BROADCAST MEDIA

BROADCAST MEDIA HISTORY

        Broadcast Media technology is relatively new compared to print media. Initially, radio was invented as a means of military and marine communication, especially over the Atlantic Ocean. Its commercial use began through the efforts of Harold Power, who set up the American Radio and Research Company. From the Tufts University campus in Massachusetts, USA, Power initiated the first commercial broadcast on March 8, 1916. The broadcast lasted three (3) hours and consisted of dance music, a professor’s lecture, a weather report, and bedtime stories.

RADIO

Meanwhile, New York engineer Edwin Howard Armstrong improved radio technology and is credited for developing the wide-band frequency modulation, a.k.a. FM radio, which provides better sound quality and fidelity than AM.

In the Philippines, the history of radio is not very clear. According to historians, Philippine radio began in early 1922, when a certain Mrs. Redgrave made a test broadcast from a fivewatt transmitter from the Nichols air base. However, the country’s first commercial radio was established by American Henry Hermann, who owned the Electrical Supply Company in Manila. In 1922 Hermann set up three (3) experimental 50-watt AM stations in Manila and in Pasay. In 1926, he consolidated this into a 100-watt AM station under the call letters KZKZ, even as he set up the first broadcast network in the country, the Radio Corporation of the Philippines or RCP also set up KZRC (Radio Cebu) in 1929. Meanwhile, a rival station, KZIB, was set up by another American businessman, Isaac Beck. Much of the programming was patterned after American broadcasting since most of those who owned radio receivers were Americans expatriates and Filipino elites.

Among the early pioneers of radio, Francisco “Koko” Trinidad is regarded as the “father of Philippine broadcasting.” This is due to his pioneering efforts in developing the medium. Starting out as a radio announcer for Far Eastern Radio in the late 1920s, he also later served as producer-announcer for the US Office of War Information and program director for the US Program Service from 1945 to 1947. He then entered government service from 1947 to 1970, retiring in 1970 as general manager of the Philippine Broadcast Service. In 1947, Trinidad tried to negotiate with International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to change the radio call sign from the American KZ to RP (for Republic of the Philippines). However, this petition was denied by the ITU because of the effort it would need to secure the approval of the entire international body. Instead, ITU assigned the letter D to the Philippines. This call letter was originally assigned to Germany, a.k.a. Deutschland, but the ITU decided to punish Germany for using radio for propaganda to advance the cause of Nazism. 

The oldest existing radio station in the country today is DZRH, which first signed on in 1939 as KZRH. All but forgotten, the RH actually stood for Radio Heacock, after H.E. Heacock, the original owner of the station, who also owned a chain of department stores in America. KZRH was crucial during World War II for broadcasting the “Voice of Freedom” from its transmitter, which was hidden in the Malinta Tunnel Corregidor. It is remembered for its stirring broadcast by Lt. Norman Reyes on the fall of Bataan in 1942: “Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand a beacon to all liberty-loving people of the world, cannot fall”. 

From the 1950s to the 1970s, radio was instrumental in promoting long-distance education, especially for agriculture and rural development. The Department of Agriculture (DA), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) were among the  advocates of “farmcasting” and developmental communication. In particular, the information campaign for Masagana 99 launched in 1973 as the country’s rice self-sufficient program is considered a pioneering success story in the use of broadcast media for development. 

TELEVISION

Television, on the otherhand, entered the country because of politics.

American entrepreneur James Lindernberg who moved in Manila in 1940, established the Bolinao Electronics Corporation (BEC) in June 1946, with the aim of setting up the first television station in the country. The company was named after his wife’s hometown, Bolinao, Pangasinan. He was granted a license by the Philippine Congress in 1950; but because of the lack of resources, he decided to set up a radio station instead.

In 1952, Judge Antonio Quirino bought 70% of BEC, gaining the controlling stock of the broadcast firm. He changed the corporate name from BEC to ABS, as in Alto Broadcasting System. James Lindernberg still owned 30 percent and retained his post as general manager of the station. However, it took a little over a year and several hurdles before the first broadcast of DZAQ-TV Channel 3 (AQ for Antonio Quirino) on October 23, 1953. The first telecast, which was a garden party at the Quirino residence in San Juan, went on the air. By installing TV sets in public places, Quirino hoped to help his brother win his reelection bid. However, Elpidio Quirino lost to Ramon Magsaysay in the 1953 elections. 

In 1957, brothers Fernando and Eugenio Lopez bought ABS from     Quirino and merged it with their radio network, the Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN). Thus, ABS-CBN became the first radio-TV network in the country. They opened a second TV station, DZXL-TV Channel 9 (ABS-CBN, 1999). 

In 1960 Bob Stewart, an American who had been operating a radio station under the Republic Broadcasting System (RBS), started DZBB-TV Channel 7. He was followed by other media entrepreneurs. And, in the course of the next 10 years, the country had some 18 privately owned channels throughout the country. 

When Marcos proclaimed martial law, however, privately owned stations were initially shut down by the Office of the Press Secretary. Marcos crony Roberto Benedicto, who owned the Kanlaon Broadcasting System (KBS), was granted the right to use ABS-CBN’s channels, eventually taking over and operating ABS-CBN studios and Channel 9 on Bohol Avenue. 

Meanwhile, Stewart was allowed to reopen Channel 7 on a three-month renewable license. He eventually sold the network to Felipe Gozon, his lawyer, because foreigners were forbidden to own businesses in the country. Gozon changed the name from RBS to Global Media Arts, or GMA Network. On the other hand, Channel 2 resurfaced as the Banahaw Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), with Salvador Tan, the former general manager of KBS, at the helm, although the network was also owned by                                                                                                 Benedicto. 

In 1973 the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas or KBP was created, and this agency allowed for self-regulation (KBP, 1996).

In 1986 the newly installed president Corazon Aquino returned ABS-CBN to the Lopezes. Meanwhile, Philippine Commission on Good Government (PCGG) sequestered by Benedicto-owned networks. Also, the government operated channel Maharlika Broadcasting Network was renamed as PTV- 4 (People’s Television). 

The most recent development in local free TV is the 2010 establishment of TV5. Owned by business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan, the ABC Development Corporation took over the National Broadcasting Corporation, which used to run Channel 41, also known as MTV Asia.