RPN 9 to mark 36th year

Manila Standard (page 59), Thursday, June 6, 1996

WITH "On the Leadership Road" as its theme, RPN 9 will celebrate its 36th anniversary with a week of activities starting one June 16, at the RPN 9 studios at the Broadcast City, Quezon City.

A major highlight of the celebration is a two-hour TV special entitled "On the Leadership Road: RPN 9 Still the One" which will feature the major talents discovered then and developed by RPN 9 and who became legends or institutions themselves, as well as clips of the famous shows which also became famous. The TV special will be aired on primetime on June 19, the foundation day of RPN 9.

As a broadcast station, RPN 9 has excelled in four areas, among others:
 * 1. Leadership in talent discovery and development -- RPN 9 discovered and developed the longest list of talents who started their careers in RPN 9 and became famous artists. Among them are Nora Aunor, Hilda Koronel, Snooky Serna, Tina Revilla, Maricel Soriano, Janice de Belen, Inday Badiday, Lino Brocka, June Keithley, Bert de Leon, Noli Boy de Castro, Loren Legarda, Ian de Leon, Lotlot de Leon, Rustom Padilla, Herbert Bautista, Manilyn Reynes, Rina Reyes, Dolly Anne Carvajal, Gelli de Belen, Donna Cruz, Regine Velasquez, Dranreb Belleza, Maila Gumila and Lovely Rivero.
 * 2. Leadership in programming -- RPN 9 produced a variety of local shows which became hits, like Nora Aunor's Superstar, the drama series for Hilda Koronel, Rosemarie Sonora, Snooky Serna, Boots Anson-Roa and Nora Aunor.
 * Other top hit variety shows were those of Tirso Cruz III, Tina Revilla, Jeanne Young and Sonny Cortez. Other musicals were the Aawitan Kita, Carmen Soriano Show, Maggie de la Riva Show, among others. The Spin-A-Win, Tic-Tac-Toc and the Clubhouse 9 or children were institutions.
 * 3. Broadcast leadership -- RPN 9 brought the first slow-motion machine in 1973 to support the coverage of MICAA Basketball Games (now the PBA Games); it also encouraged the use of domestic satellite and the first to acquire "back-pack" cameras to encourage location shooting.
 * RPN 9 also brought the country the first color ourside broadcast van (OB Van). RPN 9 also became the leader in sports broadcast and the first to air a one-hour newscast, Eyewitness News, which later became RPN 9's prime newscast, Newswatch.
 * 4. Leadership in innovative ideads -- RPN 9 made the first experiment on development communication (popularly known as devcom) through its long-playing series, John en Marsha. It also dubbed foreign drama series into Tagalog, like Kojak and has pioneered in several aspects of public service programs.