HCJB-TV, also branded as La Ventana de los Andes (The Window of the Andes) was an

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

ian television station owned by the

HCJB HCJB, "The Voice of the Andes", was the first radio station with daily programming in Ecuador and the first Christian missionary radio station in the world. The station was founded in 1931 by Clarence W. Jones, Reuben Larson, and D. Stuart Clark. ...

radio ministry. It was the first television station of any sort to exist in Ecuador.

History

In 1954, Gillford "Giff" Hartwell arrived voluntarily to Ecuador to deliver equipment for a television station to be owned by HCJB, which would be used to expand its extant operations. Later, on July 25, 1959, Dick Benoit and Kerm Beougher, distributed several television receivers in several areas of Quito and on the 28th of the same month HCJB-TV made its first experimental broadcast, carrying movies dubbed in Spanish and provided by the United States Embassy, to great public acclaim. On July 30, the station formally identified itself with its call letters borrowed from the radio station (HCJB) and the name ''La Ventana de los Andes''. The following day, broadcasts formally started with the television adaptation of the radio program ''Adelante Juventud'' (Onward Youth). On August 10, 1959, HCJB-TV began regular transmissions. 250 television sets already existed in Quito ahead of its launch. The station initially broadcast two hours of programming three nights a week, increasing to four hours nightly later on. In restaurants, viewers paid one sucre to watch the station during their dinners. After the launch of HCJB-TV, television sales skyrocketed. Early on, it employed 35 Ecuatorian staff and 105 from abroad: from

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and other countries.Aura Catalina Mier Sanmartín, ''Creación y Desarrollo de Ecuador TV'', Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 2015 HCJB-TV's early years were clouded due to a lack of regulations regulating television in Ecuador, causing it to broadcast a merely experimental service at first. Regulations were imposed on December 5, 1959, promulgated by President Camilo Ponce Enríquez. However, the official permit for HCJB-TV would only arrive on May 18, 1961, being the second authorization at the national level, after channel 4 in Guayaquil, with that, the channel continued its regular broadcasts, moving from channel 2 to channel 4 to avoid interference with the radio signals of the Ecuadorian police and army.https://marvinarte13.wixsite.com/introhistroriatvec/single-post/2015/07/23/breve-historia-de-la-televisi%C3%B3n-en-el-ecuador-1 The station was suffering from competition coming from new television stations, prompting the board of trustees to review its operations in 1972. Among the proposals made were the conversion of HCJB to a color service while continuing its religious programming and adding more secular programming to attract more viewers. Ultimately the decision was made to sell the station. The frequency is now occupied by

Teleamazonas Teleamazonas is an Ecuadorian television network that was launched on 22 February 1974. It is one of the major television networks in the country. It was founded by Antonio Granda Centeno and has two feeds: one produced in Quito and broadcast in ...

while the initial frequency (channel 2) was claimed by Telenacional.

Programming

HCJB-TV broadcast a mixture of religious and secular programming. The religious programming was derived from its existing radio operations. On Sunday nights, the station televised the Radio Chapel in Spanish. The staff was given a day off for Christmas and the New Year. At Christmas in its later years (1965-1971), the station aired the stop-motion

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on C ...

special by NBC.

Aftermath

Following the decision to sell the television station in Quito, HCJB's television division moved to

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 ...

to produce content for other television stations in color. After a few years, the staff returned to Quito for the same purpose.

References

{{reflist Television channels and stations established in 1959 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1972 Defunct mass media in Ecuador Quito