Streak Shooter

Photo of Gino Quillamor's tweet to Chico Garcia that led to Gino leaving RX. ANOTHER major blow has struck Monster RX 93.1 with the departure of Gino Quillamor from the morning show The Morning Rush. Quillamor left the show last week after being with Chico Garcia and Delamar Arias for close to a decade. Since then, he has not intimated of any plans to join another FM radio station. Earlier, Arias retired from RX in January this year to focus on marriage and motherhood. She resurfaced on Magic 89.9 to host the weekly show The Mother Show on Friday Madness mornings with Andi Manzano and Riki Flores. Quillamor and Arias's departures from RX have further weakened the station's lineup of DJs. In a previous post, other RX jocks have also left due to various reasons, such as recently married couple Andre Co and Cerah Hernandez, Jay Abastillas, Jinri Park, Sel Guevara, Carla Lizardo, Chris Schneider and Karen Bordador, who still remains in jail due to drug charges. As ...

Former Memphis Grizzly Ryan Hollins (right) is the latest former NBA player to try his luck as a TV commentator. A GROWING trend in US sports television is hiring former athletes to be TV commentators. Sports like NFL football and the NBA have seen a lot of their former players jump from the playing field to the broadcast booth with mixed results. In this piece, we're limiting this to the NBA since there are a lot of Filipino fans who patronize this league compared to the NFL which is just starting to gain a foothold in the Philippine sports landscape through ESPN5. If you watch the NBA games here in the US, you will notice that many ex-players are becoming analysts for TNT like Reggie Miller, Chris Webber, Kevin McHale, Greg Anthony and Brent Barry, who has even done play-by-play for the Players Only games. NBA legends Shaquille O' Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith co-host the pre-game and post-game shows on TNT and the three even did analysis for a Christmas ...

IN RECENT weeks, GMA 7 has been a bit different in its Sunday movie blocks. Since the start of June, GMA has not been showing Hollywood movies dubbed in Tagalog either on GMA Blockbusters in the afternoon or on the Sunday Night Box Office time slot, which is at about 10:30 pm after the award-winning news magazine show Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho. Instead, Asian movies dubbed in Tagalog have been shown, including Miracle in Cell No. 7 (a Korean movie that used the voice of Gabby Eigenmann), Ip Man with Donnie Yen and Train to Busan (featuring the voice of Dennis Trillo, see photo). Even the Lovi Poe movie Guni Guni was also shown on SNBO recently. If you ask me, this is a good move by GMA because Asian movies aren't in English and dubbing them in Tagalog is the best way for them to be appreciated by the viewers unlike English movies where Filipinos understand the English language and the dubbing makes a Hollywood movie too awkward to watch on TV. GMA also recently started a...

THE NBA has just ended another season with its annual awards which was held Monday night in Los Angeles. Like last year, the league dispensed with giving the awards during the playoffs and instead staged the event in a first-class hotel with movie stars mingling with the players. In the Philippines, only BTV showed the NBA Awards since ABS-CBN S+A, the NBA's free TV partner, was busy with its FIFA World Cup coverage. Here's my personal opinion on this year's awardees: Most Valuable Player -- I had no question over James Harden winning the award since he led the Houston Rockets to 65 wins during the regular season and fell just one win short of reaching the NBA Finals. But let's also give credit to the two other finalists. LeBron James singlehandedly led Cleveland to the NBA Finals while Anthony Davis brought his New Orleans Pelicans to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. Perhaps if Kevin Durant was a finalist, he would have been hands-down MV...

THANKS to my younger sister who bought tickets for me and my mother, I was able to watch the celebrity softball game organized by Golden State Warriors back-up center JaVale McGee over the weekend at the Oakland Coliseum. The annual exhibition match was McGee's way of raising funds for his program JugLife whose aim is to help provide clean drinking water to residents of the Bay Area.  This is the second year that he has organized this game since he joined the Warriors in 2017 and became a part of their last two NBA title-winning teams. JaVale McGee showing his softball skills Besides his Golden State teammates who showed up like Stephen Curry, Andre Iguodala, Zaza Pachulia, Nick Young, Jordan Bell and Damian Jones, other celebrities who came to show their support for McGee included former Warrior Matt Barnes (who retired last year), ice skater Kristin Yamaguchi, NFL stars Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman, Oakland Mayo...

THIS week will be my first time to work in the graveyard shift in my supermarket duty at FoodMaxx Pinole. My graveyard work will be for just one day on Wednesday from 7 pm to 2 am the next day and this is very challenging for me because I have rarely stayed out late at night when I was still living in the Philippines. I initially had reservations when the schedule was handed out to me but my sister, who had experience working the graveyard shift after graduating from college here, told me that most Americans like working at late nights because it's easier and you don't face a lot of pressure. In a supermarket for example, employees still work even though the store closes. There is the matter of cleaning the checkstands, stocking up on new products that arrive in the store during the late hours and not dealing with customers. You also don't push carts which can be painful to your arms and feet. My sister also told me that it's safer to work in the graveyard sh...

STARTING in August, government TV network People's Television 4 will air a number of Chinese shows dubbed in Tagalog as part of an agreement between the Philippines and China that will help expose Filipino viewers to Chinese culture. One of the shows that will be affected by the entry of these Chinese shows is the popular sports newscast PTV Sports which was revived last year after it was yanked off the air for a few months in 2016. PTV Sports currently airs at 7 pm nightly but once one of the new Chinese shows airs on the 7 pm slot, PTV Sports may have to go. PTV Sports was popular before when the controversial Snow Badua first hosted the show with his DZSR Sports Radio colleague Dennis Principe. The program, which initially aired in the afternoon before it was moved to 7 pm, had an interactive portion where the viewers can communicate with Badua and Principe through messages on Facebook and Twitter. But a falling-out between Badua and Principe resulted in the former...

DID you know that NBA legendary center Bill Walton once visited the Philippines? When Walton appeared as a guest on the ESPN show The Jump with Rachel Nichols today, Nichols asked him about his experience in the Philippines way back in 1979 when he went there to film a segment on his documentary "The American Sportsman". During filming, Walton met a monkey-eating eagle which is an endangered specie in the Philippines. His efforts won for him an Emmy Award for Best Documentary. Not too many NBA fans also know that Walton's second wife, Lori, is part-Filipina. That's why he once said that he would welcome another chance to visit the Philippines if his wife asked him to. Walton, who played for the Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Clippers and Boston Celtics in the NBA, currently works for ESPN as an analyst for the channel's college basketball telecasts. During his playing days, he guided the Blazers to their only NBA title in 1977 and won another ring ...

ALTHOUGH the NBA Finals is already over, basketball still goes on back in my former country Philippines. Recently, the country successfully staged the FIBA 3x3 World Cup which is a prelude to the Basketball World Cup which the Philippines is hosting in 2023 with two other countries in Japan and Indonesia. Of course, the PBA is still ongoing with the Commissioner's Cup as of the moment. On the amateur side, the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League just launched its newest conference with 26 teams. League founder Manny Pacquiao was able to attract more teams in the Visayas and Mindanao and even actor Gerald Anderson has found a home in the league. The PBA D League just began its newest conference but as I posted previously, there seems to be a lack of interest. In the collegiate scene, the Filoil Flying V Pre-Season tournament is enjoying more television exposure thanks to ESPN5 and the UAAP and NCAA teams are getting the much-needed exposure before their respective le...

WHEN I was still living in the Philippines, one of my favorite FM radio stations was Monster RX 93.1. Aside from playing current pop hits, RX also had very informative programs like Love Clinic, Heard on Thursdays, Countdown Top 7 and the RX Concert Series featuring OPM artists performing live in the RX booth. Of course, RX's biggest moneymaker is their morning show The Morning Rush with Chico and Delamar, which has been on the air for more than a decade. I used to visit the RX booth in Pasig sometimes and I had a chance to meet some of their DJs like Rico Robles, Karen Bordador, Jinri Park, Bea Fabregas, Carla Lizardo, Karla Aguas, Jay Abastillas, Lexy Angeles, Chris Schneider, Cerah Hernandez, Andre Co and Hazel Aguilon. PBA courtside reporter Sel Guevara had a stint with RX as a DJ for a while. During my RX visits, I would bring my FHM magazines for Karen and Jinri to sign while talking with Rico who I learned, is an avid sports fan. He was asking me questions about t...

THE biggest thing to happen ever since I left for the United States in 2016 is the huge change in government radio and TV under the Duterte administration. Three of the four Tulfo brothers -- Erwin, Ben and Mon -- are now part with the government TV station People's Television and its sister radio network Philippine Broadcasting Service. Mon, the eldest, moved his radio show Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo to Radyo Pilipinas after previously working with DWIZ and the Philippine Daily Inquirer's radio station. Ben has his daily TV show Bitag on PTV after he was previously seen on UNTV and Aksyon TV, a channel owned by TV5. Ben's show was also simulcast on Radyo Singko, TV5's sister FM station. At present, Ben is a blocktimer on PTV with six shows aired on the government network which he all produced -- Bitag Live, Bitag Next Generation, Kilos Pronto, Ben Tulfo Unfiltered, Pinoy US Cops and I Travel Pinas, the show which reportedly aired tourism ads worth P60 millio...

IT'S saddening to hear that the PBA D League is slowly becoming obsolete in the Philippine basketball landscape. Although I now live in California, social media and news from the internet keep me informed especially about basketball which I used to cover a lot during my days as a sportswriter back in the Philippines. Only six teams are currently competing in the D League's newest conference, the Foundation Cup -- the fewest ever since the league began in 2011 to replace the defunct Philippine Basketball League. I remember that 14 teams were part of the original cast of the D League when it started, including NLEX, Blackwater, Cafe France, Cebuana Lhuillier, Big Chill, Maynilad, Junior Powerade, Max Bond, Pacific Pipes, PC Gilmore and Cobra Energy Drink. NLEX and Blackwater later became PBA franchises while other teams made their way into the D League as it rolled along, including Hapee Toothpaste, Cagayan Valley, Cignal and Flying V. But lately, public interest in ...

I AM now watching the replay of the championship parade of the Golden State Warriors after they won their third NBA title in the last four years. All the major networks locally and nationally like ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, NBC Sports Bay Area, KRON, NBA TV and ESPN covered the parade. Actually, here in the US, professional sports teams are named after cities and states which is why when a team wins a national sports title in the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB, that's when the champion team holds a parade with all the people celebrating with their sports heroes. With this in mind, I wonder whether a parade could happen in the Philippine sports scene. I remember when the old MBA league was in existence, there were motorcades featuring the champion teams from Pampanga, Manila, San Juan, Batangas and Negros but due to lack of videos and photos, no Filipino sports fan has ever seen or heard of such a motorcade. In the PBA, the closest thing to a victory parade is when Barangay Ginebra cele...

IF THERE is one thing that makes ABS-CBN stand out amidst all the criticisms of being too biased against the current Duterte administration and its predictable teleserye plots, then it has to be its Restored Classics movie series which airs every month on the Sunday's Best block. Since 2014, ABS-CBN has had a Film Restoration division where it has restored over a hundred classic Filipino movies, including films produced by the network's movie division Star Cinema. The first film ABS-CBN restored was Nora Aunor's Himala which was named by CNN as one of the best movies ever produced in the world. Starting January last year, ABS-CBN began airing its monthly restored movies on the first Sunday of the month starting with the Aga Muhlach-Dayanara Torres movie Basta't Kasama Kita, which was aired on the eve of the last Miss Universe held in the Philippines. Other restored movies ABS-CBN has aired on the Sunday's Best time slot include Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos...

PBS Director Rizal Giovanni "Sonny B" Aportadera, the man responsible for changing government FM radio. IN ONE of my previous posts in this blog, I talked about how DZSR Sports Radio 918 khz -- the station where I got my first start in sports media -- underwent a massive overhaul under the Duterte administration, merging with DZRM Radyo Magasin to become Radyo Pilipinas 2 even as its mother station, Radyo ng Bayan 738 khz, became Radyo Pilipinas 1. Now, we will explain how the government-run radio network Philippine Broadcasting Service rebranded government radio by launching two new stations. When President Duterte named Martin Andanar as head of the Presidential Communications Office,  one of the first things Andanar did was to appoint Rizal Giovanni "Bong" Aportadera, Jr. to head PBS as its director-general. It so happened that Andanar was a radio buff, having been a former DJ before he became a newscaster with TV5 prior to his appointment by the curre...

One Monday afternoon here in California, I watched Rachel Nichols' ESPN show The Jump while I was enjoying my day off from my supermarket work. Nichols and her guests Amin El-Hassan and Scottie Pippen had a very lively discussion on the aftermath of the Golden State Warriors' recent title win in the NBA and the future of LeBron James. Both these topics are expected to dominate the NBA off-season particularly in the case of James whose legacy is being tarnished by his recent 4-0 shutout loss of his Cavaliers against the Warriors. As I have posted previously, there is a lot of interest from many NBA fans, particularly over there in the Philippines, on where LeBron is going next. It is no secret that LeBron has a strong following back in my former country and whatever move he makes this off-season will surely be followed by many Filipinos who have experienced his four visits to Manila. Among the teams reportedly interested in LeBron are the Lakers, Celtics, Knicks, Si...

SINCE last April, I have already started working at the FoodMaxx supermarket in Pinole which is a six-minute drive from my house here in El Sobrante, California. This is the first time in my life that I am working with a regular punch-in and punch-out time compared to my days as a sportswriter back in the Philippines when I occasionally worked from home. And mind you, being part of the California workforce is a difficult adjustment I had to make. And as you see from the photo above, I wear a blue shirt as uniform -- something I haven't done ever since I graduated from college at the University of Santo Tomas. My schedule usually starts in the mid-morning and ends in the early evening just  before sunset and this is perfect for my body clock because I normally wake up at 6 am and sleep at about midnight. I have two days off but I work a lot during the weekends which can be stressful at times because there are many customers while on weekdays, most people go to work and mos...

I was a bit shocked to find out from the Facebook page of my sportswriter-friend Rick Olivares that veteran coliseum announcer Rolly Manlapaz is suffering from an undisclosed illness. Rolly has been a barker since the time of the defunct pro league MBA and after it folded up, he was tapped to be the barker in the PBA, UAAP, NCAA and the Filoil Flying V summer tournaments. In recent years, Rolly has expanded his barking skills to the volleyball leagues like the UAAP and Philippine Superliga. Before becoming a barker, Rolly worked as a radio DJ for DZRJ, 89 DMZ and DWXB 102.7 where he used such monikers as Jellybean and Harry Nolan. I was also told that he was a chain smoker which may have been one of the reasons behind his illness. Rolly is also known for giving nicknames while being a barker, the most famous of which is "The Beast" which he gave to Calvin Abueva during the time the latter was still playing for San Sebastian College in the NCAA. Rolly was also ...

THE NBA season is already over, but there are still a lot of sports events that people here in the United States are looking forward to. There is the World Cup of Football which kicks off this week in Russia. The US and Philippines both didn't qualify for the tournament but football (or soccer as it is known here in the US) is a sport that transcends a lot of international cultures which explains why it is still well-loved all over the world. The Fox TV networks hold the US TV rights to the World Cup while ABS-CBN has the Philippine TV rights through its S+A and Liga Channels. Liga is a new channel that ABS-CBN Sports launched just this year and is seen on SkyCable Channel 86. It took over from the old Balls Channel which used to air UFC fights until it was shut down in 2015. Another sport that keeps Americans interested during the summer is baseball. The Houston Astros are the defending World Series champions. However, not many Filipinos are interested in baseball althoug...

THE NBA season is over and ABS-CBN has just concluded another year of being the league's free TV partner. As expected, many NBA fans in the Philippines had the same complaints in terms of the way the games were presented on ABS-CBN 2 with the Tagalog commentary of Boom Gonzales, TJ Manotoc, Benjie Paras and Ronnie Magsanoc. Paras' breakfast jokes and the use of the word "Papa Bear" were the biggest criticisms viewers had towards the Channel 2 games which were aired on Saturday mornings. At least, the coverage on ABS-CBN's sister channel S+A still used the American commentators like Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson so no one can complain, really. This past season, however, ABS-CBN clearly showed some "cost-cutting measures" in its NBA coverage. During the All-Star Game, the network didn't send Gonzales and Manotoc to cover the game live and instead, former Ateneo volleyball player Gretchen Ho, who is a morning show host ...