Childhood Heroes (Hommage to Nitelite)

"May tomorrow be a perfect day,

May you find love and laughter along the way,

May God keep you in his tender care,

'Till he brings us together again....Goodnight everybody!"

-DJ Monica (every closing of "Nitelite")

(actually originally coming from "Donny and Marie")

Everyone has one. Fictional or not, everyone has someone they look up to. When I was a kid, it used to be Superman. My mom bought me a Superman costume when I was little and she recalls that I always wear that and run around the house. There was this episode that they caught me above a step ladder, ready to jump with the belief that like Superman, I have innate powers that can make me defy the laws of gravity. Good thing they caught me before I jumped, or if not, I might be hating Superman for the rest of my life.

Another story my mom recalls about it is that, I love wearing that Superman costume that I demanded to wear it 24/7. That's the same age when I can say that I am not yet properly potty-trained. So it's always a constant scenario when Super-me flew around and bludgeoned my enemies while there's a little something deposited on my behind.

I was a kid then and I don't do it anymore, if that is what you'll be asking me.

I had so many childhood heroes, but let me skip ahead when I was in High School (I am including this because my childhood officially stopped when I was 24).

By accident, I vaguely recall, I was given a walkman as a birthday present. One of those nights when I can't sleep, I happen to stumble into an FM station and right at that very moment there was a program just having their pilot episode. If I can recall, I enjoyed it so much because it's a talk show on FM. After that, every Wednesday when it strucked 12AM (So, it's technically a Thursday by then), it became a habit for me to listen.

I found out that I was not alone. Nitelite had it's mammoth share of insomniac listeners as well (They are insomniacs, for me, it's an effort). Every Wednesday night (no, it was already a Thursday morning), many folks from different strokes call them and share anything they want to talk about. The triumvirate of the show, Little David, Monica, and The Blade, will then give their cents worth about the caller's topic. This ain't your usual Joe D' Mango thing because many of the topics does not concern love at all. Nitelite was your weekly radio free-for-all. It was a fun program, if I knew better they might have been using a technology via the radio to inject addictives to its listeners, because I know that I for one, am a Nitelite addict, a Nitelite junkie.

There's no other word to describe the program but FUN. You have The Blade who was good in making voices (I remember his "Inday Badiday" spoof) , and there's Monica who is always ... happy. She's a talking energy bar, perky and funny. She always bring with her her "tickle me Elmo" doll. Show's not complete without Elmo laughing on-the-air and saying "It tickles!" To complete the triumvirate is Little David, the "voice of reason" among the three (I know the other two will object if they get to read this).

Anyway, the show is a riot. It's fun. When you're listening you really feel that you are a part of the show. It's just like that you're all seated on the carpet on your sala, eating chips and drinking coke. It's a "spritual" bonding session between you, the three hosts, and the thousands of listeners. (Boy, if the analogy is true, then you must have a very big sala.) I remember calling the show twice, using the code name DrumsAway. I even recorded the two episodes (which I f***ingly lost when I moved houses). I remember the problem I called about was a dilemmna about love and staying in the seminary (well, I left the seminary for the girl... and four years later, the girl left me for another guy... you know the story). I forgot what their advice were, but it doesn't matter. Just the feeling of actually talking to them and hearing your voice on radio was a mind blowing experience. It's like chatting with the Beatles.

The show was running for years, and I tried to be present in all the classes. I was so young then, I cannot attend their movie nights, that is why I never got the chance to meet them face to face. When I entered the seminary, however, it became hard for me to listen to them because there is a schedule we must adhere to and it's lights-out by 10 PM. I tried to sneak my walkman there but I just cannot keep pace anymore. During vacations I get to renew my listening vows to them but when classes in the seminary starts again, it's listening hiatus one more time.

Nitelite singlehandedly made me want to go into radio. When I was in the seminary I always ask my English teacher to help me enunciate better and give me exercises to make my pitch low (my pitch is annoyingly high, which up to now unfortunately still is). I found out that a priest friend of mine is friends with the owner of 94.7 Mellow Touch FM which is just a door away from Nitelite's station! I went to the Mellow Touch for their monthly mass and sneaked out to see if my fave trio was on their station (also to give them a kilo of mangoes), but unfortunately, they weren't.

I finally left the seminary 2001. I again resumed listening to Nitelite. But cruelly as fate would have it, the show's run is nearing it's end. I am not good with dates but I was present on the last episode until Little David said the immortal, "This is Nitelite now signing-off."

That was a very sad day for me. Afterward, I heard that Little David and Monica left the station. Nitelite, and the chance of meeting any of my childhood heroes, became wishful thinking just right then. For a time, I tried pursuing radio. I had a stint as a talking head for 4 months but it was on an AM band (hey, at least it's still in radio). Afterwards, I interned for Mellow Touch but I wasn't given an on-board chore. I was tasked to do events and PR. Anyway, I accepted finally that radio wasn't for me and that is why I concentrated into PR. Here I am now, a company spin-doctor (of course, after my call center career).

If given the chance, and of course the right salary, I would want to do radio. Thinking now, I concerned myself with things that is easily connected to radio like PR work, managing a band, writing, etc. Maybe it's like a Hansel and Gretel thing. I am leaving breadcrumbs so that when the time comes, I know how to find my way back. I'm even doing a podcasts as a practice for my upcoming charity radio stint in Aklan.

Then a miracle came. When I was psyching up and making myself ready for my upcoming podcast, an insane thought popped into my head. It's been more than 4 years now, how are the Nightlite crew doing? At that point, I needed my original daemons in radio. If you don't know where you're headed check where you begun. I don't know where to start, but thank God for technology when I remembered... GOOGLE!

I googled them in every possible way and I found forums that talked about them. I jumped from one forum to another to another. I was like Robert Langdon jumping from one clue to the next, hyperlink per hyperlink.

And then I found it. One forum led to a blog. A blog just like mine. It was Mano's blog, her recent update is about her wedding and it has her wedding pictures posted. I'm like Robert Langdon face to face with what he thinks is the holy grail. I posted a reply into her journal asking her if she was the Monica from Nitelite.

She said yes. She was Monica from Nitelite and the wedding pictures were of her's and Little David's (yes, they ended up together) and The Blade was the best man.

Now, this is kinda overacting, but please let me. You know the feeling of having your body being jolted? That's how I felt. For years, I found them again, and there is a very beautiful story that came with it. They are now married, it's like Camelot in radioland.

This is one of my longest blogs ever written. This is my hommage to Nitelite and it's crew. And apparently, this story is not ending yet. It seems like this is just a beginning of another chapter. I intend to be friends with them as what I wanted and should have done for more than 7 years now. Yes, this is just a start. What's cooler than having your childhood heroes as your actual friends? I can even settle with acquaintance. It's like being friends with the Beatles.