History of ABS-CBN

History of ABS-CBN

The Merge

The Beginning

• In 1951, Lindenberg partnered with Antonio Quirino, brother of then Philippine President Elpidio Quirino, in order to try their hand at television broadcasting.
• In 1952, Quirino bought 70% of BEC and was renamed as Alto Broadcasting System or ABS (with Alto Sales Corporation as its corporate name).

• September 24, 1956, the Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN) was organized. The network was owned by Don Eugenio Lopez, Sr. and the then Philippine Vice President Fernando Lopez, and later on launched its very own TV station, DZXL-TV 9.
• The following year, Don Eugenio acquired ABS from Quirino and Lindenberg.

• In 1946, James Lindenberg founded Bolinao Electronic Company (BEC).
• He was dubbed as the "Father of Philippine Television".

The Launch

• However, it was only on February 1, 1967 that the corporate name was changed to ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation to reflect the merger (before it was named ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, the name was reverted to the precursor of the network, Bolinao Electronics Corporation or BEC, but the ABS-CBN brand was first used in 1961).
• By 1972, the ABS-CBN network owned and operated two television stations and 7 radio stations in Manila, 14 radio stations and three television stations in the provinces

• ABS was able to put up its TV tower by July 1953 and import 300 television sets. The initial test broadcasts began on September of the same year. The very first full-blown broadcast, however, was on 23 October 1953, of a party in Tony Quirino's home. The television station was known as DZAQ-TV.

• On March 1, 1987, Channel 2 was relaunched with the live musical special, The Star Network: Ang Pagbabalík Ng Bituin which noted for the then-brand-new numerical white tri-ribbon channel 2 logo with a white rhombidal star (from 1988 to 1992 the ribbons were tri-coloured in red, green and blue) as a centerpiece of the network's revival.

• Geny Lopez, the president of the company, was imprisoned and held without trial for five years until he and his cellmate Sergio Osmeña III launched a daring jailbreak in 1977 and sought asylum in the United States.

Rebirth and Growth

Martial Law Era

• In 1989, ABS-CBN shifted to satellite broadcast, enabling the entire country to watch the same programmes simultaneously.
• The network began international broadcasts to Guam and Saipan, Northern Marianas, also via satellite. Slowly, the station inched its way to financial recovery, which it achieved by 1990, regularly garnering around 70% of the market.

• On February 28, 1986, after the Revolution, Geny Lopez returned to the country after self-exile in the United States and started rebuilding from what was left of the station.

• The network itself was taken over by Roberto Benedicto, a presidential crony, who used the Broadcasting Center at Bohol Avenue, then renamed as "Broadcast Plaza", as the home of MBS-4. Channel 2 would later be relaunched as the BBC-2, with a completely new logo, slogan and a theme song from Jose Mari Chan entitled "Big Beautiful Country" and sung by various artists.

• The station suffered a setback upon the declaration of martial law. On midnight of September 22, 1972, a day after the declaration of Martial Law, ABS-CBN and its affiliate stations were seized.