DWWX-TV, Channel 2, was the
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the f ...
VHF
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
station of
Philippine television network ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Philippine commercial broadcast network that serves as the flagship property of ABS-CBN Corporation, a company under L ...
. The station was owned and operated by
ABS-CBN Corporation with its studio and transmitter located at the
ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center, Sgt. Esguerra Ave., corner Mo. Ignacia Ave., Diliman,
Quezon City
Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,960,048 people. It was foun ...
. It was the first and oldest television station in the Philippines. The station served as the originating channel of the network's national television programming, which broadcast to all its regional stations.
As of May 5, 2020, the station's broadcasting activities, together with that of its sister television and radio stations, were suspended following the cease-and-desist order issued by the
National Telecommunications Commission due to the
expiration of ABS-CBN's legislative license to operate.
History
Beginnings (1953–1972)
DWWX-TV traces its history to the first Philippine television station DZAQ-TV, owned by Bolinao Electronics Corporation. In 1949,
James Lindenberg, owner of BEC, became the first applicant for a congressional license to establish a television station in the Philippines. His application was granted on June 14, 1950. Because of the strict import controls and the lack of raw materials needed to open a TV station during those days, Lindenberg branched to radio broadcasting instead.
Judge
Antonio Quirino, brother of then
President Elpidio Quirino, also tried to apply for a license but was denied. He later acquired shares of stock from BEC, gained controlling interest and renamed the company from BEC to Alto Broadcasting System (ABS).
DZAQ-TV Channel 3 began commercial television operations on October 23, 1953, the first fully licensed commercial television station in the Philippines. The first program that aired was a garden party at the Quirino residence in Sitio Alto, San Juan. After the premiere telecast, the station followed a four-hour-a-day schedule, from six to ten in the evening.
The first program broadcast at 6:00
PST during the
sign-on/
opening ceremony with the playing of the
national anthem
A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europe ...
of the Philippines "
Lupang Hinirang", followed by an announcement of that day's programs and the commencement of ABS television programming.
On June 16, 1955, Republic Act No. 1343 signed by
President Ramon Magsaysay granted ''
Manila Chronicle'' owners
Eugenio Lopez, Sr. and former
Vice President Fernando Lopez, a radio-TV franchise from the
Congress and immediately established Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN) on September 24, 1956, which initially focused only on radio broadcasting. On February 24, 1957, Lopez called Judge Quirino to his house for breakfast and ABS was bought under a contract written on a table napkin. The corporate name was reverted to Bolinao Electronics Corporation immediately after the purchase by the Lopezes.
With the establishment by CBN of DZXL-TV Channel 9 on April 19 (or July), 1958, the Lopez brothers controlled both television channels in the archipelago, and plans were underway to build a new headquarters for the network in Roxas Boulevard in Pasay, which was officially opened at the same year, and later became the official studios for channels 3 and 9. The monopoly in television was broken in 1960 when
DZTV-TV 13 was established by the Inter-Island Broadcasting Corporation (now
Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation) (IBC), then owned by Dick Baldwin. By 1961, with the official launch of its
first ever regional station in Cebu, the ABS-CBN brand was officially used for the first time on the station in newspaper ads promoting the first ever locally produced television dramas, ''
Hiwaga sa Bahay na Bato'' and ''Mga Bayani sa Kalawakan''.
In 1963, DZAQ-TV Channel 3 began test broadcast in
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...
. In 1966, ABS-CBN became the first TV station to broadcast selected shows in color.
On February 1, 1967, the company was renamed ABS–CBN Broadcasting Corporation. This company became the formal merger of the two stations DZAQ-TV Channel 3 and DZXL-TV Channel 9.
On December 18, 1968, ABS-CBN inaugurated its
ABS-CBN Broadcast Center complex in Bohol Avenue, Quezon City. The complex was then the most advanced broadcasting facility of its kind during its time in Asia after
NHK in Japan.
In March 1969, DZXL-TV transferred from channel 9 to channel 4. On October 15, 1969, Kanlaon Broadcasting System (now
Radio Philippines Network) took over the channel 9 frequency with
DZKB-TV (KBS-9) as its call sign. On November 14, 1969, DZAQ-TV transferred from channel 3 to channel 2, the current and permanent positioning frequency of the station.
BBC (1973–1986)
When then
President Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martia ...
declared
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
with
Proclamation No. 1081 on September 23, 1972, ABS-CBN was forced to shut down. Its stations were seized from the Lopezes - DZAQ-TV Channel 2 was turned over to
Roberto Benedicto and became DWWX-TV Channel 2 (BBC-2) under
Banahaw Broadcasting Corporation in 1973; DZXL-TV Channel 4 was turned over to the
National Media Production Center and became
GTV-4 in 1974.
Its newly built ABS-CBN Broadcast Center was renamed Broadcast Plaza in 1974 and became the home of BBC-2, KBS-9 and GTV-4. In 1978, BBC-2 and KBS-9 would relocate Benedicto's newly built
Broadcast City
Broadcast City was the headquarters and broadcast complex of the television and radio networks owned by Roberto Benedicto, namely - Banahaw Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Radio Philippines Network (RPN) and Intercontinental Broadcasting Corpora ...
complex, along with
IBC-13 (
Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation) (originally from
San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Juan Province, Argentina
* San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province
* San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province
* San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...
) which was also controlled by Benedicto. GTV-4 would remain in Broadcast Plaza and became MBS-4 (Maharlika Broadcasting System) in 1980.
As the
People Power Revolution broke out and the Marcos's grip on power crumbled, the reformists in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (who were also supporters of Corazon Aquino) saw that TV would be a vital asset for victory. Thus, at 10 a.m. on February 24, 1986, they attacked and took Broadcast Plaza. The name of MBS-4 was changed to its interim name The New TV-4 (until it was officially rebranded as the People's Television Network (PTV) in April 1986) that afternoon, with the broadcasts spearheaded by former ABS-CBN talents and newsreaders.
Revival of ABS-CBN (1986–2020)
After Marcos was deposed during the People Power Revolution, the Benedicto networks BBC, RPN and IBC were sequestered by the newly formed
Presidential Commission on Good Government. DWWX-TV Channel 2 and a portion of the Broadcast Center were returned to the Lopezes but DWGT-TV Channel 4 remained with the government.
On September 14, 1986, ABS-CBN went back on the air, broadcasting (after almost two months of test broadcast) from what used to be their main garage at Broadcast Center in the pre-Martial Law days.
President Corazon Aquino together with the staff managed to re-open its facilities after the revolution. Back then they had to share space in the building that was rightfully theirs, which was then occupied for the most part by the government TV station Channel 4. Cash was low and resources stretched to the limit, with offices being made to double as dressing rooms and basics such as chairs, tables and telephones in short supply during the months ABS-CBN stayed at the
Benpres Building
The Benpres Building (Tagalog: ''Gusaling Benpres''), originally known as the Chronicle Building, was a six-story Filipino modernist heritage building built in 1969 and inaugurated in 1971, located in Ortigas Center, Pasig.
The building was des ...
in Pasig. By late 1986, the network placed dead last among the five stations and suffering heavy losses.
Eugenio "Geny" Lopez Jr. by early 1987 brought in one of its former managers,
Freddie Garcia
Freddie Garcia (born 7 July 1952) is a Mexican former footballer who played as a forward. He spent seven seasons in the North American Soccer League and two in the Major Indoor Soccer League.
Born in Mexico, Garcia grew up in the United State ...
, then working for
GMA Network, and tasked him to revive the then-ailing network.
For its initial station ID, the numeral 2 is combined with the ABS-CBN logo. The features of the logo was a wing-shaped blue crest with a white curve at the top and a white line as a tail, the
Broadway typeface "2" logo was used from 1986 to 1987. It had a slogan name ''Watch Us Do It Again!'' as the station ID aired since the network's revival together with ''Sharing A New Life With You!'' as another slogan name.
Six months later on March 1, 1987, Channel 2 was relaunched with the live musical special, ''The Star Network: Ang Pagbabalik Ng Bituin'' (''The Return of the Star'') which noted for the famous numerical
white
White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...
tri-
ribbon channel 2 logo laced with a white rhomboidal
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...
(from 1988 to 1992 the ribbons were tri-colored in red, green and blue) as a centerpiece of the network's revival to return its glory days when the station ID was first aired during the relaunch. By 1988, ABS-CBN was topping the number one ratings, a position it had never relinquished for 16 years.
Channel 4 would later move out of the area to a new broadcasting complex (Government Information and Media Center Building) and the new 500 ft (150 m) transmitter tower situated in Visayas Avenue, Quezon City as ABS-CBN regains full control of the facility on January 22, 1992. On December 11, 1988, it launched nationwide domestic satellite programming with its broadcast of Australian television
miniseries titled ''
A Dangerous Life'' and by 1994, it expanded its operations worldwide.
On June 29, 1999, Eugenio Lopez Jr. died of cancer in
Hillsborough, California. Channel 2 launched its 120-kilowatt
Millennium Transmitter, resulting in improved signal quality throughout Mega Manila.
In 2000, ABS-CBN launch the new station ID, "Out of the Box into the new Millennium", featuring the "ABS-CBN Millennium Overture", composed by
Ryan Cayabyab. The station ID featured the past ABS-CBN logos, zooming into the last look of the old logo; transforming into the new logo, with the wordmark in a new font, replacing black square box frame into grey square/crystal plane.
In 2005, ABS-CBN upgraded its transmission capacity into a very high capacity of 346.2 kilowatts (60 kW TPO), resulting in an even clearer signal in Metro Manila.
On February 11, 2015, ABS-CBN launched its digital broadcast on
ISDB-T with the launching of
ABS-CBN TV Plus.
From May 9, 2016 (the day of the
2016 Philippine general election), ABS-CBN started broadcasting for 24 hours with
O Shopping
O Shopping was a Philippine pay television channel owned by ACJ O Shopping Corporation, a joint-venture between Philippine entertainment and media conglomerate ABS-CBN and South Korean home shopping company CJ ENM O Shopping Division. The chan ...
as its overnight programming. The network
signed-off every Tuesday from 2:00 am to 4:00 am for its regular transmitter maintenance and the annual
Paschal Triduum of
Holy Week from 12:00 midnight to 6:00 am for its annual Holy Week maintenance. However, as
O Shopping
O Shopping was a Philippine pay television channel owned by ACJ O Shopping Corporation, a joint-venture between Philippine entertainment and media conglomerate ABS-CBN and South Korean home shopping company CJ ENM O Shopping Division. The chan ...
suspended its broadcast on ABS-CBN on April 21, 2020, due to the implementation of the
enhanced community quarantine
COVID-19 community quarantines in the Philippines were series of stay-at-home orders and ''cordon sanitaire'' measures that have been implemented by the government of the Philippines through its Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emer ...
amid the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
, the network ceased its round-the-clock operations and reduced back to regular broadcast hours.
Cease and desist order and forced shutdown (2020–present)
On May 5, 2020, following the expiration of the network's franchise and the issuance of a cease-and-desist order by the
National Telecommunications Commission, the station signed off after the airing of news program ''
TV Patrol''.
NTC gave ABS-CBN ten days to explain why its frequencies should not be recalled. There has been some criticism of the decision as politically motivated. On May 5, 2020, Tuesday, the station officially closed on 7:52 pm,
local time. On May 7, ABS-CBN, through its lawyers, filed a petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) with the Supreme Court of the Philippines to stop the implementation of the NTC's cease-and-desist order and thus allow DWWX-TV, as well as other ABS-CBN TV and radio stations across the country to return to the airwaves whilst legislative proceedings related to ABS-CBN's franchise renewal, are still ongoing. On May 19, 2020, the Supreme Court asked the NTC and the House of Representatives to comment on ABS-CBN's request for a TRO and is to be tackled on July 13, 2020.
On May 13, 2020, a bill to grant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise (which will allow DWWX-TV and other ABS-CBN TV and radio stations to return to the airwaves whilst legislative proceedings concerning its application for a longer-term franchise are still ongoing) until October 31, 2020, was approved at the House of Representatives on second reading. The approval on second reading was withdrawn on May 18, 2020, after some members wanted to avoid questions over the constitutionality of holding the first and second readings on the same day but during interpellations, some members wanted to proceed directly to franchise hearings as well. On May 19, 2020, the House of Representatives decided to forego the hearings on a bill seeking to grant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise until October 30. Instead, House Speaker
Alan Peter Cayetano said they will go straight to hearings on granting the media giant a fresh 25-year franchise, which he said may take place even during the annual Congressional recess in preparation for the new session.
On July 10, 2020, the House finally ended the hearings of the network's new fresh 25-year franchise application, and it voted 70-11 votes to deny the application, putting the network in danger of losing up to per day of shutdown.
On September 10, 2020, the National Telecommunications Commission issued an order recalling all frequencies of the network as it no longer obtains a valid Congressional franchise to continue operating.
The network returned on free television the following month when ABS-CBN partnered with
ZOE Broadcasting Network through its blocktime agreement to air
A2Z on ZOE's
VHF channel 11.
Frequency takeover by AMBS
On January 5, 2022,
Advanced Media Broadcasting System, backed by the Villar Group through
Planet Cable
Streamtech Systems Technologies, Inc. is a Philippine telecommunications company. Founded by Manuel Paolo A. Villar (son of real estate magnate and politician Manuel Villar Jr.), it offers communication services such as fiber to the home, inte ...
, was awarded a provisional authority license for the Channel 2 analog frequency and its digital counterpart Channel 16 frequency by the National Telecommunications Commission for 18 months. The station made its soft launch on September 13, 2022 as
All TV.
Digital television
Digital channels
UHF Channel 43 (647.143 MHz)
UHF Channel 16 (485.143 MHz)
''Notes:''
See also
*
List of ABS-CBN Corporation channels and stations
The following is a list of television stations that are either affiliated or owned-and-operated by ABS-CBN.
It ceased its operations on August 28, 2020 after almost 32 years following the denial of its legislative franchise on July 10.
Free ...
*
ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Philippine commercial broadcast network that serves as the flagship property of ABS-CBN Corporation, a company under L ...
*
All TV
*
DZMM Radyo Patrol 630
*
MOR 101.9
*
S+A
S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''.
History ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dwwx-Tv
Television stations in Metro Manila
Television channels and stations established in 1953
Digital television stations in the Philippines
Assets owned by ABS-CBN Corporation
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2020
Defunct television stations in the Philippines