Mister DJ, Can I Make a Request?

Last Friday afternoon, I went on a field trip to the armpit of Valenzuela with Doc Luis Gatmaitan, Bing Tresvalles of the CCP and a fellow Canvas awardee, Don Gonzales. The four of us climbed into the Doc's car from McDo Monumento (grazie, CCP, for the cheeseburgers, fries and sundae cones) and fought through sticky traffic on ridiculously narrow roads to get to the Far East Broadcasting station, where we were to record interviews for the Doc's radio storytelling show "Wan Dey Isang Araw".
It wasn't my first time to do a recording, having been invited last year to talk about two older books, but in spite of having talked into that same microphone in two sessions past, I still can't guarantee that I made any sense at all on this third radio appearance. All I can really be certain of is that my voice automatically downshifts one octave in the soundproof booth. I can make myself sound like a buxom brunette who just got out of bed in a teeny-weeny satin teddy. Now you know why deejays always sound so much better than they look.
The actual recording of the interview portions for my book "The Rocking Horse" and Don's "Ang Batang Maraming Bawal" took only about an hour at most, but we ended up staying at the station till late in the evening. After wrapping up work, we invaded the control booth, had the technician produce a pair of headphones, and then took a bunch of pictures on three separate digital cameras. After that, we went on a tour of the rest of the station, ending up in the archive where rows and rows of shelves are stocked with tape reels, cassettes and LP's from as far back as the fifties. I was rummaging in a random shelf when I found, sitting amongst obscure orchestra albums, an LP that ought to be a collector's item for the cover picture alone: "Nora Aunor: Noon at Ngayon".
My fabulous find put everyone into a frenzy, and soon we were all hunting in the shelves for more OPM on vinyl. Eureka! We found one golden oldie after the other. Pilita! Dulce! Cristy Mendoza! Yoyoy Villame! The Rainmakers! The Nailclippers! Manilyn Reynes! Jamie Rivera! Sharon Cuneta (pre-Gabby!)! Gary V! Louie Heredia! Dingdong Avanzado's "tatlong bentesingko" album!
I remember when LPs were still in use back when I was a freshman in college. I remember saving my allowance to buy a 12" remix of Swing Out Sister's "Fooled By A Smile". The cd burst into the market by the time I was a senior, and then it was goodnight for the turntable stereo. Our station tourguide says all the obsolete material in the library will be converted to digital format before they get tossed in the can. No question that the music of a bygone era ought to be preserved. Pity, though, that the shell it came in can't be saved as well.