WMTJ (channel 40), branded on-air as Sistema TV, is a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

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's s ...

serving

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...

that is licensed to

Fajardo Fajardo () is a Fajardo barrio-pueblo, town and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality part of the San Juan–Caguas–Guaynabo metropolitan area, San Juan-Caguas-Fajardo Combined Statistical Area in Puerto Rico. Fajardo is the hub of mu ...

. The station is owned by Ana G. Méndez University. WMTJ's studios are located in San Juan, and its transmitter is located in the

El Yunque National Forest El Yunque National Forest (), formerly known as the Caribbean National Forest (or ''Bosque Nacional del Caribe''), is a forest located in northeastern Puerto Rico. While there are both temperate and tropical rainforests in other states and terri ...

. WMTJ has one full-service satellite: WQTO, virtual channel 26 (digital channel 19), in Ponce. WMTJ's digital signal was not on the air until a few months before the transition deadline. Installation of a digital transmitter for WMTJ had been difficult as the transmitter site is located in a remote tropical forest on

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land, requiring

USDA Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's ...

approvals of any new transmission tower.

History

WMTJ first broadcast in April 1985. Due to damage from

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that affected the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which accounted for 2,975 of the 3,059 deaths. It is the ...

, WMTJ was forced to go off the air on September 20, 2017 (the station's website still lists the schedule from September 11 to 17, 2017 with some shows no longer on the schedule such as ''

Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' is a British children's television series which aired from 9 October 1984 to 20 January 2021. Based on ''The Railway Series'' books by Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry, Christopher, the series was developed for ...

''). On October 16, 2017, the Ana G. Mendez University System announced that the station would be shut down indefinitely as part of a larger suspension of non-academic activities at the school. This shutdown left Puerto Rico without a PBS station as fellow public television station

WIPR-TV WIPR-TV (channel 6) is a non-commercial educational public television station in San Juan, Puerto Rico, owned by the '' Corporación de Puerto Rico para la Difusión Pública'' (English: Puerto Rico Public Broadcasting Corporation). Most of t ...

(channel 6) had dropped its PBS membership in 2011. On December 20, WMTJ returned to the air via Liberty Puerto Rico, some of PBS programming can be seen on Channel 3 & 67 and in HD on channels 203 & 267. On January 2, 2018, just months after the shutdown, WMTJ resumed regular over-the-air broadcasting operations via station WSTE-DT (Teleisla) and can be seen on channel 40.1 from the transmitter located in Aguas Buenas remaining on the air until January 23. On January 24, WMTJ resumed broadcasting with a reduced power of 17.7 kilowatts from El Yunque. On January 1, 2019, WMTJ returned to the air on its digital channel 15 and transmitter power increased to 174 kilowatts. While the station is still available on

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

in Puerto Rico, the station is no longer available on

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

in Puerto Rico for unknown reasons as of 2017. On April 26, 2022, WIPR-TV officially rejoined PBS after ten years as an educational independent station and returned to being Puerto Rico's only other PBS member station.

Local programming

The majority of the station's daily programming is from PBS, but it broadcasts some locally produced content as well. *''TeleCampus'' * ''Kinema'' * ''Tertulia en la Ciudad'' * ''Aventura Cientifica'' * ''Geoambiente'' * ''Charla Deportiva''

Former local programming

* ''Análisis Noticioso'' * ''Bienestar'' * ''Como Coco'' * ''Del Campo a la Mesa'' * ''Jugando Pelota Dura'' (now on TeleOnce) * ''Ruta U'' * ''Sistema TV Informa'' * ''Sistema TV Investiga'' * ''Si a la Cocina'' * ''Si a la Cultura'' * ''Sin Colores'' * ''Te Veo en Campus'' * ''UNE Vision''

Digital television

The station's digital signal is

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— ...

: On June 12, 2009, WMTJ and WQTO signed off its analog signal and completed its move to digital.

References

External links

Ana G. Méndez University SystemSistema TVPBS
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wmtj PBS member stations Fajardo, Puerto Rico Ana G. Méndez University System MTJ Television channels and stations established in 1985 1985 establishments in Puerto Rico Public broadcasting in Puerto Rico