Philippine Radio Stations Changes Roundup
April 5, 2008 by dragon
In this age of Ipods and MP3 downloads, people can't be blamed for tuning away from the radio scene. You can now even listen to the radio while in the internet at eradioportal. Well, a lot of changes in the past decade! In the past decade, some stations did not survive even after trying so much to appeal to the masses.
Stations catering to Pang Masa
- 91.5 Energy FM – In 1998, KY 91 5 became K91 FM playing mainly novelty and pop music.In October 2003, Ultrasonic Broadcasting System acquired the FM operations of MBSI, and DWKY-FM was relaunched under a new name, 91.5 Energy FM. In April 2008, listeners bade goodbye to 91.5 Energy FM and went off the air and signed off for the last time, the station is now currently inactive.
- 90.3 Energy FM – Virtually the same as 91.5 was, but this station is in Dagupan.
- 97.1 Barangay LS – On February 14, 2007, listeners bade goodbye to Campus Radio 97.1 WLS-FM as RGMA, through its head Mike Enriquez, launched 97.1 Barangay LS Forever! Its format is comparable to that of 90.7 Love Radio, 101.9 For Life!, Yes FM 101.1, I-FM 93.9, 102.7 Star FM and Energy FM 91.5 with on-air personalities speaking only in Tagalog (especially the timechecks), and playing bubblegum pop, OPM and other mass-based music forms and music popularized by GMA's stable of recording artists, a 100% turnaround from the former Campus Radio format that played Top 40/adult contemporary hit music, English-only on-air jocks, and its listener base composed mostly of college students and young urban professionals. By January 16, 2008, almost all of the station's current jocks who were also from the former Campus Radio format, and after years of loyal service to the GMA Network, were summarily dismissed by Mike Enriquez and replaced unceremoniously by jocks from RGMA provincial radio stations as well as jocks from other masa stations. Choosing to ignore the veteran staff's improving ratings, Enriquez deemed them unfit to take the format to number one overall in the masa ratings game.
Stations Catering to Upper Masa group
- 93.9 IFM – DWKC 93.9 MHz was known as 93.9 WKC a C-D-E market radio station with famous taglines including "We are family". It was managed by Mike Enriquez, at that time known as "Michael Baby". 93.9 WKC operations were at the Philcomcen Bldg. in Ortigas Center Pasig. Reformatted to "Live it up!" 939 KCFM , now catering to the A-B market, DWKC featured Chico and Delamar (previously from Monster Radio RX 93.1) Reformatted back to a C-D-E market radio station, known as 93.9 iFM Pwede!, it is headed by Fred M. Davis who was responsible for making 102.7 Star FM and YES! FM successful stations.
Stations catering to Pang Masa Pop Music College/Teen Segment
- 95.5 – In 1992, Eagle Broadcasting Corporation renamed it to Pinoy Radio DM 955 (ninety-five-five). Its format was all pinoy music or OPM. In 2002, Eagle Broadcasting Corporation renamed it to simply DM 95.5 (adding the "point"; therefore ninety five point five) and regenerated itself into a pop music station playing oldies on weekends. It has ceased transmission since the beginning of 2007 apparently to upgrade its transmitter facilities. Around May 2007 it briefly returned in the airwaves on a lower bandwidth and limited broadcast hours, only on daytime. However, since June it has not returned on the air since. DM 95.5 will resume broadcasting around early April 2008
- 99.5 Campus Radio – Formerly catering to the elite segment, 99.5 Hit FM (DWRT) is now changing it's station ID taking over the them of GMA's 97.1 Campus Radio, they now known as 99.5 Campus FM. Campus Radio resurrected as 99.5 Campus FM on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008, with most of the disk-jockeys coming from 97.1 Barangay LS (formerly Campus Radio 97.1) who were summarily dismissed by Mike Enriquez and replaced unceremoniously by jocks from RGMA provincial radio stations as well as jocks from other masa stations. The terminated jocks resurfaced on Easter Sunday at 99.5 Campus FM, replacing 99.5 Hit FM. Meanwhile, as of April 2008, Mike Enriquez's new 97.1 Barangay LS management and DJ's suffered a devastating drop in ratings from a progressive #4 overall in December of 2007 to an embarrassing #6 in March of 2008.
- edit add 12/18/2008: On the afternoon of August 14 2008 at 4:00 pm, the management abruptly discontinued Campus 99.5, due to management difficulties. The station then switched to an automated all-music format with only pre-recorded station ID's played intermittently between songs. The BrewRats program continued on its usual schedule until August 21 & went on a one week hiatus. Around August 24, a new set of stingers announced that the new station brand will be premiered in days.
- On September 1, 2008 at 6 am, after two weeks of automated music programming, the station resumed its broadcast under the resurrected name 99.5 RT. Joshua Z was the first DJ to go on board that morning, followed by other jocks who have worked with the frequency's three incarnations (mostly from the RT roster and HiT and one from Campus). The station is now using its old and familiar slogan, "The Rhythm Of The City". The playlist is somewhat similar to that of RT under the helm of the Tuasons, while the programming resembles that of the 90s RT and HiT FM.
- 93.1 Monster Radio RX 93.1 DWRX 93.1 – retained virtually its same format for over 10 years, but adding more talk and more DJ hunt quest to disassociate itself further from other pang masa stations. Changes were heavy in the disc jockey revolving door. Morning Rush segment partners Chico Garcia and Delamar left RX for 93.9. This was the time when 93.9 ditched its jokey wkc format to attempt to go sosyal. This was later ditched again and the morning rush jocks went back to RX. Sadly, most of the mainstream jocks have gone, and eventually, my favorite Boom Gonzales even left for magic 89.9. Leaving only the other staple jock in the form of Louie D, their Station Manager. My favorite is Monster's Riot, now on Wednesdays (previously on Mondays), where they play some 90's and mostly 80s and 70s all day!
- 89.9 Magic – Magic 89.9 became the first home of "Love Notes", to what was initially conceptualized as a gimmick, the 15 minute counseling program hosted by Joe D'Mango became an instant hit among office staff every Friday morning. It transferred its home to its sister station Wave 89.1 in 2001. It is always known for making Fridays nostalgia days with its Friday Madness (then Friday Magic Madness), a format that started a trend on FM radio that was previously only done on a weekend.
Mo Twister, after four years in hiatus, returned to Magic 89.9, with Good Times With Mo (Limited Edition). It was so good, that he returned again in February 2006 with Good Times With Mo, then a late night show. In June 2006, it was transferred to the morning slot (6-9 AM) with Mo's co-hosts Andi-9 (resigned in February 2007,returned in June 2007, and left again on November 2007) and Mojo Jojo. Andi's replacement is now Grace Lee.
JAZZ, R&B, Chillax Adult Contemporary Alternative. Easy Listening
- 88.3 JAM – went off the air 2003 to cater to a larger more advertiser-friendly audience. It was reformatted in mid-2003 Jam 88.3 was originally launched as an "easy listening pop" station. The radio format has since developed into a mixture of music from several music genres, namely Pop , Adult Contemporary and Alternative.Within a year of launching, the station quickly established itself as a popular trend-setting station in The Philippines with unique programs and segments.Jam has a reputation for discovering new talent and music. It is largely recognized in the Philippine music industry for starting the Acoustic music trend of 2003 and 2004. The station is also credited for propelling the return to prominence of OPM ( Original Pilipino Music ) beginning in 2005.
- 89.1 Wave – Wave 89.1 began regular operations shortly after March 1, 2001,after Quest, through a government-sponsored bidding, won the rights to the frequency and the facilities of the defunct and sequestered DZMZ (Danze Muzic Zone 89 DMZ, then owned by Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation). They now play R&B, and I think still retain Joe
D Mango's Love notes (who originally came from 89.9. - 92.3 XFM – In 1975, 92.3 moved to the FM and adopted the MRS format – "Most Requested Song" which featured soft pop, ballads, fairly adult contemporary. MRS 92.3 quickly became one of the top rated stations on FM and kept that distinction throughout most of its life, MRS was one of a handful of FM stations in Manila that defined the very popular adult contemporary format for a long time. MRS was replaced by "Joey" in 1998. On Easter Sunday, 08 April, 2007 at exactly 12:01AM, 92.3 became "xFM. The New Equation for Good Music". Playing ambient, chill, down-tempo, electronica, house, lounge, trip-hop and indie music – music more at home in clubs than radio. On February 2008 they changed format back to "Smooth Jazz", thus reverting it to the same format as it had before (as 923 Joey). 92.3 xFM has been rebranded into XFM 92.3 and adopted the slogan "Light N Up!" XFM 92.3 that target the adult listeners. Coupled with R & B and contemporary pop favorites.
- 103.5 Max FM – In November of 2006, the management of K-Lite decided to reformat and reorganize the station. In December of the same year, it was relaunched as Heart 103.5 with new on-air personalities. On June 19, 2007, at exactly 9:00 pm, 103.5 was again reformatted, changing their name to 103 1/2 Max FM, which sounds more mature akin to adult contemporary.
Radio stations that have more or less stuck to their images and catered audience over the past decade include pang masa stations YES! FM DWYS 101.1, 102.7 Star FM, Rock alternative NU 107 DWNU 107.5, Light rock stations Mellow 947, 96.3 WRocK DWRK 96.3, Home Radio DWQZ 97.9, Ramon Jacinto's oldies themed RJ 100 DZRJ-FM 100.3 and his Rock station RJ Underground Radio 105.9 DWLA 105.9, Easy Listening Rhythm Jazz and Bossa station 105.1 Crossover DWBM 105.1,
Other off-pop stations include Christian Values Themed Master's Touch 98.7 DZFE 98.7, less talk more music station 107.9 U Radio DZUR 107.9 which plays ambient and house,
There is also 104.3 Business Radio DWBR 104.3, who positioned its programming line-up towards the A, B, & C markets, with the sub-niche towards the “baby boomer” generation or those with ages 40 to 60. Most of the listeners of the station are business leaders. They have a live reporter with a booth at the Tektite Branch of the Philippine Stock Exchange Center in Pasig, who broadcasts stock updates from 9:00 a.m. to 12:10 noon when the market closes.
With some sources from wiki sites:
88.3 · 89.1 · 89.9 · 90.7 · 91.5 · 92.3 · 93.1 · 93.9 · 94.7 · 95.5 · 96.3 · 97.1 · 97.9 · 98.7 · 99.5 · 100.3 · 101.1 · 101.9 · 102.7 · 103.5 · 104.3 · 105.1 · 105.9 · 106.7 · 107.5 · 107.9
wow… nice piece… rating: A+
[...] the tables have been turned, much to my glee. Here’s an excerpt from an article from Finance Manila: 99.5 Campus Radio – Formerly catering to the elite segment, 99.5 Hit FM (DWRT) [...]
Baby name meaning and origin for Masa…
Description for the baby name Masa, the origins of the name and its meaning…
Nice review of those FM stations. But I think Energy FM is still on the air. Their DJs joined a contest on Eat Bulaga on the day Francis M died. One of them, Sgt. Mark, is a barker at the PBA games. You also forgot to mention Love Radio 90.7 DZMB as a pang-masa station. My neighbor listens to that station every morning and he plays the volume so loud because he likes Nicole Hyala and Chris Tsuper.
Can you do a review of the AM stations? I’m sure a lot of people will like to read it.
Andi9 (Andi Manzano) has remained with Magic, but her time slot is from 3-6 pm.
jty3, do you know you’re my bro’s batchmate in xs87. am radio stations? theres only 666 630 and 594 to talk about
hi! i would really appreciate it if you’d also do a review on the am stations, even if the review would talk about only 666, 630 and 594. thanks a lot!
you know how this pang masa program were classified. wat do you call those morning shows with loud mouth dj’s spilling jokes every millisecond?appreciate your reply.
i don’t really get your question? but aren’t those stations you’re referring to also pang masa?