Twenty five years ago, Herman Z. Basbano was a young, aggressive radio anchorman of Bombo Radyo Iloilo who pioneered a shift to public affairs interviews in radio programming. At the time, the radio audience was just awakening to the power of the medium to crystallize issues, and the idea of intelligent conversations with news makers and opinion moulders hadn’t taken root yet. Radio was mostly news and soap opera. Premium was given to voice quality, and little demand was made on the intellectual side of announcers. Those were the ebbing yeras of the Marcos dictatorship, and press freedom was still a concept few dared to explore.
I was still working with the Development Bank of the Philippines and moonlighted as a freelance journalist, writing for national and international publications like Business Day (which evolved into the present-day Business World), Asiaweek Magazine as well as the wire agencies Agence France Presse (AFP) and Kyodo News Service. It was a heady period for young turks in media because we were constantly on the ringside of history. Hardly a day passed without a major story breaking out, especially on the steady decline of the Marcos regime and the growing clamor for freedom and democracy. Ninoy Aquino had been assassinated a year before. The Filipino nation was growing restless. As a journalist, I was constantly on my toes, watching for upheavals in the political scene.
This keen interest for sudden twists and turns in the political landscape brought together a small group of young journalists to share our passion for media work, meeting almost every day after 5 o’ clock to imbibe San Miguel beer and trade stories and experiences. The group was composed of Basbano, the late Atty. Jules Fuentes, Benjie Guevarra, Limuel Celebria and myself. It was a dynamic group, filled with energy and enthusiasm, unmindful of the potential hazards in an environment where dissenters were routinely arrested, or downright liquidated. The late Geman Gonzales also occasionally joined us. There existed no bitter rivalries. We cherished competition and laughed at our mistakes.
Basbano anchored the “Bombohanay Big Time” program, the 7:30 a.m. news and public affairs program of Bombo Radyo. He began his work day with the 6 o’ clock newscast and stayed on to field news reports until 9:30 a.m. As the political climate grew tense, and more opposition leaders emerged from the shadows to openly denounce the regime, Basbano embarked on an ambitious thrust to corner the public affairs audience not only on the local level, but even on the national level. This took place in 1984, and long distance charges were exorbitant, and making overseas calls had to go through the operator. This was the era before NDD and IDD. Phone dials were rotary, not touch-tone. But Basbano persuaded the network president, Rogelio Florete, to gamble on this scheme.
Under this innovative scheme, Basbano would interview key opposition figures at the time like Jovy Salonga and Sonny Alvarez in the U.S. by long distance, with the statements quickly gobbled up by national news correspondents in the group — myself, Guevarra and Celebria, for print organizations. Because of this, major headlines on the political landscape regularly carried the dateline, “Iloilo”. The name “Bombo Radyo” soon became a common term in news dispatches in the national and international scenes. Florete didn’t mind paying huge phone bills to bring the big story to the country, and Iloilo was where it was happening. Basbano was the author of this paradigm shift that launched Bombo Radyo to become a major player in the broadcast industry despite its being “probinsiyano”.
Now, a quarter of a century later, Basbano is back on the media limelight, this time after he was re-elected as President of the prestigious Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP). The presidency of this organization used to be a monopoly of Manila-based radio networks like DZRH, DZMM and DZBB. It took Basbano, a “promdi” to break that tradition and demonstrate that a broadcaster from Iloilo can play in the big league. Basbano has apparently earned the trust and respect of his peers, and obtained this singular honor of being re-elected to a second term. This is the product of hard work, dedication and commitment on the part of Basbano.
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