ABS-CBN FANATIC

ABS-CBN @ 60: 1946-2006-Copyright: ABS-CBN, Kakulay Mo-http://kakulay.blog.com/1025568; Source: http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/8415/mrmngslmat600hq.png

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History of ABS-CBN

taken from Pinoy Television: The Story of ABS-CBN (ABS-CBN Publishing), Wikipedia Articles on TV-Introduction-Summary of First Countries, TV in Japan, Japan Media Review, Pinoy TV Blog and Clodualdo del Mundo's "Telebisyon: Essay on the 50 Years of Philippine TV" (CCP)

1950-1960

BEC airs

  • the drama Flor de Luna (with its TV adaptation in the late 1970's this time on KBS/RPN)

  • the variety show Mahiwagang Kahon/Magic Box

1952

The FEATI Institute of Technology conducts academic experiments with television.

BEC becomes the first Philippine media station to establish a provincial radio station, as it launches 3 more provincial radio stations--one in Davao, one in Dagupan and one in Naga.

Judge Antonio Quirino, President Elpidio Quirino's brother, plans to ask a TV franchise from Congress but backs out due to charges of nepotism and instead buys 70% of BEC from Lindenberg.

September: BEC changes into Alto Broadcasting Systems (ABS) after its new co-owners--Aleli (AL) and Tony (TO), the nickname of Judge Quirino. Lindenbreg is still part owner, this time as ABS general manager.

4th quarter: Quirino begins negotiating for TV equipment with David Sarnoff of the radio company RCA via Quirino's friend Marvin Grey, whose family is a friend of Sarnoff's. 

1953

Eugenio Lopez Sr, owner of newspaper Manila Chronicle, gets a TV franchise from Congress.

February 1: The first TV station in Asia begins in Japan, with the first TV broadcast of the NHK.

May: Quirino sends Jose "Joe" Navarro, Arcadio "Cady" Carandang, Henry "Slim" Chaney and Romualdo "Romy" Carballo to RCA in New York to study TV technology. ABS, via Quirino, begins importing 300 TV sets with the help of the Binondo hardware store Joe's Electronics and sets up the TV sets in restaurants, hospitals, church plazas, advertising agencies, hotels, other public places and homes of prominent people. Lindenberg and Chaney bring TV technology in the Philippines afterward and training of ABS employees in TV technology starts.

July: The ABS TV tower is set up in San Juan.

September: ABS launches DZBC as DZAQ (AQ for Quirino's initials) as the Philippines' most powerful commercial radio station with the ABS tower--then a 50 KW transmitter and begins test TV broadcasts. ABS general manager Tony Chavez flew to Tokyo in Japan to meet with executives of the Matsushita company and buy from them the antennas to distribute for the TV sets.

October 7: Quirino and Lindenberg open ABS's DZAQ Channel 3, the first commercial TV station in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. 

October 23: DZAQ Channel 3 begins telecast to TV audience of mostly rich people. [A TV set then costs P1,200--10 times the monthly salary then. 1 out of 2,000 Pinoys own a TV set.] Quirino's birthday party at his residence in San Juan with President Quirino as special guest--the first TV coverage of a special event--airs on ABS then. ABS telecasts 50 miles from San Juan at 6:00-10:00pm starting then.

4th Quarter: The open spaces above the Republic Supermarket at Florentino Torres Street in Manila is ABS's new studio complete with a transmitter from RCA. Quirino uses ABS as an information medium for the reelection bid of the sickly President Quirino.  ABS reports the reelection campaigns of President Quirino, the Philippine national elections and the eventual win of Ramon Magsaysay as president.  ABS broadcasts old American movies, films from foreign embassies and special events.

November 23: ABS then airs Edmond Rostand's romantic drama Cyrano de Bergarac, the 3-hour full-length play, the first play on TV and the first big dramatic production on TV with Jesuit priest and media pioneer Father James Reuter as director.

1953-1960

ABS airs

  • the comedies Candid Camera, Life with Father, Eddy Cantor Comedy Theater and I Love Lucy, which re-airs in the 1990s on IBC

  • the drama Highway Patrol, Gene Autry, I Led Three Lives and Mister District Attorney

  • the variety shows Pista ng Caltex, Unahan sa Kampana/Rush to the Bell, Kualta Na/Money Now, Vi-Milk Party, Children on Parade, Your Show of Shows and Tawag ng Tanghalan/Call of the Stage for which the first TV advertising contract is signed, being handled by J. Walter Thompson Philippines for Proctor and Gamble-PMC

  • the newscast Tomorrow's News Aired Tonight

1955

ABS gets a TV companion: the Clark Armed Forces Television Station Channel 8. [Ownership of a TV set becomes a status symbol as 6,000 TV sets are found in the Philippines then.]

September: ABS covers The Taal Volcano Eruption and introduces TV as public service.

1956

September 24: ABS gets a new companion--Lopez brothers Eugenio Sr. and Fernando, owners of newspaper Manila Chronicle, inaugurate the Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN) with its radio station DZXL, the country's first FM station.

4th Quarter: CBN's DZXL wins over ABS's DZAQ in audiences. CBN launches another FM station DZYL.

1957

CBN airs the variety show Student Canteen, the Philippines' first and top noontime variety show.

January-February: Eugenio Lopez Sr negotiates the selling of ABS with Quirino.

March: ABS and CBN report the airplane crash death of President Magsaysay and the Philippine national elections that sees the win of Carlos Garcia as president.

1958

January: CBN buys ABS from Quirino with the memorandum of agreement signed on a breakfast table napkin.  The Lopezes then incorporate ABS and CBN under the name Bolinao Electronics Corporation (BEC--the original name of ABS), making BEC the 1st Philippine radio-TV network.

April 19: BEC opens its second TV station Channel 9, with Eugenio Sr's eldest son Eugenio Jr as manager and Jaime Navarro as production manager. Channel 9's working transmitter consists of bamboo strips and rags.  

Post April: Eugenio Lopez Sr's son Eugenio Jr gets TV traning from Lindenberg and Chaney.  Romy Caraballo and Cady Carandang, co-trainees of Chaney, start building the BEC TV station and studio at Aduana in Intramuros in Manila.

1959

BEC opens 2 more radio stations in Metro Manila: DZMM and DZRD.

BEC airs

  • the variety show The Perry Como Show and the NCAA Basketball Games

  • the dramas Tombstone Territory, Annie Oakley and Dragnet

  • other shows like Chelsea Dancetime, Pacosta Hit Parade, Darigold Jamboree, Tia Dely/Aunt Dely, United American Tiki-Tiki and Operatang Sampay Bakod/Operation Clothesline

1960

BEC begins to air shows from its American partner, the United States' NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation).  It also begins to air the variety shows Cooking with Nora Daza, Del Marquez Variety Musical and Bellman Baby Powder Parade--the shows sponsored by the ad agency Advertising and Marketing Associates with Antonio de Joya as manager then

Events take a turn on BEC this year.

  • BEC introduces promo girls who introduce the next programs to air on Channel 3.

  • June: BEC opens another radio station DZRC.

  • September 25: BEC airs the first televised Mass at 9:00am at the Manila Cathedral on Channel 3 with the then Archbishop of Manila Rufino Cardinal Santos as main celebrant and Fr. James Reuter as the Mass narrator.

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