The Vietnam Radio Visit and Quality Time with Big Brother

Last Friday, us Bay FM radio geeks were part of the entourage that welcomed radio colleagues from the Voice of Vietnam. Our group, the SBMA Corporate Communications, played host to the 9-member delegation which was accompanied by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), the regulatory body of the Philippines' broadcast industry, led by its Operations & Administrative Manager Ms. Nora Villanueva. We had the chance to mingle and talk to them a bit (with the help of a lady interpreter) over lunch at the Subic Bay Yacht Club and then dinner at the Golden Dragon Resto. In between said meals, the party was treated to a tour of the Freeport courtesy of the SBMA Tourism Department.

Though it was just a brief visit by our friends from Vietnam's public radio (most of whom are probably in their late 40s and 50s, to the chagrin of the very young lady Vietnamese interpreter), Ate Nora said they did have a blast. I spent most of my time talking with KBP since we, especially Ate Nora, have mutual friends in the industry and we just blabbered away like old friends. Eman, the other KBP guy, found a music ally in me when he discovered I was an 80s kid. He gleefully played 80s new wave over his cellphone and challenged me to a game of name that tune.

It was during dinner when we talked about the state of affairs in Philippine Radio...the current trends and changes in FM formats, the rankings of radio stations, the hiring and firing of deejays and executives, and cases of indecent language slapped by the KBP against certain broadcast companies and jocks (yes, we do have our own Howard Sterns here).

Overall, it was an interesting (and educational) day for us radio geeks. It's not everyday when we are visited by fellow Asian radio geeks and get to keep tabs with Big Brother's folks. Well, we need to go out of that bomb shelter of a booth sometime, right?