The crowd tripled in the final hour of the rock station NU 107. People hung out in the gutters to sing along with the final tracks. Celebrities and jocks from neighboring radio stations came to an unusual wake to mourn a collective loss.
I found myself guessing what the swan song would be. Will it be Salamat by The Dawn? Or Let It Be by The Beatles? When the final song played, it turned out to be one of the most obvious choices Ang Huling El Bimbo by Eraserheads.
The station went off the air. There was dead silence for three seconds. Then the heavy beats of the neighboring frequency, URadio 107.9, started spilling over into the dead signal. I thought, what the f*ck?
Then I felt a little lost. Where do we go from here? Where the hell are we?
The unforgettables
Okay, I will admit to rapping along to Agent Orange (Come up! 3x) back in high school. NU 107 was the radio station that opened me up to local “hupaw” bands like Slapshock, Queso and Greyhoundz. Those were the first mosh pits I ever saw.
I always listened to Zach and Joey’s morning show because I think Zach is hilariously wrong in the head. I also owe Francis “Brew” Reyes and his show In the Raw for giving me the high of hearing my band’s song for the first time on radio. Although he quickly killed that buzz by criticizing my out-of-tune guitar.
My first awareness of the local indie band scene was through the station’s support for Twisted Halo. And while being true to its underground roots, NU 107 is the only radio station that ever played my favorite Japanese artists, Shiina Ringo and Tokyo Jihen.
Of course, NU 107 would not be complete without the NU Rock Awards. The event is usually sponsored by a liquor company so you have free booze all night. So what happens is a yearly event of Manila’s most beautiful celebrities partying with the drunkest rock stars. It never gets any less fun than that. (How about Quark Henares’ VIP pass saying “Son Of God”? His father is Atom Henares, owner of NU 107, of course.)
And who can forget the wacky radio blurbs? You hear drums and a guitar but it doesn’t sound like playing. Then a voice belts out, “I... Lav da leather... Leather! Leather!” in the most wannabe rock star voice. That has to be the best blurb in radio history.
Quark Henares NU rock to no rock
started the last day of NU 107 by posting on his Twitter: “‘You’re locked in to the home of NU rock. This is the last day of NU 107.’ And just like that, my heart breaks.”
Although it started on a heartbreaking note, it was great to hear Zach in old form: “Who cares? The station’s going down. We can do anything we want.” This meant that they could say whatever the f*ck they wanted to on air, which is exactly what they did that day.
Just like what the drunk rock stars did at the final Rock Awards. In the middle of an acceptance speech, they would be shouting expletives into the microphone, preaching about how the money has killed the music, and basically giving the backstage movers and shakers of the music industry a literal middle finger for all the cameras to see.
And maybe the industry does suck. Overall, OPM sales have gone down. K-Pop has invaded the country. Online downloading has taken a chunk of the pie. Case in point, the Music One in Greenbelt 3, that huge music library where a friend of mine spotted P-Noy going through some records, has recently closed shop.
We have lost a lot precious things, but the real loss is for the incoming generation. They will never come to find that loud radio station at the end of the radio frequency strata, where generations of awkward kids have a found an Empire Records they could safely burrow in. As Francis Brew expressed in his eulogy, “This is the Home of NU Rock, because it has been home for us.”
Just to be Mr. Brightside, I must say cheers to the 23 years of rock ‘n roll NU 107 has given to Manila. The words “underground” and “money” don’t usually mix, but they were the first to make it happen. And made it happen, they did.
So when everyone took this sign-off for granted, these immortal words were loud and proud for the last time:
“NU107 is DWNU-FM at 107.5 megahertz in Pasig. A loud and proud member of the KBP. This is the Home of NU Rock, NU 107.”
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Any ideas on how to put up a radio station online? http://twitter.com/PingMedina.