Forever? It isn’t so

More than eleven months ago, GMA’s FM radio station in Manila flipped audiences. As some might put it, it has gone to the dark side – DWLS, which for the longest time has been known as Campus Radio, has been transformed to Barangay LS.

Already it has received pretty bad reactions. Aside from a petition started immediately after the format flip commenced on Valentine’s Day, listeners and even jocks revolted in ways that they could. (The most notable would be Sophie’s move to NU 107.) Things nevertheless went the way the network’s management would’ve wanted it to go: Barangay LS’ ratings went up, going to as high as fourth in Metro Manila. Its old listeners may have fled in droves, but it has gained new ones – more than the usual. The jocks, in the spirit of professionalism, wavered on, doing their broadcasts – still those corny jokes scattered in between equally sappy songs.

Alas, it wasn’t enough. The management would pull a surprise soon – they would fire all but two of the on-air staff.