Like all the outfits and individuals that were granted the legislative franchise, the first diocesan radio station in Davao, which carried the call sign DXCD (for ‘community development’) was preceded with positive expectations. It was an offshoot of the study made which came out with a finding that reaching remote villages not passable by transport was difficult. In the name of evangelization, the Maryknoll Fathers did not like this reality on the ground. But one thing caught their attention: there was an abundance of radios in the countryside.
When Fr. Justin Kennedy, MM, was appointed diocesan director for mass media for the prelature of Tagum in 1966, the idea of establishing a diocesan broadcast outfit, which was first broached in a meeting of clergy in 1964, was pushed. What followed was the initial study into the cost of purchasing radio equipment and the overhead expenses involved in its operation.
It was not until August 4, 1967, that Republic Act 5172 was approved; it granted the Catholic Welfare Organization (CMO) a franchise to construct, maintain and operate radio broadcasting and television stations in the Philippines. Incorporated under the name of Tagum Community Development Radio Station, Inc., Bishop Joseph Regan, MM, then prior of the Prelature of Tagum, was chosen as head of the operation.
As a condition of the legislative franchise was the execution of a P50,000 bond in favor of the government, in form and with sureties addressed to the public works and communications secretary, but could be cancelled if the grantee has fulfilled its duties under the statute.
Historically, Fr. Kennedy was succeeded as mass media director by Fr. Douglas Venne, MM, who “prepared surveys of the Tagum Prelature area to determine the possible listening audience and their preference for programming.” Following Fr. Venne’s involvement in a jeep accident, he was replaced by Fr. Howard T. Bieber, MM.
The construction of the building to host the radio station started in earnest on April 24, 1969; five months later it was occupied. Towards the end of November, the installation of the equipment was completed; a month later the test broadcast commenced. It was on January 2, 1970, that the 18-hour daily broadcast started. By June 1971, its listenership base exploded as shown in the over 45,000 letters received in the mailboxes during this period.
Peter Spain, in ‘A Survey of Radio Listenership in the Davao Provinces of Mindanao, The Philippines’ (1971) wrote: “DXCD did not have to familiarize the population with radio…While its appeal to advertisers has been gradually increasing, its appeal to the listeners has come from its programs of public service (any listener can come in at certain times of the day to make announcements, usually to his friends or family in the rural areas), its amateur shows taped in different villages, and its farming and household tips. Much of its programming has followed the music-drama-news pattern of other stations, but…there are certain elements that make DXCD’s total programming a bit different in the minds of the listeners.”
Unwittingly, the radio station, after the declaration of Martial Rule on September 21, 1972, became the mouthpiece of rural folks who experienced abuse and oppression from the military establishment. Three years later, as the region started to become an insurgency hotbed, sixty-nine Filipino priests and lay leaders were rounded up on November 19-20, 1975, and detained. As the collateral damage, the broadcast outfit was also padlocked.
At the time of its closure, Fr. Bieber was the station director, Napoleon Kuizon was the station manager, and Versim Enad, was the production manager. After the fall of the Marcos regime in 1986, no effort was made to revive the station due to the high cost involved in operating it. With new broadcast outfits surfacing, DXCD’s revival was further dimmed.
