Running out of Airtime

Behind the shutdown of ABS-CBN

Buying Options

Paperback / Hardback

Amazon

For more than thirty years, I was part of the legendary broadcast network, ABS-CBN, the first in Southeast Asia and long at the forefront of the region’s media landscape. In 1972, the network suffered its first tragedy. Ferdinand Marcos had declared Martial law and ABS-CBN was taken over by government forces. Thousands lost their jobs and the company’s owner was imprisoned. After the 1986 People Power revolution, it returned to air and went on to become the country’s most influential media conglomerate — only to fall again 34 years later to another tyrant bent on political vengeance.

From the moment he took office in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte regularly attacked journalists and singled out ABS-CBN, along with two other hard-hitting news organizations. His threats against the network would be implemented to their fullest promise in 2020 when its broadcast license expired, and the president moved heaven and earth to prevent its renewal.

Running Out of Airtime chronicles the events behind the shutdown of the Philippines’ biggest media company told by someone who lived through it, fought and lost, and survived. ABS-CBN is the only media company in Asia, and perhaps the world, to fall twice to two autocrats.

Apart from exploring its significant role in Philippine society and culture, and its enduring connection to its global audience, this book is the story of human beings who worked tirelessly to achieve greatness, stumbling along the way, rising again, undaunted and determined to push forward into a future where the only constant is uncertainty.