DyRC back on air beginning today

CEBU, Philippines - An institution in mass communications here in Cebu is set to break its silence after a decade.

Radio station dyRC (648 on your dial), which lost its voice in 1998, is back with its scheduled relaunch today (Sept. 21). This was confirmed by Junino “Nino Bonito” Padilla, news bureau chief of Manila Broadcasting Company’s Aksyon Radyo, in a press conference last Sept. 18.

Padilla said that the relaunch is scheduled in line with dzRH’s 70th anniversary (nothing to do whatsoever with the declaration of Martial Law); it being the flagship station of MBC where Padilla is also newscaster, commentator/reporter and segment host of the program “Ratsada Probinsya” with distinguished broadcaster and dzRH station manager Joe Taruc.

Revival of programs like Frontline (commentary) and Dial Your Opinion comes with the relaunch. Padilla, along with lawyer Rhina Seco, told members of the media that dyRC (Aksyon Radyo Cebu) will sign on at 4 am beginning with the recitation of the Holy Rosary to be followed by a 15-minute “Gospel of the Day” with a homily by Fr. Carmelo Diola. Afterwhich, the Karambola sa Kabuntagon, to be hosted by Ramil “Inday Misyel” Albano, is set to wake up listeners to a day of news and public affairs programs like Balita (First Edition) with Roel Cabanero and Malou Inocando-Tabar.

At 6:45 a.m., Network News with Nino Bonito and Atty. Seco will be hooked up live from Manila. At 7 a.m., Unilab Newscast will feature health stories and will be followed by Editoryal.

Dial Your Opinion will also be manned by Malou Tabar and Roel Cabanero with the dyRC Frontline (commentary) after.

Showbiz news will be glitzier and richer in content this time with Okryan sa dyRC to be hosted by Banat News Hugyaw editor Ryan Mark Borinaga who is set to interview celebrities live from the national scene with the help of dzRH’s showbiz insiders Morly Alino and Tita Swarding.

It was further learned that the afternoon slots will be occupied by blocktimers, as well as the public service program Dangpanan: Operation Tulong-Cebu and Balita Numero Uno with Fr. Dan de los Angeles. Voices in the early evening will be those of TV personalities Ricky Rama Poca and Atty. Divine Marcial-Flores for “Juego Todo.”

Veteran broadcaster Louie Reyes rejoins dyRC with his 5 pm – 6 pm Balita (field   reports) program. Dennes Tabar will host Balita Patrol Night Edition till sign-off.

On weekends, Cebu City Councilor Alvin Dizon will be hosting Urban Poor in Action from 9 to 10 am while Atty. Gloria Estenzo-Ramos will have her environmental concerns raised from 10 am onwards.

Tunog FM will fill the slots on Sundays with Ramil “Ram” Dizon and Dante Luzon for their dyRC Rockathon and Music Night Cap programs, respectively. On Rockathon’s playlist are rock hits – foreign, Pinoy rock, and Bisrock – with weekly band features and live acoustic jamming. Luzon will tinker with his collection of standard songs.

The relaunch is set to highlight the launch of dyRC’s website – www.dyrc-cebu.com – and the radio jingle sung by homegrown diva Raki Vega.

According to Fred J. Elizalde, chairman of the FJE Group of Companies, “Despite rapid technological advances that have changed the way people communicate in their daily lives, radio remains the most affordable media medium for the Filipino nation as many Philippine households own at least one radio set.

“Its mobility, either within the home or on the road through public and private transport, makes it highly accessible to the common tao.

“In its golden age, radio was full of new ideas. It was the magic medium, and everybody loved it. Critics even contend that radio has supplied more innovative ideas in broadcast programming than television ever did,” he said.

This is true to dyRC with its ideas finding fruition over the air and helping shape the minds and hearts of Cebuano audiences for decades before its closure in 1998.

“Being a potent medium for education, news, and infotainment (the marriage of information and entertainment), radio has also mandated to inculcate values and enable us all to aspire for a better life,” Elizalde said.

As the Elizalde family takes great pride in playing a major role in the history of Philippine broadcasting through dzRH, so it invests in equipment, digital technology, in people, and most of all in the belief that with one Cebu station and one vision, dyRC like 70-year-old dzRH can help “link remote villages with urban communities and achieve that elusive sense of nationhood that will propel Filipinos forward through the years to come.”

As for Joe Taruc, senior vice president of MBC, he said that with an estimated 85 percent of the total population tuning in for their daily dose of news, information, entertainment, and public service, dyRC is once again expected to allow Cebuanos from all walks of life (and others from Cebuano-speaking areas where broadcast could reach) to forge a semblance of communal and national consciousness; mining the full potential of radio broadcasting while serving the Filipino public; living up to the faith of a listening public even under the grim shadows of war and shackles of dictatorship. (THE FREEMAN)