Before calling it a day, I’m going to write just one entry for tonight while an electric fan is cooling my legs away from flesh-eating mosquitoes, the radio here downstairs is on frequency that’s currently playing nonstop dance hits from 20 years ago while I’m struggling myself between typing my blog and brushing my teeth.

Wait a sec (Trying to finish brushing before going anywhere)………….

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah!

      I felt myself so attach to my laptop that there’s never a day that my are glued to the LCD screen of the Mac Powerbook G4 instead of our Phillips plasma TV (missing out from my fave shows on television). My usual onlline destinations are 1)Multiply, 2)Yahoo! Mail, 3)Facebook, 4)Pinoy Exchange.com, 5)Youtube and more recently 6)Plurk.

    But whenever I get bored or that there’s nothing new on the abovementioned sites, I’d go blogsurfing and read blogs written by other people. If it’s not the blogs, it’s usuallys ome vintage archived websites with historical value (due to me being a history geek). there’s this one particular vintage website that I found quite interesting.

        It’s an old Manila Bulletin article from its Youth and Campus section dated February 2004 (I’d be around 13 years that time and was nearing the end of my freshman year in high school). the article is an interview made by the author with former WLS-FM ( the old Campus Radio 97.1) disc jockey Joe Spinner regarding its student radio program, Campus Aircheck.

Reading this old article made me reminisce how the old LS-FM sounded like during its run as Campus Radio. Even though I’m much of a TV junkie, I also had my share of exposures from radio, growing up listening to at least 3 recognizable stations: WRR 101.9, Campus Radio, and Kool 106. Somehow, a radio counterpart to my TV preferences of watching ABS-CBN, GMA, and ABC (with some pinches of RPN, RJ and IBC then). When Kool went out of commission, only RR and LS were left (although I listened more to RR out of my then-network loyalty until it wen to commercial oblivion).

I was completely oblivious to what was going to happen to LS until only a few days past Valentine’s Day 2007 when I saw a ticker airing on DZOE-TV saying something about a new station on 97.1, Barangay LS. Surprised that LS as Campus Radio bowed out of the competition and was replaced to one whose format is the tried-and-tested MASA Hot Adult Contemporary format. Nothing against ‘masa stations’ like Love and Yes!, it’s just that we already have too much of a good thing that it’s turning out to be worse. For LS’s case, it’s more of a downgrade if you ask me.

What really made LS-FM stand out back then is that it’s all about the music that its target demo, the youth (preferably high school and college students), could easily identify with. Its programming is similar to those in other English-language stations like Magic and RT although I observed that the music they play is somehow different (due to a lack of a better term) as well as it is a less-talk station. I can’t really describe it but the important thing is that it was truly living up to its name, “Campus”.

 I was able to familiarized myself with the names of most of the DJ’s there like John Hendrix, Joe Spinner, Triggerman, Jimmy Jam and Braggy (they each have their own set of ID stingers calling out their names).  Add to that are some of their well-known programs like Top 20 at 12, Infopop, FrontdotCenter, Campus Flyer and their top-of-the-hour news bulletin.

As for their Campus Aircheck program, I’d get envious whenever I hear students becoming student DJ’s on LS as part of their training as Aircheckers. Although the thought of becoming one myself never occur to me but I guess it would have been a good opportunity if given. I remember back in high school, there were these two airchecker guys from La Salle around 4 to 5pm about to sign themselves off as I listened from my school service/carpool’s radio whenever I’m being fetched home from school. I missed that opportunty when auditions were called in during the summer albeit the Aircheck program were now being conducted in DWRT-FM’s former incarnation, Campus 99.5.

I also remember 2 summers ago, I spent two months listening to their morning programs before Top 20 (first with John Hendrix and with Joe Spinner after) and would often catch Sandwhich’s song “Sugod” being played more than twice within the hour hehehe.

“Sayang” is the best way to describe the demise of Campus Radio. Its listeners displaced and went on to listen to other youth-targetint stations like RX and NU. There was a glimmer of hope when the old Campus DJ’s returned on air but in a different station carrying LS’s old format, but that died out a couple of weeks before my birthday before it was replaced by another old brand, RT (who successfully moved back its target market from the youth/student population to the general 18-28 youth demographic).

Even though I’m not really an RT baby then, I gave this one a chance and somehow I’m liking it (most especially during weekends). But the void left by Campus would still be there, and unless someone is brave enough to fill it up, it woul remain as such.

Weird, after reading that article, it made me appreciate the good ol’ days even more as much as I appreciate the things that really shaped, not just me, but to other people as well when we were all growing up. These somehow made an impact on us so I guess, it’s our turn to return the favor 😀

End!

1. See how I work (Update on my Colrend final plate)
2. See how gym buddies react when they get caught on cam
3. See how the lights of the city glitter
4. And see how other people use my camera like Ate, et al (Di ako kumuha ng kahon ng posporo, balde, bentilador, mga libro, ako).

**Special thanks to the good management fo Preferred Gym (formerly ELG Fitness Center) of M.H. del Pilar St. cor. Navarette St., Arkong Bato, Valenzuela for the on-location shots they allowed me to take.

Yey! I’m in the big league!! Wohoo!

Maging Akin Ka Lamang:

      Tinawagan ako ng mom ko sa cellphone. Gulat ako sa kanyang sinabi. Tanong kais iya kung anong model ng Digital-San Lorenzo Ruiz na Nikon ang gusto ko. Sinabi ko sa kanya kung ano pagkatapos, sabi niya, titignan ng firend niya ung tungkol sa model na iyon sa Columbia-Sm Megamall. Medyo naging tense bigla ang pakiramdam ko matapos ang tawagan.

      Kinagabihan, kinilaro na sa’kin ni Mommy na plano na niyang bilhin ang DLSR cam na gusto ko, lalo na rin na magagamit ko ito (higit sa lahat) sa akin pag-aaral. Masaya rin ako na matapos ng matagal na paghihintay ay magkakaroon rin ako ganong klaseng camera (at least matatapos na rin ang paniniskita ko dala ng sobrang inggit hehehehe!). Ayoko kasi matulad ng iba na dahil sa uso ay nagpapabili sila nito; ine-earn ito at ginagamgamit sa wastong panahon.

       Kawawa rin naman kasi iyung mga talagang propesyon o buhay na ang pagiging photographer. Kung ako ang nasa kanilang posisyon ay marahil damdam ko rin ang kanilang pananaw na maski’y sumigla muli ang interes sa larangan na ito, dala lamang ito sa uso at hindi dahil may passion sila sa ganitong klaseng obra.

——-

Two Tumbs Up!:

      I happened to bump myself with an old grade school friend of mine, Ryan Tumbocon while I was on my way home from school this afternoon. We saw each other amidst the large crowd commuting along the Monumento area in front of Araneta Square. We both wave at each other and smiled then wen on our separate ways.

     This guy also happened to be featured in CSB’s Filipino-language lifestyle magazine, “Karilyon”. And way even before that, he was also featured in a number of television programs (The Correspondents[?] and Y-Speak among others) and even on commercial years ago (You guys remember that Promil ad where a little boy raised his hands and said many things to his teacher much her amazement)?

      He’s actualy a well-known guy since time I could remember. A child with a gift of speech, he possesses such great potential that right after its discovery, the rest, as they say, is history. And I only knew that when I watched that special episode of Y-Speak months ago!

       I first met him when I transferred to my new school in Malabon on July 1, 2002. He was somewhere behind me in line and I said to him my “high school” name, Jaime (which I came to be known throughout my 5 years in SJA). He was also a transferee from another school, Ateneo Grade School. He was one of 6-St. Mark’s top students and was potentially a threat to our batch’s Top 3.

 All of us in class became friends with him, but that era was short-lived.

      By second quarter of 2002, he was accelerated to his now-present high school batch. We still see him here and there but it grew increasingly seldom as the months, then years, go by. Even when my batch were already in high school, we all felt distant from Ryan, who was able to regain lost ground and rose to become an officer (VP during his last year) in the Student Council.

    It was no doubt that he returned to the Ateneo to pursue his college studies. I forgot what course he undertook but at first thought, I was thinking as if it’d be easy road for him to survive the jungle that is college. It was only on that Y-Speak episode had I understood his plight as well as those who were deemed as “gifted” becaus of their excellence in different fields while tey were young.

Before, I always see him as one lucky guy. because of what he has, it would have been easy for Ryan to get what he always wanted in life. But after watching Y-Speak, I know see him as a very grounded person, a person who is just as normal as every one else in the world. Him being gifted does not stop him from becoming a normal teenager trying to get a life. I hope he as well as the rest of the 6-St. Mark clas would be able to reconnect after all these years.

:):)

Cartoon character created using Adobe Illustrator