Suspended disbelief

THE radio was on in the taxi I was riding in, tuned in to that station that carries the blurb “Hayahay” and features a little boy Tomas. Many a taxi I have ridden in is tuned in to that station, it must be enjoy a high rating, I don’t know.

Having to suffer through the inanities and sexual innuendoes passed on as joke and in a boy’s voice at that makes me wish that radio station managers and program producers will have the heart for our children, for their proper education, and for their brains.

I’m not expecting FM radio programming to carry the likes of University on the Air or stuff like that, just a conscious effort not to ride on the kabastusan of the society in the race for ratings.

What am I ranting about? It’s Tomas asking a woman, “Miss, manok ba ka (Are you a chicken?)”

Because I don’t want to use my column to pass on the kabastusan I heard, let me end it at that. Call me a prude but I will call bastos as what it is, bastos. In the same way that I call the F- word bastos even if it is already mainstreamed and just about every guy or girl thinks he or she is cool and so in the loop because he or she peppers her speech with effes and shucks.

It’s bad enough that some other radio stations use lady deejays who croon and moan in very suggestive voices, but to use the voice of a child is even worse, for in doing so, every child who listens in will find affinity with it.

As if to pass on the fault to the listeners and not their programmers, the radio station runs a disclaimer about their content needing parental guidance. I rant and raged silently. I wanted to rant out loud, but, the taxi driver might not understand and deliver me straight to the Psychiatric Unit of the Southern Philippine Medical Center instead of the office.

Radio is a medium where people listen to with half an ear or half an attention, not unless it’s airing a blow-by-blow account of a Pacquiao fight or announcing the lotto results. Otherwise, it’s there, turned on and audible to all. It’s not like the movies or television where people sit down together to watch and listen and mommy is within reach to cover a young child’s ears or eyes.

Radio, it is left blaring for everyone to hear. And this station has Tomas to mouth such sexually suggestive jokes as “Miss, manok ba ka?”

I can just imagine the frustration of those advocating for child-friendly television and radio programs as they watch programs that not just corrupt values but also feed trash.

In a world where children are made to feed on trash, we cannot expect them to be less of a trash. We’re not saying that we turn every radio or television station into some evangelical channel mouthing only words of the Lord, not even an educational channel that airs only lessons and Sesame Street. Just your regular fare without the crass word, the sexual innuendoes, and the gender and cultural insensitive comments of announcers, reporters and deejays alike.

A hit music will not sound any sweeter just because the deejay introduces it with a crass word. A love advice will not be less appropriate without using language intended to sexually stimulate the listeners. A lady deejay will sound just as sweet even if she is not moaning. All it takes is a little more brain and a lot of practice. That, just a decade ago, was a no-brainer. But these days, it seems that the race for ratings is run by the no-brains instead.

saestremera@yahoo.com