Today’s young generation does not know her, but in 1947, when the Philippines was just beginning to rebuild itself from the ravages of World War II, having been granted full independence by the United States and renamed Republic of the Philippines in the preceding year, she was the lone female voice in Cebu’s first radio station, dyRC.
The forerunner of dyRC was kzRC, a pre-war radio station owned by the Radio Corporation of the Philippines. The rights to the station was later bought by Isaac Beck, who, after the war, sold the station to the Elizaldes, owners of Manila Broadcasting Co.
As the first and most listened to radio station, dyRC laid claim to the catchphrase, “The Voice of Cebu” from 1947 and perhaps well into the next two-and-a-half decades until the martial law period. However, the slogan could have been coined for the most familiar female announcer of the postwar era, Virginia “Ginny” Peralta Vamenta, she with the soothing voice matched only by impeccable speech and grammar.
It has been 67 years since Ginny broke into the media limelight and 13 years since she retired from active broadcast work. Today, she will be feted, along with other outstanding individuals and organizations, in Cebu City’s 77th Charter Day celebration.
I had the opportunity to talk with Ginny last week at the Laguna Garden Café and her remembrances of the postwar era are so vivid that listening to her was like walking through old Cebu. It was amusing listening to her story of how she auditioned for an announcer’s job in dyRC.
Coming out of Cebu Normal School (now Cebu Normal University) after school, Ginny walked to Colon to slug it out with close to 30 applicants. Only six made it to the final list but only two were eventually hired as full-time radio announcers, Ginny and the late Maning Frias. Despite the male dominance in the radio industry at that time, Ginny came out on top and became the station’s chief announcer.
I dare say Ginny is the country’s first woman radio announcer, and by becoming the lead anchor of a major radio station, also the Philippines first female broadcast executive.
This is rather interesting because Ginny broke the glass ceiling in Philippine media long before women, whether in media, corporate and government sectors became aware that they possess abilities and talents that equal if not surpass the men’s.
Glass ceiling is a political term applied by feminists in reference to “the unseen, yet unbreakable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications and achievements.”
That Ginny did so without much fuss, but by simply being consistent, diligent and exercising the highest professional standards in her work demonstrates that hard work is the real game changer. She could be her generation’s first empowered woman.
Ginny’s broadcast career is very remarkable in the sense that she saw the development of the medium from the postwar period to the digital age. When she first came on board dyRC, broadcast equipment was still in the analog format and program content was clearly defined.
Internet media spawned tremendous growth in telecommunications and changed the way we live. In the broadcast industry, in particular, modification brought by electronic media was so sweeping that struggling stations were practically buried by giant networks that foresaw the inevitable and invested heavily in digital equipment.
Broadcast media practitioners, too, had to keep up with the revolution taking place in the telecommunications industry, but strangely enough, even the most expensive and high-end electronic gadgets cannot substitute for the basic tools of the trade like a good command of English including proper use of the Cebuano language.
If Ginny feels strongly about decorum in the air lanes, so to speak, it is because she is a teacher at heart and recognizes that mass media is a potent tool for education.
Ginny was a consultant in dyLA when I was invited by the late Cerge Remonde to handle the station’s morning public affairs program in 1995. Ginny and I didn’t get to know each other well because she would go to the station when I’m already done with my show.
I’m glad Cebu Daily News publisher Eileen Mangubat asked me to profile the Charter Day awardee because it enabled me to get a closeup of the radio icon. (To be continued)
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