98.7 DZFE The Master’s Touch has been fostering a joint appreciation of classical music and biblical truth since 1954. In 2021, the station was recognized as an outstanding contributor to Filipino music in the first SUDI National Music Awards of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
Classical Music from the Start
DZFE was the second radio station established by American missionaries, who founded the first station (DZAS) of Far East Broadcasting Company in 1948. FEBC’s mission of bringing “Christ to the World by Radio” was first directed toward China. However, in 1954, FEBC stepped forward to answer a government bid for the establishment of a classical music station.
On 1 June 1954, DZFE marked its inaugural broadcast, signing on at 6PM for an evening of Strauss II, Rimsky-Korsakov, Filipino musical (My Nipa Hut), and Bach motets and chorales, before signing off at 8PM.
At first, the broadcast comprised sequenced music; programming provided by the network’s English Service was brought in to augment the material. But on 4 April 1961, DZFE debuted its first full day of fine music, signing on at 5AM and signing off at 11PM.
Further guidance was needed for programming, however, and at the end of 1963, FEBC Philippines welcomed a new music director largely for this purpose. John Hubbard, who had led the music faculty of Westmont College in California, gave DZFE’s programming the educational impetus and Gospel-centered worldview it possesses to the present day. In 1965, DZFE’s staff acquired its second member with the addition of Joy Dulaca (Abiera), a music graduate of Silliman University in Dumaguete, who took over the leadership of the station in 1975 when John Hubbard returned to the United States.
DZFE continued its association with classical music into the age of FM radio in the 1970s. Following the government restriction to one AM station per network, FEBC transferred DZFE to the FM band. In the 1980s, the station was managed by Carmelita “Nene” Barotilla and then in the 1990s by Ma. Teresa “Rexey” Domingo.
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Stepping Out
In 1997, DZFE transferred out of the FEBC Compound in Karuhatan, Valenzuela, moving “closer to its listeners” by setting up its office and studio in Makati City.
The new millennium brought a new set of challenges. Dan Andrew Cura assumed management of the station in 2000, leaving to take on other responsibilities within the FEBC network in 2002, when the reins of the station were taken up by Maribel Fernandez. The withdrawal of foreign subsidies following 9/11, in addition to other financial difficulties, spurred a decision to reduce the broadcast by 40% in 2003. (The station has had to resort periodically to this self-preserving measure: In 1976, DZFE cut broadcast to a mere six hours, from 4PM to midnight. In 1986, DZFE was off the air from noon to 6PM.)
The management of the station was entrusted to current station manager Tiffany Liong-Gabuya in 2004; she assumed full management of the station in 2005. That year, owing to the proliferation of tall buildings around our Makati antenna, DZFE transferred its transmitting facilities to a leased site in Antipolo. It also downgraded from 20kW to a leased 5kW transmitter to control power costs.
Renaissance
In 2006, DZFE successfully reclaimed 10 hours of its broadcast week, restoring quality programming to the 10PM to midnight block.
In June of 2008, DZFE returned to an 18-hour-a-day, six-days-a-week schedule. In January of 2010, DZFE completed its return to a daily 18-hour broadcast.
There was also significant progress in the fight to regain signal strength. In April of 2009, DZFE finally began broadcast from a newly purchased transmitter, entirely funded by donations from FEBC and DZFE supporters here and abroad. The transmitter, a Nautel NV20, was the first of its kind in the Philippines.
The long quest for better signal strength was finally realized in June and July of 2012 with the relocation of the DZFE office, studio and transmitting facilities to Ortigas Center, Pasig City. Off air for a few days from June 21 for the move, the station began broadcasting on July 2 from the 46th floor of One Corporate Center. (The relocation was part of a larger migration that involved the transfer of FEBC’s main offices and the office and studio of its Manila AM station, 702 DZAS, to Pasig from Valenzuela City.)
One year after the move, in June 2013, and after years of working through several backroom issues, DZFE’s broadcast became available outside the Greater Metro Manila area through online streaming. In September 2013, DZFE expanded its schedule to a 21-hour-a-day daily broadcast, the longest schedule DZFE has maintained in its history.
