NY’s Telemundo 47 turns 50

WNJU Telemundo 47 New York is celebrating 50 years on the air and in honor of the station’s milestone, the Empire State Building will shine red this Sunday, April 26.

WNJU-TV Channel 47 launched on May 16, 1965 as the first commercial UHF station in the New York City/New Jersey market, and was the first local TV station to air Spanish-language programming in the area.

Initially, the station aired English, Asian, Spanish and Italian shows, but carried mostly Spanish programming by the late 1970s.

In the early 1980s, the station aired English-language religious programming in the morning and Spanish-language programming the rest of the day.

WNJU became Telemundo in 1987.