Broadcast Media

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. 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 theadvocates 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, 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. Film History While there is a long prehistory of filmmaking and many inventors staking claim to the development of motion picture cameras, the first large screen projected film is credited to French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiĕre, who debuted a short film entitled “La Sortie de l’Usine Lumiére àLyon” (“Workers Leaving the Lumiére Factory in Lyon”) at Grand Café of Paris in December 1895. Meanwhile, in the United States, Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, has projects of his own. Not to be out done by the French, he invested in Thomas Armat’s and Charles Francis Jenkins’s projection machine invention. Films by Lumiére and Edison simply depicted regular everyday events as they unfold. It took a French magician George Méliés, the first filmmaker, to incorporate special effects and use actors in his film. For example, in his 1896 film, “Escamotage d’une dame chez Robert-Houdlin” (“The Vanishing Lady”), Méliés stopped the camera and substituted a skeleton for a woman. He was the first one to bring fantasy, science fiction, horror, and dark comedy to the cinema; and he was the first to begin writing scripts with actors, instead of shooting real-life events. In the Philippines, the first film to be shown in the country were composed of local scenes shot by Spanish filmmaker Antonio Ramos, using the Lumiére technology in January 1897 at the Salon de Pertierra in Manila. But most of the films in the early 1900s were imports from the United States. These films helped show Filipinos the American way of life. There were also local films produced by the Americans. For example, filmmakers like Joe Rosenthal and Raymond Ackerman produced documentaries about the Taal Volcano eruption in 1911 and the fiesta at Obando. The first Filipino feature film was “La vida de Jose Rizal” (The Life of Jose Rizal), produced by American Harry Brown. The production used actors from the zarzuela companies. The first Filipino filmmakers were brothers Jose and Jesus Nepomuceno, known as the founders of Philippine cinema. In 1917, the Nepomucenos bought film equipment from Albert Yearsley and Edward Meyer Gross. After two (2) years of experimentation, they produced the first Filipino silent film entitled “Dalagang Bukid” (Country Girl), an adaptation of Hermogenes Ilagan’s zarzuela of the same title. To play the part, he got the original zarzuela actors, with Atang de la Rama in the title role. Unfortunately, this film was not preserved and is lost to us forever.

The oldest film with an existing copy is “Zamboanga”, produced in 1936 by Philippine Films. The film was directed by Marvin Gardner, using the screen name Eduardo De Castro, and produced by Americans Eddie Tait and George Harris. Intendedfor American audiences, it starred Fernando Poe, Sr. The film was also thought to be lost, but in 2004, local filmmaker Nick de Ocampo found it in the archives of the US Library of Congress. The film’s official synopsis reads:

In the shores of Sulu lives the sea-faring king tribe that
is rules by Daru Tanbuong. His granddaughter, Minda
(played by Rosa del Rosario) is bethrothed to be married
to danao (played by Fernando Poe, Sr.), who is a
handsome young pearl fisher who presents a handful of
impressive pearls to the datu. However, a visitor to
Danao and Minda’s wedding celebration is Hadji Razul,
a chief of another tribe who has feelings for Minda. He
then solicited the help of a renegade American captain
to abduct Minda. Minda was abducted, and tribal war
ensued. In the end, Danao kills Hdji Razul, and the film
ends with Minds and Danao sailing into the sunset.
There are two (2) famous film companies that ushered in the golden age of Philippine cinema after World War II. These were LVN Pictures and Sampaguita Pictures.LVN Pictures was formed in 1938 by three (3) families: the De Leons (L), the Villoncos (V), and the Navoas (N). Considered the first Filipina film mogul, Doña Narcisa de Leon served as its president and executive producer. Eventually, due to the uninvolvement of the Villonco and Navoa families, she bought their shares, which made LVN a De Leon family company. Its first film was the 1930 box-office hit musical GiliwKO, starring Ely Ramos, Fernando Poe, Sr., Mona Lisa, and Mila del Sol.LVN produced the first Filipino colored film, “Ibong Adarna”, directed by Vicente Salumbides. The color sequence of the film – the singing of the bird – was painstakingly hand colored. The film company is best known for its epic films during local cinema’s golden age: a remake of “Ibong Adarna” (1955); “Lapu-lapu” (1955); “Badjao” (1956), “Anak Dalita” (1957), and “Biyaya ng Lupa” (1959).Sampaguita Pictures was also a family-owned company established in the last quarter of 1937. Dr. Jose Perez of the Vera-Perez family ran its operations. Its first feature film was “Bituing Marikit”, starring Elsa Oria and Rogelio dela Rosa, and was a box-office hit. Sampaguita Pictures is known for its war pictures, such as “Guerilyera” (1946); and musicals such as “Bulaklak na Walang Pangalan” and “Huwag Ka ng Magtampo,” with real-life husband and wife Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran. Sampaguita Pictures discovered some of the country’s biggest screen luminaries such as Gloria Romero, Susan Roces, and Nora Aunor. The company shutdown due to financial constraints in the 1980s, with Mike De Leon’s classic
Batch ’81 as its last film.

Reference:
Khan, R. E. (2015). Media and Information Literacy Handbook.
In R. E. Khan, Media and Information Literacy
Handbook (p. 8. Mandaluyong City: Anvil Publishing
Inc.