In 1924, the first two call letters “KZ” was assigned to all radio stations in the Philippines in accordance with the laws of the United States of America applicable to the country, which was then an American colony. KZKZ, a 100-watt radio station, replaced the 50-watt radio stations established earlier by Hermann.

In 1929, KZRC, Radio Cebu, opened in Cebu and introduced radio broadcasting in the province. However, it was closed down because shortwave relay signals were unsuccessful between Cebu and Manila. It reopened after a decade and fearlessly went on air with the guerilla movements.

Promulgated in 1931, the Commonwealth Act No. 3840, also known as the Radio Control Law, created the Radio Control Division, the regulatory body of the broadcast industry under the supervision of the secretary of commerce and industry. Later, it was renamed Radio Control Office that lasted until 1972 when President Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation No. 1081 and “placed the entire country under martial law” and when the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas was established “to police its own rank.”

Shortly after the bombing of the Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Japanese airplanes bombed Manila and attacked Davao, Baguio, Clark Field in Pampanga, and the American Naval Base in Cavite. The Japanese Imperial Army diversionary forces landed in Legaspi, Albay; Aparri, Cagayan; and Vigan, Ilocos Sur and the main invasion forces landed in Lingayen, Pangasinan. President Manuel Quezon, Vice President Sergio Osmeña, and Lt Gen Douglas MacArthur left Manila and departed for Corregidor.

During that time, six commercial radio stations were already established, and these were KZEG, KZIB, KZRC, KZRF, KZRH, and KZRM. Only one of these radio stations, KZRM, stayed on the air for a very long period since 1927.

On December 28, 1941, three weeks after the attack of the Pearl Harbor, the United States provided a shortwave relay station in the Philippines. Radio programs were compiled in Washington, sent out through the NBC network, relayed through the KGEI in San Francisco, California, and beamed to the five radio stations in Manila and to the radio station in Cebu. This long but cumbersome shortwave relay station lasted for six days and was discontinued when the Japanese forces entered and occupied the City of Manila on January 2, 1942 after General MacArthur declared Manila an open city to avoid further destruction and loss of civilian lives. The following day, Gen Masaharu Homma, the Japanese Imperial Army commander in chief, announced the end of the American occupation, the imposition of martial law, and the establishment of the Japanese Military Administration.

As a new alternative, a similar shortwave relay station was provided for a few more days by the navy wireless station but was destroyed when the Japanese forces attack Cavite. When the Filipino and the American troops retreated, all radio stations, except KZRH, were destroyed as part of the “scorched earth policy” of General MacArthur. Subsequently, the Japanese forces reactivated the three radio stations in Manila. These were the better-known KZRH and KZRM, and the lesser-known KZRF. Station KZRH was used by the Japanese Military Administration as its mouthpiece in the country.

Among the three radio stations, two were noted in the United States and in the South Pacific under different call signs. Station KZRH was noted as KAIN, PIAN, and PIRN, while station KZRM was noted as PIAM and PIRM. Obviously, under the Japanese Military Administration, the first two call letters “PI” stood for Philippine Islands.

On February 6, 1942, Gen Emilio Aguinaldo, in a broadcast over the Japanese controlled KZRH, urged General MacArthur to surrender in view of the obvious superiority of Japanese arms contradicting his early pronouncements on June 12, 1941 urging the Filipino people to unite as one in body and soul and cooperate wholeheartedly with the United States if they want to save democracy.

On the other hand, the Far East Broadcasting Company operated two mobile shortwave stations for outside broadcasts. It is likely that one of these stations, probably KZRB, was taken over by the US Army as a temporary shortwave relay station from KGEI in San Francisco, California. KZRB was noted in Australia and in New Zealand as the first shortwave relay station that carried press messages and recorded voice transmissions from the United States mainland to the country

During the Japanese occupation, Filipinos listened to shortwave radio broadcasts from the American forces in Corregidor, Bataan and in Honolulu, Hawaii-an activity that was banned by the Japanese Military Administration. For less than three months, an American radio station with the slogan “Freedom Radio” was aired in Bataan and gave hope and courage to guerilla movements across the archipelago. Filipinos, at that time, depended on radio news broadcast on when the Americans “shall return” as promised by General MacArthur.

When General MacArthur fulfilled his promise and returned in the country with his American troops in Red Beach, Palo, Leyte and when the commonwealth government was reestablished in Tacloban, Leyte on October 20 and 23, 1944, respectively, a temporary shortwave relay station was established in Manila with the call sign KZFM, formerly KZRM before the war and PIAM and PIRM during the war.

When World War II was over, KZFM was the first radio station to return on the air. It reopened in May 1945 and was operated by the US Army Office of War Information. After President Harry Truman proclaimed that “the United States of America withdraws and surrenders all rights of possession, supervision, jurisdiction, control, or sovereignty now existing and exercised by the United States of America in and over the territory and [the] people of the Philippines” on July 4, 1946, the US government turned it over to the Philippine government in September 11, 1946. KZFM, renamed DZFM in 1947, became the nucleus of the Philippine Broadcasting System.

As a colony of the United States, the first two call letters “KZ” was used until 1947 when Francisco “Koko” Trinidad, regarded by broadcasters and broadcast faculty and students as the father of Philippine broadcasting, represented the country in a conference of the International Telecommunications Union in Atlantic City in the United States.

In that conference, Trinidad insisted the change of the first two call letters “KZ” to “RP” for Republic of the Philippines. He wanted to inform the world about the one-year-old republic in the South East Asia. However, the union rejected the first two call letters because of the trouble it would cause in securing the approval of the international broadcasting community. And because Germany used her radio stations to advance the ideologies of Nazis, the union punished her by depriving her rights to use broadcast airwaves. The union then gave her rights to use the call letter D for Deutscheland, the German name of Germany, to the Republic of the Philippines.

Subsequently, the first two call letters “KZ” was replaced by “DZ” for Manila, “DW” for Luzon, “DY” for the Visayas, and “DX” for Mindanao in 1947. Later, radio stations in Luzon including Manila were required to change their first two call letters from “DW” to “DZ”.

Also in 1947, the Philippine Broadcasting System under Trinidad introduced developmental communication in radio broadcasting. Agricultural programs were broadcast on some radio stations in the country and in the region.

PHILIPPINE TELEVISION

October 23, 1953 marked the first official television broadcast in the Philippines. But before that date, academic experiments with the new electronic medium had been conducted by the University of Santo Tomas in Manila when Jose Nicolas, an engineering student, demonstrated a homemade receiver in 1950, and by the Far East Asia Technological Institute when it opened an experimental television station in 1952.

Even before these academic experiments, James Lindenberg, an American engineer and the father of Philippine television, saw the potential of television in the country. On June 13, 1946, armed with surplus equipment and imported spare parts, Lindenberg assembled transmitters and established the Bolinao Electronics Corporation (BEC), named after Bolinao, Pangasinan, the hometown of his wife.

In 1949, Lindenberg, who wanted to establish a commercial television station, applied for a license in the Congress. A year later, on June 14, 1950, his request was granted.

“We were told to go ahead. It was much simpler in those days than it is now. Mr. Canon, who was [the] head of the Radio Control Division, told us to go ahead,” Lindenberg recalled.

The scarcity of raw materials and the strict importation controls imposed in 1948 compelled Lindenberg to venture into radio broadcasting instead.

“The import control people and the Central Bank were quite adamantly opposed to it on the grounds that the dollars spent on television would be better spent on other items,” Lindenberg said.

The efforts of Lindenberg were not wasted after all. His dream gradually became a reality when Judge Antonio Quirino, the brother of President Elpidio Quirino entered the picture. Judge Quirino tried to get a license to set up television stations, but he was unable to obtain one for political reasons. The Congress probably thought that he would use such stations for campaigning for his brother who was then running for a second term in the 1953 Presidential Election.

Denied by the Congress, the only alternative for Judge Quirino was to buy stocks from an existing corporation. In 1952, he bought 70 percent of BEC, controlling the stock and acquiring the franchise indirectly. He changed the corporate name of the television station from BEC to ABS for Alto Broadcasting System after the names of its new owners, Aleli and Antonio. Lindenberg, still part owner, served as the general manager.

After closing the deal, things did not progress smoothly. Like Lindenberg, Judge Quirino also faced numerous obstacles.

“The Central Bank did not grant me [a] dollar credit because they said [that] the venture was too risky. Obviously, it was a tactic to delay the installation of the station so that my brother could not use it during the election campaign [sic].”

Judge Quirino then asked the help of Marvin Gray whose family is a friend of Gen David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Through Gray, Judge Quirino was able to appeal the cause of ABS and obtain assistance from RCA.

In 1953, Judge Quirino introduced the first television station in the Philippines when he opened DZAQ-TV Channel 3. AQ stood for the initials of Judge Antonio Quirino. The television station had its first broadcast on October 23 of the same year. But before that, television sets must be imported and television crews and personnel must be trained. With the help of the Radio Corporation of America, four engineers were sent to the United States for technical training: Jose “Joe” Navarro, who learned filming techniques in television; Romualdo “Romy” Carballo, who oversaw the transmission aspect; Harry “Slim” Chaney, who acted as a spark plug for the whole operation; and Arcadio “Cady” Carandang, who was in charge of setting up a television service company.

The month before the first television broadcast was a very busy one for the young station. Efforts were initiated to overcome what Lindenberg called an “egg or chicken” dilemma. There was no time to wait for a television industry to develop if DZAQ-TV Channel 3 was to operate on a commercial basis right away. Thus, setting up the station and importing television sets were done almost at the same time.

Judge Quirino initiated the importation of television sets, but he did not have the money to buy the desired 120 sets. To solve this problem, he approached the owner of Joe’s Electric and proposed that in return for the PhP60 000 loan, he will be the first to have the right to sell television sets. With the telecast date approaching, Judge Quirino distributed the 120 television sets to advertising agencies, prominent men, public plazas, restaurants, hospitals, and hotels to reach as many viewers as possible. He practically gave them away so that people could watch his political broadcasts.

Finally, on October 23, 1953, everything was ready, and the first television broadcast went on the air. The occasion was a garden party at the Quirino residence. “A cable was extended from the transmitter site just across Sitio Alto, and the switches and camera controls were set up on a table,” Carandang recalled.

Not to be missed by the camera was the President of the Republic of the Philippines, whose presence on television that night convinced many that the establishment of television was purely for political purposes.

Politics did eventually emerge as television’s own godfather, as DZAQ-TV Channel 3 was inevitably used as an information medium for the reelection bid of President Quirino. Despite the efforts of Judge Quirino in helping his brother, President Quirino lost the election.

The television station built by BEC and later used by ABS was equipped with nothing except the necessities for operation. The studio was just a makeshift barn along Florentino Torres Street in Manila. With the transmitter acquired from RCA, television broadcast were received clearly not only in Manila but also in the nearby provinces because there was no other television station but DZAQ-TV Channel 3. Aside from the transmitter, there were three cameras, but one of these arrived “out of order.”