How network radio and television newscasts make a Nation's Citizens part of each day's events · Rare Periodicals

Title

How network radio and television newscasts make a Nation's Citizens part of each day's events

Creator

Calma, Rodolfo

Language

English

Source

February 11, 1970

Year

1970

Subject

Radio news programs

Television broadcasting of news

Radio networks

Television networks

Radio journalists

Radio broadcasters

Television journalists

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

On the Historic 'Night off Terror* The Tri-Media Group Was There! When enraged students stormed the Palace gates dzHP News was tnere: When the pitched battle tor Mendiola bridge was being fought, dzHP News was there: Talking to armed forces and police chiefs. Helping bleeding students to temporary hospitals. Asking priests and parents to help ease the tension and restore the peace. When President Marcos met with the council of state, dzHP News was there. Broadcasting direct from the presidential study: The address to the nation .... The reaction of men in government .... The armed forces' intelligence reports .... The students’ hope .... And fears. Giving listeners nationwide a vivid running account of the breaking story In the same high tradition that won for dzHP the Citizens’ Council for Mass Media Award As the nation’s outstanding news and information station. HBCl | TAPE WHEELS of Tape Recorders and Computers symbolize the modern age of electronic journalism as practiced by the Tri Media Group. They stand for professionalism, excellence and integrity in communications, committed to the highest ideals of broadcasting and newspapering. They are symbols of media which move ideas and a nation. 24 hours a day the TRI-MEDIA Newsroom hums with activity. It has direct access to Radio Mindanao Network stations nationwide, via microwave. Radio mobile units, single side-band equipment, global monitors plus news printers of the international wire services com plete this sophisticated means of getting the news from here and abroad. From left to right: Gem Alvez. Ed Ranosa, Ed Tipton and Tommy Lopez. Unseen on your TV screen is this TRI-MEDIA NEWS Master Control. Camera direction, slides, film clips, commercial cues and news script timing are controlled from this room. By Rodolfo Calma From the first bloody riots off January 26 to Ma nila's "Night off Terror" January 30th, and for a week thereafter, rumors multiplied, charge; and counter-charges'were made. The city finally settled into an uneasy quiet when parents of the four students killed January 30th decided not to cooperate in a mass funeral march. That week, Filipinos — through out the nation — heard radio re porting as they never heard it be fore ! From Luzon to Visayas to the southernmost reaches of Mindadanao, radio listeners who tuned in to RMN stations heard the full story direct from Manila! In the words of Tri Media re porters who had been at the scene. In the reports by police officials and others concerned. In the statement of President Marcos — made direct from the Palace — Monday night, Februa ry 2: his reassurance that all was quiet again in Manila. Drop Those Commercials! In the days following first word of the first riots, RMN cleared its airlanes of commercial content — and for a total of 36 tension-laden hours that week-end of January 30-February 1 devoted its entire resources to full coverage of those now-historical, hysterical events. Some 24 hours were spent broad casting from Malacafiang and vicinities like Mendiola, where pitched battles were fought; and from Claro M. Recto, where stu dents had taken over direction of traffic. Twelve hours of the coverage consisted of broadcasts from Con gress, City Hall, the Cardinal’s re sidence and from whichever streets the students poured into. RMN had coverage by foot, by jeep, by car and by helicopter. People listened to radio as they had never done before. In Malacanang, the President, his family and his staff listened to RMN — as did other people everywhere — clustered around radio sets in of fices, barber shops, stores and ho tels, or in their cars and homes. Statistically, listening was pro bably 200 to 300 per cent of nor mal. Newsfilms for IBC On television, the Inter-Island Broadcasting Nation-wide Televi sion Network covered the events with newsfilm photographed at the scenes of action — and jet flown on tape to IBC’s TV sta tions in Cebu, Bacolod. Davao and Cagayan de Oro. There, these “National Network films were telecast at the prime viewing-hours of 6:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. — on the same day that newspapers with their stones reached the provinces. TV newscasters of IBC in those provincial markets, meanwhile, updated their stories with news received by microwave direct from RMN in Manila. It was the nation’s first and finest “network” televi sion coverage — the experience of seeing events happen the very day they happened! Advertisers and agencies who sponsor programs on RMN and IBC were alerted that their programs and announcements might be “blacked out” at any moment to carry “hot” news, and were re minded that such changes in schedule were for the purpose of keeping an entire nation informed. IBC instructions to the network announcers and station newsmen were to this effect; “Don’t get ex cited. Be calm. Imagine yourself at a dinner table with local peo ple of prominence and importance — a banker, a professor. Tell of the events as they are . . . tell what it was like . . . while (as you ima gine) the maid’s boyfriend (who is a truck driver) listens in the kit chen. Talk to be understood by that truck driver while not reflect ing upon the intelligence of the professor. Above all, never sound excited. Be calm — ‘keep your cool’ — even in the midst of such sen sationally exciting events.” It was a long two weeks. The weeks that turned out to be the historical event of broadcast networking’s formal debut in the Philippines! Typical Day at Tri-Media RMN and IBC through this TriMedia News Center had been ma king plans for months for such instantaneous Radio coverage of news events, by means of the mi racle of microwave transmission. And for Television, newsfilm co verage achieved nation-wide dal ly — by jet-flight of broadcast tapes to the IBC stations in the provinces. Earlier this year, the time of testing was half an hour before a scheduled newscast. At the Master Control of TriMedia News in the Philippines Herald Building, News pirector Ronnie Nathanielsz was ’island hopping” via microwave, talking to one after another of his counter parts in seven cities across the country. The occasion was the dramatic announcement by the President giving his worldly possessions to the people of the Republic. How were the people taking the an nouncement? Did they believe the President? Did they think it was another gimmick? dzHP, the RMN station in Manila, wanted an im mediate reaction from north to south. And in a matter of twenty minutes, Nathanielsz had his reac tions neatly on tape, ready for broadcast! Tape — the miracle medium of news reporting — symbolized by the RMN-IBC emblem: a tape wheel. Today, thanks to the pioneering efforts of Tri-Media in the utili zation of microwave broadcasting, people no longer need wait even one day to get a reaction from a news event. Nor is it necessary to wait for an Interview simply be cause the person to be interviewed is out of town. Through its micro wave network. dzHP and- RMN talks to a senator vacationing in his ranch in Mindanao. Or to a businessman in Baguio. Use off Shored Facilities Tri-Media News is the closelyknit organization whereby three media — Radio, TV and the Na tional Newspaper, the Herald — make maximum use of each other’s talent, facilities and resources to get a broader perspective of the news. That news is Incorporated in the 24-hour nation-wide news broad casts by Radio Mindanao Network, Page 2 Herald Mid-Week Magazine Wednesday, February 11, 1970 How Network Radio and Television Newscasts Make a Nation's Citizens Part of Each Day's Events regularly scheduled 18 times a day on the hour — and in the two dai ly Television newscasts of the In ter-Island Broadcasting Corpora tion’s provincial stations in four cities, plus four daily telecasts of news over TV 13 in Manila. The nucleus of the Tri-Media News Bureau which handles all these nationwide radio and televi sion newscasts comes from the dzHP Radio and TV news studios in the Herald Building. At present there are four daily TV newscasts on TV 13 in Manila, two of which are carried nation wide on IBC_ network stations in the provinces. Other TV interview programs such as “Showdown,” “Undertones,” “Mary-Go-Round,” “Open F o r u m” and the CAT award-winning educational televi sion series, provide the many fa cets of informative television Under this set-up, television news gains added significance. And when that news is carried on a national scale, a new dimension Is added. Responsibility to a nation somehow brings with it greater demands and challenges than ser vice to a single city or province. .A Commitment to the Notion With the TV 13 newscasts now going nationwide dally, the three organizations that back-stop this endeavor are called upon to win respect and confidence based on sound performance and fairness in judgment. The three news organization oi the Philippines Herald, Radio Mindanao Network and Inter-Is land Broadcasting Corporation form what has come to be known as the Tri-Media Group, or Tri-Me dia News. But what prompted IBC and RMN to pioneer in such national radio and television newscasts? Henry Canoy, Executive Vice Pre sident and General Manager of both companies, puts it this way: “At this crucial stage of our na tion’s development, with the un derlying theme of one nation, one people, the national newscasts on radio and television provide the one voice that gives meaning and essence to that national desire.” The microwave news on RMN radio and the national news on the five IBC television stations throughout the country are, in fact, the partial fulfillment of a dream long cherished by Canoy himself. A dedicated media man, he be lieved that broadcasting in this country could come of age only when it did more than entertain people. That broadcasting should provide news and public affairs programs designed to inform, to uplift and to enrich the lives of our citizens. His solution was to form Tri-Media News and link the nation by microwaved news ser vice. Microwave is an expensive com modity to maintain. Sponsors who support the microwave operation think of their contribution not on ly in terms of cost-per-thousandpeople reached uv <hetr adverti sing; but in the greater context of free and quick exchange of infor mation as the necessary founda tion for a country like the Philip pines to be a true democracy. Sponsors Roily to Service On this score, sponsor compa nies have not been found wanting. Thanks to their pioneering coope ration and foresight as national advertisers, microwave broadcast ing is now a reality in this coun try. On the nationwide newscasts Tri-Media News takes into consi deration the diverse regions co vered. It strives to bridge the gap of understanding and communica tion between the people and their government, between provincial officials and central officialdom This takes more than just tell ing it like it is. It takes a special awareness and concern for being able to explain why something is so, and something is not sc. The Philippines’ Most Powerful Television Transmitter — Key Sta tion for IBC, the National Televi sion Network It seeks out the decision-makers and the people in the news to ac count for their actions and to voice their sentiments. In this manner the prospects of under standing are greatly enhanced. Hand in hand with the respon sible coverage of the national scene by the Philippines Herald, people in the “home" Manila area and in the provinces who watch IBC TV newscasts or listen to RMN network news on radio get, what Fr. Borja of Ateneo de Davao calls, “a new dimension” to their news. Tne networx newscasts enable citizens of our nation everywhere to be part of the events of the day, whether such events be a historic moon-landing, the oath-taking of the first re-elected President of the Philippines, or news such as the bloody riots of the past two weeks. RMN RADIO STATIONS Carrying the National Radio News 18 times daily, on the hour: dzHB — Baguio dzHP — Manila dyHP — Cebu dyHP — Bacolod dxHP — Cagayan de Oro dxIC — Iligan dxND — Cotabato dxDC — Davao RADIO SPONSORS Philippine Wallboard Corporation GMTFM Getty Oil (Philippines), Inc. Philippine Air Lines Filoil Marketing Corporation Commercial Bank & Trust Co. of the Philippines Caltex (Philippines), Inc. La Perla Industries, Inc. Shell Co. of the Philippines Ltd. B. F. Goodrich Philippines, Inc. IBC TV STATIONS Carrying the National TV News MANILA — TV 13 at 6:30 AM — 12:30 Noon — 11:30 PM (plus an “Evening Report" at 6:30 PM) IN THE PROVINCES twice daily at 6:30 PM and 11:30 PM TV 13 — Cebu TV 13 — Davao TV 10 — Cagayan de Oro TV 12 — Bacolod TV SPONSORS Westinghouse Home Appliances Philacor Lucky Strike Cigarettes Columbia Tobacco A. Soriano y Cia. Wednesday, reoruary 1I, 1970 Herald Mid-Week Magazine Page 3