You can never gauge the impact of the TFC unless you set foot on the places enjoying its services.
Let, for instance, The Buzz host Boy Abunda walk the streets of Los Angeles or San Francisco or New Jersey and Pinoys living there will wave at him with a wide, familiar and friendly smile. Let TV Patrol/Morning Girls host Korina Sanchez leisurely shop anywhere in the Middle East and OFWs there will stop her to pose for souvenir photos with her. Let any stars of any ABS-CBN shows saunter around Trafalgar Square in London and, for sure, Pinoy residents there will call out the stars’ names with a tone of familiarity and ask for their autograph.
My good friends Raoul Tidalgo and Edmund Silvestre, Entertainment Editor and News Editor respectively of the New York-based The Filipino Reporter keep themselves up-to-date with what’s going on back home by tuning in to TFC as soon as they get home in New Jersey. And so do your and my friends and relatives in both coasts of the USA, in Australia, other parts of Europe and several parts of Asia.
Described as "the first channel to connect Filipinos worldwide" (Pinoys abroad can also follow radio programs on DZMM, ABS-CBN’s sister company through the TFC), the 24-hour Filipino Channel is beamed to five continents, with bureaus set up in strategic places (Danny Buenafe heads the Middle East Bureau and Jing Reyes the USA bureau) to relay first-hand whatever is happening in their part of the world.
The TFC has been, so to speak, "building bridges on the air," a dream of ABS-CBN Chairman Emeritus Eugenio Lopez, Jr.
Now headed by ABS-CBN Global Limited Chief Operating Officer Rafael Lopez, TFC beams all-Filipino programming for its broadcast services on cable and on its direct-to-home service TFCDirect! worldwide through the technical facilities of Panamsat’s PAS-8, Sky-Loral’s Telstar 5, Lockhead Martin’s LM1 and Eutelsat’s Atlantic Bird 3.
Since April 1994 when the first TFC station was set up in Burlingame, California, the number of subscribers worldwide has grown to more than one million, all of whom enjoy the same shows televiewers here in the Philippines do (on a slightly-delayed telecast because of the time differences).
To celebrate the TFC’s 10th anniversary, ABS-CBN is mounting a show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California, Saturday night (April 3), to be telecast "live" on Sunday’s (April 4) edition of ASAP Mania.
Headed by Martin Nievera, the roster of ABS-CBN stars performing in San Francisco include The Hunks (Jericho Rosales, Diether Ocampo, Bernard Palanca and Carlos Agassi), Heart Evangelista, John Pratts, Camille Pratts, John Lloyd Cruz, Kaye Abad, Mickey Ferriols, Louie Reyes, G. Tongi (coming from Los Angeles where she is based) and Joey Albert (from Vancouver where she and her family now reside).
The Manila end of the telecast is headed by Gary Valenciano, Zsa Zsa Padilla and Kuh Ledesma, also including Sarah Geronimo, Sheryn Regis, Erik Santos, Mark Bautista, Nina, King, Bituin Escalante, Anna Fegi, Bea Alonzo and Piolo Pascual (who won’t be with The Hunks because of his pressing commitments back home).
It’s going to be a jolly good not-to-be-missed show, highlighted by (L.A.-based) Lea Salonga’s rendition of Isang Dugo, Isang Lahi (composed by Elzar Dodjie Simon and arranged by Gerard Salonga) during the introduction of the new station I.D.
For sure, the millions of TFC subscribers all over the world and ABS-CBN followers back home will be tuning in, turning the global village this weekend into, as I’ve been saying, an intimate neighborhood.
It’s a small world after all!
(E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph)