The Millennium Transmitter is a tall mast owned by

ABS-CBN Corporation ABS-CBN Corporation is a Filipino media company based in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is the largest entertainment and media conglomerate in the Philippines. It is a subsidiary of Lopez Holdings Corporation which is owned by t ...

and operated by

Advanced Media Broadcasting System Advanced Media Broadcasting System (AMBS) is a broadcast media company in the Philippines. Its main offices and facilities are located at Unit 906A of the Paragon Plaza Building and at the 3rd Floor of Starmalls EDSA Shaw complex, both in Mand ...

(AMBS) located at the

ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center The ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center (also called ABS-CBN Broadcast Center; formerly known as Broadcast Plaza from 1974 to 1979 and current edifice formerly spelled officially as ABS-CBN Broadcasting Centre) in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines is th ...

, Mother Ignacia Street corner Sgt. Esguerra Avenue, Barangay South Triangle,

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...

. Since September 2022, the transmitter is being used by AMBS to serve as the platform for television transmission of

All TV All TV (stylized as ALLTV) is a Philippine free-to-air broadcast television network based in Mandaluyong, with its broadcast facilities and studios located at Starmall EDSA-Shaw in EDSA corner Shaw Boulevard; its transmitter is located at th ...

on analog Channel 2 and digital Channel 16 (frequencies formerly used by

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...

itself as its flagship station

DWWX-TV DWWX-TV, Channel 2, was the flagship VHF station of Philippine television network ABS-CBN. 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 ...

and transmits from this tower before it ceased broadcast operations in 2020). It was also used as main transmission site for ABS-CBN-owned

DWAC-TV DWAC-TV, Channel 23, was the flagship UHF station of Philippine all-sports television network ABS-CBN Sports and Action (S+A), a fully owned subsidiary of ABS-CBN Corporation. Its studios and transmitter are located at ABS-CBN Broadcasting C ...

Channel 23, the flagship station of

ABS-CBN Sports and Action ABS-CBN Sports and Action (stylized as ABS-CBN Sports+Action or simply S+A or S and A), was a free-to-air television network based in Quezon City. It was owned by ABS-CBN Corporation with some of its programs produced and licensed by ABS-CBN S ...

, before shutting down in 2020 and its frequency reassigned to

Aliw Broadcasting Corporation Aliw Broadcasting Corporation is one of the major commercial broadcasting companies in the Philippines, which operates a number of radio stations under the Home Radio & DWIZ brands, as well as its only digital television station, IZTV. Its cor ...

; and its radio station DWRR until it was relocated to Antipolo when the transmitter was upgraded by the end of 1999.

History

The Millennium Transmitter, also known as the ABS-CBN Tower, and provisionally called as AMBS Tower, was constructed at the corner of Mother Ignacia Street and Sgt. Esguerra Avenue, within the

, at the time of its construction it was one of the tallest

lattice tower A lattice tower or truss tower is a freestanding vertical framework tower. This construction is widely used in transmission towers carrying high voltage electric power lines, in radio masts and towers (a self-radiating tower or as a support for a ...

s in the world. Construction began in the third quarter of 1968. On March 21, 1969, the tower became operational, transmitting television and radio for ABS-CBN and also used to beam

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 associ ...

broadcasts in

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

, and to nearby provinces. After

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 ...

was declared on September 21, 1972, as ABS-CBN suspended their operations the following day, the facility was taken over by the crony-owned

BBC-2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

from 1973 to 1979; state-run People's Television's predecessors GTV/MBS-4 also occupied the tower from 1974 to 1992 to beam their programs. When the

EDSA Revolution The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, was a series of popular demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a sustained campaign of c ...

happened, both the tower and Broadcast Plaza were stormed by reformist rebels as escalating battle occurred on February 24, 1986. After the revolution, the tower was returned to ABS-CBN. Since then, the tower became the primary source of transmission for both

and DWRR and later it began transmitting the company's sister UHF station

in 1996.

Its previous height was , until ABS-CBN started a major reconstruction and rehabilitation of the whole tower, which included changing cylinder antennas to the more powerful dipole antennas with reflector, and increase of its height which was finished by the 3rd quarter of 2009. On June 30, 2020, the transmitter was shut-off due to a

cease and desist order A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not dis ...

from the

National Telecommunications Commission The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC; fil, Pambansang Komisyon sa Telekomunikasyon) is an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology responsible for the supervision, adjudication and control over ...

after

's legislative franchise expired on May 4, 2020. After two years of being non-operational for transmission, ABS-CBN granted the request of AMBS to use the transmitter for the analog and digital broadcasts of ALLTV. This was confirmed by

Willie Revillame Wilfredo Buendia Revillame (; born January 27, 1961), popularly known as Willie Revillame, is a Filipino television host, comedian, singer, songwriter, actor, and businessman. Career Revillame started out as the host of GMA Network's noontime ...

on his show ''

Wowowin ''Wowowin'' is a Philippine television variety show broadcast by All TV. Hosted by Willie Revillame, it premiered on May 10, 2015 on GMA Network. The show aired its final broadcast on GMA Network on February 11, 2022. The show premiered on All ...

''.

Features

Tower

The tower uses dipole antennas with reflector, and UHF panel antennas for wide coverage of analog (VHF and UHF TV) and digital (ISDB-T) TV reception in

some nearby provinces in both grades A and B, for the broadcasts of

and

respectively. Despite the name, the Millennium Transmitter is not a transmitter of its own, but rather a communications tower with antennas connected to multiple transmitters.

Transmitter facility

The transmitter facility housed both

and

that contained sets of transmitter equipment imported by

Harris Harris may refer to: Places Canada * Harris, Ontario * Northland Pyrite Mine (also known as Harris Mine) * Harris, Saskatchewan * Rural Municipality of Harris No. 316, Saskatchewan Scotland * Harris, Outer Hebrides (sometimes called the Isle o ...

and Jampro of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Frequencies

Current

Analog television

Digital television

Former

All stations that were previously broadcasting from the Millennium Transmitter ceased transmission on May 5, 2020, following the expiration of its legislative franchise.

FM stations

Analog television

Digital television

References

{{Advanced Media Broadcasting System ABS-CBN Corporation Buildings and structures in Quezon City Broadcast transmitters Assets owned by ABS-CBN Corporation Towers completed in 1969 Transmitter sites in the Philippines Advanced Media Broadcasting System

History

Features

Tower

Transmitter facility

Frequencies

Current

Analog television

Digital television

Former

FM stations

Analog television

Digital television

See also

References