Radio communications in the Philippines is regulated by the
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which licenses broadcasters and regulates broadcasting. Broadcasters also require a 25-year
congressional franchise to operate stations and transmitters, which dates from the American colonial era under Act No. 3846 (Radio Control Act). Over-the-air radio broadcasting in the Philippines mostly belongs to the
AM and
FM bands. The AM broadcast band in the Philippines is on 531–1701 kHz with 9 kHz spacing (
530–1700 kHz with 10 kHz spacing from the American colonial era and post-independence up to
1978), and is predominantly used for news and public service broadcasting. The FM band is the most commonly used broadcast band, with most music radio stations in the Philippines broadcasting in that band.
Shortwave broadcasting is primarily used for state-owned or religious broadcasts targeted overseas.
Internet radio also exists, mostly carrying live digital feeds of over-the-air stations as well as Internet-only stations, primarily marketed toward niche audiences and
overseas Filipinos. The Philippines has not adopted a standard for
digital radio, but several stations especially in
Mega Manila have adopted
HD Radio technology to provide digital simulcasts of their analog feed or to broadcast high-definition broadcasts of sister stations. Most radio broadcasts come from commercial broadcasters such as
MBC Media Group,
Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) and
GMA Network; the remainder are operated by state-owned broadcasters such as the
Presidential Broadcasting Service (PBS), and religious broadcasters such as the
Catholic Media Network (CMN) and the
Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC).
Call signs All AM and FM stations in the Philippines are assigned unique four-letter
call signs by the NTC. Call signs used for AM and FM broadcasters begin with DW, DX, DY and DZ, with DW mostly used on stations in
Luzon, DX in
Mindanao and DY in
Visayas (as well as parts of
Masbate,
Palawan and
Pangasinan). During the American colonial era from 1920 to 1940, all Philippine stations were assigned call signs beginning with KZ; the present assignment was adopted post-independence with Philippine stations assigned the DU-DZ
ITU prefix. Letters used on call signs are usually chosen to refer to the station's owner, location or slogan. While many AM stations still use their call signs as primary identification (e.g.
DZBB,
DWPM,
DZRH,
DWIZ), most others choose to use easily recognizable brands and slogans to identify themselves. Call signs are not usually mentioned in regular
station identification, but are mentioned during a station's
sign-on and sign-off sequence.
Formats Radio format terminology used in the Philippines usually follows North American nomenclature. AM stations mostly broadcast in
news,
talk,
public service,
community radio and
religious formats. FM stations predominantly broadcast music, usually in
adult contemporary (AC),
contemporary hit radio (top 40/CHR) and
classic hits, but the FM band has also seen use by major news/talk and community radio networks, notably
MBC's
Radyo Natin,
Brigada Mass Media Corporation's Brigada News FM,
TV5's True FM,
Radyo Bandera, Y2H Broadcasting Network's
XFM and
Aliw Broadcasting Corporation's DWIZ News FM (in regional areas).
Masa/contemporary MOR format One notable Philippine radio format is
masa (mass-based) or "contemporary
middle-of-the-road (MOR)", a variation of the
soft adult contemporary format with
full-service radio elements and mostly broadcasts in
Tagalog. It was introduced in the late 1990s during the
Joseph Estrada administration and is associated with national networks and brands such as
Love Radio and
Yes FM by the MBC Media Group, iFM by
Radio Mindanao Network, Star FM by
Bombo Radyo Philippines, Brigada News FM of
Brigada Mass Media Corporation,
99.5 XFM Manila of
Y2H Broadcasting Network and Spirit FM by the
Catholic Media Network;
DWLS, the flagship FM radio station owned by
GMA Network through its subsidiary RGMA Network, previously aired under The Giant WLS FM and later Campus Radio WLS FM banners with a mostly English-language Top 40 format, but switched to the
masa format in a bid to appeal to a wider audience. The FM-based news/talk networks Brigada News FM and Radyo Bandera, as well as the community radio network Radyo Natin also carries
masa-formatted music programming during off-peak hours when not broadcasting news and talk programming.
Masa- or contemporary MOR-formatted stations core music programming is a mix of both Filipino (
OPM) and foreign contemporary and classic
adult contemporary music from the 1970s to present, with the addition of variety popular music played on blocktime programs at certain days and time periods (e.g. dance music, rock and top 40 on morning and afternoon drive times, and
oldies and classic hits on Sundays). Such stations usually have live
talk, call-ins and
drama programming, usually in Tagalog or regional languages. ==History==