W Radio

Broadcast area	Colombia
Frequency	690 kHz 99.9 MHz
Branding	HJCZ (AM), HJLN (FM)
Programming
Format	News / talk
Affiliations	Caracol Radio
Ownership
Owner	Caracol Radio (PRISA)
History
First air date	April 7, 2003
Former names	Punto Azul (1973–1976) Caracol Estéreo (1976–2003)
Links
Website	wradio.com.co

W Radio Colombia is a news/talk/adult contemporary Colombian radio network, part of Caracol Radio. It started in 1973 as adult contemporary station Caracol Estéreo. It is part of the W Radio system, with networks in Mexico, Los Angeles (United States), Panama, and transmitted as far away as Chile.

The station is best known for its morning news show La W, presented by Julio Sánchez Cristo, Alberto Casas Santamaría, and Camila Zuluaga.

History

Before 1990, FM radio in Colombia was almost exclusively devoted to music, because a 1975 decree issued by the Ministry of Communications limited to 60 minutes a day the time an FM station could dedicate to "informative, journalistic, or sports programming."^[1] These restrictions were relaxed in the early 1990s, allowing FM stations to broadcast news.

Viva FM was one of the pioneering morning news shows on the FM band, starting in 1991 on Caracol Estéreo, presented by Julio Sánchez Cristo.^[2] Sánchez Cristo left in 1996 to RCN Radio, creating La FM, a similar programme on the then newly created homonymous station. Viva FM continued with the direction of Roberto Pombo until 2003, when Sánchez came back to the then brand new W Radio.