{{Short description|Defunct television station in Ecuador}} {{Infobox television station | callsign = HCJB-TV | analog = 4 (VHF) | airdate = {{Start date|1959|08|10}} | last_airdate = {{Start date|1972}} | location = Quito | country = Ecuador | callsign_meaning = Hoy Cristo Jesús Bendice, the backronym of the HCJB radio calls | former_channel_numbers = 2 (1959-1961) | owner = HCJB }}
'''HCJB-TV''', also branded as '''La Ventana de los Andes''' (The Window of the Andes) was an Ecuadorian television station owned by the HCJB 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.<ref name="UISEK">{{cite web |title= Efectos nocivos de la Televisión en niños y niñas de preescolar|url=https://repositorio.uisek.edu.ec/bitstream/123456789/2486/3/Dur%C3%A1n%20Garc%C3%ADa%20Lorena%20Alejandra.pdf |access-date=28 February 2024 |website=SEK International University |date=2003 }}</ref>
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.<ref name="UISEK"/>
On July 30, the station formally identified itself with its call letters borrowed from the radio station (HCJB) and the name {{lang|es|La Ventana de los Andes}}. The following day, broadcasts formally started with the television adaptation of the radio program {{lang|es|Adelante Juventud}} (Onward Youth).<ref name="UISEK"/>
On August 10, 1959, HCJB-TV began regular transmissions. 250 television sets already existed in Quito ahead of its launch.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |title=1959 - HCJB Television - The Window of the Andes |url=https://reachbeyond.org/our-history/1959-hcjb-tv-the-window-of-the-andes |access-date=28 February 2024 |website=Reach Beyond |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221202221807/https://reachbeyond.org/our-history/1959-hcjb-tv-the-window-of-the-andes |archive-date=2 December 2022 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> The station initially broadcast two hours of programming three nights a week, increasing to four hours nightly later on.<ref name=catchthevision>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Station-Books/Catch-the-Vision-HCJB-1989.pdf |title=Catch the Vision |date=1989 |accessdate=27 July 2023 }}</ref>{{Rp|120}} In restaurants, viewers paid one sucre to watch the station during their dinners.<ref name=catchthevision/>{{Rp|121}} After the launch of HCJB-TV, television sales skyrocketed.<ref name=catchthevision/>{{Rp|121}} Early on, it employed 35 Ecuatorian staff and 105 from abroad: from Japan, the Soviet Union and other countries.<ref name=creación>Aura Catalina Mier Sanmartín, ''Creación y Desarrollo de Ecuador TV'', Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 2015</ref>
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,<ref>{{cite web |title=Call of the Andes |url=https://www.ontheshortwaves.com/HCJB/Literature/Call_of_the_Andes-1965.pdf |access-date=28 February 2024 |publisher=HCJB |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230615212707/https://www.ontheshortwaves.com/HCJB/Literature/Call_of_the_Andes-1965.pdf |archive-date=15 June 2023}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" /><ref>https://marvinarte13.wixsite.com/introhistroriatvec/single-post/2015/07/23/breve-historia-de-la-televisi%C3%B3n-en-el-ecuador-1</ref>
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 while the initial frequency (channel 2) was claimed by Telenacional.<ref name=catchthevision/>{{Rp|124}}
==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.<ref name=catchthevision/>{{Rp|121}}
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 special by NBC.<ref name=catchthevision/>{{Rp|120}}
==Aftermath== Following the decision to sell the television station in Quito, HCJB's television division moved to Puerto Rico to produce content for other television stations in color.<ref name=catchthevision/>{{Rp|125}} After a few years, the staff returned to Quito for the same purpose.<ref name=catchthevision/>{{Rp|125–126}}
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1959 Category:Television channels and stations disestablished in 1972 Category:Spanish-language television stations Category:Defunct mass media in Ecuador Category:Quito