Revealing inside story of Gel Santos Relos’ 12 years as anchor of ‘Balitang America’ and 25 years as kapamilya at TFC

TWELVE YEARS ago, my family had just settled in California, coming from Minnesota where we lived for four years as my husband completed his training in surgery.

I thought my career in broadcasting was over after I said goodbye to my very fulfilling career in radio and television at ABS-CBN headquarters in Manila to immigrate to the United States with my family in 2001.

I started my real estate business while raising my kids in the United States without yayas, a driver, and extended family support to help my husband who was then just getting a humble stipend as a resident in surgery. On the side, I also ventured into the distribution of The Filipino Channel (TFC) satellite and subscription.

TFC then was just growing after it was launched in 1994 in the United States and based in California, giving kababayans access to Filipino television programs from ABS-CBN, the parent company of TFC.

I would even give my Filipino clients — mostly Filipino nurses in Minnesota — TFC satellites as gifts for their new houses and they were so grateful as it helped ease away their homesickness and kept their parents longer to take care of their kids as husband and wife worked.

During this time in 2002-2005, I would also file stories for the weekly “Balitang America,” which was launched on September 28, 2002, post 9/11 tragedy and in preparation for the upcoming elections in the United States, under the leadership of Ms. Ging Reyes, who was then the North America News Bureau Chief.

When my husband finally finished his surgical training in 2005, my family moved to Northern California upon his acceptance of a job with Kaiser Permanente. His service area then was in Stockton, where I also eventually practiced real estate. But before this, we visited the Philippines for the first time since we left in 2001.

Our visit to Manila coincided with the “Hello Garci” scandal of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo presidency. When my colleagues at ABS-CBN knew I was in town, they invited me to be a guest on a talk program where I shared how kababayans in Minnesota felt about the chaos in politics in the Philippines.

Little did I know that this TV appearance would open the doors for me to go back to my first love — broadcasting.

Upon returning to California from our visit to Manila, I was contacted by one of TFC’s production bosses Maritess Militar to invite me to co-host “Citizen Pinoy” with Atty. Michael Gurfinkel.

Even earlier than this, TFC chief Rene Encarnacion called me and talked about the future plans of TFC to produce more local programs and he said he could see me moderating town hall meetings and hosting talk shows. When I heard this, something lit up within me, fired up my belly and made me feel like flying. This was how I knew where my passion was even after my hiatus from broadcasting.

And so that started my comeback to ABS-CBN as an on-cam personality after four years, co-hosting “Citizen Pinoy” from 2005 to 2008. But I did not know then something bigger was coming.

During the first quarter of 2007, Ging Reyes and ABS-CBN big boss Gabby Lopez had a teleconference with me to invite me to anchor “Balitang America” daily newscast, which they wanted to launch in the second quarter of that year in the new studio and headquarters of TFC in Redwood Shores, California.

While I was thrilled by the prospect of anchoring the news daily again as I used to do in Manila, I had some reservations within me.

My family just bought a house in Stockton and the TFC studio was more than 90 miles away from Redwood Shores. And, I had a booming career in real estate in Stockton which I was doing full time. I had to decline the offer.

BUT Ging Reyes was relentless and even pleaded with me to just help establish the daily newscast and then I could leave anytime. She said I should just look at it as a “long lunch break” from my real estate day to day grind. TFC offered to help me in every way possible to make it worth my time and effort to anchor the news again albeit the distance.

AND SO on May 7, 2007, we launched the “Balitang America” daily newscast, starting off with just 15 minutes airtime. I would drive from Stockton to Redwood Shores, every day from Monday to Friday, around noon time, traversing more than 180 miles round trip, taking me easily about a four-hour round trip commute amid all the road constructions and traffic, passing through so many hills and valleys — all this for 15 minutes of taping every day.

And then the newscast became 30 minutes in length, and we started doing town halls and specials in the service to the Filipino American community. That light in my spirit, that fire in my belly, that feeling that I could fly when Rene Encarnacion talked to me about the future of TFC — they all manifested not just with a vision, but with the realization of that vision.

And so, I left my real estate business. We moved to the San Francisco Bay Area near TFC. With the support and blessing of my husband, I put my wholehearted commitment to my relationship with TFC and the shared mission we have — to be of service to the Filipinos in America, empowering them with news and information, giving them a platform to make their voices heard.

For 12 years I had been a part of the evolution of “Balitang America,” recalibrating, reinventing and keeping up with the demands, challenges and opportunities of the changing times — from the end of the George W. Bush years to Barack Obama’s two terms as president to Donald Trump being catapulted to the presidency.

“Balitang America” has been serving the Filipinos in North America daily for more than 12 years, through recession and recovery, through the failures and triumphs of our kababayans in America, through the changing culture brought about by leaps and bounds changes and innovations in technology, through analog to digital.

And now 12 years hence, “Balitang America” has to change with the times, and maximize the use of digital technology to expand our reach to even more Filipinos in America and around the world.

Hence, on July 26, I taped my last episode as the anchor for “Balitang America,” as the newscast transitions to being taped and anchored in Manila using news stories gathered by our reporters in different parts of North America.

This is a strategic business decision so that beyond the newsroom and the conventional newscast, TFC can venture further into digital news, creating new ways of storytelling that cater to the younger generation as well.

HOWEVER, TFC carries on with its strong commitment to be of service to our core audience, who has been our loyal subscribers and viewers of our programs for decades.

This is how my partnership and collaboration with TFC continues and evolves beyond “Balitang America,” maximizing the use of digital technology to serve our Filipino American community and help them even better as they navigate their new life here in the United States.

I have almost come full circle in TFC’s 25 years of service – being watched by Fil-Ams through my programs produced in Manila like “Hoy! Gising!”, “Tatak Pilipino”, “Compañeto y Compañera”, “Pulso”, “Headlines”; on TFC’s locally produced programs “Citizen Pinoy” and “Balitang America; and listening to me on radio DZMM while they were still living in the Philippines for news and information. Moving on and looking forward to the future, I will reach out to our kababayans through this new platform and format that will deliver all the value and service of the programs I have been a part of on radio and television in the past to serve our kababayans using digital technology.

ABANGAN: A podcast/teleradyo para po sa inyong lahat, mga Kapamilya! We will talk about information you need to help you in your day to day challenges in America, all the heartaches and pains and worries that keep you up at night, and all the problems we are facing hoping to find help and solutions.

I will continue to serve you as a true Kapamilya — your “Ate,” “Tita” or simply your kapamilya “Gel,” who will strive to make you feel you are not alone as you adapt to your new life in the United States.

Send your topic requests, messages to: Facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos. You may also email me: [email protected].

That light in my spirit, that fire in my belly, that feeling that I could fly — they are all here in me burning stronger than ever as we embark on this new adventure together.

“Change is inevitable but growth is optional”. Let us continue to grow together, Kapamilya. Maraming salamat po!

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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos