Several Metro Manila FM radio stations claim to be “Number 1.”  One wonders how many “Number 1” slots can there be in the FM airwaves.  To pound their point at being “Number 1,” the stations have station ID’s that are repeated, and repeated, and repeated, sounding like a clanging gong.  The method employed for high station ID recall seems to be nothing short of brainwashing.  And it can drive those unused to Metro Manila’s FM airwaves crazy!  But then, a daily megadose of such station ID’s has simply become a way of life for those driving through the metropolis.  It seems that drivers, of public utility vehicles in particular, cannot anymore do without the blasting programs of these radio stations. 

One radio station bagged a winning formula of using a little girl’s voice to say its station ID; the other stations have followed.  By now, the dominant stations on FM have that all-too-familiar little girl’s voice (that might even be a man’s voice just sounding like a little girl’s) bombarding Pinoy listeners with the all-too-similar claims of high listenership. 

Adding to this, the radio announcers are getting louder and louder in their rat-tat-tat greetings and interludes. The competition seems to be who has the loudest program host with the most difficult tongue-rolling or the most suggestive “talk-dirty” greetings.  And the greetings are said innumerably, as though one greeting cannot be sufficient at all. 

The laughter of one female radio host has been copied as a winning laughter that is supposedly guaranteed to be a contagious laughter.  The problem is that the copycat laughters are obviously inauthentic, built into the script, and tiring to the radio hosts.  How they can fake laughter day in and day out for their radio programs, which run up to 3 hours a day, is quite a feat.  But for the money, sure, let’s fake it!

Then there is that formula tandem of three idiotic characters for their joke time, again a winning segment in one radio station that has been adapted by other radio stations.  For another station, the voice of the joker is that of an imp.  While their jokes may have become a staple for the masses, most of these jokes, said at daytime, are so inappropriate for the general public, crass, often suggesting illicit sexual relations, offensive, and such a bad influence to the children, who hear these jokes without much of a choice, since they are riding with their parents in jeepneys and FX’s.  Do we really want our children to be exposed to such filthy humor?  Cannot the government regulatory bodies intervene to put an end to these abuses in the airwaves?   Because such joke segments are perceived by the station managers as popular, more and more of them are heard in the airwaves.  Pity the children of our country, who already are also bombarded with seductive come-ons and dirty humor on television.

And the ads aired by these popular radio stations are themselves very loud and, put together, can run to up to 20 minutes at a time, but the unsuspecting public commute drivers are not even aware that they have been listening to a galore of ads rather than music.  They are just so sunk into those radio programs, which seem to have hypnotic powers over them.

Public commuters do not have much of a say as to the stations they can listen to, but as for me I cannot endure the brainwashing of these commercial radio stations that bombard the general public daily with their marketing gimmicks.  Whenever I ride a taxi, I always politely ask the taxi driver, who is usually listening to either a blasting FM program or an AM station’s news program, which often shakes the listeners with descriptions of heinous, gory crimes, especially in the mornings, to change the station to my favorite FM radio station.  Once he has settled on the road, I say, “Maari po ba na ang istasyon natin ay 98.7 sa FM?” [Can we change our station to 98.7 on FM?]  Sometimes, the taxi driver asks me, “Anong istasyon ba ‘yan?”  [What kind of station is that?]  “Classical station, po,” I answer.  “Gusto ko po ang musika don.  Relaxing.  Maingay po kasi yung ibang mga istasyon.  Palakasan ng sigaw ang mga radio hosts.”  [I like the music there.  It is relaxing.  The other radio stations are too noisy. 

The radio hosts seem to try to outdo each other in being loud.]

Always, one-hundred percent, the taxi drivers who drive me to my destinations end up liking 98.7 DZFE.  They find its music selection different and easy to the ear and mind.  It is a non-commercial FM station that plays relaxing classical music and classic songs, has insightful segments, and its program hosts have the most soothing voices.  True to its calm station ID, 98.7 DZFE The Master’s Touch is “the station that cares to uplift the inner man.” 

Interestingly, even as I get off the taxis, more often than not, the taxi drivers continue to listen to my favorite radio station. And always, the rides I have with taxi drivers, even the brusque-looking ones, are so pleasant, and many of them send me off with a smile.