The New BayFM Tribe

TurnTheRadioOn welcomes the new tribe! Ang Bagong Ka-Tribo ng Subic Bay Radio (The new tribemates of Subic Bay Radio).

Here they are! (program highlights and photos of the new ka-tribo c/o DoubleB)

3am – 6am = “EARLY BREAKFAST JAM” with DJ Elton (solo)
60% Disco/M.O.R., 40% Mellow with live-phone-in callers / greetings

Subic Bay Radio’s early morning program show – music with topic based live-on-air conversations. It’s become a 24-hour world, and the Early Breakfast Jam is the perfect hangout for amnesiacs! Know what your friends are up to, and possibly hook up with them as well. We’ll also let you in on what’s happening around your 24-hour Subic Bay community.

6am – 9am = “GOOD MORNING SUBIC BAY” with DJ’s Tommy G. & Lil’ Chris (tandem)
80% Disco/M.O.R., 20% Mellow with live-phone-in callers / greetings

Currently handled by two of BAY FM’s long time regular DJs – The program is a mid morning Pop format with playlist based on the most recent international music releases – Billboard Charts Top 100 songs US/UK with current entertainment & world showbiz info dissemination.

If your morning brew is not enough to perk you up, try a dose of Good Morning Subic Bay! With its perfect blend of pop hot music and a dash of mayhem, the journey from bed to the office just got a little better.

9am – 12nn = “PLAYTIME” with DJ’s Alex & Eriq Nash (tandem)
60% Disco/M.O.R., 40% Mellow with live-phone-in callers / greetings

Reminiscent of the famous tandem show of Manila’s Chico and Delamar while also patterned with some of Manila’s top late morning programs designed to entertain both late risers and working people. It aims to boost the mid morning energy of all listeners through music and infotainment.

12nn – 3pm = “HAPPY HOUR” with DJ’s Manay Junie, Jhepsz & Bubut (threesome)
60% Disco/M.O.R., 40% Mellow with live-phone-in callers / greetings

Modeled after top famous Manila threesome lunchtime wacky programs, your day will not be complete without your daily dose of humor, insanity, and music, music, music the Subic Bay way! The Happy Hour radio show lets you take control of our playlist as you cruise through the mid portion of your work day in euphoria.

The show is distinctly funny thanks to the humorous way the DJs go through the program. The DJs would regularly get SMS from listeners who would tell them that people would look at them like they were crazy while listening to the show. One particular case was of a certain listener alone in her car while driving from work to a restaurant for her lunch break and people from other vehicles were staring at her because they would see her laughing by herself. Another case would be a student listening to the show on his mobile phone, commuting on a jeepney and couldn't help but to laugh out loud, to the surprise and curiosity of his fellow commuters. A third case would be a worker at a certain SBMA company while in the employee’s cafeteria currently on his lunch break listening to the show on his mp3 player, and grinning widely, trying not to laugh out loud while co-workers stares at him and wonders why the silly grin.

3pm – 6pm = “THE ALL HIT RADIO SHOW” with DJ Double B (solo)
50% Disco & M.O.R., 50% Mellow – with live-phone-in callers / greetings (pure) Today’s Hottest, Latest and Most Requested Songs

Take the music roller coaster that is The All Hit Radio Show! Whether you’re finishing up on your work, doing late afternoon household chores, behind the wheel, in a jeepney or in the backseat of your ride back home, relax, rewind, rejuvenate and enjoy with all of Today’s Hottest Hits with a veteran jock at the helm and in control of the console – Dj Double B!

6pm – 9pm = “THE MEAN GURLZ” with DJ’s Eimee & Lindsay (tandem)
60% Disco/M.O.R., 40% Mellow with live-phone-in callers / greetings

Just like the famous tandem of Manila’s Andi-9 and Jessica – Subic Bay’s very own Lady Jocks par excellence can tackle any topic fit for teenagers and young urban professionals alike. Finally, the two most kikays of all takes control of the board from 6pm onwards; it’s pretty Eimee who makes noise in the evening while sexy Lindsay jives, and both deeply entertain listeners through all the enjoyable segments of their program!

9pm – 12mn = “HEART AND SOUL” with DJ Bernie Mac (solo)
Classic, Classic Gold & Recall Love Songs

Say what’s on your mind; long time BAY FM Radio Jock Bernie Mac is listening. Heart and Soul is where listeners’ heart issues are given attention while songs of love serve as accompaniment.

Welcome to your new home, geeks!

Victoria London @ Bay FM

Here's a little known fact about 89.5 Bay FM.

During the early days of the station (my early days at the station, that is), hot international model (and one of FHM's 100 sexiest women for 2008) Victoria London did a couple of radio shows with us in the summer of 07. It was actually her dad (a Subic resident and investor) who talked her into going on board, and get this, doing it pro bono.

Ms. London had a couple of deejay stints at Magic 89.9 and, sure enough, when she graced us radio geeks with her sexy voice over Bay FM's airwaves, practically all the boys in our building dropped everything they were doing just to catch a glimpse of THE Victoria London. Such a good sport she was that she even hosted (sans talent fee) Subic Bay's beach bodies competition, donning one of the sexiest outfits I dare not wear.

Just a few weeks ago, Victoria was back fresh from a modelling stint in Florida, USA to spend some time off here in Subic. Probably still woozy from jetlag, she texted me that she was back and wanted to spend time with us geeks at the station. Well, she did visit us one Saturday when we were doing one of the live episodes of Subic Bay Hour. Right after the show, Noel Estrella of Sibil Subic invited us to his club and chattered over drinks. Anyway, this lady not only has wicked good looks, she also has the brains to boot, being that she is now attending law school in Hongkong.

Though she really wanted to, she hasn't really taken up my offer for her to go on board again (pro-bono of course, we can't afford her lol). But the last time I talked to her, she was ready to go back to Hongkong. Too bad. She had become a real good friend to Bay FM, and me of course (I feel I'm sort of like her older, and way less taller, sister especially when we spend some girl time to talk about the naughtiest things).

Want to know more about Victoria London? Check her out in her multiply site here. You can also directly access info and photos (still with proverbial egg trays in the background) about her stint in Bay FM here.

We will miss you girl! Thanks for being a special part of Bay FM.

Up at 5:00am! (TommyG wakes up Subic Bay)

Gooooood Morning Subic Bay!!!

Well, this ain't exactly how TommyG starts off his show everyday, but boy, does he make all that racket at 5 in the morning!

Doing two airshifts for Bay FM everyday (5-8am and 11am-2pm), TommyG's voice has become some sort of a signature which is evident by all the phone-in requests, text messages (and indecent proposals, joke!) he has been receiving since he started with this station. After all, TommyG practically comes in second as a pioneer of this station, the other being BernieMac, Bay FM's program director (then there's me...so that's us, the trio of radio geeks who regularly keeps this station running, along with two other technical geeks from SBMA Telecoms).

He is also our resident "hitman." But, before you even start thinking murder (sorry Tom, you're not that tough haha!!), lemme explain... TommyG does the regular top 12 countdown at around noon where he features the freshest "hits" in the billboard charts, so there.

Anyway, here are a couple of TommyG's airchecks from his morning show, featuring music that'll surely jolt you out of your bed. So, crank up your 'puter's volume... now!

(Unless its nighttime for you reader and you need peace and quiet before turning in ^l^).

The Staci & Rae Show

A while back I was raving about these students from Brent School who are now volunteering as student jocks in Bay FM. Boarding the mid-morning shift, Staci & Rae are very entertaining to listen to because they dish out spiels right off their heads without even flinching. It's like eavesdropping on girl talk without the guilt. But I guess, they are just having fun, right girls?

Wanna check them out? Here are a couple of airchecks from their show.

Campus Jocks

A couple of months ago, we started this experiment called the BayFM Campus Deejays. The experiment was actually born out of sheer need. Not that there is a dearth of talents out there, but we thought that sooner or later, we might need to hire deejays. So, what better way to do that than for us geeks to develop potential radio jocks who would eventually work for Bay FM someday.

Columban College Jocks
Our first batch of Campus jocks was a group of around twelve Mass Communications 3rd-year students from Columban College Olongapo who were on their summer break. Alan and Bernie made them undergo rigid (?) training in organizing playlists, speech and intonation, developing spiels and so on. It was actually a complete workshop, really. Then, we grouped them in tandems and gave them duty hours for going on board.

Though the experiment with these college kids is over (as they have already gone back to school), we retained one of them. Lil' Kris is still with us and is doing really well in the morning show.





Brent Student Jocks
Enter now, the student jocks of Brent Subic.

I knew even before we trained them that these kids could really hack it. We saw it first with Rain Summers last year. She was going on Grade 12 that time and we hardly even trained her. She was a natural.

This time, Stacie, Rae and Megan (real names Jen, Rae and Macy) now have their own timeslots in Bay FM. Just like Rain, we hardly trained them, only a bit of tutoring with the broadcast computer, and a few playlist and spiel tricks. I'm not a bit surprised really because these kids do have the command of the language and can speak their mind. They are so much fun to listen to, which I think is pretty much the reason why they have already developed their own listenership base (apart from the Brent community, though).

Our new guys are Stoner (Eric) and Tak'e. Eric is American and Tak'e, Japanese. These guys are a hoot and I bet they'll also do well just like the girls.

Brent's campus jocks will be on air during their entire summer (or spring?) break which will be until the last week of July.

Have fun, guys!

Jazz By The Bay

One show that is my personal favorite in Bay FM is heard every Sunday from around 9-12 pm. This is where we get to hear the coolest jazz music courtesy of Jake Mills (aka the Jazzmaster). Jazz By The Bay is actually a special favor I asked from our PD (who is in his 30s and probably hasn't really heard of Chuck Mangione). I met Jake Mills through a recommendation and it was certainly fate that led this guy to Bay FM. He was the perfect jock for the show. Apart from his love of jazz, he was amenable at going on board every Sunday nights.

The show plays non-stop muzak from some of our jazz greats - David Benoit, Spyro Gyra, Noel Pointer, Grover Washington, Jr., Lee Ritenour, Hiroshima, George Benson et.al. - artists whose music I grew up with, as well as music from some of our contemporary jazz artists.

It was through this show that I sort of renewed my love for jazz and learned some stuff about the newer jazz artists. It was actually TommyG who told me that Wayman Tisdale was an ex-NBA player. Really? Tisdale retired from pro-basketball in 1997 and focused instead on his musical career as a jazz bass guitarist (interesting stats of his 12 season career: Tisdale played for the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns, the latter being his best stint when he averaged 22.3 points and 7.5 rebounds in 1989-1990, his best season). That blew my mind.

Check out some of my favorite jazz tracks featured on Jazz By The Bay (including several from Tisdale) right here, right now. Enjoy!

Less Talk, More Music

Ever since this blog started, I have been writing about some of Bay FM's travails (mostly the station manager's, really) as a fledgeling community station of the Subic Bay Freeport. This time, I'm gonna spare anyone reading my blog from further depression lest they think running a radio station is cumbersome, because it definitely isn't (maybe I just enjoy worrying too much haha!).

Let's talk about music now. Yes, Music. Bay FM is actually a music station. We play all kinds of music 24/7 from sun-up 'til sundown (well, except during Subic Bay Hour, though). This I think is the reason why Bay FM has some kind of cult following here in this part of the country. Our listeners are guaranteed with no-clutter programming, meaning, we do not populate our airwaves with long strings of commercials or irritating breakers.

"Less Talk, More Music," that's one of the bylines we go by, and Bay FM could keep it that way. Thanks to automation and BernieMac, programming runs virtually hands-free most of the time, just like podcasting. It proves to be effective for a small station like Bay FM that is operated by just a small band of radio geeks and volunteer jocks.

Bay FM's typical weekday playlist is mostly composed of all-genre top forty music, spanning from the 90s to present, while during weekends, we go adult contemporary (AC) with music mostly from the 70's to the 90s. Bay FM also has specialized programs in the weekends like Jazz By The Bay (Don't fret Jake, I'll talk about jazz soon :)).

One interesting program we have hosted by our volunteer DJ Jack Ryan (a hulk of a guy who has a day job in SBMA) is Retroactive. He features hits of a particular year in the 70s and the 80s. When Jack Ryan goes on (which is getting quite rare these past few weeks due to his extremely tight dayjob schedule), we get request call-ins from 50-60somethings, especially from the guys at American Legion (an association of veteran U.S. Navy officers who opted to retire in Olongapo City, I think). I once sat through his show and I really had a blast listening to music from artists like the Isley Brothers, Guess Who, BTO & Grand Funk.

During the weekdays, we have TommyG to rely on for the freshest chart-topping hits. He usually does the Billboard top 12 countdown which keeps our music library updated.

From Rock, R&B, HipHop, Urban, to AC and Jazz covering the 70s to the now - I think you'll surely enjoy listening to Bay FM...just be here in Subic Bay Freeport, though.

Hey by the way, check out Bay FM's mini playlist way down this blog (c/o dizzler). It has been there for ages!