Straight from the Sky celebrates a milestone
On March 27th, our talk show “Straight from the Sky” will celebrate its 15th anniversary. Yes, 15 years is quite long. For the record, we know that here in Cebu or at least in the Visayas and Mindanao, Straight from the Sky is the longest running talk show ever. We do not even know what show is a close second. But I heard that we might even be the longest running talk show in the country. But for as long as we cannot validate this information, I’m happy with having the distinction of being the longest running talk show in Cebu.
Before Mar.27, 2000 My good friend Mr. Angelo “Angie” Verdan asked me to meet him in SkyCable, which was then managed by Mr. Boybo Villanueva. It was there that I was asked to do a talk show for SkyCable. Honestly, there was no school for talk show hosts so you are really on your own if back then you wanted to do a talk show. There were two friends that I approached. First was the late Angelo Castro of the World Tonight fame in ABS-CBN and he told me some tips, but he was humble enough to say that he envied anyone with a talk show because you can really express your opinions on many issues, while he told me that a news anchor only reads the news for the televiewers.
Then I asked my mentor, the late Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippine Star Publisher Sir Max Soliven who also had a show over ABS-CBN called “Impact.” It was Sir Max Soliven who named my Freeman and Star column as “Shooting Straight” because he knew that I was one of the founding members of the Cebu Pistol and Rifle Association. Since my talk show would be shown on SkyCable… Sir Max coined it “Straight from the Sky” and it had a “divine” sound to it… after all, all our knowledge comes from the Holy Spirit.
Call it ironic that I had to fly to Manila to interview my first guest in the person of newly appointed Department of Trade & Industry Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas, whom I interviewed in his office on the very first day that he assumed office under then Pres. Joseph “Erap” Estrada. It was a straight 40-minute non-stop interview with Sec. Roxas and the next time I had an interview in Manila was when I interviewed the famous Bo Sanchez in the IMG offices.
Well, 785 shows later, with only 10 replays due to requests or technical problems or lack of time, we await our thousandth interview. People ask me whether I get tired of doing this for SkyCable? I can only answer it this way, “Do we ever get tired of life?” In short, we shall be doing this show for as long as our televiewers want to see a show that is relevant to today’s times and current issues of the day. Today we will only show the best of the best of our talk shows.
At this point, we’d like to thank SkyCable, notably Mr. Ronnie Pacio, Glenda Descuatan, James Boyles, and above all, my TV crew led by Albert Dajab who is the most experienced, most travelled, cameraman, video editor and yes my director for all these years and his TV crew Chris “Chimoy” del Mar, Alan Aliviao, Jaime Remulta and Mae Ann Yee for being with us through all the years. Thank you for your support.
Since I took over the Wealth Channel and transformed it into what it is today, called MyTV channel 30, I would also would like to thank our principals Dr. Joen Dela Peñas, Noel Arandila, Bart Borja, and my executive assistant Nath Ybañez for helping promote Straight from the Sky with replays on channel 30 not just in Metro Cebu but also in Cagayan de Oro.
Of course I’d also like to thank Globe Telecom for being a constant and principal sponsor for this show without whom we would not have lasted. But most of all, we thank our faithful televiewers without whom there would be no show. I meet many of our televiewers often in a restaurant who would greet me and tell me that they liked our show. It is for them that we do this.
Straight from the Sky has been around, not only inside the studios of SkyCable or MyTV, we’ve also gone abroad, first to Macau to promote this small nation, then to Taiwan to see the new Clean Energy coal plant, then we covered the beatification of St. Pedro Calungsod and did interviews in Rome. In Florence then two years ago, we did a series of shows in the Holy Land courtesy of Delmar Travel, Pilgrimages and Tours. At this point, we are not done yet for we shall provide you with more shows in the years to come. Again thanks for your patronage and viewership and may God bless you all!
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Our piece on the celebration of Straight from the Sky has taken 95% of our space, but we must do what we must do and write something for our readers. We learned from various sources that Pres. Benigno Aquino collapsed inside the Malacañang Palace when he aborted a presscon that he was about to give. Of course these are only rumors, but when the Malacañang spokesmen denied that the President collapsed, then most of the media men covering the palace believed that it was true because knowing this government where lies have become daily fare, when they deny something, it must be true! So what’s the state of health of Pres. Aquino?
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