ULA TV - History

History

On September 10, 1993, the Universidad de Los Andes proposed to CONATEL to create a television station to broadcast on UHF to serve the city of Mérida. On October 19, 1993, CONATEL temporarily reserved UHF channel 22 for the Universidad de Los Andes and gave them a 60 day period to meet administrative and technical requirements. On January 19, 1994 the ULA has met the requirements of CONATEL. On February 3, 1994, CONATEL authorized the ULA to begin setting up their installations for channel 22. CONATEL gives them a time period of 6 months to do this. On October 2, 1999, channel 22 begins their transmission, first with a test pattern and 23 days later, with video. The station's studios were originally located in las Residencias Los Caciques and their transmittor is located near the Estación La Aguada. On January 17, 2000, the stations studio moves to the Centro Comercial Alto Chama. On February 25, 2000, the company, TV Canal UHF-22 C.A., was created and university professor José Luis Bendito was its first president. On April 13, 2000 CONATEL inspects the channel's installations. On October 13, 2000, the ULA presents before CONATEL its plans to move its transmittor and studios to their current locations. Between February 25, 2000 and April 2, 2001, José Luis Bendito serves as president of the board of directors of the company. Under his leadership, the channel is defined as an education television network. Between April 2, 2001 and February 7, 2002, Tarick Souki Farías serves as president of the channel. On February 7, 2002, the company's investors designate Pedro Quesada Estévez, coordinator of politica communications of the university, to be interim president of the company during its reorganization. During the months between March and July 2002, the channel was under the conduction of Nereida Pacheco, who was hired half time and was under the supervision of Professor Adelis Graterol. In this time period, the station added 2 extra hours to its broadcast day, raising it to 10 hours (10:00am to 8:00pm), and entered a partnership with the Venezuelan cable company, Net-Uno.