DZVC (AM)

"'Radio Post' redirects here. For the shortwave service, see Radio Post (shortwave radio)." DZVC (1260 AM) is a commercial AM radio station in Manila. It is one of the oldest radio stations in the Philippines. It broadcasts an all-news radio format as the flagship of VGC News Radio and is branded as "DZVC Newsradio." DZVC serves as the flagship station of VGC Radio. DZVC's studios are co-located within VGC's corporate headquarters in Parañaque.

DZVC is a 50,000–watt station, with its antenna housed at the 1,000,000–watt Radio Post Tower at the VGC Plaza, which is shared with its sister stations on radio and television, as well as the Radio Post shortwave service (which, until 1973, operated as an international repeater of DZVC). The station's programming is also available via a simulcast on sister station 100.7 DWMT-FM and the HD2 subchannel of sister station 96.7 DZVC-FM.

Experimental station: "From Scandinavia to Australia"
In the late 1930's, The Manila Post Company of American journalist Eduardo Villena, after founding Radioposti in Finland, began experimenting with transmission linking techniques and other technological advancements, seeing if there is a way to wirelessly transmit news from one place to the world without interfering with other radio services. An experimental station, dubbed Radio Post, broadcast a few serials and comedy shows, filling most of its schedule with English news bulletins. Its facilities were located in Helsinki, Manila, and Perth.

Wartime station
The Post, which temporarily suspended print operations during World War II, used this wireless transmission technology to its advantage. The paper controversially mislabeled its transmitter in Manila as "Radio Pro-Japan" in order to fend off invading Japanese imperial forces that have took over the Philippines in 1942. Despite the label on the tower, the station transmitted news broadcasts that were in conflict with the propaganda the Second Republic ordered to put on the air.

In case of potential strike by the Japanese, the Post also installed several backup AM towers broadcasting on the same frequency (850 kilohertz) and several shortwave antennas across the globe, before officially opening Radio Post from studios in Perth on October 1943 under the Commonwealth callsign KZRP (for Radio Post). The station was affiliated with the CBS Radio Network (which was complementary to other temporarily-closed Commonwealth stations which were affiliated with either NBC or Mutual) and was broadcast 24 hours a day.

KZRP after Japanese surrender
After the Japanese had surrendered, the United States-backed Commonwealth government of the Philippines returned from exile, and they congratulated the Post for being part of the effort to end Japanese hostility. As the station sets up new facilities in Parañaque as the enemy has been fended off, the Japanese imperial family barred the Villena family for five years from entering Japan. The two parties would later settle differences in the 1950's, which paved the way for VGC's later presence in Japanese broadcasting.

The Post reopened its publishing operations, and the newly-rechristened KZRP was launched. The shortwave stations that beamed KZRP to the world kept beaming its signal until 1973, when it became a separately-formatted all-news radio service that still operates today. In 1946, when the Philippines was given independence, the new Philippine government gave Villena and his family dual Filipino-American citizenship under the request of the United States. In 1948, the international telecommunications conference assigned "D" to the Philippines, and the callsign for the station was initially renamed to DZRP for a brief period before changing to DZVC, named after the rebranded Villena Group of Companies.

DZVC is one of the pioneers of the all-news format. As entertainment programming on the radio reduced (with some moving to newly-opened DZVX (765 AM), currently airing a talk radio format), VGC invested more heavily into its broadcast news operations worldwide, eventually a contributing factor to the rise of VGC News as the world's largest news department (overtaking the BBC). VGC also launched its television network in 1948 with DZVC-TV (channel 6) as its flagship, and opened an FM station DZVC-FM (96.7 FM) which initially acted as an FM simulcast of the station before becoming its own Top 40-formatted station in 1965. DZVC would move to 1250 AM in 1952.

Martial law era
When Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, VGC's broadcast properties were temporarily halted in fear of military forces seizing the network. However, Villena, once a personal friend to the Marcoses, threatened to sue the Philippine government in the International Criminal Court if they do not let VGC operate autonomously. In 1973, as the shortwave stations broke off their simulcast and became Radio Post, the station returned to the airwaves, changing its news affiliation from CBS Radio News to ABC News Radio; the station would later switch its international affiliation to the Associated Press, a fellow news agency that worked with VGC News on multiple occasions.

Post-EDSA era
Historians and political activists have credited VGC for contributing to the 1986 People Power Revolution, due to the network's anti-Marcos leaning partly leading to the famous peaceful uprising. Since then, DZVC has made its mark as the #1 all-news radio station in the Metro Manila radio market.

With HD Radio, DZVC gained digital broadcasts on its own HD Radio frequency at 1260 AM, as well as a simulcast on DZVC-FM-HD2. VGC also flipped 100.7 DWMT-FM from a talk radio format (moving it to 765 DZVX) to a simulcast of DZVC. DWMT was one of three stations in Metro Manila acquired by VGC through its purchase of PNC Media from the Dela Vera family, whose heiress, actress Jen Dela Vera is an actress working for VGC-TV and its American-based film studio Everest Pictures.

1991 on-air feud
Broadcaster Tony Lazaro had a talk radio show on DZVC, one of the few talk radio programs on the otherwise all-news station. A running gag on Lazaro's show is centered around the idea that its competitor, DBC president Jade Sandoval-Brazier, branded as "Eddy's archnemesis" on air, exclusively listens to VGC Radio, particularly DZVC during the afternoon. It, in turn, leads to several jokes about DBC's radio flagship DZMM (630 AM) and Lazaro's main afternoon rival Jay Dayupay Sr., and he usually gets away with it mainly because it drives up ratings on DZVC during the afternoon hours. However, things took a dark turn when Lazaro began making jokes that Dayupay later remarked as offensive and libelous to DBC's reputation.

On May 7, 1991, Lazaro and Dayupay had a word war over the former's new DBC jokes. Lazaro claimed DZMM was airing "whatever God knows what it really is," which Dayupay sarcastically claimed half of his crew did not laugh. Lazaro then jokingly dared Dayupay to confront him at the DZVC radio booth the next day, at which Dayupay exclaimed that he accepted what he thought was a dared fistfight. Dayupay was reprimanded by Sandoval-Brazier right after the broadcast.

Stations
One full-power station simulcasts the programming of DZVC:

DZVC programming is also available via a simulcast on the HD2 subchannel of sister station 96.7 DZVC-FM.