Television

Television

TV channels in the whole country

At 12:00 noon on the first of August 1952, Dominican television made history when it broadcast its first images of comedy program, Peasant Romance (Romance Campesino) over the airwaves of Channel 4 of the Dominican Voice, then the new name for the Voice of Yuna.

The show went out on a T.T.5-A five-watt video transmitter in 2.5 audio, making the Dominican Republic the third country in Latin America, after Mexico and Cuba, to have television.

The equipment used was RCA, bought under an agreement between Jose Arismendy Trujillo Molina, Abraham Santamaria and Mr. Robert, the latter a US citizen. The engineer J.K. Gram of RCA came to the country to install the transmitter along with several other German and Polish technicians.

In 1953, the name Voice of Yuna was changed to Radio-TV Palace – the Dominican Voice, from which radio and TV broadcasts were made.

The first announcers, singers and comedians came from the Dominican Voice as a result of having set up schools to train people in song and locution.

Many renown national and international artists came from these training programs including Bobby Capo, Casandra Damirón, Elenita Santos; the comedians Tin Tan and Pildorín, Elsa Miranda, Eva Garza, Libertad Lamarque, Leo Cortez, Miguel Aceves Mejía, María Victoria, Tony Aguilar, María Antonieta Pons, Kid Gavilán and Pedro Vargas to same some of them

One of the defining moments in Dominican television occurred in 1955 when they broadcast their first transmission in color: the opening activities of the Peace and Confraternity Fair of the Free World.

Since its founding, state-run television has gone through many phases and changes but it has always occupied the same headquarters on Doctor Tejada Street #8 in the Villa Consuelo sector of Santo Domingo. In 1965, the name was changed to Radio Television Dominicana (RTVD) then later Dominican Television, but soon changed back to RTDV. On July 29, 2003, the name was changed yet  again and, by law, it became the State Corporation for Radio and Television (CERTV), which it is still called today.

Today the Lulio Moscoso Museum exhibits memorabilia, photographs and documentation collected from the birth of Dominican television. The museum’s name is a tribute to one of the first technicians of the state-run radio and who, for forty years, worked in the service of the TV station.

PRIVATE TELEVISION

In 1959 the first private television station in the country was opened: Rahintel on Channel 7 with the important participation of Radhames Trujillo.

On November 30, 1969 “Color Vision” was opened in Santiago de los Caballeros becoming the first colorized television in the country and the third in Latin America. It was later moved to Santo Domingo, where it still operates through Channel 9.

Soon after Teleinde was inaugurated and began to broadcast from Channel 13. Another private television station, Telesistema on Channel 11 was opened in 1978 and the following year Teleantilles on Channels 2 and 13.

One of the most important innovations in recent years was the introduction of cable television, starting in 1981, by Telecable Nacional.

(This information was extracted from documentation stored at the Lulio Moscoso Museum, whose official knowledge was obtained by Decree Number 352-97 on August 2, 1997.)