Home Radio is Back Home

September 30, 2017

97.9 Home Radio (FB)

It’s been 3 months since 97.9 Home Radio went back to its original format. On the morning of the last day of June, Home Radio abruptly axed its Top 40 format and went back to its original Easy Listening format. Management realized that the station would sell better with its original format.

During its first few days, its playlist shifted between mainstream AC & Variety Hits and it even had 60s in it. However, over the succeeding days, it finally settled on with Soft AC. Come the 2nd week of July, there were some changes. They uploaded Home Radio’s new logo and deleted the posts from its last 4 months, including the last one which was somewhat bombarded by Christian Maloles.

THE ORIGINAL HOME

Home Radio’s Easy Listening format isn’t the same as the one before. The original one aired more on the new stuff and a little of the old stuff. Hence, its format was current-leaning Soft AC. And every Sunday, it took a break from Easy Listening and aired a variety hits-oriented program (similar to RJFM) called VHS: Variety Hits Sunday.

Initially, it was automated, with Jackie serving as the station’s iconic voice-over. A lot of its former stingers, especially the ones used in VHS, were unusual for a Soft AC station. Around 2009 or 2010, they recruited female DJs, following the less talk, more music rule. Soon, they created a weekly countdown called Easy 10.

 THE NEW OLD HOME

The new one now focuses more on the old stuff and less on the new ones, which is the usual programming for Soft AC stations. With this, the return of Dear Jamie after 3 years of hiatus and aired from Monday to Friday and Sunday 9pm-12mn, a love advice program hosted by Jaime featuring letters of love, friendship, dreams or anything about life that will bring lessons to the listeners. And every Sunday, it plays 70s and 80s music (a mix of easy listening and variety hits), in which it was later called Solid Gold Sunday. It kinda reminds me of WRock’s Friday Classics. It also had a weekly countdown called H20 (Home Radio Easy 20). In addition to that, it even has daily programs, Emotions in Motion, a daily version of Solid Gold Sunday, albeit with a newer timeline, focusing on the 80s and 90s love songs, and Morning Melodies, which focuses more on acoustics.

As of this writing, Home Radio is manned by 4 DJs (Alex, Daryl, Braggy and Chad) who used to be part of the Top 40 era. However, they only open their mics for newscasts & time checks, plus the return of Home Radio female DJs led by Toni, Louie, Jackie and Jamie

 MY VIEWPOINTS

After 3 years of experimenting with different formats, from Masa to Top 40, the management decided to go back to Soft AC format because they thought it’d sell better. (It took me some time to find out the reason) And it did. However, a lot of listeners from Home Radio’s Top 40 era were disappointed with its abrupt reformat. And so was I, although I didn’t listen to it much. It reminds me of Campus’ abrupt dismissal when it used to be on 99.5 back in 2008. And they even called its Easy Listening format as a trash, even if it really isn’t, since the music is kinda good. Those scumbags should be thankful it didn’t go back to its Masa format. They should’ve known that Home Radio is known for its Easy Listening format.

When Braggy (who used to be with Campus Radio) took over as Home Radio’s station manager, he sort of brought back the spirit of Campus Radio in some way. In my opinion, some of its programs have their resemblance. H20 and Aircheck 979 sort of resemble of Top 20@12 and Campus Radio Aircheck respectively. Since the reformat, Braggy has a different take on Home Radio’s Easy Listening format, which isn’t the one we’re familiar with. It looks like Home Radio is slowly getting back on track. So, I wish them luck on its new old format.