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Friday, July 28, 2006
Wenceslao: Radio commentaries
By Bong O. Wenceslao
I admit I am old school in my choice of radio commentaries. By old school I mean the broadcast style of the past era, when words uttered on air were carefully chosen and decent. In my younger days, the commentators I idolized were hard-hitting but never vulgar. They drew me in with their intellect and not with their use of gutter language.
In Sun.Star, columnists writing for and columns published in the opinion section are guided by certain rules laid down by the editor-in-chief, one of which is to challenge ideas, actions and policies, not the person. Related to that is fairness and objectivity. And criticism must be informed and based on facts, not on lies, half-truths or erroneous data.
I am writing about this because of the libel case filed by Cheryl Ouano against radio dyHP’s Joash Dignos at the Mandaue City Prosecutor’s Office. I am not saying Dignos is guilty of the charge---that’s up to the court to decide. It’s just that in listening to Dignos, my previous observations on the state of radio commentaries were reinforced.
Actually, I was a broadcaster before I shifted to the print medium. I worked full-time in dyLA in the early nineties when old school commentators were vanishing. The new kids on the block were hard-hitting, all right, but also tested the limits of what is allowable by the radio code. Surprisingly, they did attract a growing number of listeners.
Soon, the intellectualizing of the commentators of old gave way to emotionalism. Substance got lost as form---manner of delivery, use of harsh language—took primacy. That lowered the bar of the profession. The shallow can now become commentators as long as they spew fire on air, lack of knowledge of the topic discussed notwithstanding.
I sensed the shift when even formerly respected broadcasters changed gears.
The intellectuals altered their tones and became combative, even vulgar.
Personalities, not issues, became their main course. I call this the “shallow-nization” of radio commentaries. And because the practice has become common, the belief is that this is already the norm.
I don’t know what the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas is doing about this or whether it has considered this setup as a given. But surely, there must be a way to raise again the level of radio commentaries in Cebu.
TEXTREAX. From texter 0921-3053037: “President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) should mean ‘Sickness of our Nation that must be Addressed.’”
(khanwens@yahoo.com/ 0915-9228651/my blog: cebuano.wordpress.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 28, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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