Captains of the Airwaves

The station’s logo tells you it’s not your usual TV station. A broken idiot box thrown out on the street. Traces of rebellion. Shades of anti-something. What TV executive in his right mind would parody the very thing he is selling?

The TV offices tell you another thing: This is not an ABS-CBN or a GMA-7. There are no cubicles or indoor plants here, no polished floors or a row of high-heeled secretaries. In fact, if not for the black and red posters taped on the glass doors, you might think this was a bookkeeping office. Two small rooms: a network biggie’s receiving room alone. Oh, but they have done a lot of work in these small rooms. In one corner, for instance, an entire show was shot. At the conference-slash-all-around table, they’ve brainstormed and let ideas for TV shows float and catch fire.

The people in these offices will give you an idea why this channel is the way it is: Progressive Broadcasting president Atom Henares, together with his partner, Progressive vice president Mike Pedero, captains of NU 107’s airwaves. The two guys who brought alternative music – local and foreign – to radio at a time when no one would touch it. The two guys who told mellow to take a hike and slapped the audience with unheard-of local bands that became big – so big that many became mainstream.

Now these kids are at it again, hoping to do to TV what they did to radio. The station’s name is UnTV Unlike. It’s not just a play on their radio station’s call sign or "MTV I Like." It is un-something – rather, it is not a lot of things.

"Our creative approach is to do something not network, not MTV-ish or ABC-ish or GMA-ish," explains Atom. "Something more guerrilla, alternative, and experimental. Something not TV. It’s something UnTV. That’s how the name came about."

"UnTV is all about innovative, trendsetting shows. We want to capture the youth’s imagination and loyalty, provide a unique media environment for advertisers. We are the only station capable of cohesive multimedia campaigns via live events, the co-promotion on radio, television, and the Internet."

To accomplish this, Atom and Mike assembled creative people from the fields of music, filmmaking, and the arts and combined them with NU’s own radio people, such as Ron Titular who now heads network operations for both Progressive Broadcasting Corporation’s radio and TV stations, and DJ Diego Castillo, who’s in charge with music video acquisition. Their radio people double as scriptwriters, TV hosts, producers, sometimes even as cameramen and soundmen.

That’s when Atom and Mike gave everybody a playground to unleash their talents and all their crazy ideas.

Obviously, when they tried to start the TV station, they did get some network people to join the team. After all, their success in radio did not assure them of TV success. But, as Atom relates, that’s where the conflicts arose. People used to big studios and big offices and "came in barong to work" said it wouldn’t work. They had to have bigger offices, a proper studio, etc. right from the start. With the delay in UnTV’s transfer to the new offices across their present Strata 2000 location, they had no choice but to start guerrilla-style. But, you have to hand it to the NU guys. Instead of scampering to give in to demands, they simply let the network people go. It would work, Atom and Mike said. They did it with NU 14 years ago and they would do it with UnTV now.

They started test broadcast last summer.

Cable airwaves. Now that’s a contentious issue. This writer switched from Sky to Home Cable as soon as the latter became available in her area, and two weeks ago switched to Destiny when she lost Nickelodeon after the Sky-Home merger. (To get Nickelodeon, according to a Home customer service representative, you have to switch to the Sky package and lose at least two Star channels.)

UnTV is carried by Destiny and Home Cable on channel 59 (NTC Circular 4-08-88 provides that local channels must be carried by cable companies) and on free TV on UHF channel 37.

TV addict and journalist Elvira Mata has been looking forward to watching UnTV since she read in the STAR’s Business Life section that Progressive Broadcasting was launching it. A reluctant Sky subscriber (she has tried to switch but her building has a contract with the cable company), she couldn’t find UnTV. Well, good news to Sky subscribers: Tonight (Friday), we found UnTV on Sky – on channel 95! It seems the Indian, Korean and other foreign channels are easier to locate. But, hey, at least there is now UnTV on Sky.

So what’s on UnTV? Diego Castillo, who selects the music videos, would rather tell you what’s not on. "There will be no boy bands, no N Sync, no Backstreet Boys. There will be no teeny-bopper acts, no Britney Spears, no Christina Aguilera. There will be no bubble-gummy music, no mush."

Hmmmm. Life without Ricky Martin? Hurrah, hurrah!

"Visually, we’re not artist-oriented. It’s not genre specific, but the very best of each genre that’s representative of the youth and our market. Unlike the radio station, we are a little bit more lenient towards videos outside rock. We showcase the best in hiphop, electronica, indie rock, indie pop, and dance. Another special aspect of selection is our emphasis on local talent. We believe the Filipino is at par with the local musicians across all genres. That’s why we have Kulay, which is just as good as Fatboy Slim, and Slapshock who are as good as Linkin Park."

Also, there will be no VJs who do the hand gestures (like they were turning an invisible ball in their hands), no "mestizo-mestiza VJs who speak ‘slang-slang’ English" (never mind if the accent is real or not). What you’ll see instead are different hosts who are themselves part of the script instead of simply presenting songs. The language is not straight English.

Manic Pop Thrill is a 30-minute show hosted by indie rock fanatics Diego Mapa of Monsterbot and Jason Caballa of Twisted Halo. The concept is similar to Saturday Night Live’s "Wayne’s World" where Mike Myers and Dana Carvey hang out in the former’s basement. Diego and Jason hang out in the attic and talk about the artists. Sometimes their own storyline is more involving than the videos of, say, Bis, Goldfrapp or John Spencer Blues Explosion. In the episode we saw, a UFO lands and seemingly takes Diego to space – or blasts him away as only his flip-flops and glasses are left on the pavement.

Out of Time is a trip down memory lane guided by Arlo, a spaced-out hippie. Arlo talks about the good old days when he used to hang out with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Queen, David Bowie and Iggy Pop. Empty boasts or for real? In the case of the Beatles’ last performance together, Arlo is up there on the rooftop with the Fab Four. So maybe his drug-addled mind (he’s supposedly reformed) is making all this up. But who can argue with crude Photoshop manipulation?

Rock Rulez is hosted by none other than the King of Rock himself, Elvis Presley resurrected as Elvez. Seems he really isn’t dead – he just left the building long ago and forgot which way to get back in. All right, so it is a 2-D Elvez, pictures Xeroxed and cut out and eyes popping out and mouth incredibly out-of-sync with his spiels. But, he gives loads of information and he interviews celebrities. One show features Hailey Joel Osmend saying, "I see dead people." And Kurt Cobain appears to converse with his equally dead host.

EPK or Electronic Press Kit features one band per show, like Slapshock filming their latest music video.

Eat My Shorts is for short films over 15 minutes. Short Ends, the term used by filmmakers for leftover 35 mm reels, features films shorter than 15 minutes. Eat My Shorts includes interviews and commentaries by the filmmakers. What’s cool about it is that they get to conceptualize the intros to their films.

Heading the short film division of UnTV is award-winning filmmaker Lyle Sacris, who has visited schools like UP to get the best student filmmakers aside from the professional ones.

Progressive operations manager Ron Titular says UnTV gives them the leeway to do anything experimental for their introduction as opposed to just sitting down and being interviewed about their films. Atom cites the short film of Robert Cabral, which is about suicide. For his intro, Cabral is shown with a noose around his neck. "Then the phone rings and he answers it. ‘O, why did you do this film?’ Then Cabral, still with the noose, answers, ‘I did this film because…’ Some of the intros are as interesting as the short films themselves."

In the Raw is hosted by the Dawn’s Francis Brew, who also hosts the radio show. Like his radio show, the TV equivalent focuses on unsigned, unheard-of bands. Francis’ radio program has helped kick-start the careers of Slapshock and other bands. Now on TV, Francis is joined by musician-co-hosts like Barbie Almalbis of Barbie’s Cradle and Annette Ortiz of Fatal Posporo.

Another show is Roam, hosted by Zach (co-host of Zach and Joey in the Morning on NU), who could be the local Ian Wright (of Lonely Planet) as soon as we could figure out the local equivalent of Wright’s eating sheep’s eyes in Nepal. Zach takes you to places around the metropolis. Some are well known like the Butterfly Farm in Manila, Dampa seafood market, and Las Piñas Church, home of the bamboo organ. What’s cool about it is that the show tells you how to get there, how much it costs and the discoveries along the way. Like Wright, Zach converses with fellow bus passengers and conductors. It’s a show for us trapped in the city, with hardly time or money to hop on a plane to white-sand beaches.

The epitome of UnTV, according to Atom and Ron is the show Strange Brew. It’s hosted by the anti-thesis of the pogi TV star: Tado, who is actually a short filmmaker and an actor (he was the security guard in Radyo). His sidekick is Erning who drives him around in a maroon Beetle (the old one, not the way-too-cool ‘90s edition). The show is about anything and everything. An episode we saw shows Tado giving the third-degree to mascot Yosi Kadiri (who is accused of starting the Orchids for Ashtray movement) with the pretty Erning slapping the poor cigarette with a rolled-up newspaper. Another show features Tado interviewing a toll booth lady. Thanks to Tado, if this is your dream career, you must have the following qualifications: 1) a college degree and, 2) a long arm.

The look of the shows is "professionally unprofessional," as Atom Henares likes to put it. What does this mean? Hmmmm, we can’t think of better examples than Francis Brew scratching his ass in front of the camera; a mike appearing in the corner, encircled with a red ring and marked "boom mike" on the screen; a band being interviewed sweating buckets at the cemetery (hey, provide an electric fan for your guests, will ya?); Zach getting his fill of seafoods and showing off his bloated stomach a la Demi Moore (naturally, they had to put a Vanity Fair spin to that); hosts appearing sans makeup; and having fun, fun, fun.

Beyond the ass scratching, these people know the scene, they breathe and live music, film and the arts. "We’ve given them the freedom to create, to push the envelope. To be serious but not to take themselves seriously. And most of all, to have fun," says Atom.

"Just the way they did with radio, a couple of years ago, Mike Pedero and Atom Henares said, you know what, there’s something missing on TV," Ron says. "What was missing was a good, creative, alternative station."

And to think that all they wanted was three hours to showcase Filipino talent. Years ago, MTV wanted to partner with Progressive Broadcasting Corporation but it would have meant Atom and company’s inputs had to be approved by MTV.

Putting up UnTV wasn’t easy though. When Atom saw the shows’ first footages last April, it "scared the shit" out of him. "The germ of the idea was there but we had to mold it a little more. We might have wanted it to look unprofessional but the equipment behind that and the rigor of the approach should be very professional."

UnTV brings a fresh whiff of air in the airwaves overpopulated with windbags and their endless posturing; drama after goddamned drama every night; music videos with teenagers and their silicon-implanted breasts; and Ricky Martin.

Mike Pedero says UnTV’s ultimate goal is to provide a "platform for Filipino artists. To make a difference in the industry."

So far, nobody has mentioned the word money. Very un-network. "It’s because that’s not the bottom line," says Atom. "Of course we need money to sustain it, to do other things for the Filipino artists. But we don’t need to make bundles of it. The bottom line is to make an impact."