MANILA - Veteran broadcaster Noli de Castro on Thursday looked back on how he started with DZMM as the station marked its 35th anniversary.

"Itong TeleRadyo, ang original talaga nito DZMM. Noong magsimula ho kami 1986. Natatandaan ko pa isa ako sa nauna doon sa Chronicle Building," De Castro said during his program Kabayan on Thursday.

(TeleRadyo is originally DZMM. We started in 1986. I remember I was among the first at the Chronicle Building.)

De Castro said the 630 kilohertz frequency was returned to ABS-CBN after it was sequestered during martial law.

"Kaya hindi na bago sa ABS-CBN na mawala sila sa ere," he said referring to the denial of the network's franchise application by the House of Representatives on July 10, 2020 which affected the company’s free-to-air services.

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The company was also forced to let go of thousands of its employees because of the shutdown.

"July 2, 1986 nang magsimula ang DZMM. Tapos yung "MM" nilagyan ng meaning na "Malayang Mamamayan,'" he said.

(DZMM started on July 22, 1986. Then they put meaning to "MM" as "Malayang Mamamayan.")

De Castro said the frequency was reassigned to RPN or Radio Pilipinas Network during martial rule. He was also part of RPN at that time, together with broadcasters Joe Taruc and Rod Navarro.

"Noong bawiin iyan, ibalik sa ABS-CBN ang 630 kilohertz na DWWW, ay kinuha naman ako ng ABS-CBN, kasama ko si Tiya Dely Magpayo," he said.

(When the frequency was returned to ABS-CBN, the network also took me in, together with Tiya Dely Magpayo.)

He also recalled their first broadcast after the station reopened.

"Una kaming nagbroadcast ni Tiya Dely. Di ba yung pinto may butas para lagyan ng doorknob? Yun ang aming pinakapatungan ng console. Yung mga wire doon pinadadaan sa butas. Maraming kwento dyan," he said.

(Tiya Dely and I were the first to broadcast. The hole on the door where you put the doorknob, that 's where we placed our console, where the wires were placed. There's a lot of stories there.)

He also shared an incident where Magpayo sat on a broken chair during broadcast.

"Sira pala yung upuan namin. Hindi ako makatawa. Sumalampak talaga si Tiyang Dely. Ganun ho, wala pa kaming mga gamit noon. Wala pati mga opisina noon, walang upuan," he said.

(The chair was broken. I couldn't laugh. She flopped down onto the floor. That's how it was before, we didn't have things back then. Even offices back then had no chair.)

TeleRadyo resumed the programming of DZMM after it was shutdown due to the franchise denial.

"Ika-35 taon na, kung buhay pa sana ang DZMM iyon ang anibersaryo namin. Kaya lang naging TeleRadyo na lang ho dahil ng sa nawala na aming prangkisa," he said.

(If DZMM was still operating today, it would been its 35-year anniversary. However, it became TeleRadyo after we lost our franchise.)

In spite of the challenges, De Castro is firm on one thing.

"Patuloy pa rin kaming maglilingkod at hindi mawawala ang aming paglilingkod kahit sa papaanong paraan," he said.

(We will continue to serve in whatever way we can.)