Where in the world did I come from?
I have this funny feeling that somewhere, somehow people are trying to find out
who I am, which university I came from and when I finished my Mass
Communications, Broadcast Communications or Journalism degree. Well, if
you already checked out my Friendster profile, you will have already found the
answer. But for the benefit of those who don’t have a Friendster account
or refuse to acquire one, here is my simple answer: I was not a communication
arts graduate. I actually studied Biology at UP Diliman, with the intent
of…entering the broadcasting industry. Surprised?!
I’m not kidding!
Where do I begin?
Let us begin by recounting my grade school days, so we can track down how I became
interested in television. When I was in the 6th and 7th grades at the Ateneo de Manila,
I was part of the Media Club. Big deal? Yes, it was! Why? Because I wasn’t
interested in media…yet. I joined the organization, not because I was already
into writing or television journalism, but because I was tired of hopping from
one organization to the other. I considered myself a student with no
loyalty, trying out the Math Club, the Boys’ Choir, the Book and the Swimming
Clubs, only to get the required letter mark for the box on the report card
labeled "Extracurricular Activities." You see, I was a
professional student who only wanted to have my Form-138A filled out with the
numbers that would make my parents proud come report card day, and who only
wished to fulfill all school obligations to make it to the next year level.
In short, I made a career out of schooling. True, I got
excellent grades, but boy, was I dull because of my outlook towards school!
Anyhow, as I said, I was in the Media Club. Nothing much was really happening there,
although I enjoyed the occasional movie-viewing and critiquing sessions. Other than
that, the only thing exceptional about the club was that we were one of the
less than 5 organizations in school that used an airconditioned room. Wow!
The Field Trip
Anyway, it was probably in the second semester of grade 7 when we were scheduled to go on a field trip (yahoo!) to an advertising agency (not quite my cup of tea), a radio station and a
televison network. Let’s not go into the details of the trip to the ad
agency because I don’t remember anything about it anyway. The trip to the radio
station was an experience, although I really didn’t listen to that particular
station (Hello? 89 DMZ! Dance Music Zone…aminin…hiphop!) The
trip to the television station, or make that stations, however, was really the turning
point. I was about to come face to face with my destiny, although I
wasn’t fully aware of it yet.
It was the last stretch of the field trip and we were already on Katipunan Avenue (darn it!) when we slid past Ateneo and made a sudden turn towards the road leading to
Capitol Hills. The road was familiar to me as the one going to the Celebrity
Sports Plaza but I didn’t realize that a television station was nestled
somewhere there. Less than a kilometer from the bottom of the uphill
road, the bus rolled into what they said was the only facility of its
kind housing not one, but several radio stations and two, yes 2, television
stations. Welcome to Broadcast City, home to RPN 9 and IBC 13!
(Before anybody squirms in disgust, I would like to remind them that during
its heyday, RPN was the pioneer in airing quality cartoons [read: Superfriends]
and was the only 24-hour news channel, giving overnight hourly updates [read:
Lulu Pascual] and giving an up-to-date account of the Kuwaiti Invasion by Iraqi troops
in 1991. IBC 13, on the other hand, was the network to beat in terms of
locally-produced shows. Remember TODAS, Iskul Bukul, Kulit Bulilit, Loveliness,
Sharon, Happy House, Ula and Pinoy TV Comics among other shows?)
Anyway, we went down and
were met by a lady executive, whose belt snapped during the course of the tour. Before we knew it, we were already touring the facilities of both RPN and IBC. It happened so fast; it was like magic! We were first shown the newsroom, with its
state-of-the-art manual typewriters and page after page of onion skin paper
scattered all about the writers’ wooden desks (I’m sarcastic ha). Next, we were ushered into a studio control
booth with a guy reeling off highly technical terms (such as play, rewind, forward…kidding!),
of which I did not understand anything because I was mesmerized at the sight of
a reporter whose face I do not remember now.
And finally, we were ushered into the news
studio. (<<<<BRIEF PAUSE>>>>) I do not know how to explain it but I was overwhelmed, I
was mesmerized! Here I am, standing
inside the hallowed set of…News Watch (circa 1990; the
evening edition anchored by Cathy Santillian and Cielo Villaluna, and the
primetime edition anchored by Harry Gasser and Coco Quisumbing). Totoo na ito! But wait a minute…why is
it small compared to what I see on TV? Ahhhh…the magic of television! It was beyond compare. It was larger than life. I
treasured each and every moment of it…touching the news desk, sitting on the chair
which was like the stools used by a manicuristas
in a beauty salon, scanning and shuffling some pieces of paper…almost short of
looking into the camera and saying, “Good evening, I’m Jose Villarama.” As if
on cue, the studio lights also were turned on full blast and musical scoring was
piped in, as if a newscast was actually airing. We were also shown the
teleprompter, but the operator was not there yet, so we didn’t get to see how it really
worked. Pero ang galing!
As the tour proceeded, we were shown other studios,
including the one for “Sine Silip” (hosted
by Oskee Salazar, Julie Fe Navarro, Letty Celi and 2 younger hosts, Louella de
Cordova and Rocky Ignacio, who by some mysterious twist of fate both ended up
as an anchor and reporter respectively on Channel 4.) But nothing really
left an impression on me except the News Watch studio.
As we boarded the bus and said our "thank yous" to the tour
lady who was still trying to fix her belt, I said to myself, “I’m born for this. This is it! ”
And off went Cinderella’s carriage…immediately
turning into a pumpkin as it left the sacred walls of the fortress that was
soon to be my future home…
TO BE CONTINUED
Searching for a health guide or simply looking for something worthwhile to read?? You might be interested to grab a copy of the magazine I write for, Health.Care (health-dot-care). It is distributed by Medicomm Pacific, Inc., which also publishes medical and veterinary books and very user-friendly drug directories. Complimentary copies of the magazine used to be handed out to planholders of a certain health maintenance organization or cardholders of a specific credit card company, but starting 2005, management began selling it. There is an on-line version of the magazine which you can browse (http://www.e-medicomm.com), but the publication is not posted in its entirety, for obvious reasons.