Birthplace of the Golden Age of Television

Updated September 26, 2012 - 12:00am

Boots Anson-Roa co-hosting Seeing Stars with Joe Quirino

Having made it a habit to check out the free foreign film screenings that EDSA Shangri-La regularly sponsors, we readied ourselves for the barrage of students who always filled up Theater 2 at the sixth level. We were pleasantly surprised to find old colleagues Lito Ocampo Cruz and Tessie Taylor among them, and even happier to find that they had gone back to television, namely IBC-13.

Today, things are changing for IBC. A new board of directors has come in, appointed by President Noynoy Aquino, with Eric Canoy, who presides over Radio Mindanao Network as IBC chairman, Boots Anson-Roa as president and chief executive officer (CEO) and Lito Ocampo Cruz, former VP of E! Entertainment TV Philippines for RMN, as the network vice-president.

At the IBC headquarters at Broadcast City in Diliman, Lito detailed the future of the network and what great things this new board has in store. “When we came in two years ago, TV5 approached us. They wanted to set up a sports programming, he begins. IBC-13 provided sports programming whose packaged and promoted. Programming rode on the popularity of basketball tournaments of the PBA and NCAA, as well as international ones like FIBA and NBA. There was also boxing matches and United Football League (UFL).

Beyond sports, as IBC intends to increase its cultural and current events programming. Lito admitted that it isn’t much right now but they intend to build on what it has.

Right now, they have Cooltura (Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.), an educational show about Filipino culture hosted by Pat Natividad, which first aired October 3, 2011.

Express Balita (Monday to Friday, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. simulcast over DZTV Radyo Budyong 1386 and INN Channel 45), which originally aired in August 17, 1998, is the network’s flagship news program anchored by Henry Omaga-Diaz and Snooky Serna-Go.

Veteran newsman Jay Sonza is back to anchoring the network's late-night newscast News Team 13 (Monday to Friday, 11 to 11:30 p.m. simulcast over DZTV Radyo Budyong 1386).

PBA Games lend new luster to IBC-13

As part of AO No. 26, IBC very recently handed over its archives to the Film and Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP). The old films forming part of our cultural heritage will be preserved and restored in a single national archive. There is tremendous cultural significance in that for us, “because I believe the Golden Age of Television started with 13,” declared Lito.

Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto and Joey de Leon from Iskul Bukol

“Everybody who started with Channel 13 became famous — newscasters, directors, writers — I can’t even begin to name all of them. Channel 13 aired the country’s first teleserye and situation comedy such as Iskul Bukol. Seeing Stars with Joe Quirino was the first popular entertainment show (way before The Buzz) back in the early ’70s. Joe Quirino was the first Boy Abunda.

Lito detailed classics like Tito, Vic, and Joey in Iskul Bukol, Chicks to Chicks, and Dolphy specials. With AO No. 26, these archives will be restored and digitalized. “Hopefully by the end of next year, we will be able to show them again as IBC Classics. The people will remember the Golden Age of Television.”

Even though IBC-13 is a government entity, it is run like a private corporation. Lito told us that the network receives no subsidy from the government. They generate some income to support the station. Their partnership with TV5, Solar Sports and Viva Sports brings sport fans a superior, digitally enhanced product that pushes them technologically ahead of its competition. They plan to build on its current affairs and cultural programming to bring to the Filipino people a well-rounded line-up of programs around the clock. Lito reminisced, “When we were 13, we were No. 3. 13 is back and here to stay. 13 is alive and well again.”