NU107 The Home of NU Rock (1987-2010)
November 7, 2010 – It was the last airing day of one of my childhood institutions…
For years, I haven’t been listening to radio because sadly, we never had radio in the house since the day Mom got sick (and eventually departing this world peacefully giving up the fight on 2005). It had been years since The Death of My Mom Killed the House Radio (a play on Video Killed the Radio Star). I listen once in a while to radio when transversing the long, wide roads of Commonwealth sometimes extending to the sister roads of EDSA, Quezon Ave., North Ave. (and its twin West Ave.) until I stop and get off to my destination. These last years, I hear radio not the way I used to when the sounds were fresh (often branded as “noise” back then, critics those days…). Thank God for the Internet though because I get to listen online every once in a while. Whenever I see (or hear to be politically correct) the stations, I was always glad that one of them still stood out which I feel a sense of connectedness and groundedness.
Then on October 14, I chanced upon an article which shocked me. The article read “NU107 FINALLY CLOSING DOWN!” WHAAAAATTTT???!!!!!! Are you kidding me? You’re talking about THE HOME of NU ROCK here. Closing down? What the F*** is going on? I was in disbelief, of course. I thought NU was here to stay and stay forever. This was the last bastion of my rebellious youth, and you mean to tell me, IT WILL CLOSE DOWN?!
Come to think of it, I realized now I was a rebel and a non-conformist who never wanted to be “in” simply because I never wanted to be defined by what the society dictated and still dictates (try my later yrs in the seminary because I didn’t like what I see and experienced…still tough for them though)…
NU was the same in terms of pushing the envelope and making a radio station a HOME to those who never conformed, and always wanted an avenue to express themselves. I remember when In The Raw was still fresh in the airwaves. During my time, (and thank God for the Eheads!) everyone wanted to be in a band again, and for those who wanted, they found an avenue to express their talent during this program (and this was years even before the longest running WWE wrestling show was named [dig this!] Monday Night RAW). It pushed the envelope because it played sounds you’ll never ever imagine being played in other radio stations at that time. Hell, not even KC (the most popular Pop station at that time) would even dare to play it.
I decided that given the last days that it would air, I would somehow catch it so I promised myself to buy a radio again, kahit transistor lang. But as misfortune played its drums, the rumors finally made a confirmation that the last airing day of NU107 would be on November 7. The radio plan would have to go so I’ll settle for the internet. When the day came, it would had been a disaster because while Sunday (the day which Nov. 7 fell) may be the holiest day of week (I’m a Catholic…yet a variable though!), it was the busiest day of the network. I tried being patient listening to the online simulcast, but when the Squeezer Sir Rex would text me later, I was actually watching a delayed telecast. Damn! But rather than despair, I had an idea. Rummaging thru my old techie stuff, I found the old enhancement of my trusty N70, and walla, I have my radio. And it was timely, because it was the last two hours before NU sadi goodbye.
And who do I hear? Would you believe it when I say Major TOM? OMG! The man who was part of the founders of the station!!! I wish I could have recorded the soundbytes he shared. But it was nice to hear him again. And as he spoke, the memories flooded again…
It was 1987, and I was tinkering the old Sanyo portable radio/tape recorder. KC was still there, I also listened to Radio Veritas during the afternoons because they played OPM and sleepy music. That forgotten day, I wanted to try something. At some twist of the knob, I wanted to find out what I can hear on the fringes of the dial on the right side, then it hit my eardrums:
“Yeah…
All is quiet on New Year’s Day
A world in white gets underway
I want to be with you
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year’s Day
On New Year’s Day”
I said to myself, wow, this is new. It was something I have never heard it before…It hit me like bumping to the most beautiful girl I’ll never know (Incidentally, the most beautiful girl of my life right now likes U2), and I fell in love at first audible. With it, I realized there is life… To borrow the words of Major Tom, “There was music and life beyond Dingdong and Ogie.” (Nice one Major TOM, you hit some chords there). And I was never the same ever since. It started the other side to my personality that kept me grounded all these years.
Well, years passed, and truth be told, I was an infrequent listener the following years after that. The pressure of studies, having to conform and living what people expected took its toll. But every once in a while, I’d venture to that other edge in the dial, and it was liberating. Then, Ely, Buddy, Marcus and Raymund (nowadays it’s either Lemon or Raimund) came along, and changed the direction of my life. They were my underground to express the truth of myself. And if it haven’t been for NU, I wouldn’t learn to love rock and roll in all its forms. Hell, without NU, I would never have learned to question and doubt even the ground where I stand on.
(Commercial: My cousin told me on FB, “You rebellious? If you’re that, then that makes me truly evil…” What people don’t know about me is I always was a cynic and a non-conformist, but I was also a realist at the same time. NU somehow made me learn that, and I don’t regret it.)
And from U2, it became metal. Then grunge, then alternative, then Pinoy Rock then alternative…The list goes on and on…
Finally, I grew up tempered with age, and with that I knew all things come to an end. But I thought NU would stay forever. It survived the Rivermaya dissensions, the folding and reformatting of most of the radio stations [Heck, DZMB became Love Radio, Campus Radio to Barangay LS, JOEY FM to whatever…), and of course, we all know this dark time, the break-up of the Eheads. Yet, as the musicians, the bands, and even the jocks have come and gone from time to time, NU was the moving force that I thought would never break.
And then this…
After 23 yrs, it was saying goodbye (abruptly if I might add), and to me, it was sad. But as you grow with age, I realized, the more things change the more they stay the same. Call it a social equilibrium or a changing of the guard. Whatever you may interpret it, change is always is in the air. I do realize now that ALL THINGS DO END. Sad I must feel, but Acceptance I must do for such is the course of all things.
Goodbye NU107…you were the last of my childhood institutions…you were the balance of my otherwise mediocre achiever personality…you were the sower of my dissent and distrust to complacencies…you were the fresh air to the otherwise stale life of what could had been…
From U2, to the Heads to Green Day…From New Wave, to Metal, to PINOY ROCK to Alternative…You were covered all our idiosyncrasies from coast to coast…We may not have been that close, but you were an old friend when it counted the most.
Farewell, to what was “once the loudest and proudest member of the KBP”…
We are now orphans, but even orphans must seek their place in their as the home is no more…
Farewell, NU107, our ONE home of NU ROCK…
IT WAS HOME, and truly, as I stayed, IT WAS ONE FUCKING BLAST FOR ME…Thank you Atom Henares, Vicky Belo, Quark Henares, Crystal Henares, Cris Cruise, Major Tom, Myrene, Francis, Trish, Shannen, Glenn and the host of others…You’ve given us a home while it lasted…
Goodbye NU107, and with your passing, you give us the SPIRIT of the music for us to live and march on…Truly, passing on to immortality!
To end, I make another wordplay: NU107 is dead…Long live NU107, the home of NU Rock!
PS (11/12/2010): Last night, I was having coffee with my girl somewhere outside the workplace. As we were chatting, we got to talk about NU’s last airing day (we were both listening to it at that time), and she told me that for her it was a night of reconciliation. Well, the week was rough for the both of us that often we had some LQ’s and stuff (typical for a relationship…well, who doesn’t have one). Anyway, when she heard about it, it kinda hit her a bit so in an act of oneness (we were both listeners of NU), we put away the differences and both listened to NU at the same time while texting each other about our emotions and reactions on the events as they were unfolding at that time. In other words, naging OK na kami ulit (A parting gift that NU gave us unknowingly besides the fact that we both are U2 listeners).
She mentioned the word Namaste…it means “I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One.” It’s kinda spiritual (it’s a greeting in India…spiritually profound), but I think she was right that the NU experience was a Namaste as all NU listeners (wheteher gathered at Pasig, watching the live simulcast over at the NU website (I still miss the website), or were just glued helplessly to the radio listening to NU’s last moments) were acknowledging the oneness of their love while respecting the unique diversity of each one in the final moments of NU. I figured it may had been like the Eraserheads Reunion Concert in ’08 albeit a sad version of the circumstances this time. We honored NU with our presence, love and support while NU honored us by giving us what we wanted: a week-long final blast of the music we have loved, knowing that even when it ends, the spirit of NU Rock will always be with us. Even the popular bands honored NU in its final day, acknowledging their harmonious partnership over the years.
That day in a way is Namaste, a night of reunion, fellowships and parting for the last time…A night of reconciliation too as listeners came into terms that no matter what, NU Rock bonded them…us as one. And as the music faded into static, we know it will never be the same as we go back to the world where “Nothing Changes (even) on New Year’s Day”…
The Paradoxes of Life and Faith 