Fine tuning

Radio was all talk for a while. It seemed the stations that claimed hotness in their music just wanted to turn your highway hotheadedness a notch up, your ears not spared from a lack of brainwaves on the airwaves.

Where was the voice of reason in an FM radio that was drowning in put-on accents and senseless jabber? More importantly, where was the music? You must have found yourself asking that of the DJ who was deaf to your pleas to just “play a goddamn song already.” 

Tuning out of radio turned out to be feasible at a time when multiple-CD changers, FM transmitters for mp3 players, and, well, the Net, allowed you to become your own DJ by playlist or podcast. Besides, why would you submit to the dictates of some mindless schlub with a call center twang who just so happened to have been given a mic?

Soon, however, a few voices of the generation began to sound out. You had Mo Twister and the Good Times crew on Magic mixing straight-up talk with showbiz, sometimes at the expense of a relationship (the Borgy-Vina thing) or co-host (Maui Taylor). And there’s the riot on the radio that is the Boys Night Out, their frat boy banter not getting the KBP to laugh as hard as listeners. The funny thing, though, was that radio would end up landing TV. For guys like Mo and Sam YG, the gossip shows, talk shows, and endorsements followed because people now responded to a medium that resounded with an important message: realness. 

Complementary to the renegade DJ’s crossover to TV was a once-indispensable influencer like MTV Philippines regaining its voice through radio. After signing off of the screen in February, MTV was reincarnated in March as U92 (92.3fm), its catchphrase “Cool to be U” more about music-cultivated mainstays like KC Montero and Jimmy Muna purveying taste rather than self-obsessed chatter. It’s more about DJs like Ramon Bautista rousing thought and entertaining rather than annoying you during rush hour. And it’s more about the music, of course. Not just the tunes you’ve already downloaded but ones to discover.   “It’s not about playing the hits anymore. It’s all about putting the music out there and letting listeners say, ‘Hey, there’s this’,” says U92’s program director Rye on the station’s aim to play OPM half of the time. “We’re putting a lot of work not to be number one but to be an option for everyone.”   And we do need that option amid all the choice the Web’s entangled us with these days. It just had to take radio with personality — a lot of them, in fact — to get us to listen again.

The KC Show (1-4 p.m., weekdays)

Mr. Personality KC Montero does what he does best: keep it real, whether by dissing showbiz’s perennial morons or playing the freshest cuts our country has to offer. 

Hear here: “Because of MTV, I know a lot of celebrity people, so I can call them in and get bands to play. My show is kind of like a Ryan Seacrest type of deal but I don’t ever want to be called the so-and-so of the Philippines…A couple of times, I have come to work a little inebriated and, uh, I think I started swearing at people — got on a Twitter fight and brought it on-air.” On the return of radio: “I’m not gonna say U92 is the reason. I’ll go on record saying that Mo and The Boys Night Out and some other DJs have brought radio to the forefront of entertainment. I totally believe it’s the day of the DJ. In these days of playing music, you really have to be entertaining.”

5 Helltop Drive (6-10 p.m., Saturdays)

Marc Abaya grew up on 5 Hilltop Drive, the setting for a lot of high musical times and where he could trace his rock roots to what radio stations during the time were playing. “The foundation of my show is my adolescence,” he says. “DJ recommendations served as a blueprint to help me grow as a musician. So I’m trying to focus on the music and always put a back story.”

Hear here: “I overhear Sib (Sibulo) calling my show a ‘manly rock show’ but I don’t like limiting it. I can even play Sadé next to Pantera, man.” 

Bad air: “DJs talking and they wouldn’t even know what they were talking about. In a (Valley Girl accent) ‘Like, there were these girls and they were, like, talking about some kind of drink and, like, I think it was called a…piña colada?’ Stuff like that — can’t stand it.”

On the return of radio: “It’s like from Singles — people still love their cars, man.”

Brewrats (7-10 p.m., weeknights except Fridays)

The old Strangebrew crew of Tado, Angel, and Ramon Bautista try to disperse sub-cultural wisdom with a lot of weirdness, inviting guests like a professor of physics or Madame Auring to drop by and drop out reality for a bit. 

Hear Here: Tado -“Kung sino nasa board, siya yung may control sa music. Minsan nag-trip kami, beerhouse music. ‘Pag Monday, mga pinapakinggan ng mga tito.”

Best guest: “Yung walang boses. Anti-smoking advocate siya so para magsalita, may tinatapat na gadget. Naalala ko yung pelikula ni Joey de Leon kaya tawag ko sa kanya, ‘Isa kang Ro-borat.’”

On the return of radio: “Natatandaan ko sobrang tutok sa radyo ‘90s pa yun — kay Jimmy Jam ‘saka si Trigger Man. Sobrang daming competition sa attention ng tao ngayon. Ganon pa ‘man, marami kaming listeners — 63,000 fans namin sa Facebook, pero gusto pa namin daigin yung 120,000 fans ng Banana Split. Kung malampasan namin yun, si Angel pipicturan naming naka-two-piece sa tabi ng Frigidaire.” 

The Dollhouse (6-10 a.m., weekdays)

Model-citizens Sarah Meier and Vicky Herrera don’t like to play house — the Party in the USA remix, especially — but they do play it smart, schooling us on everything from oldschool hip-hop to “Real OGs” who they welcome into the booth Career Day-style. A few playmates: Kuya Germs and Imelda Marcos. 

Hear here: Vicky — “Good music is good music but sometimes it’s not as popular, so if we could throw that in once in a while, it helps expand everybody’s tastes.”

Bad air: Vicky — “Sarah played this Charice Pempengco song with the Chipettes just to piss me off.”

On the return of radio: Sarah — “I say all the time, ‘The revolution will not be televised.’ That’s not my line but I think we’re redefining radio. In the time of reality stars and the Internet, it’s been quantity over quality and now it’s time to just keep it raw. Which is why I’m kind of happy we don’t have webcams and all that stuff, ‘cause people have to judge us based on what’s in our brains and coming out of our mouths. Which is a relief for us models.”  

You Are Life (8-11 a.m., Sundays)

A lot of the questions raised on superior mother Pia Magalona’s blog were about raising her family. Taking her place at the head of the great, big table that is radio, then, made sense. But not without Momma Magalona dishing out industry tidbits and nourishing listeners with her own hearty blend of chicken soup for the soul. 

Hear here: “It’s not like I’m being messianic or anything but I say to listeners na if you imbibe change in yourself, you don’t realize how much change you can implement in the whole country. Of course, I also play a lot of Francis M.”

On the return of radio: “I wanted to be in AM before because in FM, talk was either worsh-worsh — people with fake accents — or just horsing around. I like our setup ‘cause we aren’t DJs in the strictest sense. You shouldn’t just give your opinions just because you know the hits and can speak well.”

Shatterday Saturday (2 to 6 p.m., Saturdays)

The disclaimer before Sib Sibulo’s show — the only one on U92 that has one — is so you don’t take anything too seriously. Not his free radical playlists, everything from System of a Down to Larusso thrown in; not a random sexist remark; and most importantly, not yourself.    

Hear Here: “The most popular segment is ‘Tap it or Throw It.’ We try to stay away from local celebrities ‘cause they’re very pikon when you say ‘throw it.’ Pokwang — I’m sorry but super ‘throw it.’ Megan Fox is too easy but would you go for an armless or legless Megan Fox?”

Bad Air: I hate it when personality DJs keep pleasing. That’s why I like doing my show and saying ‘Oh my God, she’s so fat!’” I like people who say anything so long as they can back it up with something.”

Return of radio: “I heard Rovilson wants his own show. I heard Ornusa wants one. I think people want to do radio shows ‘cause they don’t wanna mess around with the politics of television.” 

Press Play (10 a.m. to 1 p.m., weekdays)

Cesca Litton and Eri Neeman serve up the sounds you request with a side order of wellness: mouthfuls on anything that has to do with looking and feeling good. That may include some healthy sexual tension between the two.

Hear here: “Me and Cesca sound like an old married couple that fight a lot. The chemistry is good. For our ‘Getup’ segment, for example, if I wanna show her how a squat is done, I can get in her face to show her exactly how that is.” 

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