Radio’s unsung heroes

There’s trouble brewing in the radio broadcast of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) games.

Last Aug. 6, broadcasters Barry Pascua and Boyet Sison refused to cover the first quarter of the Red Bull-FedEx game at the PhilSports Arena as an expression of protest for the much-delayed payment of their wages. Manila Broadcasting Co. (MBC), the radio franchise holder of the PBA games, reacted by putting the TV voices of Anthony Suntay and Paolo Trillo on the air.

It wasn’t the first time that radio patched into the TV coverage. Last July 16, radio technicians abandoned their PBA post because they were assigned to do work at MBC’s Star City facility. Without the technicians, MBC decided to hook up to the TV audio.

You realize, of course, there is a world of difference in covering a game for TV and for radio. On TV, a broadcaster doesn’t relate what the viewer can see on the tube–if he does, he is redundant. A TV coverage is more analytical, less descriptive, and more incisive. A radio broadcast is more play-by-play because the listener must be able to visualize what is happening on the court and therefore, requires more creative and colorful language to capture the action in words. The work on TV and on radio is a daunting challenge–it’s not easy.

Hooking up to the TV coverage is an injustice to radio listeners who won’t get the same dramatic and visual treatment. Still, it’s better than nothing.

Cielo Timbol, who hosts the halftime show on radio, says a major part of her work is done off the air. She goes to team practices, tapes interviews, catches up on latest off-court developments, and spends a lot of hours tailing PBA personalities. Yet, she sighs, her pay is only for her radio broadcast. She gets no support for all the work and commuting she does in preparing for her radio show. It’s a labor of love as she spends her own money in doing her off-radio work. And for the work she does on the air, she doesn’t even get paid on time.

Cielo is one of nine talents on the PBA’s high-energy radio team. The others are Pascua, Sison, Benjie Santiago, Benjie Manalang, Mon Liboro, Noel Zarate, and Seppie Cristobal. The panel retains Roberto Rico as statistician.

If you listen to the radio voices, you’ll be impressed. The broadcasters are knowledgeable, expressive, and brutally frank–as they should be. All over the country, they’ve become legends among PBA fans. They’re critical, witty, and articulate. They’re fun to listen to. Some fans go to the extent of using earphones to listen to the radio coverage while they’re watching in the stadium.

MBC took over the PBA’s radio coverage in 1999. The games are aired in Metro Manila on 846 khz AM over Radio Veritas. In the provinces, the carrying stations are DZRH’s satellite.

The reason why the radio broadcasters refused to sit in the first period of the Aug. 6 game was because they were promised to be paid their back wages for March 16 to April 15 that day. Alas, the promise went unfulfilled as MBC’s signatory of the payroll checks was absent that day. Last Friday, the salaries were finally paid, thanks to Barry and Boyet who made known their plight when they went on the air starting the second period of the Aug. 6 coverage. Barry says DZRH producer Andy Vital helped in facilitating the release of the salaries.

According to Barry, DZRH promised to release the salaries for the period April 16 to the end of the First Conference tomorrow. The broadcasters are hoping that DZRH keeps its promise.

"In the past, we experienced delays of two to three weeks so it wasn’t that bad," said Cielo, a cult figure among PBA radio followers. "Then, last November, the delay extended until January. Imagine, we didn’t get paid through Christmas and the New Year. It was tough to make both ends meet during the holidays. Kawawa naman kami. And it’s not because DZRH isn’t making money. Napapabayaan lang kami."

The radio broadcasters are prepared to walk out if DZRH fails to update their salary payments by tomorrow, as promised. If they boycott, DZRH will probably use the TV voices again–a disservice to the PBA’s radio listeners. Surely, the PBA will not agree to the use of TV voices for the radio coverage. The solution to the problem isn’t to patch up to the TV coverage. The solution is to pay the radio broadcasters their due.

"We’ve been extremely patient," says Pascua. "We’re professionals and we should be treated as professionals. We’re now in the middle of August and we’ve been paid only up to April 15. We’re into the quarterfinals of the Second Conference and we still haven’t been paid for the First Conference. Our pay is delayed over three months–nobody beats that record."

Will the radio broadcasters get paid tomorrow?