radio memories...

[sirloin_steak]

is it lunch time that the results of listener votes would be tallied?

that's right, man...the legendary "top 20 at 12" countdown...this was, definitely, the triggerman's trademark show on LS for God-knows-how-many years until the ill-fated reformat to "barangay LS forever!"...

[Jay P. Mercado]

Believe it or not, the so-called "legendary Top 20 at 12" isn't a DWLS / Triggerman original. Everything was copied, including the jingle, from the authentic Top 20 at 12 of 101.1 KISS-FM (DWKS-FM) back in 1986. The jingle was done specifically for KISS-FM which explains why it sounds "bitin" - simply because it was spliced and didn't include the KISS-FM id.

Back in early 1986, KISS-FM was the first radio station in Philippine FM history to have a daily countdown of requested hits. 99.5RT used to have an annual countdown where they played the top 99 songs at the end of the year. But no one back then did a daily countdown. Until KISS innovated this idea. They came out with a Top 10 at 10 where the Top 10 requested songs are aired at 10PM. They actually even announced the number of requests made, practically authenticating their countdown. And they also give listeners a chance to win gift prizes if they can guess the number one song for the day. At that time, Fresh Plus (another toothpaste brand from Colgate Palmolive) was an exclusive sponsor of the countdown for nearly a year.

KISS' innovation was fantastic because on June 12, 1986, a day devoted for all OPM music, they actually continued the daily countdown but focusing only on the requested local hits. That meant some old APO songs being included in the countdown. The #1 song? Martin Nievera's first tagalog single, Ikaw Ang Lahat Sa Akin, released just about that time as well. Sonny Zee hosted the daily show.

The tabulated daily results were condensed and reported on a weekly countdown on Saturday at 12NN appropriately called The Top 20 at 12. Hosting this show was either Jeremiah Junior, Vince St. Price or George Boone.

[sirloin_steak]

^^ you're right, jay...

i was surprised to learn from jimmy jam--who, i'm sure you know, used to be with KISS himself--that the "top 20 at 12" title and stingers came from KISS, not originally from LS...that was during one time when we were just "sound-tripping" on his old airchecks from KISS that he brought with him to LS...

ang galing naman nung ginawa na yun ng KISS for their countdown--talagang bilang na bilang nila yung requests...i'm sure, given an internet-less, computer-less world inside a radio more than 20 years ago, that would've been a pain to tabulate both daily and weekly! i mean, i've always wondered what were the behind-the-scenes in an FM radio countdown...

so when did LS start using "the top 20 at 12" as their countdown title? i'm assuming they didn't really have a countdown prior to that, did they?

nabanggit mo rin yung how KISS devoted june 12 entirely to OPM...it kinda reminds me of how WKC did something similar back in their mike enriquez and bobby ante-managed days called "araw ng kalayaan, araw ng kalokohan"...that was the only time of the year when the KC DJs like super mitch, happy louie, hill billy willy and dr. buddy bryan would speak in filipino entirely, and even change their on-air handles just for one day into something more, uh, nationalistic...yung kay dr. buddy bryan na lang yung naaalala ko na on-air handle every june 12: he was alternately called "bryang magiliw" on that day. :P

[Jay P. Mercado]

Tabulations were done manually, and I mean, manually...but the figures were quite accurate. I remember the June 12 countdown vividly because IALSA garnered more than 650 votes to place first overall for that day (taken between 6AM to 9PM). That was the most number of requests made for a number one song for that year, if I'm not mistaken. Their very first number one song though was OMD's "If You Leave" for two nights only to be overtaken by Madonna's "Live To Tell" which ruled the next 3 weekdays...

I'm not familiar when LS actually started their countdown. Suffice to say though that they did that sometime in the early 90's. When I heard the jingle the first time at LS, I knew it was knocked up from KISS as it didn't even include the jingle and instead, edited with LS' own (magkaiba lang nga tono).

Back in the mid-80's, it was common for radio stations like KC, KS, even RT, RK, FM and LL to play all OPM on June 12. I don't exactly know who pioneered this but it was quite fun to listen to, especially for this OPM fan. Short to say that these radio stations made the day more special as they tried to dish out their exclusive OPM in their libraries.

[roadwarrior]

i know i'm older than most of you because I was listening devotedly to AM radio as a pre-adolescent in the early 70s.

My favorite station then? The old DWKW 1386 khz (radio station of the old IBC-13) with Robert D' Lion, Bambi Fonacier, Long Tall Howard, Bingo Lacson, Vic Salta and i know i'm forgetting someone else (the sign-on guy). Vic Salta (who was on 9-12 mn) used to break most of the hits from the massive Dyna catalogue being one of the record company's managers.

Their chief rivals then were the old DWBL (which moved mostly to WKC), DZXQ (with Divine Pascual), DZBM, DWIZ and of course, the original Rock of Manila DZRJ.

KW, I felt were the predecessors of DWRT-FM in terms of format because they were fastest with breaking new stuff back then.

And did you know that I first head AT40 with Casey Kasem in the summer of 1975 on RJ? It was there for three years before moving to RT...

[sirloin_steak]

^^ tama, roadwarrior...i used to see ads for DZRJ's broadcast of AT40 on jingle during those days...they had a plethora of sponsors for the show back then...

though i think i also saw on later issues of jingle (mga siguro '79 or '80, thereabouts) that AT40 was also with WXB for a while--may mga ads din sila for it on the magazine...tama ba ako rito?

alam 'nyo, jay and roadwarrior, i noticed that the head honchos at the old broadcast city seemed to have a thing for the letter "W" in their stations' call signs, ha...for example, as roadwarrior mentioned, IBC's DWKW (which used to be, as i read in some older newspapers, under RPN before and during martial law)...speaking of RPN, they had DWWW (whose frequency president cory sequestered and gave--or was it, technically "gave back"?--to ABS-CBN and became DZMM). BBC-2 naman had DWWK-FM (which later became DWOK with an AM-like music/personality format in '85, i read, with helen vela...WRR na siya ngayon), DWWA (with inday badiday; later became DWAN as IBC's AM station, now under the MMDA), and much, much earlier (when the BBC network started using the old ABS-CBN frequencies after martial law), they had DWWK-AM and DWWO (the first station, i believe, to use the name "campus radio")...tapos some of their provincial radio stations had call signs like DWDW (in dagupan) and DWNW (in naga)...their call sign pa nga for channel 2 (which is still being used by ABS-CBN today) is DWWX-TV. but tv is another story (hehehe).

para ring si "uncle bob" stewart, who had a thing naman for repeating letters in his call signs, like DZBB, DZXX (which was RBS/GMA's AM music station before they opened LS in '76), DYSS in cebu and DYOO in iloilo (which became DYXX, then DYSI when the RGMA AM network became "super radyo")...

wala lang, naaliw lang ako dun. hehehe. :P

[Jay P. Mercado]

The AT 40 countdown by Casey Kasem indeed was hosted by Magic Disco 102 DWXB-FM sometime circa 1977-1979. RT, I believe, secured the Billboard AT 40 countdown in the latter part of 1979.

The XB jocks back then were Triggerman, King George, Friendly DJ, Jesse Gonzales, and Lady Love. Those were the disco days, when a plethora of dance hits were played at XB. From Gloria Gaynor to The Raes to VST & Company to Passionata, it was all fast-paced music for XB back then...

DWWK 101.9 was the Jazz Authority back in the 80's. It became DWOK-FM and later became DWKO-FM (Home of the Knockout Hits) when ABS-CBN reassumed the mantle in 1986. They later reformatted and became ZOO 101.9 featuring Peter Rabbit, The Unbeatable, Big O' Brian, Bob Curry, George Boone, Jeremiah Junior among others. Quite an impressive roster indeed. They eventually reformatted once more in 1989 and became DWRR (Radio Romance)...

[sirloin_steak]

DWWK 101.9 was the Jazz Authority back in the 80's. It became DWOK-FM and later became DWKO-FM (Home of the Knockout Hits) when ABS-CBN reassumed the mantle in 1986. They later reformatted and became ZOO 101.9 featuring Peter Rabbit, The Unbeatable, Big O' Brian, Bob Curry, George Boone, Jeremiah Junior among others.

mukhang impressive nga, indeed...i was already young enough to listen to the radio when 101.9 became ZOO, but i never really listened to it (i was weaned on AM radio, plus a bit of LS and DWLL pa that time. hehehe...)...however, looking at the DJ line-up, in effect, ZOO pala became home to voices that would eventually be heard on TV: four who became TV network VOs (peter rabbit for ABS-CBN, big o'brian for PTV-4 in the '90s, george boone for ABC when he started kool 106 there, and the unbeatable for RPN), plus jeremiah junior who has voiced a lot of ads...

now i understand why, in some ABS-CBN TV plug (welcoming a new addition to their roster of stars, i think) i remember seeing a few years ago, korina sanchez appeared there saying, "welcome to the zoo!" (with "the zoo" apparently referring to the network)...that frequency now known as "alam mo na 'yan!" has got some good history behind it, too, carried over from its years under the broadcast city multi-network ownership...

speaking of george boone, jay...i read in one of your posts sa "in memoriam: 99.5 RT" thread na he had a TV show on GMA called "music watch" which was simulcast on LS...that kinda reminded me of another music video show back in the early days of the "new" channel 5 back in '92 called "KTV"...pagkakatanda ko, it was an afternoon show, which was also simulcast on kool 106, i think...i can't remember, though, kung si george boone din mismo nag-host nun or someone else (or if they even had a host at all)...but i'm assuming that, since he doubled as kool's station manager back then, he brought that "music watch" concept to ABC television too...

[sirloin_steak]

My favorite station then? The old DWKW 1386 khz (radio station of the old IBC-13) with Robert D' Lion, Bambi Fonacier, Long Tall Howard, Bingo Lacson, Vic Salta and i know i'm forgetting someone else (the sign-on guy). Vic Salta (who was on 9-12 mn) used to break most of the hits from the massive Dyna catalogue being one of the record company's managers.

ma-off topic lang ako nang kaunti...

roadwarrior, si bambi fonacier din nga ba 'yung host ng show na 'to, on this video taken off youtube?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaIh0GVznhY

i wasn't actually born early enough to see "odyssey 2" (this was probably around 1978, based on some old tv times issues i once kept)...but it was good seeing some REALLY old pinoy television stuff like that...

[Jay P. Mercado]

Bambi Fonacier is the operator of Odyssey Records here. I haven't watched the link you sent but I assume he's the same guy. He's relatively slender, has a high yet husky voice (parang contradicting but that was how he sounded) and was a tv staple along with Brother Wayne back in the 80's.

Regarding Boone, he now manages 4 musical personalities - The Bloomfields, Migs Escueta, Ackafellas and the newly-formed all female group Geraldines. He also does corporate training for various call centers in Metro Manila.

George was also the voice over of GMA 7 when he was still in DWLS-FM back then. He also did the voice over at GMA Supershow, then the Sunday noontime show of the network. When he moved to ABS-CBN in 1987 and opened ZOO, he was ABS' original voice over announcer until he relinquished this to Peter Musngi (Rabbit) who to date does the VO for the network. When he started at KOOL, he also did the VO for ABC 5 until he turned this over to Arvee Villamarzo (The Raven).

Yes, that's KTV (or KOOL TV), a spin-off of what he originally conceptualized back in 1984 with MUSIC WATCH at GMA. It was the very first time when Stereo Vision was done in the country and this was courtesy of DWLS and GMA 7. I believe this came every Monday evening at 7:30PM, right after News At 7, the GMA primetime news show. Because of George's innate ability to do music mixing (honed when he was doing DJ work for Where Else? Disco at the Hotel Intercontinental and Malacañang Disco back in the Marcos days), he also made it possible to intersperse the video and the audio through mixing. It was an innovation back then when everyone thought video mixing was improbable. He brought this to ABC 5 when he opened KOOL 106. George is basically responsible for opening and conceptualizing radio stations KISS-FM (arguably one of the best pop radio stations in FM history), ZOO 101.9 and KOOL 106.

From that original ZOO cast, Joe D' Mango, then an upstart for Magic 89.9 DWTM, was seriously considered to be part of the Hayop Talaga team. Mango (or Roland Sulit in real life) was then the hottest property of FM radio, having won the Coca-Cola sponsored DJ competitions over This Is It, a Sunday afternoon show of RPN 9 back in 1986. This was how Sulit was discovered - he won the competition handily (with George as the chairman of the board of judges in the finals) and was signed into a contract by Bernie Buenaseda and the Quest group. Because of his reputation, Mango was easily sought out, and George took great interest in him. Too bad though that Sulit decided to stay with Magic, although it may have actually been a good move for him as he eventually became the station manager for three radio stations owned by the Vera group - JAM, WAVE and the defunct HEART-FM.

[oic]

pasali ha...

i still remember the live stage shows the radio programs/stations do before when i was still very young!

i remember the late JOHNNY DELEON with VIC MORALES & NGONGO doing these!

di ko na matandaan what station that was. but the 3 of them moved on to DWWW 630kHz.

then i remember johnny deleon passed away and was replaced by ROD NAVARRO. NOLI "BOY" DE CASTRO, JOE TARUC and more were also on that station which was RPN 9's am radio.

i still remember VIC MORALES will open the station with his show about agriculture yata yun? then ROD NAVARRO with JOE TARUC doing the morning talk show and the news(eveready balita) during weekdays.

and "BEINTE KWATRO ORAS" yata yung ke VIC MORALES pag weekends with "NOLI LINGGO" of NOLI DECASTRO during sundays.

[sirloin_steak]

hey, oic! no prob! now we're getting even farther by decade...nagsimula sa '90s, tapos sa '70s and '80s, thanks to jay's impressive memory space (hehehe...peace! :P)...now we move a little bit to the '60s pa...

johnny de leon was one of the signature voices of the pre-martial law ABS-CBN, i read (particularly from the book "kapitan")...kumbaga, he was to the '60s and '70s what veep de castro was to the '80s and '90s: the most listened-to voice of the masa audience pagdating sa news/commentary...he and his show "lundagin mo, baby!" was with ABS-CBN's DZXL--he was the network's highest-paid radio announcer then, and his show, a certified top-rater...kung hindi ako nagkakamali, kanyang show din 'ata yung "operetang putul-putol", which was a springboard for a lot of personalities like richard merck, vilma santos and nora aunor...

then came martial law, and the subsequent closure of ABS, kaya nagkalat ang kanilang mga talents sa bawat network...johnny de leon was one of those who moved to KBS/RPN back then, along with a big bulk of ABS-CBN radio/TV personalities like rod navarro, dolphy, vilma santos, tony santos sr., sylvia la torre, etc.

maisingit ko lang din 'to...i found out, thanks to hanging out waaaay too many times at the ateneo library (the microfilm and filipiniana sections, in particular), that RPN's logo back in the early '70s had a kinda-sorta-medyo-may-pagka-resemblance to the world-famous CBS "eye" logo, 'cept that in RPN's version, it's an eye within a bigger eye na nakapaloob naman sa isang square frame, with a horizontal line running through the middle...navi-visualize nyo ba? hehehe. :P

anyway...RPN, in its "glory days", had two AM stations in manila back then: DWWW ("superadio 128" 1280khz, which later moved to 620khz after the KBS network moved into the ABS-CBN studios, then later 630khz when the space between manila AM stations became 36khz) and DWKW ("music radio" 600khz, which acquired the 1280khz frequency of WW, and later becoming part of the IBC network)...

[sirloin_steak]

George was also the voice over of GMA 7 when he was still in DWLS-FM back then. He also did the voice over at GMA Supershow, then the Sunday noontime show of the network. When he moved to ABS-CBN in 1987 and opened ZOO, he was ABS' original voice over announcer until he relinquished this to Peter Musngi (Rabbit) who to date does the VO for the network. When he started at KOOL, he also did the VO for ABC 5 until he turned this over to Arvee Villamarzo (The Raven).

7 (-) 2 (=) 5...ayos! hehehe...just playing around with the subtraction thing, the way "eat bulaga" did when they promoted their transfer to GMA ("9 - 2 = 7", depicting the networks where they've aired)...hehehe...but i digress. :P

anyway...you know, i first got to listen to george boone only when he started up kool 106 with eric caine, joel domino, sonny z., etc., and when he was subsequently ABC TV's voiceover...he became one of my favorite DJs back then, kasi nagustuhan ko mainly yung timbre ng boses niya...having never heard his voice (at least consciously), though, during his years on GMA and ABS-CBN, i will always associate george boone with ABC and the original kool 106 from 15 years ago...

a spin-off of what he originally conceptualized back in 1984 with MUSIC WATCH at GMA. It was the very first time when Stereo Vision was done in the country and this was courtesy of DWLS and GMA 7. I believe this came every Monday evening at 7:30PM, right after News At 7, the GMA primetime news show.

this, too...i never knew until now that GMA radio/TV had an innovation of this sort back in the '80s, thanks to george boone...i had always thought that the first-ever GMA radio/TV simulcast was "kape at balita" (a DZBB news/talk show with bobby guanzon and jessica soho)...astig naman pala ang LS even back in the day...

From that original ZOO cast, Joe D' Mango, then an upstart for Magic 89.9 DWTM, was seriously considered to be part of the Hayop Talaga team. Mango (or Roland Sulit in real life) was then the hottest property of FM radio, having won the Coca-Cola sponsored DJ competitions over This Is It, a Sunday afternoon show of RPN 9 back in 1986.

i also saw on nostalgiamanila.blogspot.com (a great read, by the way, especially if we're reminiscing like this) na joe d'mango had ventured into TV quite early in his career--nabasa ko na he also used to host this computer game show on the old BBC-2 called "tv pow!"...tama ba?

[Jay P. Mercado]

Hmmm...that I wouldn't recall pare. Roland Sulit was discovered in 1985 after winning the Coke DJ competitions over This Is It using his gifted wit, creativity and ability to relate to what his listeners want to hear. TV Pow was a game show then on BBC 2 in the early 80's and hosted by Bambi Fonacier himself. Note that BBC 2's FM radio was DWWK-FM, where Fonacier was the station manager. There were other DJ's who hosted this game show, actually a game capsule only since it only took around 5 minutes to finish but held nearly on a per hour basis. I wouldn't know if Sulit once upon a time tried hosting this since if he did, he would only be in his teens by then.

KOOL 106 was similarly an innovation for it was one of the first pop radio stations back then to play music of the 70's, 80's and 90's. When everyone else was programming their playlist featuring current and recurrent hits with one or two oldies in the clock, KOOL had a great music mix of around 4 70's, 4 80's and 4 present songs in one hour. Their original DJ cast included Eric Caine, Sonny Zee, D*ck Reese with Joel Domino, Martin Gill, and The Raven coming in a few months after. Victoria was their on-board newscaster along with Gidget Alikpala.

While I concede that RT has probably the best battery of ex-DJ's in its history, KISS-FM probably had the best composition of jocks who worked at the same time. Get a load of this fantastic list: Jeremiah Junior, George Boone, Eric Caine, Jiggy (undisputedly one of the finest ever although he wasn't that known), Vince St. Price, Sonny Zee and D*ck Reese. The first 4 were the pioneers with George running the station. The 5th jock in that team was former RJ stalwart Stoney Burke. When Burke left, St. Price and Zee came in. Reese eventually joined the team after a few months. Probably the most formidable lineup of DJ's assembled in one radio station.

KISS was a trendsetter, and probably one of the biggest reasons why RT suffered a cutback in listenership among the upper classes. Their programming was exceptional as they didn't go head-on against RT when it came to playing AT 40 music, but instead, focused on other tracks that were doing well outside the AT 40 countdown. A cult following was established in cream schools of Metro Manila - from Ateneo to DLSU to Assumption to UP to Maryknoll - they had a fan base that are fickle-minded but surprisingly became loyal listeners of KISS. They also made a DJ out of superstar Martin Nievera back then without paying him a single dime. Nievera personally volunteered to join the KISS Air Force and his program was on Saturdays from 2 to 4PM (right after the Top 20 at 12). By the way, when the Top 20 at 12 was launched, the first song to hit number one in the countdown was Amie Stewart's Friends. The daily Top 10 at 10 had OMD's If You Leave as the first #1 but since the former was launched a few months after the nightly countdown, Friends earned the distinction of being the first ever #1 song in the weekly KISS charts.

Similarly, KISS was the first radio station which played the disco favorite "You To Me Are Everything" by The Real Thing. Of course, this wasn't a radio premiere since the song initially came out in 1976. However, KISS ventured into playing this song once more and find out if this would be palatable to the listeners. Hence, at the stroke of midnight, Sonny Zee unveiled the track which got an incredible amount of positive feedback, catapulting the song to #6 the next day in the daily countdown. It became #1 after two more days.

[oic]

let's go back to VIC MORALES for a while ha.

he was station manager of DWWW(KBS-RPN) 630kHz from as far as i can remember till the EDSA revolt.

he was also the voice over announcer of various INDAY BADIDAY's showbiz talk show like "SEE TRUE"(IBC 13) and some more that i forgot. will edit as soon as i remember...

do you remember....

BUZZ! BUZZ!....
ate luds: "yes, vic?"
VIC MORALES: "ah, inday, meron tayong phone-in question para ke....(celebrity guest's name)!" hehehe

he also won a PATAS Award for best game show co-host for "KWARTA O KAHON" with PEPE PIMENTEL as his host against Gil Billy Willy and Jean Young of SPIN-A-WIN.

he was called "KALISKIS" or "KALISKIS MANOK" due to his very dry, chipping off skin on his legs.

he STILL has a radio program nowadays called "MINSAN MAY ISANG AWIT" on a newly revived DWWW 774kHz weekdays 6pm(not sure) onwards.

[oic]

he was sidelined pala for sometime around mid 90's kasi he got sick.

[agent_2_be]

^^ I was reading the posts from the start at kung di mo ginawang bold yun Vic Morales, di ko mapapansin na Vic, I was thinking Vicky Morales that's why I get confused dun sa maga naunang posts. Btw, are they related?

[agent_2_be]

Ako din laking DZRH! pero hanggang 12 lang.. I remember Joe Taruc, Deo Macalma, Lola Selang bungangera, Gil Brasil, sino pa ba... Naiinis pa ko dati sa portion ni Deo Macalma na "ayon sa aking bubwit.." na puro greetings, tapos di naman nya sasabihin kung sino talaga, hehe.. bata pa ko nun kaya nahirapan akong pagdugtungin ang mga clues dahil di ko pa maintindihan ang iba.

Nakikinig din kami ng mga drama simula 10 ng umaga. Naalala ko yung 'matud nila,' 'eto ang inyong..tiya dely,' 'gulong ng palad,' 'chibugan na!' atbp. Pinapatay na ang radyo pagdating ng 8pm kasi 'gabi ng lagim na.' Naalala ko na tatakbuhin ko pa ang radyo para patayin dahil super matatakutin ako at ayokong maririnig ang intro nun.

Yan eh sa probinsya pa, walang FM at TV. Now, I don't get to listen to DZRH anymore kasi DZMM na lagi ang nanay ko.

Dahil nasanay sa talk-radio, kaya padting sa FM, mas gusto ko yung may nagsasalita. Kaya nagustuhan ko ang RX kasabay na rin ng pagmellow ko sa pakikinig ng balita.

Namiss ko rin yung RX jingle. Sayang di ko narecord. For me mas ok din nung nasa Sun-Mon pa ang monster's riot kasi prang relaxed ka at the start of the week, though di ko alam yung ibang songs kasi may mga 70's at early 80's pa.

Before RX, we used to listen to other stations too, like LS, WKC, Kool 106, basta me countdown pinapakinggan naming magkakapatid. We used to record some songs too! Maiinis kami pag ngasalita na yung DJ ng di pa tapos yung song.

pahabol, naalala ko rin pala yung 'tanghalan ng kampeon' - singing contest sa radyo dati.

[oic]

^^ I was reading the posts from the start at kung di mo ginawang bold yun Vic Morales, di ko mapapansin na Vic, I was thinking Vicky Morales that's why I get confused dun sa maga naunang posts.

Btw, are they related?

nope, they're NOT at all related.

yun din question ko noon e. hehehe

[oic]

i remember the late JOHNNY DELEON with VIC MORALES & NGONGO!

naalala ko tuloy yung....

MATAAN MANAMITH!!!! (bataan matamis!)

and AFAIK, sila ang nag umpisa ng mga me alagang "INSEKTO"!

as a number of... ehem excuse me, mentally incapacitated (tama ba yung choice of word?) people were given exclusive passes and oftenly hang out in the studio.