujica (now at

Globovisión Globovisión is a 24-hour television news network. It broadcasts over-the-air in Caracas, Aragua, Carabobo and Zulia on UHF channel 33. Globovisión is seen in the rest of Venezuela on cable or satellite (Globovisión has an alliance with Dir ...

), Jaime Suarez, Anna Vaccarella, and Kristina Wetter to name a few. In 1996, the ''El Observador'' website was launched. In 1998, a computerized system was introduced to make the editing process more efficient and effective, which helped facilitate labor production, save on resources and time, and permit better control and organization. On 18 July 2005, the ''Centro Nacional de Noticias'' (''National Center for News''), ''El Observador's'' new headquarters, was inaugurated. From here, RCTV broadcasts ''El Observador'' (all three daily emissions), '' La Entrevista'', and other special programs of information and opinion. The President of

Empresas 1BC Empresas 1BC (also known as Grupo Phelps, Centro Corporativo 1BC, and Grupo 1BC), is a privately owned Venezuelan corporation which operates diverse media enterprises such as Radio Caracas Televisión, Etheron, Radio Caracas Radio, , Sonogr� ...

and General Director of RCTV, Marcel Granier, and the President of RCTV, Eladio Larez, were present at its inauguration. It is located in Quinta Crespo, a neighborhood in central

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

where Radio Caracas Televisión's other studios can be found. The ''National Center for News'' has three new and modern studios equipped with the latest technology, a press room with 35 workstations, 10 editing booths, 10 visualization stations, a department of digitalization, a graphics room, and a room dedicated to the reception of satellite and microwave signals. The new center contains six robotic cameras (which do not require the use of a

cameraman A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not necessarily imply that a male is performing the task. ...

) and one wireless camera. Also, the center contains a special system of lights that does not produce heat in the studio. New programs were purchased to manage texts and video. One of the most technological advances introduced with the opening of the center is the discontinued use of the VTR, or videotape system, as the center contains a server with the capacity to hold 300 hours of video. On 28 December 2006, President

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

announced that the government would not renew RCTV's broadcast license when it expired in May 2007, which threatened the existence of RCTV and ''El Observador''. After the shutdown of RCTV on terrestrial television, ''El Observador'' became a webcast, with newscasts being uploaded onto YouTube, venezuelapress.com, and El Observador's own website. It was also aired on

. During this period, the El Observador channel on YouTube had the most subscribers of all YouTube users. ''El Observador'' returned to the air when RCTV relaunched as a cable and satellite channel on 16 July 2007 and currently airs three times a day (9:30 am, 12:00 pm, and 11:00 pm). On 15 June 2008, Javier García, a reporter and part-time anchor for ''El Observador'', was found stabbed to death in his bed at his apartment in the Bello Monte neighborhood of Caracas. A suspect was later arrested. García's murder was the first, and so far only, murder of a current ''El Observador'' journalist.

News Team

''Anchors'' *Alejandro Tastets - morning edition anchor *Roxana Castillo - morning edition anchor *Ana Virginia Escobar - noon edition anchor *Andrés Mendoza - noon edition anchor *Francia Sánchez - night edition anchor *Pedro Guerrero - night edition anchor ''Reporters'' *Laura Castellanos *Yanitza León *José Pernalete *María Elisa González *Iris García *Jessica Flores *Violeta Rosas *Junior Acosta *Jennifer De Santana *Romy Gómez *Anahís Cruz - based in Zulia *Edward Rodríguez - based in Zulia *Yamile Jiménez - based in Táchira *Atamaica Briceño - based in Lara *Enler García - based in Anzoátegui *Eillen Salomón - based in Carabobo *Kristian Rodríguez - based in Aragua *Francine Howard - based in Bolívar *Adriana Díaz - based in Sucre *Lisbeth Miquilena - based in Nva. Esparta

Management

Eduardo Sapene is the

Vice-president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

of Information and Special Programs at Radio Caracas Televisión. His department is in charge of managing ''El Observador''.

References

External links