The Summer Experience 2: "You're Always There When I Need You..."

"You're always there when I need you
Always there to see me through.

You've never let me down,
a friend that's always around.

You've been with me through good and bad,
Through all the seasons in my life

You've picked me up, you've made me glad
Through all the good times that I ever had

My only radio for life!
(With you, I never have to be all alone)

My only radio for life!
(You are the best friend that I've ever known)

Things may change, love may come and go
But one thing's that I know...

You are My Only Radio...For Life!"

I know that traveling to a far-away place could be draggingly long and boring so I see as a must to keep myself occupied by three things: 1)Have interesting conversation with me, my siblings and my cousins inside the car, 2)Listen to my Ipod, and 3)Turned the car stereo on to FM.

Last Tuesday, I kept myself tuned in to 99.5 RT using my CD Player (embedded with FM/AM radio, for the complete lack of a proper term on how to pu it )until later when its signal began to weaken by the time we're halfway through the SCTX.

Maybe when we were around Tarlac, my parents had the radio tuned into MOR 1031, a station whose signal came all the way from Bagiuo (A place I've never been to for life). Funny though that the first program we heard from it has its initials patterned after the station's name: Morning On the Rush. Same goes with the program following it, Movements Of Rhythm (which plays mostly RnB songs). One turn-off maybe while listening was that during 'Movements of Rhythm', the DJ conducted a contest for those who wanna get a prize for singing the "Speed Babad" jingle.

Talk about ewww...It's the worst jingle I ever heard. What's worse was that it's Piolo Pascual who sang the jingle in the first place. It makes the song a lot cheesy than it already is.

Anyway, 1031's signal began to weaken so we had it switched to another station.

Throughout the five days we've been in Ilocos, I've so far got hold of the following: 90.7 Love Radio Laoag, MOR 95.5 For Life! Laoag, Radyo Natin Candon City, 99.5 iFM-Laoag an Urdaneta, Magik FM Vigan, and one station I can't recall in the meantime but heard in Tarlac City as well as another in Ilocos Sur.

There was this one DJ I found rather irritating in terms of how he speak on the air. He sports a very foreign-sounding accent and I can't determine whether it's British or Australian (somewhat leans a lot more Aussie than Briton). I had my sister listen to his voice and she told me it's fake. And it's true, the DJ's accent is so not natural so why force himself to sound something he's not? Unless he's the type of of person who grew traveling all around the world and somehow formed a very exotic accent in English. I couldn't imagine what he would sound like if he spoke in Ilocano/Tagalog.

Most of the FM stations received by my radio are using mostly Filipino as its medium. On the other hand, there are those who uses English otherwise.

When I first got to Pagupud two years ago, my radio could also received signals from a local Chinese station all the way possibly from Taiwan, given its proximity to Ilocos Norte. For many of the AM stations I explored, most if not all use the local vernacular as their language medium. There is at least one station from AM I could remember, Aksyon Radyo.

During the early afternoons, if you're lucky, you get to listen to radio dramas spoken in Ilocano and Pangasinense (depending which province you're in) your nose will surely bleed.

When we're on our way home last Saturday, I asked my mom if she could have the stereo tuned to 1031 once more, we're already by taht time crossing the border between La Union and Ilocos Sur. We stayed on that station until we were already somewhere in Bulacan-NLEX. How far the Baguio station's reach still amazes me.

MOR Baguio's other programs also bears the stations initials like Mix of Rock and Music on the Road. There's one program that was not: Sabado Nights which plays old school rock and reggae. The best thing when you listen to this station is its very cool station jingle, as posted above. it's catchy, youthful, and suits perfectly of MOR's image as a music station.

I wish we had that kind of station here in Manila :D