angelo fetalvero,
It was a surreal moment, something never thought to be possible. Stifled cries and words of bereavement filled the audio booth as DJs broke from their cool personas and cried over the loss of something so dear to them. Outside, hundreds of mourning fans filled Emerald Road as a mixture of grief and disbelief ran through everyone’s heads. Finally, when the clock almost reached midnight, the moment everyone dreaded finally happened.
“It’s a minute before 12. NU107 is DWFM at 107.5 megahertz in Pasig, once the loudest and proudest member of KBP. This has been NU 107, the Philippine’s one and only home of new rock. This is NU 107, we are signing off.”
Chris Hermosisima’s words were the final ones to be broadcast on air by a DJ but the station was not yet done. Keeping with its hard core roots, the station went out with a bang. The Eraserhead’s “Huling El Bimbo” played in the airwaves and the fans outside the building sang it with all their heart. After the song has reached its final notes, and the fan’s adrenaline started to drop, the depressing tune of silence filled everything as hiss and static took over the frequency.
It’s hard to digest the fact that it has been nearly a year since NU 107 went off the air. The station was founded on October 31, 1987 and it rocked the airwaves for twenty three years until it ceased broadcasting on November 10, 2010. NU’s founder, banker Atom Henares, said in an interview with ANC that it was the right time to close the station as the network was languishing in the bottom of the ratings charts. The upscale market which NU targeted wasn’t advertiser friendly and they struggled in finding sponsors. Its listeners were also starting to listen to other sources of music as the station struggled to compete with the internet and music television.
Even after all its problems, NU is still remembered as a once in a lifetime radio station. It was unique in many ways and it prided itself on going against the flow and rejecting mainstream culture, even though it was ironically started by Henares to win over celebrity doctor Vicky Belo’s heart. Music from The Cure, The Dawn and Rage Against the Machine filled its frequency leaving out the likes of the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC and Britney Spears for the “other” networks. The station was also an avid supporter of local music as it hosted, for seventeen years, the NU Rock Awards, the most prestigious tribute to rakistas in the country.
Yet NU 107, for the people associated with it, served as more than a frequency on the airwaves. For its listeners, it was their companion to and from work and school, as during the good old days, they would wake up to the bright and quirky humor of Zach and Joey in the Morning and end it by voting for their favorite songs in the Stairway to Seven. The station also provided its listeners with obscure yet excellent songs, proving that not all good songs have to be filled with pop melodies and cliché lyrics. It was this constant stream of good and new music that helped embody the station’s motto, going against the flow, in their minds. Eventually, their motto became the mindset of its listeners for not only their musical sensibilities but also for their general mindset in life.
The DJs, with their suave and cool voices, treated NU more than just an office and their fellow DJs more than just co-workers. They treated NU like their own home, and their co-workers their family. They were all united by their love for music and the desire to share that music with their listeners. Their meager salary didn’t derail them from fulfilling their passion, and even though a lot of DJs have had lucrative offers from other stations or companies, a lot of them still stayed with NU.
The network also played a big role in the lives of a lot of local bands, with the network’s offices at Ortigas being a nurturing place for up-and-coming artists. It was in their program aptly called “In the Raw” where unknown bands such as Urbandub, Itchyworms, Up Dharma Down and much more had their music first transmitted through the airwaves. After their initial breakthroughs, the station still gave these bands adequate airtime to make sure that they could reach the heights they’ve dreamed of.
The station had a huge impact on its listeners and the music industry but sadly the station went off the air when everyone needed it most. In the times when DJs such as Matt Tsubibo, with his unquenchable thirst for recorded laughter, and artists such as Beiber, Kesha and others fill the airwaves, fans looked to NU for an escape from all the trash circulating on air. The local music industry also took a hit when NU ceased broadcasting. Myriads of talented local bands have been emerging but are now struggling to gain publicity as they find it hard to have any radio station play their music.
The die-hard DJs of NU 107 like Francis Brew, Trish and Evee founded Dig Radio, an online radio mirroring the format of the fallen station. Dig is an ambitious project but no radio station can ever match what NU was for so many. No station can ever reach out to as many listeners as NU had nor can any station emulate the significance that NU had when radio was still the primary source of music and mp3 players and the internet were all crazy ideas that one had for the future. No station can ever match the impact NU had in the local music industry nor can any station accommodate up-and-coming bands the way NU did.
Many have asked to have NU back on the airwaves or for Henares to set up a phantom signal somewhere broadcasting Francis Brew’s voice but those are farfetched dreams that will probably never come true. As NU’s supposedly 24th birthday approaches, the most that anyone can do is to look back with that cheesy nostalgia at the times when you’d wait for your favorite song to play on NU and listen intently when that-DJ-with-that-cute-voice comes on and says a heartfelt thank you to everyone’s home of new rock, NU 107.
Feature: A Tribute to NU: Everyone’s Home of NU Rock
Angelo FetalveroIt was a surreal moment, something never thought to be possible. Stifled cries and words of bereavement filled the audio booth as DJs broke from their cool personas and cried over the loss of something so dear to them. Outside, hundreds of mourning fans filled Emerald Road as a mixture of grief and disbelief ran through everyone’s heads. Finally, when the clock almost reached midnight, the moment everyone dreaded finally happened.
“It’s a minute before 12. NU107 is DWFM at 107.5 megahertz in Pasig, once the loudest and proudest member of KBP. This has been NU 107, the Philippine’s one and only home of new rock. This is NU 107, we are signing off.”
Chris Hermosisima’s words were the final ones to be broadcast on air by a DJ but the station was not yet done. Keeping with its hard core roots, the station went out with a bang. The Eraserhead’s “Huling El Bimbo” played in the airwaves and the fans outside the building sang it with all their heart. After the song has reached its final notes, and the fan’s adrenaline started to drop, the depressing tune of silence filled everything as hiss and static took over the frequency.
It’s hard to digest the fact that it has been nearly a year since NU 107 went off the air. The station was founded on October 31, 1987 and it rocked the airwaves for twenty three years until it ceased broadcasting on November 10, 2010. NU’s founder, banker Atom Henares, said in an interview with ANC that it was the right time to close the station as the network was languishing in the bottom of the ratings charts. The upscale market which NU targeted wasn’t advertiser friendly and they struggled in finding sponsors. Its listeners were also starting to listen to other sources of music as the station struggled to compete with the internet and music television.
Even after all its problems, NU is still remembered as a once in a lifetime radio station. It was unique in many ways and it prided itself on going against the flow and rejecting mainstream culture, even though it was ironically started by Henares to win over celebrity doctor Vicky Belo’s heart. Music from The Cure, The Dawn and Rage Against the Machine filled its frequency leaving out the likes of the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC and Britney Spears for the “other” networks. The station was also an avid supporter of local music as it hosted, for seventeen years, the NU Rock Awards, the most prestigious tribute to rakistas in the country.
Yet NU 107, for the people associated with it, served as more than a frequency on the airwaves. For its listeners, it was their companion to and from work and school, as during the good old days, they would wake up to the bright and quirky humor of Zach and Joey in the Morning and end it by voting for their favorite songs in the Stairway to Seven. The station also provided its listeners with obscure yet excellent songs, proving that not all good songs have to be filled with pop melodies and cliché lyrics. It was this constant stream of good and new music that helped embody the station’s motto, going against the flow, in their minds. Eventually, their motto became the mindset of its listeners for not only their musical sensibilities but also for their general mindset in life.
The DJs, with their suave and cool voices, treated NU more than just an office and their fellow DJs more than just co-workers. They treated NU like their own home, and their co-workers their family. They were all united by their love for music and the desire to share that music with their listeners. Their meager salary didn’t derail them from fulfilling their passion, and even though a lot of DJs have had lucrative offers from other stations or companies, a lot of them still stayed with NU.
The network also played a big role in the lives of a lot of local bands, with the network’s offices at Ortigas being a nurturing place for up-and-coming artists. It was in their program aptly called “In the Raw” where unknown bands such as Urbandub, Itchyworms, Up Dharma Down and much more had their music first transmitted through the airwaves. After their initial breakthroughs, the station still gave these bands adequate airtime to make sure that they could reach the heights they’ve dreamed of.
The station had a huge impact on its listeners and the music industry but sadly the station went off the air when everyone needed it most. In the times when DJs such as Matt Tsubibo, with his unquenchable thirst for recorded laughter, and artists such as Beiber, Kesha and others fill the airwaves, fans looked to NU for an escape from all the trash circulating on air. The local music industry also took a hit when NU ceased broadcasting. Myriads of talented local bands have been emerging but are now struggling to gain publicity as they find it hard to have any radio station play their music.
The die-hard DJs of NU 107 like Francis Brew, Trish and Evee founded Dig Radio, an online radio mirroring the format of the fallen station. Dig is an ambitious project but no radio station can ever match what NU was for so many. No station can ever reach out to as many listeners as NU had nor can any station emulate the significance that NU had when radio was still the primary source of music and mp3 players and the internet were all crazy ideas that one had for the future. No station can ever match the impact NU had in the local music industry nor can any station accommodate up-and-coming bands the way NU did.
Many have asked to have NU back on the airwaves or for Henares to set up a phantom signal somewhere broadcasting Francis Brew’s voice but those are farfetched dreams that will probably never come true. As NU’s supposedly 24th birthday approaches, the most that anyone can do is to look back with that cheesy nostalgia at the times when you’d wait for your favorite song to play on NU and listen intently when that-DJ-with-that-cute-voice comes on and says a heartfelt thank you to everyone’s home of new rock, NU 107.
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