PHILIPPINES:
A Powerful Broadcasting Voice to the World
Part 1

This article first appeared in my World of Shortwave Listening column in the December 2024 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine. Further details on this excellent publication are available at www.thespectrummonitor.com

PART 2 - CLICK HERE. (Part 2 of this extended article looks at Radyo Pilipinas and the famous Far East Broadcasting Company.)

Almost since the start of broadcasting, radio has been a vital part of how Filipino citizens consume their media. It began as far back as 1922 with the commencement of KZKZ (AM) in Manila. Starting with just a 5-watt transmitter, the signal was boosted in 1924 to 100 watts. It didn’t take long before broadcasting facilities and new stations spread rapidly across the Philippine islands on both mediumwave and shortwave.

During World War Two, the 1942 Japanese invasion of the country saw many stations, especially around Manila, shut down or commandeered by the Japanese army for propaganda purposes. Once the American retaking of the Philippines was completed in 1945, broadcasting flourished again in a much more regulated manner. The first radio station to return to the air was KZFM, reopening in May 1945 and operated by the U.S. Army Office of War Information. Later, in September 1946, the station’s callsign changed to DZFM, part of the Philippine Broadcasting System.

In 1972, dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, closing, taking over, and controlling radio broadcasters and other media. Then, in 1986, the EDSA Revolution (a.k.a. the People Power Revolution) saw the freeing of media constraints.

Thousands of Islands

Many people forget how vast the Philippines expand through the western Pacific. Consisting of 7641 islands spread across 300,000 square kilometers (186,411 mi), the country is broadly bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea on the eastern side, and the Celebes Sea to the south. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan, Japan, Palau, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and China.

Map of the Philippines (courtesy of CIA.gov)

The country’s population is estimated to have grown to around 114 million in 2024. The sprawling area, known as Metropolitan Manila, comprises 16 smaller, highly urbanized cities with a combined population of 13.5 million (2020 census). The Philippines is culturally rich and diverse, incorporating indigenous Filipino, Spanish, and American elements. Christianity is the dominant religion. It is clear that, due to the expansiveness of the country and its religious background, shortwave radio was an attractive medium for both reaching the many far-flung islands and to religious broadcasters.

Some Past Philippine Broadcasters

Over the decades, numerous small stations could be heard on the shortwave bands. Back in the late sixties, three of these included the Mindanao Broadcasting Network, offering 500 watts within a variable frequency range between 7265 and 7280 kHz. Another was the Voice of the State University running 1 kW out of the University of the Philippines in Quezon City (near Manila) on 7150 kHz. The third was the National Civic Defense Administration, a government station on 3305 and 5970 kHz.

In more recent times, two established broadcasters closed their shortwave services. The first was the South East Asia Radio Voice (SEARV), which began in 1965 as a project of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and the World Association for Christian Broadcasting. Using a new 50 kW transmitter into a log periodic antenna, SEARV was noted to have a strong signal in South Asia and many other parts of the world. It also had a reputation as a good verifier of DXers’ reception reports.

The December 1969 QSL from DZU7, SEARV on 15420 kHz (from the author’s collection)

The second and even more well-known religious station was Radio Veritas Asia. It began broadcasting in 1969 as simply Radio Veritas but ceased in 1973. It reopened in 1975 with 50 kW and a good signal throughout Asia. During the People Power Revolution in 1986, its transmitter was blown up by pro-Marcos forces but returned with a significantly more powerful 250 kW transmitter, thanks to the new government and the Catholic Church. Indeed, post-revolution, the new president, Corazon Aquino, is quoted on a 1986 Radio Veritas QSL card:

“For being the only available and reliable broadcasting facility that supported the People’s Revolution on 22-25 February 1986. Faced with great odds and dangers, Radio Veritas became the nerve center for the generation of People Power until its transmitting facility was destroyed by loyalist forces. The indomitable spirit of its staff enabled them to assume a heroic role in defying oppression and voicing out the truth.”

Sadly, the station was permanently closed on June 30, 2018. So, now let’s take a closer look at the three shortwave broadcasters still operating from the Philippines.

A QSL from the now-defunct Radio Veritas, received for
a broadcast on March 31, 1970 on 11830 kHz (from the author’s collection)

Voice of America

Suffering from continued slashed budgets over more than a decade, the international broadcasting behemoth that was the Voice of America is now a shadow of its former self. Nowhere is this more evident than the recent decisions to close the two transmitter sites at Saipan and Tinian in the Northern Marianas Islands Archipelago and the Pinheira site on the island of São Tomé and Principe, off the West African coast.

Voice of America has a long history with the strategically placed Philippines. Few know that the broadcaster has utilized four transmitting sites over the decades. Between 1945 and 1948, as WWII came to an end, VoA relayed programming over local KZFM on mediumwave and shortwave outlets.

By 1948, VoA had completed the construction of its Malolos relay station on Manila Bay. A 50 kW mediumwave and three 50 and 7.5 kW shortwave transmitters were employed for the next 21 years from 1948 until 1969. From ’69, VoA handed over part of the site to the Philippine government for use under the banner of DZRP, “The Voice of the Philippines”.

In 1953, a new 1,000 kW mediumwave transmitter on 1140 kHz commenced operations at the Wallace Air Force Base, Point Poro, 240 km (150 mi) north of Manila. It wasn’t long before six shortwave transmitters, rated at 100 kW, 35 kW and 15 kW, were fired up for broadcasts aimed at Asia. Fifteen rhombic antennas were all targeted towards Asia. That station closed down in September 1999. The site is now known as the Naval Station Ernesto Ogbinar.

Tinang Today

The current VoA site is at Tinang, about 100 km (50 mi) NNW of Manila. Transmissions began in 1969 and continue today. Currently, twelve 250 kW transmitters send power to 30 curtain array antennas. One of my sources believes that a rhombic antenna is also on the site, although it is not used. Input the following decimalized coordinates into Google Maps, and you will see a detailed aerial shot of the facility: 15.378538750165417, 120.62485703020295.

Interestingly, a large solar farm and substation are located almost next to the site. Although it is not confirmed, we don’t believe that VoA is harnessing power from the solar farm. Instead, it uses traditional commercial mains power with the usual backup diesel generators.

Despite the closures of three other VoA relay stations earlier this year, VoA’s commitment to broadcasts from the Philippines remains strong. Sources tell me there are no plans to close the transmitting site at Tinang in the foreseeable future.

A 2021 eQSL from the Voice of America, confirming a broadcast from
the Tinang transmitter site, received by Paul Simmonds VK5PAS. (used with permission)

Indeed, Tinang is also a vital link to getting a voice into Asia for other broadcasters. During the A24 transmission season, the BBC and Vatican Radio have been offering services to varied parts of Asia for their listeners. Due to ongoing propagation problems, some Radio Free Asia (RFA) programming has recently moved to Tinang from Dushanbe, Tajikistan and Umm al-Rimam, Kuwait. Tinang is proving to be the ideal location for RFA to access East Asia, especially now that Tinian and Saipan are no longer in operation.

Monitoring sources tell me that jamming continues to be a significant obstacle for VoA and RFA. Mandarin, Korean, and Tibetan broadcasts are all jammed to varying degrees. Feedback reports that Mandarin and Tibetan jamming are very effective. However, while Korean programming is also jammed, it is proving less successful. Currently, no other VoA languages are being subjected to jamming.

Retrieving a complete VoA frequency schedule is usually an exercise in futility! Their website contains little, if any, information about broadcast times. Acquiring and compiling this information in a format that SWLs can use is usually left to sources such as the HFCC (https://new.hfcc.org/), Eike Bierwirth (http://www.eibispace.de), the excellent “Asia on Shortwave” DX Guide by Tony Rogers (http://www.bdxc.org.uk/articles.html), and the very user-friendly interface of Shortwave.Live (https://shortwave.live). The new B24 transmission season began on October 27, so by the time you read this column, you can expect that all the lists mentioned above will have been updated to reflect VoA’s new frequencies and times.

PART 2 - CLICK HERE.

73 and good DX to you!

Rob Wafgner VK3BVW