The "masa-fication" of FM radio in Manila

Tuesday, 02 August 2011 03:30

Written by Resti Reyes. Jr.

Here’s what’s been happening on the local broadcast media front: erstwhile high brow, snobby and elitist local FM station 106.7 Dream FM has reformatted. In the last few years, it had slowly accumulated and inherited some of the upscale listeners of the old standard of upper-class audience benchmarking on Manila’s radio scene: Citylite 88.3. After working so hard at developing a loyal following among the circle of friends that belonged to its owner Tonyboy Cojuangco, and manager Mari Lagdameo, it simply abandoned its programming format altogether. On the 1st of July this year, listeners woke up to an almost opposite positioning format – it started playing the music of the former Energy FM that made 91.5 popular among the masa. “Hi, pangga!” – as the testimonial stinger would be heard all throughout the day (and night).

It was only a few months ago that then erstwhile stable and distinct in its program format NU 107 of Atom Henares had also made a similar change. From being an edgy, hard core rock station, it became a masa station known as “Win Radio” – with the new program format provided by the same guy who made Energy FM famous (or infamous, depending on your tastes), Manny Luzon.

For the sophisticated elite that used to be the core market of Dream FM, the new sound is shall we say, uncouth, to put it politely. Jologs, as some would call it. The station is merely the latest in a long line of radio programming formats that have succumbed to the undeniable rise and overwhelming strength of the CDE/masa market. There was a time when FM programming was distinctly upper class: it played stereo music, as opposed to the tinny monaural sound of AM stations playing drama programs while lower class housewives did their laundry in the afternoons. But times have been changing steadily and relentlessly and these old ladies now have washing machines doing it for them while they watch The Buzz and Wiltime Bigtime. The peak of success for this type of upscale programming would be Citylite 88.3, known as “the intelligent alternative” – the station that dominated the music scene for the upper classes throughout most of the late 80’s and early 90’s. Its debonair CEO Francis Lumen, the personification of the station and the brand, would host free dinner concerts at the Makati Shangri-La ballroom featuring top international talents like Kevyn Lettau the evening before their big venue concerts in PICC and Araneta Coliseum.

All of it was more than profitably funded by eager sponsors, of course, and they made up most of the audience – the more visible members of the moneyed class, the cultured club, the intelligentsia, the literati, and the glitterati, plus the marketing departments of the major multinational advertiser companies and their counterpart media departments in the top advertising agencies.

But the snootiest among the stations was Rhythm of the City 99.5RT at its heyday in the late 70’s to the mid-90’s. I distinctly remember them rejecting my ad placements for Unilever’s Superwheel laundry bars when I was still in J. Walter Thompson, even though it was a big contract and a major brand from a top advertiser. Reason? The brand didn’t fit the station’s personality. And when I finally got in some spots for another client (Pepsi-Cola) a few months later, they still wouldn’t allow me to place more than one 30-second spot per hour – because it would ehem… cramp their (programming) style.

Other memorable formats would be the classical music programming of DZFX, 101.1 – which became KISS JAZZ 1011 (my personal favorite) but that didn’t last very long either. It is now YES FM, one of the top-rating pop-masa stations of MBC, directly in reverse of its ratings when it was still an “AB” station. About the only station still catering to the dwindling AB audience is Crossover 105.1, a close cousin to the smooth jazz format of the old Citylite. And they have had their heyday more than a decade ago as the first to inherit the audience of Citylite when Lumen sold it to the Vera Group and it became the pop station JAM 88.3. Lumen was highly visible again years later when he relaunched 92.3 into “Joey” – a blend of smooth jazz with other adult contemporary formats. But that, too, is now history. What is new is the emergence of Radio HIGH 105.9MHz – a very reasonable facsimile of the old formats of both “Joey 92.3” and Citylite 88.3 – check it out, it is only a couple of weeks old. It doesn’t have its own website yet, but you can check it out here: http://www.eradioportal.com/index.php?p=2&aid=1&sid=65

We still have the non-commercial religious station DZFE 98.7MHz playing classical music and catering to the tiny community of fine music enthusiasts, mostly priests and nuns who never tire of Bach and Beethoven. And there is still the old senior citizen’s citadel, DWBR 104.3FM – where Frank Sinatra is alive and well, along with Tony Bennett and Glenn Miller. Their audiences are dwindling, as they are all quite literally dying off one by one.

An old stalwart that has a long history and remains admirably true to its original format is DZRJ FM 100.3, the FM reincarnation of the original AM DZRJ, “The Rock of Manila”. Its only concession to modern times being “flexible” in playing rock hits of a more recent vintage, and not just circa 1950’s and 60’s. The new thrust allows them to play “the latest and the greatest” music in the history of Rock ‘n Roll, as owner Ramon Jacinto would say so himself.

Interestingly enough, the more mature and intelligent audience appears to have rediscovered AM radio, and have shifted accordingly. One recent entry into this sector is Inquirer Radio 990 KHz – the Prieto family’s foray into radio broadcasting. Perhaps because of the growing appreciation for news and awareness for things political, given our country’s highly politicized recent past, AM personality programs have seen a resurgence in popularity among mature adult audiences. An equally interesting development is FM radio in its recent effort to be move in that direction – take NEWS FM 92.3 for instance. The current format of “Joey” is now distinctly and unabashedly AM programming on FM.

Where will the upper classes get their music fix now? The internet, of course. In fact, both Citylite 88.3 and Rhythm of the City 99.5 RT are alive and well again online – Facebook, put up by their loyal fans, and still playing the same music selections they used to listen to decades ago. Click here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/175438225247/ for Citylite 88.3
And here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27676607445 for 99.5 RT

For something more current, one option is Y101FM.com – the reincarnation of 99.5RT in Cebu (no, it’s not in Cebuano, don’t worry), run by the same family that used to run 99.5RT. You can tune in live if you’re in Cebu, otherwise, tune in via the internet and you can get them from anywhere in the world. The online broadcast is so popular now, especially abroad, that their website is the highest rated website for any radio station in the country, beating even the giants DZRH and DZMM. Check it out here: http://y101fm.com/