On May 8, 1933, the United States-sponsored Insular Government established and operated radio station KZSO in the Philippines on the frequency of 710 kilohertz with a power of 10,000 watts through the United States Information Service. In 1944, the callsign was change to KZFM, named after Frederick Marquardt. In September 1946, two months after the Philippines became an independent country from the US, KZFM was turned over to the Philippine government. With the transfer, the Philippine Broadcasting Service was born. The station was first operated by the Department of Foreign Affairs until it was transferred to the Radio Broadcasting Board which was created by President Manuel Quezon on September 3, 1937. Meanwhile, in the same year, an international telecommunications conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, reassigned the letter "D" to replace the former "K" as the initial call letter for all radio stations in the Philippines. In January 1942, the RBB was abolished to give way to the establishment of the Philippine Information Council which then assumed the function of the RBB, including the operation of DZFM. In turn, the PIC was abolished on July 1, 1952, and since then, until the creation of the Department of Public Information in 1959, DZFM and the Philippine Broadcasting Service had been operated under the Office of the President. During Martial Law, the Bureau of Broadcasts took over the station and became DPI Radio 1 / MPI Radio 1. In November 1978, due to the switch of the Philippine AM dial from the NARBA-mandated 10 kHz spacing to the 9 kHz rule implemented by the Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975, the station's frequency was transferred from 710 kHz to 918 kHz. In 1986, DZFM returned to its ownership by the establishment of the Bureau of Broadcast Services via the reinstated PBS. The station would later be reformatted as Sports Radio. On March 1, 1996, however, Presidential Order No. 293 ordered the transfer of Sports Radio to 918 kHz, which led to the birth of the government's flagship station: Radyo ng Bayan and it also transferred to 738 kHz frequency. During his first State of the Nation Address, President Rodrigo Duterte will pass a law merging PBS with its TV counterpart, People's Television Network into the "People's Broadcasting Corporation". PBS announced that Radyo ng Bayan & its provincial AM stations will have a major rebranding, merging with the "Radyo Pilipinas" brand by June 5, 2017. It was followed by the launching of Radyo Pilipinas Dos 918 kHz on September 18, 2017. Radyo Pilipinas's overseas counterpart, which originally used the brand since the 1990s, remained on-the-air but added "Worldwide" to avert confusion. On May 5, 2018, Radyo Pilipinas' "TeleRadyo"-formatted video streaming channel began its simulcast over People's Television Network nationwide and also streamed live via PTV's official Facebook account, with programs such as Cabinet Report sa TeleRadyo and Tutok Erwin Tulfo. However, a few weeks later, both programs were cancelled in favor of infomercial programming as a preparation for the launching of Chinese TV programs on PTV.
Platform
As the government's flagship radio station, it serves as a medium of development communication, a conduit between the government and the people, aiming to mobilize all sectors of society towards development and nationalism. Live government news is aired here.
