Barangay LS 97.1 Manila

You are listening to Barangay LS 97.1 Manila

DWLS, operating as Barangay LS 97.1, is the flagship FM radio station of Radio GMA Network Inc. (RGMA, a subsidiary of GMA Network Inc.) in the Philippines.[1] The station's studio is located at the GMA Network Center in Quezon City, and its transmitter is located at Tandang Sora, Quezon City, Philippines. DWLS is operating for 24 hours except during the Holy Week where it signs off from midnight of Maundy Thursday until 5 am of Easter Sunday.

The station's call letters (DWLS) were derived from the name Loreto, wife of former GMA (then RBS) owner, the late Robert "Uncle Bob" Stewart.

History
[edit] As DZXX and 97.1 WLS FM/Campus Radio 97.1

It first aired in 1955, when Uncle Bob opened the DZXX-AM station, the first pop music station in the country on AM format. The format of the station is Pop Music and oldies. DZXX-AM, DZBB-AM and DZBB-TV closed on the date when Martial Law was declared. 2 years after RBS was sold by Uncle Bob to the consortium of then Rizal Governor Gilberto Duavit Sr., Menardo Jimenez and Atty. Felipe Gozon, Uncle Bob's legal adviser, DWLS-FM was opened and named after Loreto de Hemedes-Stewart, Uncle Bob's wife. This is also formatted to play "oldies" and pop music. On February 28, 1986, a few days after the EDSA Revolution, The Giant 97.1 WLS-FM was born and pop, rock, disco and OPM music as well as love songs are introduced. It also served as the home of pop and OPM stars like Gary Valenciano, Regine Velasquez, Randy Santiago, Ogie Alcasid, Janno Gibbs, Donna Cruz, among others as then President Corazon Aquino signed Executive Order No. 255 on July 25, 1987 which mandated that FM radio stations introduce OPM music on top of every hour. When GMA was renamed as the "Rainbow Satellite Network" in the early 1990s, the station became Campus Radio 97.1 WLS-FM as it was reformatted on April 30, 1992. In 1992, "Campus Aircheck" took to the airwaves as an institution of sorts for aspiring DJs to get hired by Campus Radio and was touted as "the first school on the air". For several years, it only aired modern pop, RnB, rock and OPM hits during its weekday run while hits from the recent years were mixed in with the current hits during weekends.

The longest-running program on the station was the Top 20 at 12 where the top 20 songs of the day were counted down in the mold of BBC Radio 1's The Official Chart Show at noontime. On weekdays and Saturdays, only the top 12 songs were actually played, while the Sunday edition is for the cumulative results for the whole week, where all 20 songs were played. At New Year's Eve, the top twenty songs of the year were played until the stroke of midnight. Top 20 at 12 is the longest-running chart show in Philippine FM history. Its Manila edition has been shelved to make way for the station's 2007 reformat, while for a time it has been included as standard programming in RGMA's provincial stations, albeit the chart listings are local. The provincial edition was later renamed Top 5 Ngayon, Hindi Kahapon (Top 5 Today, Not Yesterday), which still broadcasts at the stroke of noon on weekdays. The last song that was #1 before the reformat was "Love Team" by Itchyworms.

Other notable programs and segments included:

* InfoPop, where the on-air personality on board would give more information about the artists in the music scene as well as the songs and the stories behind the songs, and as well as answer questions from listeners about these acts;
* Retro Jam (first entitled The Great Music Jam), where old songs (some as late as the 1980s) were played again, originally, on Saturdays and Sundays, and later, all day Sunday;
* Other People's Music (OPM), a one-hour program where certain personalities outside the world of music appear as guests and feature their favorite songs;
* Front.Center, where a certain singer or act is featured every month and is given preferential airplay by the hour with various songs;
* Campus Aircheck, where students from Metro Manila colleges and universities were given the chance to experience being an actual DJ. The original edition of Campus Aircheck was copied by other FM stations throughout Manila, as well as RGMA's provincial stations;
* Rock-It Launcher, where a featured band or artist launches their latest album through a mini-concert aired live from the hottest bars/gimmick spots in Metro Manila; and
* Clubnights, where one gets to hear the latest club/house music tracks at par with music played in bars.

From Campus Radio to Barangay LS

On February 14, 2007, listeners bade goodbye to Campus Radio 97.1 WLS-FM as RGMA, through its head Mike Enriquez, launched 97.1 Barangay LS Forever! Its format is comparable to that of 90.7 Love Radio, 101.9 For Life! (now Tambayan 101.9), Yes FM 101.1, I-FM 93.9, 102.7 Star FM and Energy FM 91.5 with on-air personalities speaking only in Tagalog (especially the timechecks), and playing bubblegum pop, OPM and other mass-based music forms and music popularized by GMA's stable of recording artists, a 100% turnaround from the former Campus Radio format that played Top 40/adult contemporary hit music, English-only on-air jocks, and its listener base composed mostly of college students and young urban professionals.
Barangay LS Forever! Logo

Despite Campus Radio's dominant ratings performance in the pop category, GMA's FM radio sales unit failed to sell the format. With consistently low sales figures, this paved the way for Mike Enriquez to successfully persuade the network's upper management to agree to shift WLS to a seemingly more profitable "masa" format. Unfortunately, industry reception is lukewarm and Barangay LS has yet to regain the revenue losses incurred by the shift of advertisers to competing FM stations.

However, this was not the first time that the station was repositioned for the masa audience. During its Campus Radio days, WLS-FM first went for its current target audience base from 1995-1999. The current slogan, "Forever!", was the very same tagline used during that period.

As mandated by Enriquez, aside from a major change in the on-air language and the music, jokes also became a staple on Barangay LS, with the DJs delivering scripted jokes on the air in between songs. Soon after the reformat, the station opened their text and phone lines to joke contributions from listeners (although it would still be the DJs themselves who deliver them on the air).

The station also began working much more closely with its mother network primarily by providing live coverage for its special events. Among the GMA events covered by Barangay LS include the network's "Sumamer Ka Na!" special at the Marikina Sports Complex in March 2007 (which included a live telecast of "SOP" and "S Files", and the "StarStruck" 2007 Final Judgment), the "Kapusolympics" 57th anniversary, and mall tours featuring the network's recording artists or promoting GMA's upcoming TV programs.

Just before the 2007 general elections, Barangay LS, along with sister station DZBB and the RGMA network nationwide, did a radio simulcast of "Isang Tanong", a televised senatorial candidates' forum produced by GMA News and Public Affairs.

Since June 24, 2007, GMA's top-rating Sunday noontime variety show "SOP" has also been simulcast over Barangay LS. The radio broadcast is entitled "Barangay LSOP".

Some other current features of the reformatted station include "Barangay Blockbusters" (premieres/block screenings of the latest local and foreign movies), "Eskwela Kwela Tour" (mini-concerts held in different schools all over Metro Manila featuring popular bands and artists—a revival of the campus tours under the old Campus Radio format) and "Fanatxt All-Stars" (a 30-minute talk show every Monday and Wednesday mornings, wherein a selected listener/Fanatxt subscriber has a chance to interact with the featured GMA star).

In June 2007, 97.1 Barangay LS was premiered on MYX with the 97.1 Barangay LS DJs Churvilyn and Atong Bomb, with MYX VJ Nikki.

Another Reformat
Barangay LS Ayos! Logo
Barangay LS Ayos Gyud! Logo

Last January 16, 2008 at around 6 pm, the station launched its new tagline, Ayos!, which is also the tagline for RGMA's provincial Campus Radio stations. It still uses its slogan Forever! and sometimes they say Barangay LS 97.1 Forever Ayos!. The tag was also used by video channel MTV Philippines. The reformat adds Mike Enriquez's formula for toilet and sexually explicit humor with more mass-based music mixed with high-end hits and even from talents of GMA Records' rival recording companies like ABS-CBN's Star Records.

That same day, almost all of the station's current jocks who were also from the former Campus Radio format, and after years of loyal service to the GMA Network, were summarily dismissed by Mike Enriquez and replaced unceremoniously by jocks from RGMA provincial radio stations as well as jocks from other masa stations. Choosing to ignore the veteran staff's improving ratings, Enriquez deemed them unfit to take the format to number one overall in the masa ratings game. Unknown to Barangay LS jocks, Enriquez had been secretly preparing new staff and management for WLS. Abruptly and without warning, he announced that the former staff would no longer go on air and immediately installed his new crew. With a rebranded station, Enriquez again audaciously promised to take Barangay LS to number one overall by mid 2008. An audacious promise that remains to be kept. With GMA Network's flagship FM station's current direction and hopes for success, Enriquez aims to use the new Barangay LS to increase revenue and redeem the troubled RGMA Radio Network which he heads.[2]

In April 2008, a theme song was made for Barangay LS and a commercial of Barangay LS was featured on TV, in 2009, Barangay LS added a Visayan word in the slogan "Ayos!" to engage people in Visayas to listen to them. Now, their new slogan is "Ayos Gyud!" means "Ayos Talaga!("It's really OK!)".

On January 17, 2011, facing competition with the latest masa stations, the new tagline "Tugstugan Na!" was launched and the station adapted the "crazy fun" sound brand in the market. Mike Enriquez was replaced by Glenn F. Allona as program director/station manager, aiming Barangay LS to bring back the focus on the staple of FM Programming which is music.

On February 20, 2011, a new TV ad featuring the DJs, along with Mike "Pekto" Nacua, Sam Pinto, Gwen Zamora, and Jake Vargas was launched on Party Pilipinas.