Back in the mid-70's, AM Radio in Metro Manila was in top form. There were music stations playing the best music around. DZRJ rocked. DWBL popped and so did DWKW and later DZXQ.
The famous jocks then were Long Tall Howard (Howard Medina), Ricky Dizon, Bingo Lacson, Joey Valencia, Vic Salta, Happy Louie, Hill Billy Willy, Rudolph Rivera, Reginald Francisco, Baby Michael, Howlin' Dave.
(Baby Michael of DWBL is now GMA 7's Mike Enriquez)
990 AM was initially a simulcast FM broadcast of its sister station 99.5 RT. It eventually developed into a rock station on AM at a time when AM music stations were ditching the band for FM. 99 Rock closed shop. Today, the Philippine Daily Inquirer has bought the rights and is DZIQ 990.
DWKW closed down its AM radio and shifted to DWKB 89.1. It had the same jocks from its AM days but they soon changed format to dance oriented music and 89 DMZ (Dance Music Zone)
DWBL remained open for block-timers and its sister FM station, 94.7 DWLL (Double L) Mellow Touch was doing very well.
DZXQ ditched its AM station and moved to FM as DWMM 91.5. As FM crowded, the station went through many changes including DWKY-FM and is now known is Big Radio playing masa stuff and masa broadcast.
DZRJ AM soon lost its audience to DZRJ-FM 100.3 but in 1985, it was taken over and reformatted to love songs and renamed DWNK (Wink Radio).
Oldies standards for my folks, DWXX (Double X). The news stations are clustered as they were before and even to this day. DZXL 558, DZBB 594, DWWW 630 (It became DZMM after Marcos fell from power in 1986) and DZRH 666.
DWIZ switched its programming from music to focus more on news. It was bought out but retained its news programming and acquired DWAD-FM and renamed and reformatted it 97.9 Home Radio.
During the days before the EDSA Revolution DZRV (Radio Veritas) got its transmitters bombed by military men. And the transmitters of DZRJ-AM, which at the time was closed, was used and identified as Radyo Bandido.
Today, I listen to AM primarily for news. FM radio today is mostly a wasteland. Only Crossover and Radio High are worth the listen. Even the programming of Crossover has somewhat degraded. Magic 89.9 is only worth the listen on Fridays. But too much commercials are just too annoying. I have a USB on my car stereo and an AUX in for mobile devices and CD. At home it's a Pioneer DVD/CD player on a NAD integrated amp and a pair of Wharfedales. A separate Inkel tuner was originally for 99.5 RT 24K Weekend, but that station became bieberized by Tim Yap. So the tuner is also on AM news stations
