79
REDISCOVERING A LEGACY OF A LOST VOICE: A HISTORY OF RADYO DZLB’s SCHOOL-ON-THE-AIR
Mark Lester M. Chico
Assistant Professor 7, Department of Development Broadcasting and Telecommunication, College of Development Communication, University of the Philippines Los Baños, College, Laguna
Director, Office of Public Relations, University of the Philippine Los Baños, College, Laguna President, Philippine Association of Communication Educators
E-mail: [email protected] (Corresponding author) Received 14 April 2021
Accepted for publication 07 June 2021
Abstract
The school-on-the-air (SOA) is a pioneering broadcast program format developed by Radyo DZLB in the University of the Philippines Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines. Its history dates back to 1967 when the first SOA on dairy farming was launched. Over the years, SOAs were redesigned until a formal structure was arrived at.
Radyo DZLB faced challenges that compelled SOA to continuously find its rightful place in the airwaves.
Now that it is off the air, how can Radyo DZLB sustain its advocacy of educating farmers, homemakers, and children, among others, through SOA? As the voice of development, how can Radyo DZLB recover its lost voice?
Employing a social history approach to writing media history, this article aims to record and critique the accounts of key informants and written historical facts from documentations in order to contribute to the ongoing history of educational broadcast in the Philippines, particularly of SOA, that is somehow making a “comeback” due to the demands of a pandemic-stricken educational system. It would serve as a prelude to another rebirth of Radyo DZLB, whose tower has recently been built, and a new transmitter coming way soon.
Keywords: community broadcasting, media history, Radyo DZLB, rural broadcasting, school-on-the-air
80 Introduction
Radio is a companion medium. It keeps us company as we do our activities for the day, may it be farming, washing dishes or clothes, or driving our kids to school. Radio remains to be the cheapest among the media that we have today. Even if there is no electricity, you can listen to a battery- operated radio. You can access it through mobile phones. But what will you do when your radio, particularly the station you always listened to, stops airing? All of a sudden, the broadcasters and the programs you used to subscribe to are gone. Nobody is there to entertain you, to inform you, and most importantly, to educate you. The companion has lost its voice.
One fine morning in the later months of 2014, after harvesting some produce, Mang Abad, a vegetable farmer in Brgy. Gagalot, Majayjay, Laguna, Philippines, would prepare to go to the barangay hall (Moscoso, 2015). With pen and notebook, Mang Abad, together with other farmers, would attend Agrikulturo, a school-on-the- air (SOA) program. They would watch two 30-minute videos and would take a quiz thereafter. They would do these once a week, in the next three to four weeks. This setup, however, was different from how an SOA was done fifty years ago. On 4 May 2012, Radyo DZLB, Ang Tinig ng Kaunlaran (The Voice of Development), went off the air “due to the broken audio processor and grounded wiring from the studio to the transmitter house. The situation worsened when a lightning struck the transmitter
damaging five of its modules.i” This forced the students of development communication taking up DEVC 133 or Broadcast-based Distance Learning Systems, being required to conduct an SOA, to come up with alternative ways of
“educating” the farmers through the broadcast media.
What sets Radyo DZLB apart from other radio stations in the Philippines is its being the “oldest existing rural, educational radio station” (Flor, 1994, p. 17). It is a niche that no other radio stations claimed. It could be attributed to the programming that it had been implementing since the 1960s specifically when it launched what it has since been known for – the school-on-the- air.
As an attempt to contribute to media history, specifically of Radyo DZLB and the concept and practice of school-on-the-air, this paper asks the following questions:
How and why were SOAs conducted then?
What goals did it (want to) achieve? Who were its participants? What lessons did it air? What issues did it encounter and how did it survive the challenges? What kind of
“development” concerns did it aim to address? How much has it contributed to the “development” of its stakeholders?
How did it change through time, when newer technologies came about? Where will it go and what will it do when the station, known as “the voice of development,” regains its lost voice?
In other words, this paper wishes to account for a certain part of Radyo DZLB’s
81 history that is critical in its rebirth. In May 2021, a new 25-year franchise was granted to the University of the Philippines (UP) System to operate radio and TV stations in its campuses, which include UP Los Baños, the home of Radyo DZLB.
Employing a social history approach to writing media history, this article aims to record the accounts of key informants and written historical facts from documentations in order to contribute to the ongoing history of educational broadcast in the Philippines, particularly of SOA, that is somehow making a
“comeback” due to the demands of a pandemic-stricken educational system.
Educational Broadcast for Farmers:
The Early Years of School-on-the- Air
While the idea of giving lectures on air could be credited to enterprising freelancer, Pacifico Sudario, who, in 1952, produced FSA or farmers’ school-of-the-air, an educational program for rural farmers in Iloilo, the formal structure of school-on- the-air (SOA), as a correctionii of the term
“of-the-air” used by Sudario, came only after Radyo DZLB had about half a decade of experience in airing the specialized radio format. Through an undergraduate research study conducted by the late Lucio
“Ka Louie” Tabing (1970), Radyo DZLB was able to “scientifically evaluate” the effectiveness of its SOAs, specifically the one regarding vegetable gardening that was held between February and April 1969
among older members of the 4-H Club in Laguna. It was a pioneering study that led to an effective field-tested process of doing SOAs. In 1976, Felix Librero, who, after serving as station supervisor, became instructor at the then Department of Agricultural Communications in the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (UPCA) in Los Baños, Laguna, published a guide for rural broadcasters outlining the systematic process of doing SOAs. Considering Radyo DZLB’s experiences in its previous SOAs, the handbook offers suggestions on running SOAs, a radio program format that it did not claim to be most effective but nonetheless proposed to employ in educating the farmers, who were then their main stakeholders being under the University’s primary unit concerned with agriculture. Fifty years after, although it had other intended SOA participants along the way, Radyo DZLB would come full circle and still targeted the farming sector, in which Mang Abad belongs.
The pioneers of Radyo DZLB’s SOA trace back its roots to Pagatasan sa Nayoniii, a project under the Dairy Training Research and Institute (DTRI) under the UP College of Agriculture. Starting in 1967, the project had a broadcasting component, which provided poultry farmers with lessons regarding dairy farming and production, among others. With Manny Arejola as project leader, the program was aired over Radyo DZLB and after every broadcast, DTRI farm technicians would move around their sites to gather information from the
82 farmers. The format then was simple4. It had 10 minutes of lecture and then a review after. It would also have a review of the previous lesson before the next lecture in succeeding episodes. They would put in music somewhere in the middle as well as spots that carried developmental messages.
Then, participants would be asked some questions for the day. Answers to which they would write on feedback forms that the technicians would collect every after broadcast. These forms were usually dropped in boxes placed either in a sari-sari store or the barangay hall. This mechanics would be carried over and refined through the years until it became systematic. This, as reflected in Librero’s handbook, would later on become the basis of the format being taught in a course on educational broadcast.
Because of its popularity, SOAs were seen by the government as a good way of teaching farmers new methods and techniques that would eventually give them higher yield. When Librero, in the 1970s, served as consultant in the information committee of Masagana 99, a Marcos-government project that aimed to produce 99 cavans or sacks of rice per hectare, more than 120 rural broadcasters from the Bureaus of Agricultural Extension (BAEx) and Plant Industry (BPI) were trained on scriptwriting, speech and performance, and radio drama and documentary program production, among others. Also part of the training was how to conduct SOAs. After the training, the Ministry of Agriculture, then headed by
Arturo “Bong” Tangco, Jr. as secretary, mandated these rural broadcasters to conduct SOAs in their respective areas through local radio stations. Masagana 99 SOAs were aired in 1977 and continued on in 1978 with the revised rice research technology. This made SOA popular all over the country specifically among the farmers. Marcos boasted about its success and called it university on-the-air, which Librero thought was wrong. Librero would refer to certain experiences during those years as “Masamang 99 or Masagwang 99.7” Nonetheless, if only about achieving its purpose of educating the farmers, to Librero, SOAs were successful.
Since then, DZLB’s programming would have SOAs, which were run mostly by extension workers from different units in the university such as Forestry and Cooperatives, and the College of Agriculture. SOAs were usually funded by research projects. Alexander Flor, who was then training assistant of Librero and an instructor under the Community Broadcasting Section headed by Ely Gomez, got involved in a number of SOAs.
According to him, these SOAs were closely linked to research programs. By 1994, Flor would publish a book on broadcast-based distance learning systems, which would become a bible for students majoring in community broadcasting and educational communication. During the time of Flor as instructor and training assistant, the National Food and Agriculture Council (NFAC) had a big research program under UPCA. It was big in terms of funding that
83 gave everyone involved in the college, including instructors like Flor, the opportunity to serve as study leader. Since the university had a three-fold function of instruction, research, and extension, which has a symbiotic relationship, extension such as SOAs were easily anchored on the research program. This way, the SOAs needed no separate funding as it was instantly funded and supported. Flor’s first SOA was on sorghum as human food in 1977. Sorghum during that time was being promoted by NFAC as human food.
Because of the rice crisis, sorghum, which then was only considered as animal feed, became an alternative food for human.
Linking SOAs in funded research programs was strategic as it was a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved including instructors and students of development communication. Because of this setup, students, who were enrolled in DEVC 169 or Educational Broadcast, were involved in the SOAs. Students, who did not have to produce a separate SOA, provided the workforce and served as human resources in the conduct of the SOAs under the NFAC-funded project.
From 1968 to early 80s, Radyo DZLB, which remained under the UP College of Agriculture, had always targeted the farmers (of all crops). Its SOAs tackled the following topics: dairy farming (1967, 1968), sugarcane production (1971), dairy cooperatives (1971), rice production (1972), common rice pests and diseases (1976), Masagana 99 technology (1977), backyard cattle production (1978), revised Masagana
99 rice research technology (1978), common pests and diseases of sugarcane (1979), poultry raising, charcoal making (1983, 1984), integrated pest management (1986- 1988), and cooperatives (1990)3 (Librero, 2008).
Challenges under the Aquino Administration: SOAs after the People Power Revolution
From time to time, however, there were some SOAs that catered to different participants like students and homemakers. These included vegetable gardening for 4-H club members (1969);
maternal and childcare (1971), sorghum as human food (1977), ornamental gardening (1979), medicinal plants (1980, 1981), household tips and chores (1982), school for rural housewives (1983), primary health care (1985), preparing nutritious food (1989), and cooperatives (1990) for homemakers; and health and sanitation (1971), science (1981, 1983), and zoology (1984) for school children and youth.3,8 Oras ng Mother’s Club, a program managed by a group of women in Sitio Tagumpay, Bay, Laguna, would also air non-formal lessons on air. The program was supervised and handled by Agie Tetangco of Radyo DZLB and was co-hosted by Aling Andeng, the club president. Later on, Aling Andeng would be left handling the program. The club was connected with the Comprehensive Community Health Program of the UP College of Medicine whose interns were fielded in Laguna.
84 Together, they aired SOAs over Radyo DZLB.
SOAs of these topics continued on when Corazon Aquino became president of the Philippines in 1986. The Bureau of Agricultural Extension (BAEx), which then was well-funded and could provide scholarships and grants, was abolished and was replaced by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) in 1987. The plantilla items of rural broadcasters were axed and the extension workers were devolved into the local government units (LGUs)4 as could be attributed to the passing and implementation of the Local Government Code of the Philippines in 1991. No one was doing SOAs anymore. Even the training used to be given by then Institute of Development Communication (IDC) was affected due to lack of funding. A group of private rural broadcasters who were affiliated with private radio stations, led by Ka Louie Tabing, formed the Philippine Federation of Rural Broadcasters, which handled the training with experts from IDC tapped as resource persons. However, because these broadcasters, who bore the torch after BAEx became ATI, were privately affiliated and were usually solely working on their programs, the implementation of SOAs that required staff such as coordinator and collector of feedback forms, materials such as interviews and performances from participants, among others, became difficult for them. Eventually, they broadcast just lectures, not anymore following the structure of the SOA. The
agriculture department attempted to revive it but it never enjoyed the same popularity and extensiveness of use. In other words, Aquino’s reforms, specifically in the agricultural sector, challenged Radyo DZLB to keep its legacy as a rural, educational radio station.
Teachers of DEVC 169, the course being taken by community broadcasting and educational communication majors, were also challenged and were pushed to find other ways of providing students the venue to learn about SOAs. Because the funds of the Department of Agriculture under Secretary Mitra decreased, extension workers being under LGUs were politically appointed, and former Agriculture Secretary Tangco’s network of rural broadcasters and brilliant think tanks were abolished,iv the course on educational broadcast was greatly affected as there were no more research project to which SOAs could be linked. This compelled Radyo DZLB to touch on other topics from development fields, which were funded by the Aquino administration such as environment and rural health. This made former CA dean and UP Los Baños (UPLB) chancellor Ruben Villareal ask why SOAs were no longer agriculture-related. During this time, Radyo DZLB also shifted its intended participants from farmers to mostly housewives.
Facing the Challenges: Of Wear and Tear and Technological Changes DEVC 169 students in the 1970s-1980s were lucky given the broadcast equipment that
85 Radyo DZLB was using during that time.
Radyo DZLB received funding from the 2nd World Bank Loan and used it in building a transmitter house, and increasing the height of its antenna tower to 220 feet, as well as its reach from 250 watts to five kilowatts. It also had a Toyota Landcruiser as service vehicle and remote broadcast facilities that they brought to different places such as Mt. Banahaw in Quezon Province. Radyo DZLB could reach Bulacan, Metro Manila, Rizal, Quezon, Laguna, and Batangas. The reach was wide enough that it could cater to a lot of people.
However, in the 1990s, the equipment started to wear out. There were no initiatives to sustain it4. There was no money coming in to boost instruction.
During the Aquino presidency, UP got lesser and lesser support. Fewer students were taking community broadcasting as major. Many took educational communication and science communication, especially when the latter was introduced in the 1990s. It could be surmised as a reason for such neglect. All of a sudden, the framework on which the SOA was anchored became unstable. There was no enough research funding, thus limited extension activities, and therefore instruction-related to SOAs were affected.
Radyo DZLB, being manned only by a handful of staff members, who had to fulfill these three functions all at the same time, could not catch up. As Librero put it, SOA is easy to conceptualize but difficult to implement.7
For 25 years, since 1967 to 1992, Radyo DZLB had aired more than 288 SOAs. It collaborated with the following agencies:
Agricultural Credit and Cooperatives Institute, Comprehensive Community Health Program, Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, Culture, and Sports, Dairy Training and Research Institute, FAO-IPC Intercountry Program, Federation of Mothers’ Clubs, International Rice Research Institute, Landbank of the Philippines, Makiling Elementary School, National Azola Action Program, Philippine Rice Research Institute, Rural Health Unit – Department of Health, Rural Improvement Club, and the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
With at least 50 and a maximum of 1,000 enrollees in a single SOA, Radyo DZLB had at least 4,600v enrollees by 1990 but had graduated about 14,000vi as of 1994.
In the 1990s, newer technologies started coming in. Little by little, digital technology was being introduced. Radyo DZLB was expected to have been working hard not to be left behind.
From Extension to Instruction, From One Experiment to Another
When the degree program was still Agricultural Communication, SOA, as a radio program format was discussed in radio production classes, which at that time were handled by Ponciano “Ning” dela Paz.7 However, only when Librero came in as instructor in 1972 did SOA become a major class activity especially when DEVC 169 was included in the BS Development
86 Communication curriculum, which was first offered in the first semester of academic year (AY) 1974-1975. The course had one lecture class and two laboratory sessions – one for fieldwork, one for production.
All radio production classes then were coordinated with Radyo DZLB. Students would plan their SOAs together with Radyo DZLB staff especially when these SOAs were under research projects whose leaders were faculty members and research and extension personnel of UPCA. When these projects started to decline, a separate program for students’ SOAs was included in the station’s programming. It carried a generic title, Paaralan sa Himpapawid. As a regular program, it would broadcast different lessons catering to different audiences. When students are ready with their SOAs, it would carry in its title the topic of the SOA. This way, the program was sustained even if the course was only offered every second semester.
Suffice it to say that SOA, from being classified as purely an extension activity became an instruction activity. Since there was no funding coming from research projects or even from the university, only the desire, or in the words of Librero, “the force of insistence,”7 of Radyo DZLB staff and the faculty of development communication would keep SOAs alive.
DEVC 169 was replaced with DEVC 133 when the BSDC curriculum was revised.
This time, the course was called Broadcast- based Distance Learning Systems. Still, SOA
remained to be a major output together with other educational broadcast formats such as the Instructional Broadcast Series and the Radio Forum.
Being under instruction, SOAs were taught following a structure based on the references that were published mainly by Librero and Flor and the experiences that Radyo DZLB was able to document. This might have an effect as to how SOAs were conducted in the later years of 1990s and the 2000s. Unlike those that were conducted as experiments in the early years of Radyo DZLB, SOAs after Aquino and Ramos’ administrations were no longer attached to and funded by government, non-government, and international agencies’ projects. Mostly, SOAs were done by the students as a class requirement. The experimental nature of it, however, remained.
Student-led: Schools-on-the-Air (and Off-the-air) in the New Millennium
The documentation of SOAs in particular and Radyo DZLB in general was affected by the decisions at the College of Development Communication (CDC).
Because of limited space, many recordings of programs, spots, and other broadcast materials that were in cartridges, open reels, and even cassettes and CDs were lost or disposed of. Over the years, the DZLB Music Library was transformed into an office, a staff lounge, a conference room, and then a dressing room. While some of
87 the old recordings were digitized, the files were either corrupted or inadvertently deleted in the computers and the external storages. Currently, only about three cabinets are left to keep the files related to Radyo DZLB. These cabinets are placed inside the small office space occupied by three REPS (research, extension, and professional staff) in the Department of Development Broadcasting and Telecommunication (DDBT). Only selected SOA documentation reports and manuals, submitted by the faculty members to the research personnel assigned to keep the files, would keep the silent history of the SOAs that were conducted in the 2000s.
From experiencing drought in 1990s, Radyo DZLB seemed to have regained its energy in the earlier years of the new millennium. While mainly conducted by DEVC 133 classes, SOAs were done in partnership with government agencies, primarily with the Department of Agriculture. One of the first SOAs conducted in the 2000s is the SOA on lanzones production (STARRDEC, Radyo DZLB, & DEVC 133 AY 2002-2003, 2002).
Spearheaded by a DEVC 133 class, the SOA catered to more than 100 residents in 14 barangays in four municipalities in Laguna namely Bay, Calauan, Alaminos, and Rizal.
Funded by the Southern Tagalog Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (STARRDEC), in which one DZLB extension specialist served as regional coordinator of the applied communication unit, this SOA could be considered one of the biggest
student-led SOAs in terms of funds, coverage, and graduates. Conducted in 2002, it generally aimed to strengthen the lanzones industry in the province. The following year, SOA on pagpapalay-ulangan (BFAR, Radyo DZLB, & DEVC 133 AY 2003-2004, 2003), which aired 10 lessons from September to October, covered the municipalities of Calauan, Bay, Calamba, Lumban, Nagcarlan, Pagsanjan, Pila, Sta.
Cruz, and Victoria. With the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources under the Department of Agriculture Region IV-A as partner agency, the SOA had more than 130 graduates.
Anchoring it on the fiscal crisis during that time and the celebration of the National Consumer Welfare Month, an SOA on consumer education (DSDS, LBFM 97.4, &
DEVC 133 D AY 2004-2005, 2004) was aired in 2004 via LBFM 97.4, CDC’s low-powered FM station provided by the UNESCO- funded Tambuli Project (CDC, 2009). Since the reach of the FM station was limited, participants came only from six barangays in Los Baños, Laguna namely Anos, Batong Malake, Bayog, Malinta, Mayondon, and Tuntungin-Putho. Partnering with CDC was the UPLB Department of Social Development Services under the College of Human Ecology, which provided the radio teachers.
Radyo DZLB had problems with its signal and went off the air in 2005 when its transmitter totally broke down (Acunzo, Pafumi, Torres, & Tirol, 2014). The station lost its voice, so to speak, which greatly
88 affected the airing of SOAs. Nevertheless, LBFM came to the rescue. It aired the succeeding SOAs, which were totally taken over by instructors and produced by students of development communication.
Some of these SOAs include those on meat processing (2005), papaya and tissue cultured lakatan production (2006) effective parenting (2007), and food business (2007), among others. Starting 2005, multiple SOAs were conducted depending on the number of laboratory sections unlike in 2004 and earlier when one whole DEVC 133 lecture class with several laboratory sections conducted only one SOA. Thus, the number of participants decreased from about a hundred or so to just below 50 as well as the number of lessons from 10 to eight. Likewise, from farmers, more and more housewives served as participants.
The SOA on effective parenting (DEVC 133 A-3L AY 2007-2008, LBFM 97.4, & Laguna Ina Foundation, Inc., 2007) partnered with the Laguna Ina Foundation, Inc. in Calamba, Laguna. It tackled husband and wife relationships, communication in the family, disciplining and dealing with children, and stewardship of family resources, among others. Based on the compiled feedback forms, the participants, who were expectedly mostly parents, found it difficult to listen to the radio, although they appreciated the lessons.
Perhaps, this could be attributed to the fact that LBFM was not heard clearly outside Los Baños (Albia, 2010).
Through the years, students who had taken DEVC 133 would, in their course reports, warn incoming students about how laborious and toxic the course was.vii For instance, the students who produced the SOA on food business (DEVC 133 A-1L AY 2007-2008, LBFM 97.4, & BIDANI, 2007) in 2007 expressed that they experienced a lot of difficulties in choosing a venue or partner community, looking for funds, and interacting with their group mates. At times, they felt helpless and failed to avoid arguments and blame game. In the end, however, they thought they learned from the wrong decisions they made. This perhaps is what Flor was referring to – that SOA is an effective way of teaching and learning by doing wherein students learn all by themselves through their exposure to the field.4
As a way of “realizing CDC's aim to help in improving the quality of livelihood in communities,”viii the SOA, which had participants from Brgy. Timugan specifically Magnetic Hill and Jamboree areas in Los Baños, Laguna, was conducted together with the Food Security for National Nutrition Improvement Program of the Barangay Integrated Development Approach for Nutrition Improvement (BIDANI).
One trend that SOAs in the 2000s show is that the partner agencies were mostly insiders –– units under the university itself.
The SOA on plant protection (DEVC 133 T- 4L AY 2008-2009, Radyo DZLB, NCPC, &
IBS, 2008),for instance, had the Colleges of
89 Agriculture (CA) and Arts and Sciences (CAS) as partners, wherein radio teachers came from the National Crop Protection Center (NCPC) and the Animal Biology Division (ABD) of the Institute of Biological Sciences (IBS). Because the SOAs were no longer funded by agencies outside the university, students, who raise their own funds,ix were restricted to easily accessible areas such as those inside the university. It was also during this time in 2008 when Radyo DZLB went back on the air after CDC acquired a five-kilowatt transmitter (CDC, 2009). In fact, this SOA served as an initial experiment on the signals of the station. Thus, from having participants just within Los Baños, Radyo DZLB was back to Pila, Laguna specifically in Barangays Aplaya, Linga, and Labuin, from where 32 farmers graduated.
Also in 2008, an SOA on fruit and vegetable processing, titled Radyo Eskwela (DEVC 133 AY 2008-2009, Radyo DZLB, & IFST, 2008), was produced and aired over Radyo DZLB in partnership with the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) under the UPLB College of Agriculture. To be able to further test the signal of the new transmitter, students were assigned in farther municipalities of Sta. Cruz and Pakil, Laguna. It had 94 enrollees but only 51 finished the SOA. Another SOA was on nutritious food, which had students from Barangays Pinagsanjan and Magdapio in Pagsanjan, Laguna. Due to the weak radio signal, only a few sustained listening and finished the SOA (DEVC 133 T-1L AY 2008- 2009, Radyo DZLB, & NNC, 2008).
Although it could still not reach its full capacity of five kilowatts, Radyo DZLB still felt stronger in 2009. After resuming regular broadcasts in January, initial signal monitoring (DDBT, 2016) was conducted in April between its broadcast hours of 6 AM to 12 NN. At that time, Radyo DZLB was transmitting signals at 2.3 to 3.7 kilowatts.
It could be heard clearly in Brgy. Sto.
Domingo in Bay, Paseo in Sta. Rosa, Pila, San Pedro, Calamba, Biñan, Los Baños, Sta.
Cruz, Sta. Maria, and Mabitac, all in Laguna. It could also be heard in some parts of Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, and Tarlac.
This paved the way for the conduct of more intensive SOAs. With food security amidst economic crisis as major concern, the SOAs in 2009 focused on backyard gardening and food business. Together with the Provincial Government of Laguna’s Food Always in the Home (FAITH) Program, a DEVC 133 class aired nine lessons on backyard gardening (DEVC 133 T-2L AY 2009-2010, Radyo DZLB, & FAITH, 2009) for selected residents in Pila and Calauan, Laguna. Fifty successfully finished the SOA.
The SOA on food business titled Kwarta Kainan (DEVC 133 ST AY 2009-2010, Radyo DZLB, IHNF, & CEM, 2009), on the other hand, covered four municipalities, which included Bay, Calauan, Pila, and Victoria.
Radio teachers from the UPLB Institute of Human Nutrition and Food (IHNF) of the College of Human Ecology (CHE) discussed the recipes while the radio teacher from the College of Economics and
90 Management (CEM) tackled marketing and entrepreneurship. During this time, instructors would realize that having more than one laboratory class, which needed to conduct an SOA, was too much to handle.
This particular SOA aired three times a week. Reflection papers reveal that for a three-hour laboratory class, doing an SOA was tiring. Students believe that it demanded too much from them that made them sacrifice other classes and activities.x But because it was a class requirement, students would push themselves and do their best in meeting the standards such as the number of graduates. In this SOA, 70 out of 86 enrolled students finished the SOA.
With these identified challenges both on the part of the instructors and the students, the SOAs in 2010 were done in coordination with one partner agency and one municipality for all sections. Radyo DZLB forged a partnership with the Bureau of Alternative Learning Systems (BALS) and its adopted municipality, Bay, Laguna in order to conduct SOAs. Each section was assigned in an area or purok. Students enrolled in Alternative Learning Systems (ALS) were automatically enrolled in the SOA. The need for livelihood, just like in the early years of SOAs, remained to be the primary concern of the enrollees. Thus, produced SOAs were focused on different livelihood projects that they could venture in such as swine raising (DEVC 133 AY 2010-2011, Radyo DZLB, & BALS, 2010) and meat processing (DEVC 133 T-1L AY 2010-2011, Radyo DZLB, & BALS, 2010).
Just when students thought everything was running smoothly as planned, Radyo DZLB once again lost its voice when its transmitter broke down in 2011. What supposed to be broadcast-based distance learning experience became face-to-face seminar-workshops. The supposed SOA on water lily handicraft making was turned into a participatory seminar-workshop (DEVC 133 T-1L AY 2011-2012, Radyo DZLB, & Remdavis Enterprises, 2011).
Fifty-five participants came all the way from Pila, Laguna and attended the one- day seminar-workshop held at the CDC lecture hall. Having a passing score in the post-tests, all of them were declared graduates. The students’ reflection papers revealed how difficult it was for them to adjust to the unfortunate situation but in the end, they felt fulfilled about their accomplishments.
For the other class, it was a double whammy. Aside from overhauling the SOA on chicken meat processing and turning it into a seminar, the students also had to face the onslaught of Typhoon Pedring (DEVC 133 T-4L AY 2011-2012 &
Radyo DZLB, 2011). On the day of the seminar, the typhoon came and greatly affected the attendance of their participants coming from Brgy. Tuntungin-Putho in Los Baños, Laguna. Add to that the technical problems they experienced and the delayed start of the seminar. Despite all these, they still considered the experience worthwhile.
Over the years, a lot of adjustments had to be made in the course of conducting SOAs,
91 or the classes that would later on replace the broadcast requirement. All these affect the value of the program format, the value of the student’s experience, and more importantly, the impact on the intended participants who were supposed to gain knowledge, at least, from the SOA.
Given the recurring issues in its modules, audio processor, and other technical aspects such as wiring, the station also had to adjust or, eventually, give up. Total silence was heard on 4 May 2012 when Radyo DZLB completely shut down. CDC faculty and staff and its cooperating agencies, which were then handling programs in the station, witnessed the radio station’s shut down. After several rebirths and re-launches, going off-the-air happened again, despite the big amount of money that had been invested in bringing it back to the airwaves. Radyo DZLB needed at least $1,800 for the repair of its audio processor and P40,000 for shipping the equipment that would be used for its repair.2
After almost a decade, as of 2021, Radyo DZLB remains voiceless.
The Legacy Continues: From Radio to Cable TV
The station shutdown, nonetheless, did not stop CDC from requiring students to conduct SOAs in its DEVC 133 classes.
Charge it to instructors and students’
creativity and the long history of broadcast experiences of Radyo DZLB, audiocassettes replaced the live broadcast of SOAs. These
cassettes or CDs would be brought to the site and the participants would collectively listen to the “broadcast.” This is quite similar to how instructional broadcast series (IBS) and radio forum were conducted then, wherein students or community members would listen together in one place and talk about their action plan right after. The only difference is that the participants in the IBS and the SOA, like that on fruit processing (DEVC 133 T-4L AY 2012-2013, 2012), would not really plan something but instead would take a quiz right after. The revised mode of delivery of the SOA tried to keep the structure of the program format. They still followed a certain schedule and feedback forms still had to be submitted every after broadcast.
A major turning point for SOA happened in 2013 when the faculty members handling DEVC 133 decided to use cable television in broadcasting its SOAs. The silence of Radyo DZLB forced the Department of Development Broadcasting and Telecommunication (DDBT) to explore cable TV despite the fact that TV facilities in CDC then were still “very basic but just enough.”xi This came after CDC signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Community Cable Vision Corporation (CCVC) (Maloles, 2013).xii Based on the MOA, CDC would be providing CCVC ready-to-air TV programs and segments as well as expertise in evaluating the programs aired in the local channel while CCVC would provide free timeslots and promote the programs through announcements and teasers. Simply, this is
92 considered blocktiming, without any money involved.
That year, there were six laboratory sections. Each section was assigned to a municipality in which the Community Cable Channel 8, owned and managed by CCVC, was airing. The municipalities include Los Baños, Bay, Calauan, Nagcarlan, Liliw, and Majayjay.
One of the most successful SOAs during that year was Hanep Gulay: TV Eskwela ukol sa Vegetable Processing and Preservation (DEVC 133 ST-4L AY 2013-2014, 2013).
Having been assigned to the farthest municipality, being a step away from the next province, i.e., Quezon, the DEVC 133 ST-4L class of only 12 students managed to produce and air six episodes, which they all taped in just one day. Unlike what was being taught in previous SOAs aired on radio, in which everything must be well- planned and prepared, given the very limited time and resources they had, the whole team, including the students and the laboratory instructor, played the whole TV Eskwela production by ear. It was experimental that all of them tried to figure out how to address certain issues as they arose. The shift from radio to TV demanded more time and effort from the students. It
“ruined relationships and friendships.”xiii Nonetheless, the positive feedback of the participants removed all the anxieties they felt.xiv
Because of the relative success of SOAs aired on cable TV, the TV Eskwela would be carried over, as an attempt at sustainability,
in the next two years with Agrikulturo: TV Eskwela ukol sa Maunlad na Pagtatanim at Pagsasaka (DEVC 133 ST-1L AY 2014-2015, 2014) as the first and so far, the only TV Eskwela which had run for two seasons with the same hosts and set of participants, who are vegetable farmers in Majayjay, Laguna.
The first season was aired in 2014 and tackled new farming techniques while the second season was aired in 2015 and discussed organic farming. The major concern, however, was the fact that the participants did not at all watch the episodes on cable TV. While the show aired on Community Cable Channel 8, the vegetable farmers in Majayjay, Laguna, including Mang Abad, did not have access to it as the cable lines were only available in Poblacion and not in their barangay.
Instead, DEVC 133 students brought the episodes to the barangay hall or in the house of one of the participants where the farmers watched the program via projection screen. They would bring LCD projector, laptops, and speakers and “air”
the program at once. This time, not only the field implementation team was present with the farmer enrollees, but the production team was also there to monitor the showing of the videotaped episode. The experiences in Agrikulturo, specifically on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), were documented as engaged learning activities through a funding from the United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for ICT for Development (UN-APCICT) (Moscoso, 2016). In 2012, CDC shifted to the BSDC
93 generalist curriculum, thus, fewer students were left to take DEVC 133. Only six students, all females, handled the second season of Agrikulturo.
The SOA as broadcast format is currently being taught in DEVC 145xv or Distance Learning Systems in Development Communication Practice with one hour of lecture and six hours of laboratory. This, as well as other changes that happened through time, would entail redesigning of the SOA over and over.
The SOA as a broadcast program format has gone through a lot of changes over time. Notwithstanding the shutdown of Radyo DZLB, it managed to transform itself from radio to audiovisual media.
What did not change is its goal to provide access to non-formal education among those who are not given the opportunity to attend formal school or need further knowledge to improve their lives. It remains to be an option from among the pool of community media that could transcend spatial limitations. As pointed out in a video about Agrikulturo, it is the school that goes to the farmers so that they could learn.
(Re)Discoveries
As an experimental program format, SOA was conducted as an extension activity linked to funded research projects in the university. It aimed to address the information needs of farmers, homemakers, and children, among others.
It targeted the whole family in the hope to
improve their lives by providing them options for livelihood and income- generating activities. It also proliferated different technologies that were products of research in the university. From funding to personnel, SOA faced challenges that would test its relevance to contemporary issues faced by its intended participants.
While it has been proven to be effective in disseminating information (Galang, 2014),xvi it might need to work harder in order to achieve its ultimate purpose – poverty alleviation or economic development. Ever since its inception, SOA has always anchored its approach to achieving “economic development.”xvii As Librero claimed, SOA was a good format at a certain period of time. Suffice it to say, it served a certain purpose. But Radyo DZLB can reflect on the purpose of the SOA as well as on its gains to be able to keep its relevance today, given the new sets of issues and concerns, needs and wants, and even technologies. Librero advised producers of SOAs to be systems thinkers who look and consider at a lot of variables.
As a dynamic field, broadcast-based distance learning systems such as the SOA would continue to change. That change can happen even if the companion’s voice is still lost. In other words, SOA can continue to transform itself as a responsive program format. For instance, with the pandemic disrupting learning among children and youth, SOA can find its rightful place as an alternative mode of lesson delivery, at the very least.
94 From 1967 til today, from radio to cable TV or videotaped lessons, farmers remain the primary intended participants. The history of SOAs in the Philippines, particularly that of Radyo DZLB and UPLB-CDC, shows that limitation in terms of resources such as funding, personnel, broadcast facilities, reach, and audience or participants, can be defied by Radyo DZLB’s commitment to providing learning opportunities to its followers like Mang Abad.
Times suggest that more sectors need education in a mode other than face-to-face especially when the country is in the middle of a pandemic. While SOAs can only do so much, particularly help its participants in increasing knowledge gain, current demands for educational broadcasts open opportunities for SOAs to revisit its structure and remain relevant.
Although there is cable TV and the internet, radio, being a companion medium, still offers a different learning experience.
Producers in Radyo DZLB can make SOAs remain relevant and continue to serve the audience’s interests and wantsxviii especially when they think outside existing dominant paradigms in terms of development and media platforms. When Radyo DZLB recovers its voice, it can rediscover its legacy and purpose, and speak a different tone.
(The author wishes to dedicate this article to Dr.
Felix Librero, 1943-2021)
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97
i Highlights of the 41st Regular Faculty Meeting, College of Development Communication, University of the Philippines Los Banos, 25 June 2012, 10:00 AM, DZLB Drama Studio
ii A. G. Flor, personal communication, 8 May 2018
iii F. Librero, personal communication, 3 May 2018
iv To describe these events, Flor said, “Nabulabog yung structure ng Department of Agriculture (under Aquino). It was emasculated.”
v Computed based on the list in Librero (2008) where the number of enrollees were specified to be 4,635 in total.
vi Based on Flor’s (1994) account that “As of now [1994], DZLB schools-on-the-air have graduated more than 14,000 students” (p. 18). This is yet to be confirmed. Unless there were 10,000 students that have been enrolled between 1990 and 1994, Flor’s account of the number of graduates might have been mistyped. If Flor meant 4,000, that would be more realistic.
vii Various reflection papers found in SOA documentation reports would reveal this as a fact.
viii From the message of Prof. Ma. Teresita B. Osalla included in the student’s manual (DEVC 133 A-1L AY 2007-2008, LBFM 97.4, & BIDANI, 2007)
ix Fundraising activities took so much of the students’ time and energy. One common activity that they ventured in was selling clothes (rummage) and food and snacks.
x Based on reflection papers compiled in DEVC 133 ST AY 2009-2010, Radyo DZLB, IHNF, & CEM.
(2009).
xi The DZLB Drama Studio was turned into a TV studio with two lights, two cameras, and 4 lapels.
xii Prior to the signing of the MOA, faculty and staff of CDC underwent intensive training on TV production under the Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC). Since Radyo DZLB was off-the-air, CDC ventured into TV production. The output of the training was a program concept called Dito Sa Laguna, a development-oriented community-based discussion program, which is currently on its 18th season of airing already. The program is being produced by CDC faculty and staff.
xiii Taken from Paoloregel Samonte’s reflection paper in DEVC 133 ST-4L AY 2013-2014 (2013, p. 20)
xiv Taken from Joy Gumatay’s reflection paper in DEVC 133 ST-4L AY 2013-2014 (2013, p. 29)
xv The course description of DEVC 145 is as follows:
“Development communication has always viewed communication media as powerful tools for facilitating the learning process, especially when spatial limitations exist. Communication media can transcend these limitations and build virtual bridges so that people in remote, rural and underserved communities can benefit from educational initiatives through distance learning systems. Hence, the integral and central component of distance learning systems is communication media. In this regard, development communication students should be trained in the production and implementation of learning systems that facilitate sharing of meaningful messages among stakeholders, utilize communication media effectively for the achievement of learning goals, employ appropriate communication approaches, and in the end, empower learners as social beings.
They should be equipped with knowledge and skills in planning, designing, managing, and evaluating distance learning systems and what makes them work – communication media and related infrastructures, well-produced learning messages, production and field staff, network of partners and stakeholders, and many others.”
98
xvi Galang summarized the results of the numerous studies conducted related to SOA. Galang wrote,
“From these studies, it can be said that the school- on-the-air is an effective method of disseminating information that addresses the need of a community. Most of the evaluation studies on the SOA (such as Angeles’s Nunez’s, Lavadia’s, Marin’s, and Guerra’s studies) focused on the retention and adoption of the information that the program had provided (Fernandez, 2013). Results from these studies had shown varying levels of retention and adoption. Some of these studies had shown high information recall and adoption levels, while some studies had presented lower levels. The results can be attributed to different reasons, such as time and resources. Furthermore, each SOA program evaluation study has provided
recommendations on how their structure and implementation could be improved (Fernandez, 2013). These recommendations commonly include conducting follow up visits with the students and additional topics that can be discussed for future SOA programs.” (p. 31)
xvii “The subject matter should be economically important.” (Librero, 1976, p. 8)
xviii “We cannot just conduct a school-on-the-air on a
particular topic simply because we should do so. We should first find out whether it really serves the audience’s interests and wants. We should not decide their need for them.” (Librero, 1976, p. 7)
