Brief History of Philippine Radio

Brief History of Philippine Radio Early Radio under the American Colonial Rule Radio in the Philippines was started out as a commercial enterprise pioneered pioneered by American businessmen as a way to further introduce American goods to Filipino audiences. This together with the American!style commentary and music that was broadcast by these foreign media men also a lso contributed to the proli"c spread of American culture among the Filipinos. #ost early radio announcers a nnouncers and talents were American American or Filipinos that ha$e near indistinguishable accents and mannerisms. Henry Herman is credited credited as being the "rst to conduct a commercial commercial radio broadcast in the Philippines using a %&!watt station based in Pasay #anila and a mobile station in '((). Two years later the three e*perimental stations were replaced replaced by a single '&&!watt station with the call letters +,+, in Pasay. Another notable station at the time was +,R# of the Radio Corporation of the Philippines -RCP with the R# standing for Radio #anila. The RCP was the "rst to broadcast outside of #anila by putting up +,RC +,RC in Cebu in '()(.  The RCP RCP sold both stations to a broadcasting company owned by /. Amado Araneta who already owned a signi"cant newspaper conglomerate. These stations in$ested in shortwa$e transmitters that allowed Philippine radio to ha$e an international audience. As radio sets became more accessible ad$ertisers began using radio to reach broad audiences that newspapers wouldn0t be able to reach and would often sponsor radio programs. 1tations would sell airtime to ad$ertisers in '%!minute bloc2s who "lled the time with their own programs or resold their bloc2s to other ad$ertisers. 3n '(4' the colonial go$ernment created the Radio Control 5aw setting up the Radio Control Board which issued licenses fre6uencies and conducted inspections. The national Radio Broadcasting fund was also set up which "nanced go$ernment radio programs and pro$ided sets for go$ernment go$ernment o7ces and a nd remote communities through the license fees collected from set owners. 8artime Radio 8ith radio0s ability to deli$er news much faster than the broadsheets to a wider audience radio became a powerful propagandistic tool. +,9: -for 9ational :efense was set up by the colonial go$ernment was used to update listeners on the war e;ort. The