Radio Philippines Network (L210's vision)

Radio Philippines Network, Inc. (RPN) is a Filipino-based television and radio company based in Quezon City. It is the flagship media property of Nine Media Corporation of the ALC Group of Companies and owned by the family of company founder Roberto Benedicto, among others, as major shareholders. The network's main offices and transmitter is located at RPN Compound, #97 Panay Avenue, Brgy. South Triangle, Diliman, Quezon City.
== History ==
=== As Kanlaon Broadcasting System (1960-1975) ===
The Congress of the Philippines approved the franchise of Radio Philippines Network on June 29, 1960. Instead of using its franchise name, the network instead first used Kanlaon Broadcasting System as its initial branding. Kanlaon is a volcano on the Philippine island of Negros, the home of its founder Roberto Benedicto. Kanlaon Broadcasting System started broadcasting as a radio network with its first station DZBI in Manila. By 1967, KBS had metamorphosed into a full network, with seven radio stations all over the country namely, DZRR and DZAX in Manila, DZAH and DZBS in Baguio, DZTG in Tuguegarao, DZRL in Laoag (later moved to Batac), and DXDX in Dadiangas. Philippine radio veteran Ben Aniceto was the operations director at the time.
The broadcast network ventured into television broadcasting on October 15, 1969 with the launch of KBS-9 Manila as the network's flagship TV station. KBS-12 Baguio also signed on the air on the same year. Properties and funding for the nascent TV network partly came from ABS-CBN in the form of its old headquarters along Roxas Boulevard and equipment from Toshiba enabling them to broadcast in color. As a result, on its launch it was branded Accucolor 9 - an RPN station ("Accucolor" is the name of the color technology used) as the first Philippine television network to launch in full color.
In 1970, KBS also acquired a Color-ready Outside Broadcast Van for the remote broadcasts of major news events and sports coverages. It was also in the same year when KBS pioneered newscasting on television as they launched the first ever newspaper-format nightly newscast titled NewsWatch. Back then, broadcast hours were limited to late afternoons up to around midnight; except for Sundays, when the channel begins transmissions after midday.
In 1971, KBS firmly established as an all-color television network, consisting of four full powered provincial stations, strategically situated in Baguio (KBS-12), Bicol (KBS-10 in Iriga), Bacolod (KBS-8), and Cebu (KBS-9 in Mandaue), alongside the flagship station (KBS-9) in Manila, with plans to expand southward into Mindanao at that time.
On September 1972, the KBS television and radio stations, and its sister publication Daily Express under the Benedicto group were allowed to operate during the martial law period, where most of the media outfits were closed down. Color production with color-ready equipment would enable the government to invest in RPN for color coverages of national events, as then state network GTV (now PTV), which began two years later after the beginning of martial law, was mostly monochrome before its first color broadcasts in 1976.
=== The First Radio Philippines Network (1975-1989); Benedicto ownership (1975-1986) ===
In 1975, KBS formally relaunched as RPN, the acronym for its franchise name, Radio Philippines Network (the RPN name was first used in the provincial stations before the RPN brand would later be used for the Manila station as well; the KBS name was also used for other aspects such as KBS Sports until 1986). The network covered special events such as the Olympic Games (it is also the first sporting coverage to broadcast in full color), Thrilla in Manila in 1975; and also became the official broadcaster for the Miss Universe pageant held in Manila in 1974; and programs such as John En Marsha (which both the media and academe regarded the show as the paradigm of development communication), Flordeluna and Superstar (formerly known as The Nora Aunor-Eddie Peregrina Show). RPN became the birthplace and the first humble abode of the now longest running daytime variety show Eat Bulaga! (premiering in 1979); as well as the longest running game show on Philippine television Family Kuarta o Kahon hosted by Pepe Pimentel (originally aired on ABS-CBN then BBC-2); which it aired for almost 38 years, until it finally folded up during the year 2000. The network also pioneered the use of computer graphics for their program plugs and station IDs, as well as for the broadcasts of its easily recognizable digital clock embedded on the lower left part of the screen during the entire broadcast day except for newscasts, commercials, continuity plugs, station ID, and during sign-off; eventually becoming the centerpiece of the network's broadcasts for 32 years (starting in 1975), until it was abandoned in 2007; and after the fire that razed its first studios on June 6, 1973, RPN moved to the Broadcast Plaza (now ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center) in the same year, and to its current Broadcast City home in July 1978, alongside sister networks BBC and IBC.
RPN also aired anime programming (making them one of the first to do so in the country) and imported and syndicated programs from the United States. RPN is the first network to cover the Philippine Basketball Association games live in 1976, before the broadcasts moved on to BBC.
On January 15, 1980, RPN began to broadcast primetime programs through its new domestic satellite technology (DOMSAT) in which the 1980s logo resembles a satellite antenna. On May 18, 1982, Eat Bulaga! was also included to the list of the network's DOMSAT-simulcast programs. This made RPN the first national network to achieve nationwide program simulcasting via satellite.
The network also became home to, from 1978 up to the early 1980s, the Super Sentai series (making it the first in the Philippines to do so, becoming a pioneer in broadcasting tokusatsu and sentai programs in the country in the process). These made it a reason for the network in 1982 to adopt The Leader as its official slogan, coupled with its Number 9 and the red corporate logos (the latter which is still the current logo of the network up to this day), due to its massive successes as the nation's number one network. In 1986, after the assumption of office of President Corazon Aquino, the government sequestered Radio Philippines Network for allegedly being part of the crony capitalism under the Marcos regime. By then, it was the leading network in the Philippines cornering the highest audience share in the entire country.
=== First Downfall, Sequestration (1986-1989) ===
The period saw a major decline for RPN as its resources became outdated and endured major mismanagement which led to the network either shutting down or selling its stations. From being number 1 in the ratings, RPN's ratings slumped, due to the growth of GMA Radio-Television Arts and PTV, and more importantly as a result of ABS-CBN's meteoric rise to the number 1 spot in 1988.
During the post-EDSA Revolution era, RPN launched the first Filipino-created animated series, Ang Panday. By 1989, some of RPN's programming such as John en Marsha and Superstar were cancelled, and TAPE Inc.'s daytime programs Eat Bulaga!, Agila and Coney Reyes on Camera (a co-production with Coney Reyes' CAN Television) moved under a co-production agreement to ABS-CBN, as they saw the resurgent network as a vital element in the sustaining of the three shows' success. By then, the once-dominant RPN had fallen to 4th place, trailing far behind ABS-CBN and GMA and locked in a losing battle with PTV for 3rd place.
=== New Vision 9 (1989-1994) ===
In 1989, RPN was renamed as New Vision 9 to recoup lost audience share in the ratings game of Philippine television networks. At the same year, New Vision 9 transmitter's effective radiated power was increased to 1 million watts, ensuing clearer and better signal reception in the Greater Luzon Area. The rebrand was took place after RPN and Syndicated Media Access Corporation (SMAC) took over the network's management and marketing. The rebranding, although it proved futile in the turnaround of RPN's ratings, did make history for the network as it pioneered 24-hour television broadcasting in the Philippines. During the latter part of the "New Vision 9" period, its ratings further suffered at last place in primetime (behind ABS-CBN, GMA, ABC, IBC, and PTV). Worse yet, RPN's nationwide reach suffered as well as its TV network - largely due to continued financial turmoil - shrunk from 19 TV stations by 1989 to just eight by 1994.
By then, RPN not only had to deal with the continued dominance of ABS-CBN and GMA, but also the return of another station shut down during martial law, ABC, and the onset of cable and UHF channels which started to eat up the audience shares of the least-watched networks.
=== The Second Radio Philippines Network (1994-2007); Telenovela Dominance; World-class Primetime Programming (1994-2002) ===
In 1994, New Vision 9 was renamed back as Radio Philippines Network (RPN) and in the same year, RPN became the second VHF television network in the Philippines to broadcast in full surround stereo (after GMA Network introduced StereoVision in 1987). Following this, RPN managed to recover in primetime ratings, from dead last in 1994 to fifth place in 1995, beating PTV (which by then suffered a major blow after losing the rights to one of its top-raters, the PBA games, to IBC). This, along with it being number 3 in daytime ratings, helped RPN to challenge ABC for third place in total day ratings.
In 1996, the network quickly regained its foothold when it began to broadcast a Tagalog dub of the Mexican telenovela Marimar, which turned out to be a phenomenal success, and discombobulating the competition for some time.
The network became the driving force in Tagalog-dubbed foreign programs and movies and made the popular and turnaround its ratings on the evening prime time. Due to the success, the other networks followed and broadcast telenovelas not only from Mexico but also Spanish language telenovelas from the United States, Colombia (GMA 7's Betty La Fea), Venezuela (GMA 7's Samantha and All My Love) and Argentina (GMA 7's Monica Brava) and eventually even drama series from Brazil (ABS-CBN's Ana Manuela) and Asian drama series from Taiwan (notably Meteor Garden) and South Korea (notably Bright Girl). The network also became the home of the cream of the crop amongst the English language television programs around the world; with its strong primetime programming line-up.
This lineup helped RPN maintain its overall 4th place standing in the ratings during the latter half of the 90s, despite later facing competition with UHF stations such as ABS-CBN's Studio 23, which offered more canned programs compared to most VHF stations. In 1999, RPN slid again to fifth place behind ABC, but managed to recover its 4th place standing the following year, sustaining it for the next two years.
=== Second Downfall (2003-2007) ===
By mid-2000s, a major network war in the ratings game ensued with the broadcast of Taiwanese/Korean-language television series (which kicked off with ABS-CBN's broadcast of Taiwanese Meteor Garden) by the two superior leading networks, ABS-CBN and GMA Network, causing RPN into decline in the telenovelas battle.
RPN renewed its congressional franchise for another 25 years on February 19, 2004. Under Philippine law, no broadcast company will operate without franchise from the Philippine congress, an authority that limits and regulates operations of telecommunications and broadcast media such as televisions and radios. It was also in the same year when the network launched its primetime block, dubbed as The Prime Shift, blocktimed by Solar Entertainment Corporation. The said programming block lasted until 2006.
=== The Third Radio Philippines Network (2007-present) ===
On March 11, 2007, after its initial tieup with The Prime Shift block, RPN announced a partnership with Solar Entertainment Corporation, an operator of a number of cable channels in the country. The company began co-producing new programming for the network, such as a local version of the Top Model franchise. The network underwent management changes on December 24, 2007, as Tonypet Albano (undersecretary and executive director of Malacañang's Office of Political Coalition Affairs and Deputy Spokesperson of TEAM Unity, now Vice-Governor of Isabela) was appointed chairman of the network (replacing Education Undersecretary Mona Valisno, incumbent Presidential Assistant for Education). Undersecretary Robert Rivera was appointed director of the board, while the president and chief executive officer became former senator Orlando "Orly" Mercado.
Mercado's first major move was to expand their partnerships with Solar Entertainment. Programming from Solar's cable network C/S was added to RPN's lineup at the beginning of the new year, and PBA basketball would also return to the network beginning in the 2008-09 season, as part of Solar Sports' new three-year deal with the league after an intense bidding war with ABS-CBN.
However, they have an agreement that RPN still retains it branding. So they made DWKB-TV, as LeaderTV, which produces some Solar cable channels' programs.
Category:Philippines
Category:L210's imagination