 Television seems to have surpassed radio in terms of popularity, and today the digital media has expanded the ways in which we experience television. What may have been forgotten is that radio, having preceded TV, has been the source of much television content. I wished then to begin this talk by claiming that television program genres and formats were derived from radio, including reality television. Therefore, understanding how these radio formats became popular texts may offer an insight into TV as popular culture, even as radio has moved on to a niche-oriented type of programming. TV genres have also evolved and exploited the possibilities provided by the visuality of the medium, especially with the developments in information technologies. But an investigation can show that the birthplace of television genres is radio. Radio was introduced to the Philippines by Americans during the American colonial period, beginning in 1922. It is therefore significant to imagine the development of radio formats in the context of our American colonial experience. My book, Appropriation of Colonial Broadcasting, A History of Early Radio in the Philippines, 1922 to 1946, narrates the details of these beginnings. In this book, I claim that radio broadcasting was a critical tool in the construction of a colonial culture of the American variety in the Philippines, perhaps as critical as the public school and the American-style bureaucracy, and far more successful in shaping the Filipino consciousness than the subjugation of Filipinos through violent means. On the other hand, I also claim that Filipinos appropriated radio for the expression of Filipino sentiments, some of which were resistant to the colonial intent. The intention to ideologically reshape Filipino consciousness was apparent in the cultural practices brought by the Americans to the Philippines, including radio. Radio programming in the 1920s and the 1930s, for instance, was undoubtedly an effective means of importing America into the Philippines. It was in the 1920s when many Filipinos began to shed off what one writer called their ultra-nationalistic feelings. Radio and American music sped up the process, he says, putting many Filipinos completely under the spell of the Americans. What the Americans could not do with their guns, they did with their music. Radio was a critical apparatus for the imposition of the colonial ideology on Filipinos. Its significance may be put in the same category as the public school and the political system modeled after American structures whose institutionalization in the Philippines molded the consciousness of many Filipinos and made quite a few, at least then, receptive to a notion of themselves as brown Americans. One of Radio's jobs was to fortify this process of Americanization, a task which some Americans consciously and deliberately performed. For instance, when KZRH first went on the air in 1939, it announced itself as the station that will, quote, will give the voice of the Philippines a genuine American accent, unquote. Its station manager, Bert Seilen, stated that, quote, the continuous use of proper English over KZRH will be of great assistance to the educational system in the islands as it will enable students of English to check their own knowledge in diction and pronunciation, unquote. Indeed, the agenda was to craft the voice of the Philippines, the nickname of KZRH, to be, in effect, the voice of America. This voice of America was received in homes with radios in the form of programming that was mostly entertainment whose style and sound were patterned after American programming of the time. Americans managed radio firms and were the first announcers and musicians, as well as the engineers and technicians, thus setting the format, tone, and technical quality of programming. The English language was spread with the American sense of humor. The programs were mostly entertainment, consisting of programs of purely music, programs that combine music and literary readings, such as poetry, prose, and drama, and programs that mix music and comedy skits or what we call variety shows, which in turn were inspired by the Bodabil, which I shall mention again later. There was a small amount of news in the programming and occasional live news coverage of events like the opening of the sessions of the National Assembly, advertising spots aired between program segments, much like today. The radio broadcasting statistics reported by the Bureau of Posts to the International Bureau of the Telegraph Union on August 4, 1931, for the fiscal year January 1 to December 31, 1930, lists the types of programs aired that year when there were only two stations, KZRM and KZIB. The table shows that music programs comprised 70% of KZRM's airtime, music and singing and dance music, and 50% of that of KZIB. While their descriptions are insufficient to create a clearer idea of what these programs contained, the brief labels indicate the production and airing of news and the specific category of sports news, including radio reporting of sports, that's on line number 11, which may have referred to actually live annotations of sports events. There were programs that appealed to children, programs that aimed to educate and instruct, there were religious programs, there were lectures and various kinds of talk, and literary recitations and dramatic programs. The program category called special services on line number nine, interestingly, include the type of announcements that are still included in today's programming, which are at present generally labeled public service announcements, such as the giving of correct time, which today we call time checks, meteorological bulletins, which today we call weather reports, the search for missing persons, information and condition of roads, today we call them road and traffic reports, and exchange quotations, which today we call foreign exchange rates. The other special announcements notice us to mariners, collaboration for broadcasting distress signals or SOS, and police information, which are no longer announced on broadcast radio today, were heard on radio in the 1920s and the 1930s due to the less distinct functions of broadcasting and point to point communication for purposes of keeping peace and order and for safeguarding the safety of sea voyages. It is also interesting to note that only 5% of airtime was used for advertising. The figure may have referred to advertising spots only. Since the year was 1930, the prevalent practice was linking the sponsor's name to the program title, which was a form of advertising, but probably not counted in terms of advertising minutes. It is likewise possible that the programs referred to in the table included foreign programs delivered via shortwave, particularly the dramatic programs. Locally produced dramas it should be remembered, not including the comedy skits in the variety shows, would have their beginnings only after the Second World War. Lists of KZRM programming on three days in 1930 that appear in extant copies of a newspaper in Cebu give us another idea of the programming of the period. These programs were relayed via KZRC to Cebu audiences. These lists include brief descriptions of the programs as they were printed. Take note that the descriptions in the lists do not sound like program titles, whether such lists published in newspapers omit titles and include only descriptions is not known. At least one of the descriptions is also vague informational period. This may have referred to news and other types of talk programs like lectures. The lists also indicate that programming was limited to only around five hours daily in 1930, but this may have been true only for areas outside of Manila where electricity was not available around the clock. Transistor radios operated on cheap batteries would not be around for another two decades, so the listening public outside of capital could only listen in the evenings when electricity was supplied. A 1941 program schedule shows that in Manila at least stations signed on as early as 5.30 in the morning and signed off as late as midnight with KZIB and KZRM signing off and on between programming during the day. An extant copy of the Saturday, December 6, 1941 issue of the Tribune shows the range of programming on the eve of the war, including that of KZND, a station the government began operating just before the war. The list also indicates that the stations were airing both on longwave and shortwave except for KZND that was airing only on shortwave. By this time, there were four commercial stations plus KZND. Let's look at a reproduction of the program schedule. The schedule appears to carry program descriptions or formats rather than the exact titles of the programs, similar to the one for the programs in Cebu. Thus, it may be presumed that the actual program titles used on the air, including the ones produced by block timers or independent program producers who bought airtime, which are not spelled out in this schedule, carried the brand names of commercial sponsors, among which were Chevrolet Jamboree, which was a mix of quiz, contest and music, Crystal Arcade, a music program, White Horse, another music program, El Conde de Guell, Sunkist News and Newsreel, which were newscasts. The Listerine Amateur Hour, an amateur singing contest on KZRM, Colinas Hour, a program of live singing by Priscilla, the Colinas Girl, also on KZRM, a typing efficiency contest on Royal Typewriters, annotated by an announcer, sponsored by the Office Appliance Company Limited on KZIB, Saturday Night Clim Party, a music program featuring Coco Trinidad on KZRM, and Lux Toilet Soap Theatre of the Air, featuring dramatizations of excerpts from movies. It is also possible that some programs in the schedule also carried advertising sold by the stations to advertising, either through advertising agents or directly, but did not carry product names in titles as the programs were not sponsored in full. Examples of this were Air Giggles, an amateur singing contest, Spelling Bee, a quiz program, Newsreel of the Air, a dramatic presentation of the news, and the Sunrise Club, another music program that featured Coco Trinidad, and also the glossy Merry Makers. American popular music gained cultural currency as it became standard fare on radio. Musical program formats included recorded music from the United States and Europe, performances of such highly regarded musical talent as the Manila Symphony Orchestra, and Europe-trained opera singers, the live performance of Filipino musicians of American songs and music, amateur singing contests, and musical variety programs that reinterpreted the Vodaville. Vodaville, as we know, is a stage variety show composed of music, dance, and comics kids. The Vodaville, or Bodabille, as it was called in Manila in the early 20th century, was driven to oblivion as movies and radio and later television increased in popularity. Now transcriptions or recordings of popular U.S. radio programs were also sent to the Philippines and aired. While some of the program descriptions were ambiguous, the program scheduled for December 6, 1941 indicates the type of music that were on the air during the period. In addition to popular American music, there were Spanish and Latin music, marches, concert music, and music from other countries like France, as well as Chinese and Filipino music. They were all on the air. The appreciation of American music was perhaps aided by the public system of education. At the elementary level, children learned to sing foreign, probably American, folk songs. In high schools, students were taught to appreciate classical Western music. There were music schools and conservatories. The radio, the phonograph and the movies reinforced and supplemented what the schools taught. American jazz and movie music were especially popular among the young. Filipino artists who excelled at performing popular American music developed a huge following. Many of them were jazz artists like Priscilla. Jazz came to the Philippines first through the phonographs and records brought by Americans after the First World War. Marching bands of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army played jazz in performances that were held in public venues like plazas. The introduction of broadcasting provided another medium that increased the popularity of jazz. The distinguishing characteristic of jazz music is its improvisation, which allowed for creativity as musicians may introduce changes to the music at every performance. This creative flexibility suited Filipino musicians and may have played a significant part in the development of what is today called Pinoy Jazz. Such adaptability of Filipino musicians also resulted in the assimilation of other elements of Western music in local compositions. Local composers who scored movies adopted the American tone and their compositions were popularized not only through the movies but perhaps more so by broadcasting. Around the first of these composer arrangers were Miguel Velarde Jr., Aristón Avelino, Restituto Umali and Tito Arevalo. Radio humor spiced up the music in musical variety shows. Producers who were often also the writers learned to write comedy pattern that broke up songs and to tell jokes between musical numbers. The radio stations allowed fans to come into the studio to provide live laughter and applause for certain programs. The format was copied from similar radio shows in the United States where comedy partners made fun of and heckled each other. The comic pair was the standard in the U.S. and the local radio talent matched them. American radio had Amos and Andy, Abbott and Costello, and George Burns and Gracie Allen. While the Philippines had Hermann San Jose and Leonora Reyes, the husband and wife team of Alejandro Villegas and Adela Fernando, who would later adopt the names Andoy Balun Balunan and Delia Tayan and a few others. News on the other hand did not enjoy as much airtime as music and other entertainment programs, but station owners and operators considered it an important part of programming. News programs were both produced locally as well as relayed by a shortwave from American radio stations. As the political, economic and other cultural issues in the United States were a significant concern in the Philippines, news consisted of both local and American stories with occasional stories about events in Europe. The interview as part of what programming began to be heard on radio only in the late 1930s, although they were scripted and rehearsed rather than spontaneous. While news announcers had been around almost since the beginning in the 1920s, the news reporter made his or her appearance only in the late 1930s as the war drew near the amount of airtime devoted to news increased. Apart from newscasts, sports reporting and the live coverage of certain news events, the stations also covered live such productions as the popular Sarsuela Wallang Suga when it was staged at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila on June 3, 1939. It's not clear how radio commentaries were given in the 1930s. Such commentaries may have been similar to the radio editorials from the United States and Europe heard in the Philippines through shortwave. The radio lecture was also probably modeled after lectures in American and European radio that often prescribed what were regarded as correct and proper social behaviors or etiquette, which may be construed as another demonstration of the use of radio to re-engineer Filipino consciousness. The institutionalization of advertising as the principal support of radio programs in the 1930s led to a standard of professionalism in program production. Advertisers expected polished programs that they believed helped develop a good name and credibility for their products. They demanded thoughtfully written scripts and required hours of rehearsals before a program went on the air. A 15-minute program was typically rehearsed for three hours. Since all programs were aired live, a mistake could not be corrected once it had gone on the air. So the discipline imposed on rehearsals was very strict and nothing was left to chance. Even short spills introducing recorded music were carefully scripted and rehearsed to perfection. Musical numbers were selected carefully, with each announcer required to be thoroughly familiar with the station record library. Singers and other performers first passed a rigid auditioning process, even for amateur singing contests. Radio had a distinctly American flavor during its first several years. The many Filipinos who were hired as singers and musicians and later as announcers in newscasters did what by most accounts was an amazing job of imitating American radio, to which they were exposed through shortwave broadcasting as well as through the Americans who were the first producers of programs on the local stations. To complement recorded music from the United States, they learned to sing the songs and play the music of the Americans. They spoke like the American announcers and newscasters. They formatted their programs like that of American radio programs and generally followed the technical standards and organizational structure of American radio. However, after just a few years of sounding like a clone of American radio, expressions of the local cultures inserted themselves into the programming. News in Tagalog, as well as other Filipino languages, were produced. The December 6, 1941 program schedule indicates this in some of the program titles, Filipino program and Tagalog program on KZIB, News in Tagalog, Tagalog Gospel Hour, Tagalog Music, and Songs of the Islands on KZRF, and The Mystery Singer, featuring American Filipino Cecil Lloyd, and Manila Hotel Orchestra on KZRH. It is likely that the amount of local material on radio was more than what said programs suggest, as block timers who may have bought at least some of the time marked as sponsored programs tended to use the Tagalog language as well as a mix of local and foreign music. Moreover, as Filipino songs began to be heard alongside American popular music and opera and classical numbers in Italian, French and German, music from other cultures were also on the air. Declamations, speeches, newscasts, and the weather and market reports were heard not only in English and Tagalog, but also in Chinese, Spanish, and Thai. So December 6, 1941 program schedule includes the program descriptions Spanish and South American airs, Chinese melodies, the Chinese musical, and tango rumba conga time on KZIB, Spanish news which aired twice a day, news in Chinese also twice a day, and Music of France on KZRM, Spanish and Latin American airs, and another program called Latin American airs on KZRF, news in Spanish, and news in Thai on KZRH. On KZND, there were programs in Visayan, Tagalog, Pangasinan, and Ilocano as well as in Spanish while Cebuano programs produced locally in Cebu where on KZRC. The American community generally regarded radio as an effective medium for the Americanization of the Philippines, which was an expressed colonial goal. However, American station managers sensed an appetite for Filipino elements in the programming when advertising for Tagalog programs began to increase. So the goal of Americanization came into tension with the demands of making a profit. As businessmen, station owners, and managers understood that satisfying the preferences of listeners created the critical mass of audiences that advertisers sought, which by the early 1930s had become the most important source of income of radio stations. Listeners mailed their requests for musical numbers not only in Tagalog but also in other Philippine languages, and it became the job of the broadcasting manager to find individuals who could perform the requested numbers. Local songs began to be heard on the air as early as 1929. The director of the National Library then, Theodoro M. Kalau, wrote that the frequent airplay of local songs increased their popularity to a point where the music sheets of kundiman outsold the music sheets of jazz. Kalau praised radio for what it had done to revive the popularity of Philippine airs and the consequent flowering of local music such as the kundiman and Filipino folk songs. By this time, the American recording companies Victor and Columbia had been recording the local songs for distribution to the growing Filipino community in the United States hired as plantation workers. Local music artists were brought to the U.S. to record the songs. They also performed as guests in American radio where the audience reaction was reportedly warm. To maximize their potential for profit, Victor and Columbia sent copies of the records for distribution in the Philippines. Songs were also recorded in the Philippines as early as 1913. Director William H. Anderson, who was the owner of the department store Erlinger and Galinger, recorded local opera and Sarsuela stars like Maria Carpena and Victorino Carrion in a makeshift studio on the second floor of the Manila Hotel. Anderson was the local representative of the American firms Victor Talking Machine Company and the Victor Records. The local elite, some of whom had had phonographs as early as the 1880s, bought his locally pressed records. What is significant is that the phonograph and recording businesses were an indispensable source of broadcast material at the time. Thus, the local songs went on the air either through live singing or through the records pressed by the U.S. recording companies Victor and Columbia. The tremendous reception by Filipino listeners encouraged more recordings of Filipino music artists. They began to record Filipino as well as English songs and mixtures of Filipino and English in some songs whether originally composed in English or Filipino. For example, Katie Delacruz recorded the bouncy Tagalog folk song Magtanim Id Biro in a mix of Tagalog and English lyrics. Let's listen to Katie. In some more he was at a farm. Can not, can not read for little bit. And in one, this is no fun. In some more he was at a farm. Can not, can not read for little bit. Magtanim Id Biro. Magtanim Id Biro. In a man, Magtanim Id Biro. By one, he was a man. Magtanim Id Biro. By one, he was a man. By one, he was a man. By one, he was a man. By one, he was a man. By one, he was a man. By one, he was a man. By one, he was a man. Recording initially for Filipinos in the United States, the track carried the English title, Planting Rice. It was also Katie Delacruz's first known recording. Another example is heard in the version of the American popular song, Singing in the Rain, recorded in both English and Filipino with comic repartee between Hermans and Jose and Leonora Reyes for Columbia. The recording companies also appealed to the local Spanish community by recording some songs in Spanish as well as mixing English and Spanish words in some songs that were originally in English. An example of the former was Louis Garcia's Preguntas a las Estrellas, while an example of the latter was Bimbo Danau's It's Magic, which he recorded for Victor. There were also recordings by Filipino artists of American popular music, such as Bimbo Danau's Boulevard of Broken Dreams for Victor, as well as local compositions in English like Rosalinda, recorded by Filipino American C.C. Lloyd, who was also known as the mystery singer. As local compositions gained the following, local singing groups sang them more frequently on the air. Soon, entire programs were in Tagalog. On KZIB, five of the six programs sponsored by companies were in Tagalog, and only one was in English. By 1940, most of KZIB's entire programming was in Tagalog. In 1934, the program Balag Tasan on the Air, sponsored by Elizalde and Company, began airing on KZRM. It was the brainchild of Pedro Teodoro, who was the advertising manager of Elizalde. The Balag Tasan, as we know, is a contrived debate that was conducted within the rhetorical and literary forms of Tagalog prose and poetry. Teodoro was one of those who actively propagated the use of Tagalog as the base of the Filipino national language. The program featured prominent Filipino poet Florentino Collientes and other writers and supporters of Tagalog literature, such as Emilio Mar Antonio, Domingo Carrasig, and Epifania Alvarez. In one episode, the poetic choust answered the question, which affords greater pleasure, a married life, or a life of singleness? A magazine column in the literary song Movie Magazine reports that the Balag Tasan was appealing to a wide audience, particularly to those in the provinces. The idea for the program may have begun with the proclamation of Jose Corazon de Jesús as the king of Balag Tasan in 1933, some of whose poetry he recorded and aired on radio. By the late 1930s, all four commercial stations in Manila aired Tagalog programs, including KZRH, whose expressed objective was to teach correct English speech to Filipinos through radio. In 1938, an early model of the Tagalog soap opera KUM Advice program, Si Aling Juanang Mapag Impok, or the thrifty Madame Juana, hosted by Lina Flore, debuted. In the same year, the precursor of the situation comedy in Tagalog, Cuentong Kuchero, which was a satire on Filipino manners, politics, customs, and government, first was heard on the air. Its producer, Horacio de la Costa, who would later become a Jesuit priest, started with a variety show called Common Wheel Hour. His writers were Narciso Pimentel and Jesús Paredes. When the divorce bill was introduced in the National Assembly, de la Costa created Cuentong Kuchero to fight the bill. It is believed that he and his writers and dramatists satirized the bill so successfully that it did not prosper in the legislature. Cuentong Kuchero poked fun at the establishment, especially government officials, until the 1960s, interrupted only by the Second World War, among its memorable characters were Lolo Hugo, voiced by de la Costa himself in the program's early years, and then we also had Lucas Pacascas and Cruz Pasancrus. The program must have inspired producers in KZRC in Cebu, where commentaries on politics, graft, and other issues were also heard on the air. Filipinos gained entry into radio as singers and musicians, rather easily and almost from the beginning of local radio in the early 1920s, but as announcers, particularly as newscasters, it was another story. The training period for this area of broadcasting under the Americans took longer, but gradually more Filipinos broke into the announcing and newscasting jobs. In the mid-1930s, the younger Filipino announcers sounded sufficiently American to handle announcing and newscasting, among the first ones were Coco Trimidad, Ira Davis, Vero Perfecto, and Norman Reyes. Trimidad, like most other radio talents, began his long radio career as a singer. He was the first Filipino to be given an English newscasting assignment. Gradually, too, Filipinos began to take more important positions in the stations. The Americans continued to dominate the news programs, however, as the Filipinos dominated the entertainment programs in radio towards the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s, but Filipinos outclassed the Americans on occasion. In their production of weekly news summaries in 1941, for example, Trimidad and Lamberto Aveliana dramatized the news by impersonating the voices of important political personalities from around the world. Visiting Manila, Fritz Lang, who was an American radio news producer, came to the KZRM studio and listened to Trimidad and his group. He was wondering how they were able to get clear voice clips of world leaders like Chiang Kai-shek when voice clips for news were usually captured by hooking up to shortwave broadcasts from other countries, the quality of which was not nearly as good as that in Trimidad's program. The guest did not know, of course, that Filipinos were very good mimics. He sat with his mouth gaping when he realized what was going on. This scene was repeated with Bill Dunn, a representative of the US network CBS, who at a later time would land with General Douglas MacArthur in Leyte as the war ended. Dunn was so stunned by the dramatized news that he came to the studio several times to watch Trimidad and his group. The use of drama to tell the news was not new to the Americans. In 1931, CBS itself on behalf of Time Magazine began weekly reenactments of news events titled March of Time, probably the precursor of the dramatized news documentary. The combination of rhetoric, voice, sound effects and steering music was startlingly successful. American impersonators created vocal images to go with the pictures of newsmakers like President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was seen only on newspapers and magazines. By today's standards, the practice would have been labeled unethical, but at the time it was seen as a magnificent way to tell the news. The Americans were surprised not only at the fact that the Filipinos beat them at replicating the CBS experience, but also at the deafness with which Trimidad, Abeliana and Company convincingly impersonated news personalities. Filipinos working in radio stations during the American colonial period effectively and productively internalized the American system of broadcasting, together with the cultural expressions of music and speech that came with it. However, they also appropriated the medium for the expression of their own cultures through programs that use the Philippine languages and local music, which Filipino listeners encouraged by providing the audience that allowed the financial survival of these programs. Perhaps the most radical of such appropriations were the block time programs and the block timers, who were the first to use Tagalog as the language of broadcasting. They were the first to play local music on the air and inject a local sense of humor and even subversive material into the programming. Most block time programs were variety shows that combined short skits, comedy routines and singing. The format was derived from Vodaville. Among these programs were Kameh Theater of the Air, the long running glossy merry makers on KZIB and the San Miguel Brewery Hour on KZRF on Friday evenings from 7 o'clock to 8 o'clock, produced by Alejandro Villegas, who would later adopt the radio name Andoy Balun Balunan. Another variety show, The University of the Air, mixed the English and Tagalog languages with half of the program consisting of comics kits in Tagalog. The program, Purrico Troubadours, sponsored by the Philippine Manufacturing Company, featured Tagalog and Visayan music, performed by a string orchestra conducted by Remigio Matcastro. Some of the comic routines that were interspersed with music in block time programs were critical of the colonial condition and some expressions of the colonizer's culture. Extant recordings provide a few examples. Adela Fernando's song, Alila, or Slave, which she sings at the end of a comic repartee with Alejandro Villegas, is an allusion to the colonial condition of Filipinos. The singer, a slave, likens her oppression to that of her country and offers hope that she will be relieved of the cruelty she suffers. Oh, my God! Otherwise, sharp element of protest in the song we just heard and others like it was softened by the comic routines that accompanied the rendition of such songs. A few pieces, however, were much more radical and explicitly nationalistic, bewailing the colonial condition of the country in such condiment pieces as Hibik ng Pilipinas, or Lament of the Philippines, Ibong Sawi, Unfortunate Bird, and Kantahi ng Ulila, Song of the Orphan. In Hibik ng Pilipinas, singer Jose Moses Geld Santiago sings, Akoi isang binata sa dulo ng silangan, Na nagmamakaawa, Bigian ng kalayaan. Ngayon, Akoi mayluha, Mi hibik sa bayan. I am a young man from the Far East, begging that I be granted freedom, now I reap sobbing for the nation. On the other hand, the element of resistance in the song of Herman San Jose and Leonora Reyes, titled Halu Halu Blues, is more ambiguous. It mixes the original English lyrics of the popular American song, Singing in the Rain, and the Tagalog lyrics of a song that appropriated the measure and tempo of the first song. Not too clear, but one can hear the repartee between the performers. In their argument, Reyes asks if San Jose has not tired of English songs, then suggests that he sings Tagalog songs. San Jose argues that young listeners prefer jazz and modern music. Reyes retorts that there are listeners who like to hear their own language. In the end, they sing a duet. San Jose sings the English song while Reyes sings the Tagalog song, using the same tempo and measure as Singing in the Rain. This may be construed as a triumph of the English song over the local one, but another way to look at it is to view Reyes's use of the measure and tempo of the English song as an appropriation of a foreign resource to use as a vehicle for a local expression. This type of appropriation became the pattern of many local recordings after the Second World War where Tagalog lyrics were imposed on borrowed American tunes. Block time singers reinterpreted some local folk songs and radio, such as the racy version of Sit, Sit, Sit, recorded by the comedian Vicente Ocampo in Colombia. With its familiar, simple melody and its comic appeal, the rendition overturns the aristocratic propriety prescribed by the radio lectures given by those who spoke for the elite class. A similar tune is titled SSB or Smiling Sweet Baby, which today would be classified a novelty song with its lyrics that may be described as risqué and its simple, bouncy melody. Recorded by Herman San Jose for Colombia, the song appears to be an appropriation of a foreign tune with Tagalog lyrics. As pointed out earlier, block time programs tended to carry the advertising of local companies. Glossy merry makers promoted locally made medicine, cosmetics and chemical products from the laboratory of Farmacia San Fernando in Binondo, such as Dint Dental Liquid, the local pharmacist's answer to the American brands Listerine, Colinos and Colgate. Villegas advertised a wet market and a battery and light bulb store while Conde Ubaldo counted among his sponsors a grocery, a tailor, a Chinese noodle restaurant and an electrical service shop. Because the block timers carried the ads of several sponsors in every program, small local companies that could not otherwise afford to sponsor an entire 15 minute program, which was how big companies, mostly American sponsored programs, were able to get themselves on the air. Block timers had the flexibility of buying airtime from any or all stations without having to worry about the exclusivity of their artists who worked for them rather than for the stations. They also exercised autonomy in crafting the content of their programs, even if they followed formulas that had proven successful in drawing listeners. Block timers and their artists preferred the block time arrangement to joining the regular staffs of broadcast stations. The stations paid meager salaries while block timers earned many times more than the regular staff. Many of the American announcers wanted fame more than money so they did not mind the measly pay but the block timers, all of them Filipinos, wanted both. The system allowed the block timers to profit from it without the heavy capital investments which the setting up of a radio station required, thus permitting them to appropriate for their benefit the opportunity not only for material gain but also for the expression of their sentiments. At the beginning of the 1940s, broadcasting was exciting, glamorous, and merry. The audience size was expanding and the business was on its way to becoming an industry. Regarded primarily as a commercial activity, it enjoyed relative freedom from the control of government. In 1941, however, the political, economic, and cultural conditions in the Philippines would change so drastically as the Americans lost control of the country to Japanese military forces. Unlike the cultural strategy of the Americans, the Japanese policy was to execute, with force, a meticulously planned program of cultural re-engineering. Perhaps because of this, the Japanese left hardly a trace on Philippine radio after the war. American-style radio returned but also interacted with new audience expectations and the arrival of television.