Pinoy Blog Machine (Beta)

I missed blogging on the anniversary of the end of our show!

March 14, 2003. Wow! It’s been four years since I left NU107! It must be my preoccupation with living my current life sans rock stars and rock happenings. People who remember me from my season as a cool morning show host cannot fathom why I would leave all that behind.

I wish I could say I moved on to my dream job of writing for Conde Nast Traveller and alternately globe-trekking with Ian Wright on the telly, but truthfully, I leaped from ultra-creative to ultra-corporate when I signed up as Accent Training Manager for the then new call center industry. I traded in my 5AM alarm to get to my 6AM show for a 9AM bedtime and a 5PM alarm. My lunch hour was when the world was fast asleep past midnight. And because of my gift of gab from all my years in radio, I was consistently part of client presentations to help woo new business.

But the ridiculously long hours - twelve-sixteen at times - started to take their toll. Twice I had to work twenty-two hours straight! It was a nightmare. I burned out and was about to call it quits but got headhunted and wooed with more money, a better position and a much better brand to work for (i.e. large well-known multinational).

Barely a week after resting, I jumped on my new bandwagon and continued my climb up the proverbial corporate ladder. Ten months later, I bailed.

In between all of this, I would be asked: “why did you leave your show?!”; “are you ever going back?”; “why not just do a weekly show?” To which I would reply, “It was time to move on. And I got what I always wanted - my Seinfeld moment - leaving while ahead. I wanted to go and be missed rather than being asked to go and not be remembered.”

And miss it I confess I do. Once in a while, like now. I just answered Vox’s QotD and it jump started my current train of thought, which has been incubating for some time.

Z and J had the privilege of waking people everyday at 6 to get them off to work and school. We stayed until 9AM, weekday mornings, and asked questions that ranged from the lunatic - “why do we shiver when we pee?” - to the frantic - “what are your top 3 movies of all time?”. We interviewed models, actors, doctors and famous people - photographer R. Ian Lloyd and entymologist Georges Brossard, among others - and regular, everyday people who would call in. We humiliated, amused and challenged each other and our listeners.

My favorite memories were featuring live bands in the studio for the week before the Rock Awards. Best New Artist Nominees showed up at our studio at 6AM. Most of them came straight from gigs. Bands like Sandwich, Radioactive Sago Project, Chicosci, Cheese, Slapshock, Imago, are just some who went on to became famous. Do a Google Search on them to see who they are in the Philippine music scene.

Another favorite was when a listener came to us to ask permission if he could propose to his girlfriend live on the air. This was awesome! Tony was in the studio while Therese was in her car tuned in to us during rush hour. He had hid the engagement ring under the driver’s seat with the help of Therese’s sister. They married, had a beautiful daughter and came to our farewell show.

I’ll never forget the morning Zach fainted. It made for an interesting listen but I was terrified! Apparently he cleaned his guitar one morning and didn’t wash his hands (typcial of Zach!). The polish entered his pores and got on his food too. So midway through our show, his 6 foot frame slumps in a heap on his chair and almost hits the ground! Our PA, 5 foot Glenn, catches him in time, barely. I quickly go into a long song - I think I put on Smashing Pumpkin’s Drown - and rush over to help Glenn. We put him on our couch and I call his house. His sister came and picked him up.

He showed up the following day, fodder for the day’s ribbing.

Zach has since gone on to excel on the drums for his famous band, Imago. While I spend my days writing full time for a Christian ministry. When people from my past ask me where I now work and I tell them, they give me the strangest of looks. “Oh. She’s born again now.”

I may not be cool anymore. And I may not show up at the hottest gigs these days. But I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do - write. The fact that I have been given the privilege to do it for ministry is even cooler.

It’s not Conde Nast. And I’m not on the telly with Ian Wright. But I’m living out the dream I’ve had since I was seven. I write. That for me, is cooler than any morning show gig.

So here’s to July 13, 1998 to March 14, 2003. Cheers. Thanks for the memories.