I was browsing one of the local message boards recently when I saw a thread that mentioned the demise of an FM radio station called 99.5 RT. The news actually came out last December, but it was new to me since I no longer listen to the radio. While the news saddened me, it also made me smile, because I remember RT well--that single radio station was responsible for shaping my taste in music during my teenage years.
During the late 70's, there was no Internet, cable TV, mobile phones, handheld gaming devices, and MP3 players. So what did we High School students do most of the time? Listen to the radio, of course. I had no favorite radio station at first; all I usually did was scan the FM bandwidth nonstop, stopping only at a station when a good song was playing. I found RT by accident, while it was playing this really good song that I haven't heard being played anywhere.
That "really good song" was a remake of a Neil Young song called "Lotta Love", and was sung by Nicolette Larson. Hearing it made me stay on that station a bit longer, since I wanted to hear it again and again. Prolonged listening to RT made me realize that most of the songs being played there weren't on the other stations, and I was hooked. It turns out that most of my classmates were also listening to RT, and it was funny, because it seemed that we all just sort of drifted towards it, without anyone telling us to do so.
RT's music was unique for me at the time because everything seemed new compared to the music being churned out by the other stations. Their programming was typically Pop music, but was based on the Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) format from most USA radio stations, which was also known as "Top 40". The music they played was Singles-oriented, as determined by airplay and chart rankings from music industry publications like Billboard and Cashbox.
To make things cooler, they got their music fresh, which meant getting advance vinyl pressings direct from USA record labels, months ahead of their commercial release. By the time other stations played their songs, they were already old to us, because we heard them first on RT. Even the RT DJs seemed mellower and saner than the DJs from the other stations.
RT also aired several canned programs from the USA; among the ones I recall were
American Top 40, American Disco Network,
The History of Rock and Roll, and
Christmas At Our House, which I really enjoyed, because the show would feature about an hour of great Christmas music every day, and when Christmas Day came, RT played the entire series nonstop.
But it was
American Top 40, hosted by Casey Kasem, that became the must-listen show for me and my friends at the time. I regularly listened to it when it was on, and even remember keeping a record book for several years that listed each ranked song every week--LOL, how nerdy was that?
When American Top 40 started airing on RT in January 1979, I didn't start writing it down until the 3rd week, and I felt bad that I missed the first 2 weeks. So I did the next best thing--write to RT and asked if they could give me the Top 40 lists that I didn't have. I wasn't really expecting a reply, but after around 2 weeks, I received a really thick, heavy envelope with the RT logo, and of course I hurriedly opened it.
Inside was the full Top 40 listings of the first 2 shows of 1979, directly photocopied from the show's programming documentation. There was also a car sticker with the RT logo, and a handwritten note from the station manager, Mike Pedero, saying that it's good to hear from listeners like me. Needless to say, I was one happy person after getting that letter. I never used the sticker, and eventually lost it, but I managed to reconstruct the RT logo from memory just to place it here
(see graphic).
But the best thing I got from RT was to come several months later. To celebrate the long-awaited album releases of Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles, RT had this contest where they gave away 20 imported, made in USA copies of "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac, and "The Long Run" by The Eagles. Bear in mind that phones during that era weren't the push-button types yet, they were still the rotary dial types, and boy did my fingers hurt from dialing RT's number when the contest was being held.
I persevered, and hit the jackpot--I won a copy of "Tusk", and it was just in time, as only 2 copies were left. A good friend of mine went with me to RT's office, which was located along Ayala Avenue in Makati. I remember RT's studio looking like a typical office. We could glimpse some of the booths were the DJs worked, and could hear the one who was currently on air, but we never did see or meet any of the DJs personally, though we could hear the station owner, Emilio Tuason, talking on the phone in the office next door.
Our visit, however, became even more worthwhile when we saw a stack of vinyl singles on the desk nearby. I asked permission from the secretary who escorted us inside the office if we could look at them, and she said yes. We checked each single out, carefully handling them like they were antique treasures or something--each one was brand new, as the paper sleeves were still crisp and crease-free. We were probably one of the first ones to see those singles that will still be played in the weeks to come, and it was a great experience for me at the time.
Capping our visit was me receiving my prize--a sealed, made in USA copy of "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac, which turned out to be a double album. While most double albums opened up like a book, this one was the case type, where the outside sleeve served as a sort of thin case that housed 2 inner sleeves. The album was nicely packaged, and it was sort of thrilling to know that I was probably one of the first persons to have it, since it wasn't locally available yet.
Listening to RT made such a great impact on me in the sense that I became very discriminating where music and records were concerned. I learned to distinguish between "single versions" from "album versions", and spent time arguing with record store salespersons, insisting that their released versions weren't the "real" versions, as was mostly the case--most record companies here scrimped on single releases and just came out with album versions maybe to save production costs, and maybe even hoping that people wouldn't bother to notice.
But thanks to RT, I noticed all that, and more. I noticed that local records were produced on crappy vinyl with poor sound quality as compared to vinyl made in the USA. Even worse, the packaging was shitty, with bad printing, blurry credits, and all. I started to spend money to buy imported records, or borrowed them whenever I could, thanks to friends and other people who would occasionally visit the USA.
Even local artists played on RT sounded good, and for me, that's saying a lot, since I rarely like music by local artists (I still don't like most of them now), but somehow they became bearable when I heard them played on RT.
RT stayed with me through my college years, but I started to tune in less and less when I started working. When RT changed format and became an all-new wave station sometime during the mid-80's, I stopped listening because I couldn't stand New Wave music. I resumed listening when they switched back to their old CHR format and continued until the late 90's.
I also joined one more contest they had, a logo design contest. I didn't win, but I was dismayed at the winning logo they picked out, as it looked like it belonged more on a box of Tide laundry detergent, complete with ovals and all. What were they thinking?
When Internet access started to grow in the country, I was part of an email list group, and during a gathering of that same group, I was able to meet North Andrew, one of RT's DJs and also their station manager at the time. He was a pretty cool guy who I also briefly corresponded with through a series of email postings.
As I grew older and preoccupied myself with other things like video games (heh), my interest in music gradually waned, mostly because I just didn't like the "new" hip-hop sound that was all the rage. Singers no longer actually sang--they'd just rap to music, or rip-off a sample from other songs and try to make it sound like their own, but they all sounded the same. Even more important, the mp3 format was introduced, and I ceased buying CDs. I stopped listening to radio altogether, and relied on hearing new music through MTV. Eventually, watching MTV became unbearable, so I didn't even bother anymore.
The Tuasons sold 99.5 RT during the late 90's, and while it retained its format under new management, they soon started playing music that wasn't really their type and became more mass-appeal oriented. Sometimes I'd hear them when I would ride my sister's van, as she & her daughters still listen to them, and I'd usually cringe because I couldn't relate to anything being played (a sure sign of old age, I tell ya ^_^). To me, they sounded just like any other radio station, and in this age where everything can be downloaded fast on the Internet, no station can perhaps claim to have any exclusive releases anymore.
From reading stuff on the Net, I learned that RT had its final sign off at midnight of December 18, 2006, and was later relaunched with a new identity as 99.5 Hit FM on January 1, 2007. I think, for me at least, it's the end of an era--but the good memories, and more, remain. Those songs that I initially heard first on RT all those years ago--songs like "Lotta Love" by Nicolette Larson, "Chuck E.'s In Love" by Rickie Lee Jones, "Ride Like The Wind" by Christopher Cross--remain my personal favorites to this day, all thanks to RT. Besides, it's kinda difficult to say "99.5" without the "RT" after it.
This is the game that made me quit playing PC games and never looked back. It's also the game that forced me to buy a PlayStation in 1997, and it happily exceeded all my expectations. Prior to this, I had never played a single Final Fantasy game in my life.
