A Fast Trip on Memory Lane with ABS-CBN News

Almost forgot about what's so significant about the year 2010, especially this month, but better late than never.

64 years ago, on 13th of June 1946, a former American soldier named James Lindenberg opened Bolinao Electronics Corporation, a company specializing in radio electronics equipment for communication. (Bolinao is named as such from the hometown of James' wife, a town in Pangasinan later to be a tourist spot.) The Bolinao of 1946 is the ABS-CBN we know of today, still specializing in communications through TV, radio and a lot of media.

62 years ago, on June 1948, James got the license to operate a radio station of his own, a radio station that will be patronized soon by many of our countrymen in Manila and beyond. It was then he set up Bolinao Broadcasting Corporation, the ancestor of ABS-CBN.

61 years ago, on June 1949, Bolinao's first radio station, DZBC-AM Manila (BC for Bolinao Corporation) had its first broadcast. The antenna: a bunch of wires tied between 2 mango trees in San Juan City. The broadcast: a lot of programs that are broadcast in Filipino language, making it the first radio station to broadcast in Filipino! DZRH-AM Manila was only broadcasting then in English.

And ABS-CBN News began with James Lindenberg as DZBC's newscaster in 1949. Take note: an American able to speak Filipino, and a newscaster as well!

With Bolinao Broadcasting renamed Alto Broadcasting Systems (ABS in ABS-CBN) in 1953 and Alto opening the Philippines' first ever TV station, DZAQ-TV Channel 3 (AQ for new owner Antonio Quirino, now the Channel 2 we know), the story of ABS-CBN News continued, this time with Vero Perfecto acting as anchor-reporter on the streets of Metro Manila in 1953, and later Hal Bowie reading the news from various sources on TV in the late 1950's and early 1960's.

Faced with stiff competition from news programs of its competitor TV stations (with the competitors starting on TV by 1960), ABS-CBN then Chronicle Broadcasting (now having Alto as sister station) premiered a real newscast 48 years ago. On 21st of November 1962 in DZXL-TV Channel 9, it began the newscast The World Tonight (yes, the one over ANC, making it one of the longest-running English TV newscast in the country). The first anchor: Henry Halasan. From Channel 9 it moved to Channel 3 which became Channel 2 until Martial Law. When ABS-CBN returned in 1986, The World Tonight was relaunched, staying in Channel 2 until moving to ANC in 1999. Almost 5 decades after its first broadcast, anchoring the newscast is shared among Angelo Castro Jr. and Tina Monzon-Palma on weekdays and Ron Cruz, Lia Andanar-Yu and Bill Velasco on weekends.

23 years ago, on the 3rd of March 1987, ABS-CBN premiered the successor of Balita Ngayon. Balita Ngayon was ABS-CBN's Filipino language newscast in the late 1960's which stopped by Martial Law and resurrected in 1986 by the time ABS-CBN resumed broadcast. As per the book Kapitan-The Story of Geny Lopez narrates, the 1986 Balita Ngayon anchors, Robert Arevalo and Mel Tiangco, were there on the successor newscast, along with then newcomer Angelique Lazo and Noli de Castro, a veteran radio newscaster and host of ABS-CBN's morning TV show Magandang Umaga. The successor newscast's name: TV PATROL. Months later, Robert Arevalo changed places with Magandang Umaga newscaster Frank Evangelista, completing the quartet of Kabayan Noli, Tita Mel, Ka Kiko and Angelique that made TV PATROL must-see TV for the next 2 decades.

1 year ago, on the 9th of February 2009, a new regional version of TV Patrol premiered to audiences in and out of Batangas City and within and beyond CALABARZON and MIMARO, with the broadcast reaching as far as southern Metro Manila. The newscaster was veteran ABS-CBN Legazpi City correspondent Sarita Kare, backed by Batangueno reporters Tina Ganzon and Joan Panopio, later to be joined by Michael Cuyugan and then Edison Reyes and Ernie Manio. The newscast: TV PATROL BATANGAS, better known as TV PATROL SOUTHERN TAGALOG.

So, if we count the years, ABS-CBN News is exactly 61 years old! So congratulations to the former and current men and women of ABS-CBN News: An Ally of the Truth, and Ally of the Nation for 61 Years!