Newscaster Buddy Cenzon signs off at 69

BAGUIO CITY -- Broadcast journalist Ferdinand “Buddy” Cenzon has signed off for good.

The former news director of radio station DZWT passed away about noon last Tuesday, just after he suffered a heart attack – his third – in the family home in Guisad. He was 69.

His remains were cremated Friday morning after a funeral mass at the Baguio Memorial Chapels officiated by his first cousin, Baguio Catholic Bishop Carlito Cenzon.

“Direk Buddy” is survived by his wife Nieves, children Kyu, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Isabelle and Kristina and seven grandchildren.

Cenzon belonged to what may be called the golden age of broadcast journalism in Baguio during the pre-martial law years.

He was with the late Manny Salenga, former city councilor Eddie Aguilar, Domie Pineda, Eddie Ferrer, Freddie Mayo, Reuben Cacdac, Willy Cacdac, Rudby Rebolledo, Joe Sobrino and Nilo Domingo.

“We reported the news then; now they shout it,” observed George Jularbal, his brother-in-law and contemporary, on the shift in broadcast news presentation.

Jularbal, then the program director of radio station DZHB, also worked as features editor of The Saudi Gazette in the Middle East. .

Cenzon started out in the ‘60s as news writer and newscaster for the Ilocano Eveready Newscast over Radio Philippines Network along Harrison Road. He then joined DZWT, a new station established by the Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.under the Mt. Province Broadcasting Corp.

When DZWT shifted from the English format to vernacular, Cenzon anchored the morning Ilocano music program “Panagmurmuray”. He also hosted the equally popular Eveready Newscast at seven o’clock with his signature extro “Ti nangipadamag, Buddy Cenzon”.

His media colleagues remember him for his knack for instantly translating into and voicing in Ilocano the news from the English language dailies right on the newscast, as if reading from a prepared material in the vernacular.

He was with the Baguio media team tapped by then MPBC manager, Fr. Hugo Delbaere that provided live coverage of the 1981 visit of Pope John Paul II to Baguio and other parts of the country, simulcast over Radio Veritas, DZWT and DZWR-FM, the twin stations of the Mt. Province Broadcasting Corp.

He and fellow radio personality and partner Juan Tenorio (Romy Sacayanan) retired from DZWT and DZWR in 1998. MPBC honored them for their contributions to the development of the broadcast industry in Baguio and the Cordilleras.

Cenzon served in 1986 as president of the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club, the umbrella organization of print and broadcast media practitioners here.

He and Tenorio were back on air in the early 2000s, as morning newscasters for DWDJ-FM of Rajah Broadcasting Network. After that short stint, he went to private life. -- Jimmy Bernabe and Ramon Dacawi