If you are a musical artist with original songs to showcase but finding yourself being asked to do covers apparently to keep up with audience attention span, do not get slighted for that is not an isolated case. Be rather surprised when you’re obliged to do only originals. And rejoice with such privilege.
That’s what the DZRH Sunday radio show Tambayan Sessions has to offer for singing souls and rocking bands, especially the ones in need of exposure on a nationwide scale.
Radio anchor Sherwin Bata Alfaro is clear about his advocacy to provide deserving artists with considerable airtime for their mostly unheard song creations and artistic individuality which other programs may only dismiss as not being too attractive for mainstream listeners, in particular, those locked in with cover versions of songs already familiar to them.
“I just wanted to help out those music artists and give them the exposure through DZRH,” said the radio reporter who got his first big break after he competently handled a bank robbery hostage drama almost a decade ago.
True to his word, Alfaro often tries his best to extend help to what he calls the “future shakers of the industry” even beyond radio guesting. He linked a band of young long hairs to the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) as the latter eventually took the group’s song “Uniporme” as its rallying tune. He regularly accommodates gifted yet faceless songwriters to perform their songs on his program airing weekly from 12:00 nn to 1:00 p.m..
DZRH (666 kHz) is the 80-year-old flagship station of Manila Broadcasting Corporation. Its wide reach makes Tambayan Sessions a significant slot for artists in the midst of heavy artist competition and sellout approach employed by certain quarters in marketing musicians. Besides, Alfaro, who has been with DZRH since 1999, envisioned the show to basically spread hope for “tambays” incapacitated by self-pity and lack of self-esteem.
A strong singing enthusiast himself, he expressed, “Ako na lang na hinangad din maging singer, nilalaban ko ang karapatan kong kumanta kapag may pagkakataon.”
The masscom graduate at Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila has partnered with singer-songwriter Jake Lanting in bringing on-air the program promoting more established acts like Orange & Lemons, Gino Padilla, Archie D., among others. They have patterned the Sessions to the classic BBC live performances.
“Almost all of us want to have that free time to perform and make the audience happy, o kaya maghintay lang sa kawalan,” he remarked with a telling smile.
Tambayan Sessions serves as an on-air watering hole for those with worth-noting talents and defined purposes in their musically enlivening journey.
Alfaro’s deep background in producing stories for news programs makes him a keen observer of what is newsworthy. In the case of musicians, the ones worth-hearing by those tuning-in on DZRH on their Sunday hour.