Live-blogging one more new pop station

Well, here we go again. Another radio station launch. This time, it’s U92, a pop station taking over the frequency that, as of this writing, is being held by “smooth variety” station XFM 92.3. Yup, the same station that played chillout and electronica during one of its more interesting stages, and before that, as jazz-retro station 923 Joey.

A lot’s happened to that frequency since I stopped writing about radio on the blog. The chillout format, as we all know, didn’t last, and eventually NU 107’s Mike Pedero came in to devise a smooth jazz format. In recent months, it’s evolved into what he called a “smooth variety” format, focusing on more accessible, upbeat, yet smooth tracks targeted towards females. But financially, the station wasn’t apparently performing well, and station owners NBC were looking for new ways to generate profits. The decision was made to terminate the station and transfer programming duties to a blocktimer. Cue Francis Lumen, currently head of All Youth Networks, the company in charge of MTV Philippines. He’s taking over, with a pop format that’s obviously very much tied in to the cable channel.

The station launches tomorrow, with an interesting mix of personalities, including former MTV VJs KC Montero, Cesca Litton, Marc Abaya and Sarah Meier; current MTV VJ Sib; Wave 89.1’s Jimmy Muna, 99.5 RT’s Joshua Yu, and perhaps the most surprising of all, the Brewrats – Tado, Ramon Bautista and Angel Rivero, who recently headed the breakfast slot on the resurrected RT after working the late shift on three iterations of the frequency. I’ve yet to gether details – apparently a print ad came out earlier – but tomorrow, I’ll be live-blogging here, talking about the station’s first twelve hours. Surely there’ll be discussion over at PinoyExchange. Let’s see how this goes.

State of the Twitter (success and) fail

It was no surprise that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address – supposedly her final, unless she actually extends her term like most fear – would end up becoming a trending topic on Twitter. I am one of those responsible, with many media outfits, political pundits and common Filipinos turning to the microblogging service to list down talking points, express their thoughts, argue with other tweeters, discuss fashion styles, and count number of applauses. Nobody got it right the first time.

Perhaps the most annoying part is, two-thirds through the speech, most media outfits have disappeared. Twitter has hourly tweeting limits for almost everyone, unless you file for special consideration. Thus, we disappeared – the pundits, the media, and heavy tweeters like me. As I write this, I still can’t post anything, and it’s been forty minutes. I call this a Twitter fail.

But it’s quite an amazing thing, being on Twitter and posting whatever we can hear. Before the feisty speech, which had more jibes (and, as Alyssa put it, blind items) against her critics than her other SONAs, I’ve been seeing many folks post (and repost) updates as they see it. The Philippine Daily Inquirer had their photographers tweet their photos. The PCIJ were throwing in bits of analysis. Pundit Manuel Quezon III was throwing in his thoughts as well. And those are just the people that I followed during the past three hours – and, in some cases, retweeted what I tweeted, or at least the stuff I heard from DZMM.

From here to the red-haired rocker

I was looking at the screen more closely than usual. I was coming off a pretty big surprise moments ago, when my predictions – which have been right for most of the past few weeks – have gone seriously off kilter. Three people remained standing, and another verdict was to be delivered.

“Adam, you are safe.”

Yeah, that was a given. It’s always been that way for most of the past few weeks, expect for the week before, when he surprisingly appeared on the bottom three. But that wasn’t the purpose of the moment. In my five years of watching American Idol – the first two seasons weren’t aired in the Philippines – I’ve never felt so nervous about what was going to happen in the next two minutes.

Keeping track of “a bigger hit” on 99.5

Watch this page as we update throughout the workday regarding the events on the first day of 99.5 RT – or, should we call it, the third first day for 99.5 RT? Immediately below is something about the five-month history of its predecessor (or successor), Campus 99.5. Many thanks to our friends for making a few bits possible: James Habitan started the thread on PinoyExchange, and Yoanna Sarigan clicked the publish button when we couldn’t get to.

A new-ish radio station launched on beleaguered 99.5 MHz last March, and we all thought it would last. At first, the entry of Campus 99.5 seemed to be the answer to the frequency’s search for a format that would attract audiences and advertisers.

And how else could it go wrong? The Campus brand is, arguably, a well-loved one, with many listeners when it still had a home on 97.1 MHz. One can say that GMA pulling the plug on the station (and replacing it with a mass format) instigated a lot of changes in Manila’s radio scene as a whole, with listeners moving elsewhere, and stations trying to adapt to the newly-opened niche. I wasn’t an all-out fan of the Campus format, especially during its GMA years, but I thought that the decision to put them on the similarly-beleaguered frequency that Hit FM used to occupy will be a good one. I thought it will last.

Maxville Idol minute-by-minute

Tonight on 103.5 Max FM, it’s Maxville Idol! It started as a joke on last week’s conference – I started it, I’m guilty – but now it’s a serious singing competition, with a lot of prizes, and Kitchie Nadal as a guest, even! It’s been almost a half-hour now, and we’re still waiting for the entries to get played. They’ve been uploaded early already, though… or, if you can’t listen, we’re going to listen and update this for you.

21.30 (27 May): If not for Sam singing at the town fiesta last Saturday, this wouldn’t have happened. Come Monday night, the biters were asking her to sing… and when Kelly was asked to sing, I said, “ano ito, Maxville Idol?” Things happened from there.

21.34: “I haven’t talked to her in a long, long time,” Kelly introduced Kitchie Nadal. The usual discussion about her album and what she’s been up to in between her last interview with Kelly. She’s been all around the world, it seems.