MANILA, Philippines – The hosts of ABS-CBN TeleRadyo’s morning show Sakto called on their followers to tune in to their new station on Friday, June 30, as the news channel shuts down after 37 years under the Lopez-led media organization. 

Sakto hosts Jeff Canoy, Johnson Manabat, weatherman Ariel Rojas, and sports newscaster Migs Bustos put on dark suits while Amy Perez donned black pants, a black blouse, and a green blazer on Thursday, June 29.

“All good things must come to an end. Pero sabi nga ni @migsbustos ‘Minsan kahit laway lang…puwede ka magtagumpay’ (As Migs Bustos said, ‘Sometimes, you can be successful just with talking),'” Canoy, also chief of reporters of ABS-CBN Integrated News, said on Wednesday as he asked followers to watch Sakto’s special show on Thursday.

The shows’ hosts thanked their Kapamilya viewers on online platforms such as YouTube and Facebook for supporting the news channel over the past three years. On Facebook, DZMM TeleRadyo has 2.7 million followers; on Twitter, 2.5 million followers; and 608,000 YouTube subscribers.

Before Sakto’s show on Thursday ended, Canoy said, “Hiling po sana namin, tomorrow…‘wag kayo bibitiw sa channel at mas malayo pa, mas malayo ang mararating natin.”

(We ask you that tomorrow, stay tuned to the channel as we will have a wider reach.)

“Magkikita at magkakarinigan pa tayo bukas sa radyo 630 (We will still see you and you can still listen to us tomorrow on radio 630),” added Perez. 

A new station, DWPM, using DZMM’s previous frequency, 630 kHz in the AM band, will have its soft launch tomorrow under new management, a joint venture between ABS-CBN and House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s Prime Media Holdings Corporation.

FAST FACTS: Romualdez’s Prime Media Holdings Inc.

Rappler learned that some of TeleRadyo’s staff and anchors will be joining this new station, while a number are opting to quit for better-paying opportunities.

Veteran ABS-CBN anchors Tony Velasquez and Karmina Constantino thanked those who watched their TeleRadyo show, On The Spot, and disclosed that they will be part of the new station although their time slot is still unknown.  

“Samahan n’yo pa rin po kami sa bagong kabanata ng ating kuwento sa mas pinalawak pa na paghahatid ng serbisyo. Kaya tayo po ay magkikita at magkakarinigan pa rin po tayo sa radyo 630,” Velasquez said. 

(Please join us in the new chapter of our story through wider service delivery. We will still see and listen to each other via radio 630.)   

Bernadette Sembrano and Winnie Cordero, hosts of TeleRadyo’s public service show, Lingkod Kapamilya, thanked all the staff who helped the show deliver public service through the years. 

ABS-CBN announced on May 23 that it was shutting down TeleRadyo on June 30, Friday. 

The former media giant cited TeleRadyo’s financial losses since 2020 after the Duterte administration ordered the network to cease its broadcast operations.   

“TeleRadyo has been incurring financial losses since 2020. Since ABS-CBN can no longer sustain TeleRadyo’s operations, ABS-CBN is left with no choice but to cease the operations of TeleRadyo effective 30 June 2023 to prevent further losses,” the publicly-listed company had said.

A total of 68 TeleRadyo employees will be displaced by the closure, a sign of the continuing financial difficulties of the Lopez-led media company. Around half of ABS-CBN’s 11,000 workforce lost their jobs in 2020 after the Duterte administration and the House of Representatives killed ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal. 

ABS-CBN suffered a net loss of P13.5 billion in 2020 after it lost its presence on free-to-air tv and radio, and has been in the red since then. With its large debt, it is still bleeding financially, although its net losses declined to P5.6 billion in 2021 and P2.6 billion in 2022.

It has had to sign various deals with its former competitors, GMA Network Incorporated and MediaQuest Holdings Incorporated’s TV5, in order to survive.

Prior to the shutdown of ABS-CBN’s free-to-air channels in May 2020, ABS-CBN TeleRadyo was known as DZMM 630 TeleRadyo when it still had the frequency in the AM band. It dropped the call sign DZMM after it was no longer available on free radio.  

DZMM was launched in 1986 after the Lopezes recovered their radio stations following the EDSA People Power Revolution. In 2007, it pioneered in fusing radio and television when it launched DZMM TeleRadyo through a live video broadcast of its radio feed aired on ABS-CBN’s cable television.

Through the years, a number of DZMM hosts and anchors became national celebrities and politicians, led by Noli “Kabayan” de Castro, who was elected Philippine vice president in 2004 when he ran with incumbent President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Lawyers such as Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Chiz Escudero, who had public service shows on DZMM, went on to become senators.

After DZMM lost its 630 kHz frequency, some of its popular hosts, such as Ted Failon and Anthony Taberna, moved to other radio-TV stations. – Rappler.com

Romualdez’s Prime Media says joint venture with ABS-CBN only for radio, not TV